Amplifier Features and Functionality

There are some important key features that you should look for when shopping for an amplifier for your car stereo system. Depending on what you are going to hook your amplifier up to, there are quite a few different impedance loads available for the amplifier. If you are only hooking up to a subwoofer for the car deck, I suggest a Class D amplifier that is easily bridgeable and has an impedance of 2 ohms. For a whole car stereo system, I recommend a multi-channel amp with the typical impedance of 4 ohms. Power of the amplifier is measured in watts. The maximum high power is the most that it can send out. If you are going to be pounding your car stereo amplifier incessantly for long periods of time, then look for an amplifier with a high maximum RMS power for better performance. All kind of amplifiers have a signal to noise (S/N) ratio which is measured in decibels (dB). It distinguishes between the levels of the signal to the level of background noise. The higher the signal/noise ratio, the less background noise there will be. Some amplifiers with 2 channels have a tri-way output protection. These kinds of amplifiers also called dual mode, this system can easily control a pair of stereo speakers and a single subwoofer at the same time from the outputs of a single 2 channel amplifier. This is an inexpensive way to drive a subwoofer. It also needs an outer tri-way adaptor that is connected in-line between your amplifier and the speakers. Four-way adaptor is also available for amplifiers for higher performance.

A variety of amplifiers also have a subsonic filter which eradicates the very low bass that the human ear can't hear. This results in better performance in the amplifier’s power supply. The lower the THD (total harmonic distortion), the less change there is in the overall sound of the signal and higher the performance of the amplifier. Frequency response is very important thing that should be considered before you purchase an amplifier for your car stereo system. Frequency response is a term used to explain the way a speaker reproduces the electrical signal fed into it. Frequency of amplifier Measured in a range of Hertz (Hz), the wider the range is, the better the frequency response is and higher the quality of sound. The more direct power there is, like for a subwoofer, the less frequency. It is good to find an amplifier with a built-in crossover to keep high level of frequencies from reaching a subwoofer, and low frequencies from reaching the smaller speakers. A low-pass crossover will only let the frequencies that are less the crossover point to be amplified. A high-pass crossover only lets the frequencies that are higher than the crossover point to be amplified. This will allow for better efficiency out of all your speakers.