I have a '78 Flareside that I currently have a Pioneer 200w Reciever with 2 6.5" 150w speakers in it. I want to get an amp with some 200w+ 6x9s and mount the amp and speakers behind the bench seat, has anyone else done this or have any suggestions. How many watts should the amp be, 2 or 4 channel etc.?

 

get a 4 channel amp that pushes around 250 watts peak. adjust the gains accordingly and it will sound great. very little distortion will be there and it will sound really good.

 

6x9s will sound muffled behind a seat. If you want bass, look at some smaller subwoofers for that. Dont look at peak (max) ratings, they mean nothing. The RMS rating is the true power rating of a speaker or amp. You might have a head unit that claims 200W, but I promise you it doesnt put out that much.

A lot of audio companies will pull a max rating out of thin air and claim it.

 

Don't get caught up in all these ratings. The rating of your head unit is deceiving. It's probably 50x4 peak, which totals 200 watts, and allows Pioneer to use the big "200 watts" advertising claim. Even if it is 50 watts peak, which I doubt, it is about 18-20 watts RMS. And another thing about head units, because of power supply differences, when compared to a decent separate amplifier of the same rating, there really is no comparison. In other words, a head unit of 50 watts peak will NOT perform like an amp(of reasonable quality) that is rated at 50 watts peak. Especially if you listen at high volume levels. It has to do with capabilities of each to flow current. That's why there is such a thing as separate amps, because HUs are very limited in terms of performance when the user starts expanding and upgrading a system. And if you are thinking 6x9s will give you a lot of bass, I think you will be disappointed. If you go to the trouble of adding am amplifier, why not stick with subs in the back. 6x9s, even the best ones, will add little to a system, and most definitely if they are behind something. And those 150 watt and 200+ watt ratings of the speakers mean very, very little when it comes to QUALITY.

 

Thanks For the Advice, I went with the following set up
Pioneer 50wX4 Reciever
2 Pioneer 180w 6.5"
Pioneer 600w Peak(180W RMS) Sub
Jensen 340w Peak (170W Bridged RMS) Amp
And sounds great, glad I didn't go with 6x9s.
All the way up it rattles the seat, yeah I know it ain't a competition system or nothing but I just turned 18 and work at Jiffy Lube as a Lower Bay so it's some high quality **** for me at the time.

 

Good deal! The fact that you are happy with what you decided on is the important thing. As you learn more, you WILL add to and upgrade your system. It never ends for some of us.

 

Dont worry about the quality of the components. Even if its not top of the line stuff, it can still sound better if its installed and tuned right.

A good install of lower quality parts is almost always better than a crappy install of the best stuff available.