Car Speaker Amp Setup

[patric_o]

I’m planning out my new audio setup for my 2001 Jeep Cherokee 4door. 
 

The Jeep has 4 speaker locations but I plan on adding 2 or 4 extras. Most of the affordable/relatively affordable car amps have 4 channels. I have found that it is less expensive for me to buy two 4 channel amps or one 4 channel and one 2 channel amps than to buy a single 6 or 8 channel amp.

 

In my mind having multiple amplifiers could cause the sound output to not be in sync between the two amplifiers. I understand the tuning could be different but that’s something I could easily fix. I’m concerned that the various speakers could be noticeable fractions of a second or more ahead/behind each other causing an echo. 
 

Say I were to buy two of the same 4 channel amps to power the six to eight speakers in the vehicle. Would this idea I have of an echo be something I would have to come up with a fix for?

 

I have worked with car audio systems before on my previous vehicles but it’s only been with single amp setups. 

[kirashi]

49 minutes ago, patric_o said:

Say I were to buy two of the same 4 channel amps to power the six to eight speakers in the vehicle. Would this idea I have of an echo be something I would have to come up with a fix for?

In my experience installing car audio setups, you'd be more prone to notice humming or hissing if both the amps were using different grounding points, or maybe have a delay if your RCA inputs from your head unit were of absurdly different lengths. However, I ran a full set of Alpine Type-R's in my 2003 Toyota Corolla, plus an 8 inch sub in a custom enclosure, and had no problem with a 4 channel amp + a mono-block subwoofer amp.

 

The only thing I had to resolve was hiss caused by using a Y-splitter on the RCA inputs to provide an input for the subwoofer amp because my headunit only had 4 channel output built in. This was easily solved by adding a ground loop isolator to either the RCA's feeding the sub amp or the 4 channel speaker amp. (I can't remember which.) I still have my setup sitting in storage as I replaced that car, but yeah you should be fine to run both amps.

 

Just make sure you use an appropriately sized fuse if running a single 4 gauge power cable from the engine bay, along with a fused power distribution block, too, then ground both amps to the same point on an unpainted surface of the car. Run your audio cables (speaker wire + RCAs) down the opposite side of the car than your power cable to eliminate noise/interference, and pickup some sound deadening material if your car has rattling panels.

 

Any other questions, just quote & reply here; happy to help! Take pictures along the way, and share your progress with us.

[vogelspinnen]

I used to have 3 separate amps for my car setup and never really noticed a difference, like kirashi said the RCA would have to be an absurbly different length for there to be an audible difference. Even time alignment software which causes speakers to be delayed only shifts the perception of positioning of sound, and can never go far enough to cause an audible echo.

 

Run the power cables down the center tunnel where your transmission is, and audio cables down the door sills. That's the way i always run my cables to avoid any strange interferences.

[mario0]

As for the car speakers in general, I trust this TOP 7 Review 2020 from a trustworthy source, most of my car accessories were purchased due to these helpful reviews. I personally tend to Rockford Fosgate P1572 Punch from a reputable US manufacturer.