Whats your idea of a balanced system

[bigsak]

Ok guys just a general question i wanted to get some feedback on. What do you guys think a well balanced system consists of as far as wattage. If you have say 1000 watts going to your subs how much do you think you need for mids/highs? I usually try to base my systems on a value of around 25%. So for me if you have 1000 watts for subs you should have around 250 watts for mids/highs to be balanced. Let me know what you guys think I thought this could be a fun topic to discuss.

[Rold Gold]

Depends on the type of system you want to run............

Tom's setup is pretty sweet off a Ti500.4........ I plan to run a Roadster66 or my 100.4/600.1 xenons...... I'd call both systems balanced IMO......

[fuzzysnuggleduck]

I suppose that would depend on the efficiency of the subwoofers and front stage drivers/tweets you're using. If you have a very efficient sub, you need less power and vice versa.

I've got about 105W to each side on the front stage and about 200-250W on each sub (2) in the back. The subs get way louder than I need them for balanced, accurate listening.

[NewOldStock]

I am running around 125w to my front spits and 125 to each sub in my tacoma... Its pretty balanced, but I know the subs could use double the power to be able to keep up with the fronts if I tuned them all the way to the right level of gain. as it is now, my gain match is about 2/3 and my gains are set about 1/3 - 1/2 to not overpower my subs.

[ttocs]

I run two identicle 4 channel amps and think that my subs could use more power to be honest.

I am switching to a roadster in the futur to fix this.

[tonym]

hehe I run 50 watts to the fronts..(m50's) x2

[stipud]

There's no rule for how much power it would take to run a balanced SQ setup. You just need enough power to match the output of the other drivers, so you can get a flat response all around. This depends on way more than just wattage, but driver efficiency, box design, type of car, etc.

In my sedan, with 75w on my Elite 6.5's and 250w on a single sealed RSDC 12 subwoofer, when the gains are matched the sub is already nearly 8dB louder than my front stage according to my RTA. I use the LPL to lower the level of the amp so that on the lowest point of my LPL, it RTAs flat. Usually I bump it 3-6dB from there for my listening tastes, but I can easily flip it back to flat by turning the dial all the way down.

[bigsak]

Great stuff guys! This is great because there are so many variables to consider. My system sounds awesome to me but someone else could get in my car and not like it. I just think its funny because the older I get the more i appreciate music and SQ but at the same time I have more RMS wattage now than I ever had in any other system. Thats why I mentioned about wattage! I will say I'm starting to really like the multiple 10'' sub set up if you have the room I think multiple 10's might just be the best overall sound. Cause I can pound with the best of them but also hear a recording of a live concert like never before. Anyway thanks for the input thats my 2 cents for now!

[Damo95]

i'll be running the following power, 3 way active front + single sub:

sub - 1400wrms (Tantrum 1200.1 - IDMAX 12)
midbass - 2x300wrms (Tantrum 600.4 bridged - Morel Elate 6)
midrange - 2x125wrms (tantrum 500.2 - Morel cdm54)
tweeter - 2x~95wrms @6ohm (tantrum 500.2 - Morel supremo)

[Stryker]

3k to my 2-12's and the 500.4 to 2 sets of 6.5 rsd's.
sounds good to me as i can almost have no sub bass whatsoever to blend the sound, but then boom i turn the lil knobs
then it's aggressively loud

[smgreen20]

Sensitivity levels being equal on ALL speakers, in a few books I've read (Car stereo for dummies, loudspeaker design cookbook, and another I don;t recall the name of) all said 3:1 to 4:1

3x/4x the mids/highs power to the sub.
Example: 1000w (sub/s), 250-333w to the mids/highs.

[The Golden One]

one thing that bothers me is when people use amps from different company's and think their sound can be balanced to me no amount of e,q can get it to sound right. even amp's from the same company but from different generations sound different for example the ms series although are faster than most any other company's amp's. the zeropoint amps are just a little faster not much but i can notice it and it can be hard to blend these two series of amps. but say you have joe blow's high's amp and another joe blow amp for sub's your sound is going to be way off. so to me a well balanced system is to use amps from the same company and series.

[mrblack]

You're telling me that you could sit in 10 different cars all with different systems with a random mix of matched amps vs mixed amps and be able to pick out the ones that have the same series amps?

