ok previous owner had an amp in the car powering two lows two mids two highs. he took out amp when he sold me the car and just left all the wires were the amp was. now question i need to know if i can get an amp for 100-150 bucks to power the 6 speakers? please help the audio noob.

 

well you need a 6 channel amp, which they do sell check ebay. If you are unsure check out caraudio.com and they will teach you all you need to know about car audio, thats how I learned. Anyways a good 6 channel amp should do the trick, ebay should have some good prices.

 

forgot to add, check out the specs of the speakers, find out how many rms they take and at how many ohm. So for example say that each speaker as a rms power of 50rms at 4ohm you need an amp that is 6x50rms at 4ohm.

 

150$ is low balling for a 6 channel amp.

 

you dont need 6 channels to run 6 speakers....

 

Check to see how many channels you actually have. The "mids and highs" might be a component set and already be crossed over together. How many sets of speaker wires do you have where the amp used to be? Whatever the answer, a 4 channel amp should be more than enough.

 

i checked the wires back their and their was 2 audio jack wires and 3 stripped wires. on was in a pair and the other was by itself.

 

ok these pictures were taken today cause i finally decied cant stand going with out music. was told by previous owner was running some cheap channel amp. the two wires with jacks on them and the single wire is going to the head unit. two random jumper wires. two wires coming out from under carpet and then extremly long wires running along side of car. please help me i dont want to have to tear all the carpet out to figure out wtf is going on

 

No...you don't. You can read books, forums, etc, to learn but with audio you need to LISTEN as well. There is time and experience needed to allow for playing with equipment to see how you like certain EQ, X-over settings, combinations of equipment, etc.

First thing to check with the previous owner is where the 3-way passive crossover is or what he was running to split the frequencies between the mid bass, mids, and highs. If he doesn't have one or was running his speakers half-assed (i.e., running all frequencies through all drivers) you can either purchase a passive, an active, and/or an amp that can actively X-over. I personally prefer active X-overs as they allow for the greatest adjustability but that's personal preference and adds to cost.

While some insist that you must run the high quality amplifiers, for most people you won't know the difference unless you want the bling factor or having X type of amp that all the "cool" guys run...whatever. Not that I'm saying Jensen, etc, amps are great...they are not, but for the most part they all perform a similar function.

For the amount of power, look at 12V RMS power output in watts. If the speakers are rated for 40W, than run an amp that puts out 40 or more W per channel at 12V RMS...NOT peak, and don't look at 14.4V output either, while the alternator may create additional power during running conditions, it's also too unpredictable because load conditions vary.

 

so i guess i should take apart the grills and acutally figure out what speakers are where

 

My experience has been to rip out everything and start over as you never know what kind of workmanship people do with stereos...and especially when they take portions of them out to sell a car...? You know they aren't being to cautious about what gets pulled on, etc, and for the most part they are leaving the junk they don't want. Plus you're dealing with electrical. Do you really want to take the chance of having a fire and losing the car because you didn't take an hour to confirm something was done correctly and it shorts out?

 

First, take all that crap out and start over. He cheaped out on the whole install. Get a good 4 channel that can run into 2 ohms and you can run your 6 speakers no problem. Profile is cheap, and ok! I'm an Alpine man, but it all depends on your budget.

 

in the mean time what can i do to just get it working just off the head unit. no music really sucks.

 

All an external amplifier is doing is bypassing the head unit's internal amplifier (if it has one). Just run the output wires to the speakers and hopefully the seller left passive crossovers available for you to at least hook into the highs and mids. There is usually a sticker on the head unit describing the wiring colors and outputs.