How to Pick the Best Car Amp

Possibilities of regular or independently installed in a car head units (or, simply put, headphones) are quite limited, and first of all – by the inexorable laws of physics: even not at the rated 12 volts, but the real 14-14.5 V with a working generator to the 4-ohm load the source will give no more than 52 W of electrical power DC. And then how to “rock” the subwoofer or rear speakers? The power stage will have to be powered through a powerful voltage converter, and this means both dimensions and heating (and the efficiency of amplifiers and pulse converters is by no means one hundred percent) – you can’t put such a device into a turntable, built into a radio. There is one more nuance: the closer the output power of the amplifier stage is to the maximum, the more distortions in the signal. Therefore, the listeners, picky about the sound quality, use amplifiers even with the power, which, in theory, would be provided by the “head” itself: working at the “right” part of the frequency response, a good amplifier for subwoofers and speakers will provide minimum distortion, while having the reserve to work off the volume peaks.

So in any more or less serious sound installation, the amplifier is a must-have item. But what kind of amplifier is better to choose from numerous models represented in various stores and what are how to adjust car amp for best sound? Let’s try to find out.

How to Pick the Best Car Amp

1. 1. Let’s start with its purpose. If it is a subwoofer amplifier you need, there are two options – either a single-channel amplifier or a two-channel one in a bridge connection.

   2. If you want to add power to both front and rear speakers, you will need 4 channels already. And if you connect two channels in a bridge, you will get a 2.1 amplifier for the subwoofer and the front speakers. Note that using separate channels on different frequency bands is also often practiced on component speakers, so four-channel amplifiers are sometimes used only on the front or rear speakers. If you connect both the front and the rear, and there are a lot of bands in the installed speakers … In general, and 8 channels on car amplifiers do not surprise anyone.

1. The sound quality of the amplifier is largely determined by the class of its termination stages. The most “pure” is class A, so loved by audiophiles, but its efficiency is minimal, which means that the amplifier will load the battery and generator and most of the spent watts will go to the heating of the trunk. Therefore, if we’re talking about “pure analog” in-car acoustics, then in class AB – the sound in quality amplifiers practically does not suffer, but the efficiency is already higher. As for the class D amplifiers, often called “digital”, their efficiency is up to 90%, they are compact, have a minimal load on current sources, have little heating. But it is harder and more expensive to get good sound from them. Therefore, first of all, they are topical for subwoofers – this is where the power is maximal, and here, the narrow bandwidth will mask many flaws inherent to Class D. Wideband class D amplifiers with good sound quality at all frequencies are still much more expensive than analog amplifiers with comparable sound.

2. Naturally, pay attention to the set of controls and inputs-outputs: if your original radio has no line outputs and you are not going to change it, you will definitely need an amplifier with high-level inputs.

3. And lastly, not by value, but only in order. No plastic “lugs” fixing, especially on the heavy high-power amplifiers: no matter how many of them the author had found installed in the client cars, or brought in for repair, all had cracks or even broken mounts. Such amplifiers sooner or later will go “walking” in the trunk, especially in winter, when the plastic becomes brittle.

That’s all for now. Now you know exactly how to choose the best car amp correctly. Good luck with your purchase!