I have 4 Infinity References installed in my car currently and while they do sound nice i want more sound. I was talking to a guy down at a local audio shop here and he said i would get more, better sound if i were to Amp them. I was under the impression that it was only good to amp Components. Am i going to ruin my speakers by amping them since they are not components and why would i buy components if i could amp these just as easily?

 

An amp for your 4 speakers would be awesome; definitely no harm in it. Components allow for flexibility of tweeter placement, and generally have a higher quality of sound because of the difference placement. I just recommended an Alpine 4-ch amp to another guy on here with the same question.

 

Yeah an amp is what is def needed. I have a 4ch one on my list.

 

what size would you guys reccomend and will i need to run all new speaker wires?

 

You're obviously a stereo novice; I'd recommend going to a retail location to have this done for you. A good RMS is 50/ch...

 

"A good RMS is 50..."

The only good RMS for your speakers is the factory recommended specs. Figure out what it is for your Infinitys and then match it to the amp.

For example, say your speakers are at 60w RMS and 220w peak. Know that peak means jack, so you just need to find an amp that will put out 60RMS at the desired Ohm load. I'm guessing your speakers are 4ohm, so you'd need an amp that runs 60w RMS x 4 at a 4ohm load.

As far as speaker wire goes you'll probably need to run more, just because of the fact that the amp is gonna be in a different place than the head unit. Do you need monster cable? Not necessarily, but it never hurts to upgrade your wires a little bit, companies like Scoche (sp?) and Streetwires are respectable, but then again you pay an arm and a leg for a kit. If you know your way around audio and electronics you can wire your car with decent products while not breaking the bank.

But, if you wanna save a buck then you're gonna need to do a lot of research. Otherwise you can take it into an audio shop and hope that you chose some people that won't rip you off. At the very least figure out what MSRP is for what you're gonna buy.

 

his speakers are 45 watt RMS so SLVROZ was right, 50 RMS is good...

cheap ol' 4 gauge wire will suffice your needs and yes you will need to run new speaker wires

 

I usually suggest buying an amp that is over powering the speakers. Not by a lot but maybe 15% higher. You need to remember that underpowering speakers creates distortion which ultimately equals blown speakers. If you over power them you can just adjust your sensitivity to a decent level while running the amp a little cooler and still pushing the speakers to their max level.

 

I was under the impression that the reference series was a line of speakers with varying RMS and ohm load numbers. I thought SLVROZ was just throwing an arbitrary number out there.

But if the speakers are 45w RMS then go with what SLVROZ said. If you go with more power though make sure not to clip your speakers. Gain knob is not the win knob.

 

feed the speakers as much power as you can without distortion... the better the quality of the amp the cleaner the power, the more you can feed. the actual rms numbers are a good guide but you still want to tune by ear.

 

Go me! and my accurate info! LOL

 

We have best buy and a few small audio shops. best buy is a rip off and the audio shops do a crappy job on the installs. i can do the same quality of work for free just needed to know what parts and stuff were needed.

 

No that is pure ignorance speaking, underpoering does not create distortion rather it does not show the true potential of the speaker. Possibly being to quite for the listener in which in turn they will up the gains and end up with ruined equipment. Don't talk out of your *** if you don't know the truth.

 

Or do you mean the speaker is working twice as hard with not enough power to produce the correct sound? In which case the speaker would then be ruined if the gain was either up or down in any manner? There's many reasons for not under powering a speaker, but the bottom line is don't under power a speaker.

 

No, it's not working twice as hard, how would it work twice as hard, that doesn't make any sense. There is no problem with under powering a speaker. That's like saying you cant hook up aftermarket speakers to a factory headunit, sure you can. They won't receive proper power but they will function fine. Bottom line is don't talk speak upon a matter you know nothing about.