very noobish questions

[stoic127]

1. whats the difference in 2/3/4/5 way speakers?
2. What is a crossover? what does it do? why is it important?
3. If i have two amps do i need two pre-outs?
4. Whats the difference in volts in a pre-out? I see 2 or 4 volts whats the difference? how does it affect me?
5. Whats the wattage i should look for on a amp and subs ratio? for example if I get 2 500watt subs should I get a 1000 watt amp?
6. What is the real wattage? is it the nominal watts?
7. what does the guage wiring do for a amp install? How do i determine what guage I need?

I know this is a lot of questions but I know you all knowing audio experts can give me the answers that I need. Thank you all in advance. Its very much appreciated.

[falconman515]

1- how many ways the sound comes from a speaker basicly, 2 ways have the speaker woofer and tweeter, 3 ways have the speaker, a mid range speaker, and also a tweeter which is 3 ways and so forth.

2. a crossover separates sound coming out of a specific location or speaker if you want nothing but bass you'll look for a low pass frequency crossover which will only let bass through and filters out all the highs, and if you are looking for highs with no bass you'll be looking for a high pass crossover which will filter out most of your bass coming though.

3. it is recommended to have two pre-outs for 2 amps if possible it can be worked around with splitters and some amps have and output do daisy chain another amp. but if your looking for a good way to go for future look for a head unit with 3 pre-outs front and rear outs for your 4 channel amp for your highs and a 3rd pre-out for just a sub channel, those are the head units to get rite there.

4. oddly enough i'm not to up on the voltage thing so i wont touch that one.

5 look for the RMS power they can handle and push, its up to how low or high you want to go in power but if you have subs that say 1000 watt sub and amp says 2000 thats not the RMS thats the max power make sure whatever sub you get if it can handle 400watts RMS at say 4-ohms get and amp that can be installed and wired correctly to accomidate and output RMS of atleast that much power. For instance amps with 1200 Watts but if its a 2 channel amp and you are running 2w subs on it at 4-ohms it may only push 200 to 300 watts x 2 RMS power and that would work but it all depends on how much power your are wanting.

6. Not sure what you mean but i think its what i had just explained the reall power is the RMS rating of the amp Its not 1200 watts like it says its whatever the RMS is by how many channels you hook up.

7. Gauge wiring does matter, if you get a good wiring kit get nothing less than 8 guage or smaller. It all depends on the amp, how many amps, how much power they take, and so on. 8 for smaller gear, 6-4 for a little larger systems with say 2 amps with good power, 4-2 for higher end power guzzling systems, and anything below 2 is big huge dollar competition type systems. it all depends on your equipment and how much of it you have and how much power it needs. make sure you have the correct fuse block, power distribution blocks, and possible caps and a standalone battery. But the ladder is for like i had said alot larger systems.

Hope that helped a bit!

[rodneyiii]

I'll try to help with #4. The amps have a rated input signal voltage range that is necessary to achieve the rated output wattage. If an amp needs a 3.5V audio signal to create full output power, then you need a preamp capable of delivering at least 3.5V. If your preamp can only put out 2V, then the amp will not be able to boost the signal enough to create 100% power output. Therefore, the preamp and amp combo need to be matched for the giving and receiving. Kind of like finding a date.

[stoic127]

thank you both for the answers I'm just trying to get things right the first time around.