# How to wire a 4 channel amplifier?



## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

So i have a 4 channel amp, it has on the left side 8 wires (for 4 speakers 4 positive and 4 negative), and on the right side it has 4 rca (2 white 2 red) power, negative and remote...

So i connected all 4 of my speakers, (2 front and 2 back) to the amp using the wires on the left, connected negative and power to my battery and ran the blue cable to my amp

The question is the RCA wiring, on my amp i have 4 (2 red, 2 white) but my head using only has 2 (1 red and 1 white) do i just use a Y and wire both front and both back? or how do i do this?


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## ///Audience (Jan 31, 2007)

Y- splitters wil work fine but you will loose your ability to fade/balance your sound


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

but sound quality stays the same right?? Also do i connect front/back together or left/right together? All speakers are the same


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## ///Audience (Jan 31, 2007)

depends on whether youd rather loose fade (front to back) or balance (left to right).


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> but sound quality stays the same right?? Also do i connect front/back together or left/right together? All speakers are the same


You could use RCAs for the front and then get a LOC to connect to the rear speaker outputs on head unit and convert to RCAs.

Scosche LOC-80 (loc80) Two Channel Adjustable Line Output


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

mcqueena said:


> You could use RCAs for the front and then get a LOC to connect to the rear speaker outputs on head unit and convert to RCAs.
> 
> Scosche LOC-80 (loc80) Two Channel Adjustable Line Output


Reason to do this instead of using a Y?


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> Reason to do this instead of using a Y?


You would retain fade control from the head unit.


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## Toys7505 (Jul 1, 2008)

Does the amp have a button/switch for the RCA's - 2 channel input? or 4 channel input?


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

It is a cheap amp it is for my boat Amazon.com: Enrock EKM008A 4-Channel 800 Watt Waterproof MP3/iPod Marine Boat Power Amplifier: Car Electronics they claim to be 800wats but not sure how true that is, I'm not sure if it has a switch to select the Channels..

Also some one mentioned to me that maybe the two RCA on the back of my stero ar only for sub and rear speakers, so that i would only get rear sound... that i need to get something like this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scosche-Ford-JBL-and-GM-Bose-Speaker-Level-Converter-FAI-3/1863065


BTW my head unit is a Sony CDXM20


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

DO NOT listen to any advise here. First READ the fine manual that comes with the amplifier. Most amplifiers have a way to get the signal to ALL channels from just two RCAs, even 5-channel amplifiers. If your amplifier does not have such provisions, THEN use the y-splitter.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

I have 2 switches(Polarity(In-> Normal Out->Reverse) gain level(In->Speaker Out->RCA) and a gain knob

Also it seems like those RCA are only for a subwoofer, i went into the menu of my head unit and lower the sub to 0 and the 4 speakers also went to 0 volume...

So what do i do?


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> It is a cheap amp it is for my boat Amazon.com: Enrock EKM008A 4-Channel 800 Watt Waterproof MP3/iPod Marine Boat Power Amplifier: Car Electronics they claim to be 800wats but not sure how true that is, I'm not sure if it has a switch to select the Channels..
> 
> Also some one mentioned to me that maybe the two RCA on the back of my stero ar only for sub and rear speakers, so that i would only get rear sound... that i need to get something like this Scosche Ford/JBL and GM/Bose Speaker Level Converter, FAI-3: Auto Electronics : Walmart.com
> 
> ...


Looks like the amp takes both high and low level inputs. So you wouldn't need the LOC I posted earlier. 

Have you tried running the speakers off the headunit without this amp? While the amp claims 4x100watts I would be surprised if it made that power, especially at it's low price point.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

Im sure the speakers run fine... But i really wanted a bit more than 50W, since this is a boat, usually its a bit far from us... when we get down in a island is about 15+ feet from us


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> Im sure the speakers run fine... But i really wanted a bit more than 50W, since this is a boat, usually its a bit far from us... when we get down in a island is about 15+ feet from us


Manufactures have different ways of rating power. 50W rated from the Sony head unit may in fact be as loud or louder than the 100W rated Enrock amp.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

Gotcha, so i payed $188 for this package.. which has the wrong speakers  4" instead of 6.5" 4 New Enrock Speakers /Marine Boat Indash CD MP3 Receiver &Cover Marien 800W Amp 027242830790 | eBay

So should i just return all this and buy separate equipment? Or keep the head unit which they sell it for $106, so i would get like $80 back..

