Options for a Protege

[gmagnan]

After about 2 months of serious thinking and consideration, and many many test drives, I've decided to get a Protege ES at the end of the month!

I have a small concern about the stereo though... I currently have Pionner 2 channel 6x9s in my Jetta. The rear speakers look to be about the same size... Can anyone confirm to me that they indeed are 6x9s ? That's going be make installation much simpler I should hope.

Also, I don't have much knowledge about car audio, but my 6x9s are good for 200w, I would guess the front speakers & tweeters would't like that much juice... Is it possible to only amplify the 2 channels for my 6x9 and keep the other speakers on the stock factory wattage?

Would this setup sound good with the factory head unit? I'm used to having most of my fade in the rear anyways, and from my short test drive I found that the stock speakers are half decent at "normal" sound levels.

Is anyone here running something similar?

 

[rmedoc]

Read the sticky at the top of this forum for speaker sizes. They are all listed, and are perfect combos.

2nd, if you look through this thing, many many people have asked questions about stock HU setups and speakers, myself included, and 1st MP3 in NH and Sir Nuke were kind enough to give suggestions and great tips. Just browse around, you'll find what you are looking for.

 

[gmagnan]

thx, that was helpful.

Just one last question though, is it actually worth it to get an amp just for my 6x9s, or would I be better off spending thoses 200 or so dollars on something else (good front speakers?, HU ?)

 

[Sir Nuke]

why not spend the money on a four channel amp that has speaker level inputs.....hook it up to the stock head unit.....put in your 6X9's you have now....and amp them....if you don't have the extry money NOW for a new set of front speakers...just hook up two channels now...and as soon as you get another 100 bones or so get another set and put them in the front doors and hook the amp to them too.....

Just a thought.

 

[1sty]

gmagnan,

Where ad waht is the total goal of the audio you want in the protege?

6x9s will fit in the rear of the Protege ES.

Just to let you know the Pioneers are refered to as coaxles or 2 way speakers since they have a mid driver and a tweeter, not to channel. Not knocking you, I just want to give you the right teminology. Also the 200 watts is a max power rating which is effectively useless. RMS power is the rating you want when shopping to match speakers to amps.

Will you be buying an aftermarket radio?
Will you be buying a sub woofer?

Typicaly the idea of car audio is to create a stage infront of you, but if you like the music to come from behind thats fine. The 6x9s will are so high up in the rear of the car they are loud period. The need of an amp will be determined by what else you want to do.

 

[gmagnan]

No, I don't plan on getting a sub or a HU in the short term. For now, my budget for the audio is 250$ Canadian, as I also plan on getting a few other mods (eibach springs, kartboy short shifter & bushing, a few esthetic goodies). I'll probably complete my audio setup later with front speakers (and/or a HU if I'm not satisfied with the stock one after all this). For now I just want the biggest improvement 250$ canadian combined with my old 6x9s will get me.

I've run thoses speakers on as little as 15W for a while and they still sounded pretty good, with decent bass. So what is the difference between max power and RMS power? Is RMS power the same as nominal power?

For example if I get a Pioneer GM-X362 200W 2 channel amp, I should be good for 100W per channel. My speakers, according the the manufacturer, are rated for 200W max and 40W nominal.
Does this mean they can easily handle 200W each, 200W as a pair, or one out of 4 channels of a 200W system each? Or 40W each max? Am I worrying too much ?

 

[gmagnan]

Also thanks a lot for the help, you guys rock !

 

[1sty]

It sounds like nominal is similair to RMS power but I am unfamiliar with the term so I don't want to say it is for sure.

RMS - Route Mean Square, Without getting into calculus basicly RMS is the effective power an amp can continuosly drive to a speaker. Peak power in car audio is a useless exageration since there is no sanctioning body to regulate manufactures claims like there are in home audio and commercial audio.

A simple Pioneer 2 channel amp that delivers 40 x 2 rms at 14 volts would be fine for the 6x9. Just remeber you'll need to buy wiring for it to so count that into your budget.

For an example of RMS vs peak power. I have a JL audio 300/4, basicly it puts out 75 watts into 4 channels. I bridge mine down to get 150 per channel to drive my front speakers. I get people who swap iout speakers out all the time and we hook them up to see what they can take. We had a pair of kenwoods that said 200 watts. They didn't last 10 minutes with my JL amp. Hence the Pioneer can't handle 200 watts each, they will handle around 30 with a crappy amp and up to 50 with a good one.

If your going to get an aftermarket radio any ways it may prove better to you to get that radio instead of an amp. The headunits extra power won't be what the amp can deliver but it will give more to all speakers and make adding amps easier in the future.

 

[gmagnan]

Ok, so if I understand correctly...

My 6x9s are good for 40W RMS, as in contant power, and can handle power peaks of somewhere around 200W, and the amp can dish out a constant 40W RMS and hit power peaks of 100W per channel (which is the :bs: rating).

Sounds about right to me. And within my budget!

I'll give this setup a go, I'll let you guys know how it turned out! Thanks a lot!

 

[1sty]

RMS is the power to be concerned with. Peak power is bulls***. Match the RMS values of the amp and speakers and you'll be good to go. Also make sure the amp has a built in crossover. You may want to make sure that crossover is adjustable too.