how do you balance your rear speakers that are connected to a external amp. i can balance my front speakers, they are connected to the stereo wires, but my rears are connected to a amp that is connected to my stereo with RCA jacks. i called sony and they said most models dont have that feature. i have my stereo connected to a equalizer that has outputs for sub, front and rear amps. what i did was connect the right channel of my amp to the front rca jack on my equalizer the the left to the rear, it has the feature of fading from front to rear so i can balance them that way but seems like there should be a better way.

 

So the rears are too loud?

If it were my vehicle, I would power the fronts with the amp. Then if need be, leave the rears for filler. Stereo imaging is easier from the fronts and closer to the driver. Normally the fronts are driven and the rears not or all speakers are driven by an amp. Is there a reason (such as you've set up subs as your rear speakers) for your setup?
If you're running the rears as subs, then I would use the EQ to attenuate the levels going to it to reduce the volume as a stop gap to powering all four, or just turn down the gains on the amp until it comes into line with other speakers. Either way, I would start looking into powered fronts.

 

my fronts are the, believe, 5" door speakers. there not the stock ones but sony xplod. they sound fine, the stereo suppose to put 50 watts per channel. in the rear i have two 8" subs and two 6" X 9" sony three way xplod speakers. i have two amps for the rear, one for the subs and one for the 6" X 9"s. i have the rca jacks from the stereo going to a equalizer. the equalizer has connections for front and rear amp plus sub. ofcourse im using the sub for my subs. and the rear for my 6" X 9"s. i did readjust the equalizer and it lowered the volume of the rear 6" X 9"s quite a bit. this is the first stereo that ive connected to a amp and it didnt let me balance the speakers from left to right coming out of the amp. maybe i did something wrong in the hookup. im going to connect directly to the 6" X 9" amp from the stereo and see if i get balance back, if so then it would be something i connected wrong or the equalizer. my wifes car has the model up from mine and i hooked hers up using rca jacks, only one amp and no front speakers, i can get left to right balance on hers. ive connected something wrong somewhere. i knew i should of been installing all this with it hitting 120 degrees today.

 

There isn't an amp I know of that allows a balance adjustment. It's a signal amplifier, that's it.

Your balance adjustment is reliant on whatever source unit is feeding the amp. If there's no balance on your EQ (which I doubt there is), then it reverts back to the head unit.

You are going to need to get specific if you want answers. How many channels is the head unit? RCA pre-outs? How many? For what? What are they connected to? How many channels on the amp?

 

the head unit has one set of rca outputs. im running these to a equalizer, by way of rca inputs on the equalizer. the equalizer has three rca outputs = sub, front and rear rca amp outputs. i have the sub outputs connected to one amp and that amp connected to two subs. the front amp output on the equalizer is connected to a amp and then connected to two 6" X 9"s . the equalizer has sub control and also a fader to fade front to rear on the front and rear amps. i figured if i turned the balance on the head unit to the right then every thing on the right channel, including the right rca out on the back of the head unit, would go to the right. seems that anything connected to the rca jack outputs dont do anything. my front speakers are connected to the right and left channel wires directly from the head unit output and they will balance right and left but nothing thats connected to the rca outputs. by the way, each amp only has two channel outputs, right and left.

 

Yeah usually they don't. They're simply unprocessed signal outs.

You will need to find another head unit with the feature you are looking for or maybe there's a processor out there with a balance control. A quick search of mine turned up nothing but I didn't dig too deep either.

Personally I don't see the need for balance control as much as fader. Your balance should be centered and left alone IMO. Play with the fader as you see fit. I have mine probably 3/4 to the front, using the rears just for a little fill.

Sorry I don't have a definitive answer.

 

the problem was in the stereo itself. like i said = i should be able to balance right to left with the speakers connected to the amps. this was the first stereo that didnt let me do that. took it back and bought another, again a sony but a model they just got it, couple dollars more but has front and rear amp outs and rear sub out. and yes it does balance right to left and fade front to back. true i have always left the balance set in the center and its sounded great. for some reason the one i took back seem to favor the left, thats why i wanted to be able to adjust the balance to the right. that might have been another problem it had in it. anyway have the new unit installed and sounds awesome. ofcourse ill have to do some fine tuning on all three amps. but thats parts of the fun. got to say the new tech. going into these things is incredible. being able to install 500 songs onto a flashdrive the size of a peanut and install it into the front of the stereo and play it is really something. its a good thing i bought the high amp output alternator for my truck when the original went out. well back to the tuning board.

 

Glad to hear you got it where you want it.

Mp3's are the shiznit no doubt! Turn on BT on the iPhone and the entire library is ready to go. I don't believe the CD player will ever see use.

 

yeah thats what i like about the new units, no need for the cd player. as i remember now the box for the unit i took back had a nice big crushed in section on top. the gal at walmart said it would be ok because it was in cardboard inside the box. guess she was wrong. anyway life is good now.

 

I would still suggest more power up front, than in the rear. Humans don't actually hear "in stereo" from behind.

You would always put your best speakers in front, so you should also use your best amplifier in front.

 

I don't use rear speakers in most of my systems. I just use good front speakers. I don't think my ranger needs rear speakers.I might put a set in my 4 door F250 If I do they will be running off the tv.

 

in the old days, when i drove a 55 f100, i had 6" X 9"s in the doors and thats all i needed. im talking back in the mid 70s, and those speakers cost me $200.00. that was a lot back then, those with a 100 watt amp and i was good to go. after spending the last 20+ years installing concrete tile roofs and listening to a 5hp gas concrete saw running with a diamond blade, well lets just say my hearing is all that perfect. ive always been into music and having a good stereo system to me is an important thing. it would be nice to have my truck system sound like my home system but thats not affordable to me.

 

You had a 100watt amp in the 70's? Really? What brand was that?

 

it was made by bi-liner. i bought the pioneer indash deck and a separate amp. the indash unit had the bush button setup. they were just starting to come out with digital readout. i also had a reverb in my old truck, inline with the amp. tell you it was pretty impressive. kid working for me at the time said most people didnt have as nice of systems in there house. there was no subwoofers back then so everything had to come from the 6" X 9"s and believe me it could. put it like this i had close to$800.00 in it. you can imagine what that would translate today. ofcourse things have come a long long way and you can buy a pretty setup for under $800.00. in fact i just did a quick search on the internet and found they were made in the 70s and guess people are still using them. believe they had .01% distortion. which is good.

 

I'm pushing my 6.5s with 250 watts a channel My tweeters with 50 a channel & my sub has a 500 watt amp on it. Its plenty loud without rear speakers. I plan to mount cooling fans behind the rear speaker grills to pull air over my amps. I put them where the jump seats were.