So i would have about $100(can probably stretch this a bit) for marine speakers and marine amp


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> Gotcha, so i payed $188 for this package.. which has the wrong speakers  4" instead of 6.5" 4 New Enrock Speakers /Marine Boat Indash CD MP3 Receiver &Cover Marien 800W Amp 027242830790 | eBay
> 
> So should i just return all this and buy separate equipment?


I would, but that's up to you. You're not going to do any better price wise, but you get what you pay for. So I think if you could increase your budget a bit, you could get something that you would be happy with. If you shop around and buy used you could get something really great sounding for not much money. Start an new thread in the System Design forum telling us what your looking for and your budget and I'm sure others will chime in.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

mcqueena said:


> I would, but that's up to you. You're not going to do any better price wise, but you get what you pay for. So I think if you could increase your budget a bit, you could get something that you would be happy with. If you shop around and buy used you could get something really great sounding for not much money. Start an new thread in the System Design forum telling us what your looking for and your budget and I'm sure others will chime in.


Should i keep my HU or return that as well?


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> Should i keep my HU or return that as well?


Well it sounds like you want to run a 4 channel amp, so you would probably be better off with head unit that had both front and rear RCAs outputs.

I've never installed a system in a boat before, but just looking through the products on sonicelectronix.com and with a low budget in mind, I would look at this setup:
Amp: JBL Marine MA6004 320W RMS 4-Channel Marine Amplifier
Speakers: JBL Marine MS6200 6-1/2" 2-way Marine Speakers - Sonic Electronix
Headunit: Kenwood KMR-350U In-Dash CD, MP3 Marine Receiver w/ Pandora

Hopefully someone more experienced with boat installs will chime in.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

Btw i just found out that in my head unit i had to change from sub out to rear out.. so it only supports rear, now is it a bigg difference between making all the speakers rear vs front and rear?

i mean the 2 front speakers are inside the boat, (inside the cabin) so when we are outside we only hear the 2 speakers in the back of the boat.. at least i think so


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

mcqueena said:


> Well it sounds like you want to run a 4 channel amp, so you would probably be better off with head unit that had both front and rear RCAs outputs.
> 
> I've never installed a system in a boat before, but just looking through the products on sonicelectronix.com and with a low budget in mind, I would look at this setup:
> Amp: JBL Marine MA6004 320W RMS 4-Channel Marine Amplifier
> ...


nice, ill took into that.. a bit more money that i wanted to spend but we will see


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

worth to change from my head unit to that one?


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> worth to change from my head unit to that one?


That's up to you. If you keep the head unit, you'll still have the original problem of only 2 RCAs.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

mcqueena said:


> That's up to you. If you keep the head unit, you'll still have the original problem of only 2 RCAs.


No i did a test on my boat, disconeted the speakers inside the cabin, and stood about 15 ft from it and i cant tell the difference when the inside speakers are hooked or not... So what i may do is run 2 speakers and put them on the back of the boat, so ill have 4 speakers on the back... Now should i care about Front Speakers output?

Or i should just run both of this speakers using REAR-OUT??

Basically if i need to run REAR-OUT to this 4 speakers ill just keep my HU, and get better speakers and a better amp


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

ZAKOH said:


> DO NOT listen to any advise here. First READ the fine manual that comes with the amplifier. Most amplifiers have a way to get the signal to ALL channels from just two RCAs, even 5-channel amplifiers. If your amplifier does not have such provisions, THEN use the y-splitter.


I just tested this, and it works, i can get all 4 speakers using just ch1 and 2 from the amp.. So i dont need a Y splitter.

Now is there a way to tell if this amp is really delivering 100W?


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## mcqueena (Sep 9, 2010)

SuperMiguel said:


> I just tested this, and it works, i can get all 4 speakers using just ch1 and 2 from the amp.. So i dont need a Y splitter.
> 
> Now is there a way to tell if this amp is really delivering 100W?


Don't worry about the power. If it's clear enough and loud enough for you then it's good.


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## SuperMiguel (Aug 25, 2012)

So well i just installed this on my boat, and it sounds bad !!!! first to get a clear sound i have to lower the gain from 100% to like 70% then when i do full volume the speakers are not that loud... So I dont really think neither the speakers or the amp are 100W RMS(speakers) or 400 RMS(amp)

So now i dont really know what to look for, i probably just return everything and get a new package.. 

So i was looking at the amp recommended few post above (JBL Marine MA6004 320W RMS 4-Channel Marine Amplifier) but it only does 4x60 W RMS which i dont know/think is high enough... Even looking at this one: Sony XM-604M (xm604m) Marine 4-Channel Amplifier but same thing....

On this "good" amps is 60W loud at all?


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