4 or 5 channel amp???

quick question: Right now i have 6 interior speakers, a 10in Sub, and 2 tower speakers.

right now im running the 6 interior speakers to the head unit, the sub has its seperate mono amp, and the tower speakers are on a 2 channel amp.

i want to clean it up and run everything to 1 amp including the interior speakers...

do i need a 4 channel or 5 channel??

recommendations please!!!

I have the Polk Audio PA D5000.5 and like it. It's a class D 900 watt, 5 channel. I run 8 coaxial 6.5 Polk DB651 speakers (4 in the cabin, 4 in the tower) and a 10" Image Dynamics sub with it. It's not an audiophile system but the amp meets all of my needs in one little box. I have the front channels connected to all 4 in boat speakers at a 2 ohm load per channel and the four tower speakers in the same arrangement on the rear channels. Each full range speaker effectively gets about 50 watts RMS with that arrangement. I have a dual 2 ohm voice coil sub wired in parallel for a 1 ohm load receiving 500 watts RMS.

If you want all speakers on external amps: You will be better served with a 5 chnl for the 6 on-boats and and sub and a 2 chnl for the towers.

5 channel amp. I second the Polk 5000.5

You're wanting to put 8 speakers and a sub to one amp?
The bare minimum I would run for that setup would be two. A 5 channel for either the towers and the sub or the in boats and sub, then another 2 channel or 4 channel for the other speakers not running on the 5 channel.

We really need to know what kind of gear your running to better answer the question.

Originally Posted by BradM07SS

We really need to know what kind of gear your running to better answer the question.

i have the Polk DB651's 8 total, 6 in boat, and 2 in tower. then i have a small Kicker 10' sub under my driver seat.

i suppose i could keep my towers on the 2 channel kenwood amp i have now and replace the mono amp w/ a 5 channel to run the inboat and sub...??

That would work out pretty well. You would hook up the sub to the 5th channel and then hook up one pair of in boat speakers regular on two channels and wire the other two pairs of the in boats together on the remaining two channels. Those wouldn't get as much power as the pair hooked up regularly, but it will work well for you while reducing it to two amps. Just make sure you get a 5-channel that has enough juice.

Those wouldn't get as much power as the pair hooked up regularly

Depends on the amp. Even if the net wattage per speaker is less @ 2 ohm than @ 4 ohm, the difference is rarely audible. Keep in mind though, 2 pair of speakers will be louder then that single pair, even is there is a small drop in net wattage.

Originally Posted by chpthril

Depends on the amp. Even if the net wattage per speaker is less @ 2 ohm than @ 4 ohm, the difference is rarely audible. Keep in mind though, 2 pair of speakers will be louder then that single pair, even is there is a small drop in net wattage.

Exactly, it will work out well for him if he has a decent amp. Generally you can turn up the gains on those 2 channels that have the 4 speakers on them to even out the sound output if your amp has enough power. On an underpowered amp, it is very noticeable.

If all the gains are set correctly, and speakers on 1 half of the amp are dominant over speakers on the other half, the best course of action is to reduce the gain on those speakers dominant speakers, as opposed to gaining up the others.

Yes, either way. The point I was making was to set the gains so they all had an appropriate sound level, with this kind of setup, the channels with the 4 speakers on them would be higher gain than the other. This depends on where your gains got set in the first place. No matter which way you slice it, you will have uneven gain levels with the 4 speakers being higher gained than the 2 speakers.

Really the way he should do it, or anyone for that matter, is to tune each channel or pair of channels separately to the set level that generates the desired output, then disconnect those and move to the other channel(s). This is the best way to find and eliminate distortion due to too high of gains or improperly set crossover frequency as well. Set it once, set it right.