Dude, there are a TON of variables to worry about in car audio, and this is not one to get caught up worrying about outside of cosmetic concern.

Pick quality amps that have the capability to give you a clean signal in the power range you're looking for and THEN you'll be golden...

[Eric D]

one thing that bothers me is when people use amps from different company's and think their sound can be balanced to me no amount of e,q can get it to sound right. even amp's from the same company but from different generations sound different for example the ms series although are faster than most any other company's amp's. the zeropoint amps are just a little faster not much but i can notice it and it can be hard to blend these two series of amps. but say you have joe blow's high's amp and another joe blow amp for sub's your sound is going to be way off. so to me a well balanced system is to use amps from the same company and series.

I might (that is a big might) agree with you as far as sticking with the same manufacturer. However, the same series, I just don't agree at all. Since 75% of PG amps use the exact same circuit, no one is going to be able to tell them apart. For example a MS275 and a M50 are internally the same design, just different quantities of parts for different amounts of output power. If you do an A-B comparison between them, you will never be able to pick one over the other. Now compare a M50 to something newer like the new Ti series, and yes the circuit may be different enough to hear a difference.

Now, I do agree with the same series for cosmetic reasons. It makes my stomach turn to see an M50 and a MS275 in the same installation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this, I just personally think it looks ugly, and would never do such a thing in my own installation.

I installed a system for a friend which used two different brand amps, and my solution was to just bury the bass amp and never tell anyone about it. He was happy with the idea as well, as he preferred matching equipment like I did, but was not ready to shell out cash to replace his bass amp just for the sake of having it physically match.

As far as the original point of this thread, I might as well throw my $0.02 in now that I posted in it...

Most systems I do have a 1-1 ratio of power on the highs and the bass, but I have gone as far as to double the bass power. This is generally just for those who want to "be heard", not the guys looking for a great sounding system. Sometimes I setup systems with less power on the bass than on the components. For example, in my current installation I have about 400W per channel to my components, and only 250W on my single sub. Everyone who listens to it likes it, and feels it is well balanced, but I am not going to be waking up any neighbors or breaking any SPL records with only 250W of bass...

[Audiophiliac]

I went through several amp setups in the same system and have some thoughts. I ran the following all to a set of 6.5" components (mounted coaxially in deadened doors), and a set of 6.5" ED subs in a sealed box in the hatch of my VW:

M44
MQ430
SOFAS
Ti500.4AL
(3) Xtant 1.1i
Exile 800.4

All of the setups were awesome. I did not feel like I needed more power with any of those amps. And I like to turn it up LOUD once in a while with some Metallica or Godsmack....and although I did not have much below 30Hz, I was never disappointed with how the system sounded or how the subs blended. Even with the MQ430, I could really crank it without it sounding strained or running out of steam.

From the 30x4 (rated) MQ to the mighty SOFAS or 800.4, I would have been happy with any of them. The one I wish I would have kept (other than the SOFAS obviously), would have been the 500.4AL.

No 1500W monoblocks for me.

[shawn k]

When I was in High School, a "balanced" system was something like 4-12's off of as much power you could throw at it, and maybe some 4" coaxxials on the dash powered by the head unit

[BigBrent]

That is about what I had in the 90's.. 2 15 RF subs in the back seat of my 1978 Chrysler Cordoba powered by a M100 bridged... and 2 3 1/2 Kicker R3's in the dash off the deck... My friends called the car Chocolate Thunder.. (it was a metallic brown color). Now being old, like what Nick was saying, my taste has gone to accurate musical reporoduction.


Brent

[The Golden One]

sorry guys i couldnt get back on this debate ive been working on my ninja 636 but anyhow if anybody on here has had the early phoenix gold literature. it tells about some of the parts used in the m and ms series amps one thing is these amps had the best transistors available at that time they where the fastest transistors at that time. this one variable does effect the sound in a very positive way but try to match these amps with an inferior product and it just wont sound right. other amp company's didnt use these transistors and it shows i am unimpressed buy the sound of other amps of that same era their all missing something oh yea its perfect precision of the entire frequency range. but anyway some people love their distorted sound i just dont so yea i listen to my phoenix amps way more than my other amps.