I need sound system education..........

[R.O.R-2.0]

Ignore all the "peak" power ratings - usually they are with distortion levels that you can't listen to.  The number you want is the RMS rating.   There is enough of a difference in even how this number is achieved that you can't do direct comparisions, but at least the RMS number will be close and you can listen to it.   The lower the THD (total harmonic distortion) number is, the better.   Your head unit is underpowered, thus the distortion.   Also, as mentioned the 150 watt number on your speakers is peak so doesn't mean much.   Your amp should always provide more power than your speakers can handle, that way the distortion will be kept in check.  Distortion destroys more speakers than high power (if it's clean). 

Check into underseat subwoofers - they are available in both internally amplified or standard versions.

RMS is usually half, or less, of the peak power..

decks put out about 15-22 watts RMS, 50 peak..

[ORCoaster]

oooohhhh butt thumpers

[R.O.R-2.0]

oooohhhh butt thumpers

theres not enough room under any seat in a rabbit to put bump under them..

they make thin subs, but there not going to fit in a space where you cant even fit an amp thats 2" tall..

[markdelevo]

built one box fits the spare tire place and that would be perfect.

[R.O.R-2.0]

built one box fits the spare tire place and that would be perfect.

i value my spare tire tho.. ive experimented with alternate uses of the spare tire well, i always end up throwing the good ol' spare tire back in there tho..

[dl_sledding]

Why do they distort so easy with so little power to them?

I always thought amps just make things louder but then I've been hearing that it increases sound quality AND can make it louder. Is this true?

There are a lot of responses here, but I don't think anyone has really answered this basic question.

What you are hearing is not speaker distortion itself, but distortion caused by the lack of power.  The speakers are rated at 150 watts, so they are built to actually handle 150 watts.  So, underpowering them with only "50 watts" (which has been explained here already) is causing the problem.  The amplifier is not able to drive them efficiently enough to get volume out of them, but rather bottoms out before getting to that point.

There are more speakers blown because of too little power than too much.  As I've said before, it's actually really hard to damage a speaker with too much power, but it's really easy to break them with too little.  Amps have the horsepower to drive the speakers at a higher volume without stressing out and sending distorted audio to the speaker.  That's why they sound both cleaner and louder.

Also, if you are going to install an amp, make sure you pay attention to the cooling it requires... If it has fins, make darn sure that they are open to air and not stuffed into some hideyhole, or you'll thermally damage the amp... they can get really hot, even when not running at high volume.  Also, make sure you run enough power to the amp, no speaker wire power here.  Easy to make fires with too much amperage on small power wire.

Just my $.02.
 
GL!

[rabbitman]

Thanks for that, I think it was worth more than 2 cents .

Yeah I like to run good size wires for stuff like lights and all but sound systems have me beat. I guess 18g wire is probably too small for a 150w speaker if it's being maxed out then.

[ORCoaster]

I would think 16 would do well and 14 would be great. 

[rabbitman]

I would think 16 would do well and 14 would be great. 

Yeah I shoulda got thicker wire but the price really jumps after a certain thickness plus you get less on a roll.

[ORCoaster]

There is no good reason to be cheap on wire, we are talking decent tunes here are we not?  That and the heat thing.  Ever run thin wire to a heavy load?  Melty, Melty.  Fire on the side.

[DieselBalz]

In my Caddy, I put a Blaupunkt powered sub-woofer behind the seats and then added high pass filters on the other speakers to filter out the lowest bass frequencies.  Made a huge difference in sound quality.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4orTQyccxD1/p_023THB200A/Blaupunkt-THb-200A.html



In my old '78 Rabbit, I cut some 6x9 speakers into the rear C-pillar sheet metal.  After making he opening, I sealed off the top and bottom with fiberglass and body filler up and down as far as I could reach.  Those sealed enclosures made for very nice sound quality as I recall.

Can you recommend some highpass filters? This is what I wanna do. A ten inch single speaker box or tube with a powered amp, and the highpass filters.

[R.O.R-2.0]

In my Caddy, I put a Blaupunkt powered sub-woofer behind the seats and then added high pass filters on the other speakers to filter out the lowest bass frequencies.  Made a huge difference in sound quality.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4orTQyccxD1/p_023THB200A/Blaupunkt-THb-200A.html



In my old '78 Rabbit, I cut some 6x9 speakers into the rear C-pillar sheet metal.  After making he opening, I sealed off the top and bottom with fiberglass and body filler up and down as far as I could reach.  Those sealed enclosures made for very nice sound quality as I recall.

Can you recommend some highpass filters? This is what I wanna do. A ten inch single speaker box or tube with a powered amp, and the highpass filters.

most good decks have high pass filters built in..

all good amps have high pass filters..

my Zapco AG650 has a LOAD of different filters on it.. and you can run a whole stereo off that one amp (6 channel) but its also as wide as a VW..

[DieselBalz]

Good call ROR. I found a Kicker 10, JL Audio e1400D and wiring kit on craigslist for 130. As soon as I hooked up the preouts on the Blaupunkt it recognized it and kicked on the highpass. This little setup hits hard. Had to dial it back a bit. Dont need a ton of bass for DMB.

So the system components are:

Blaupunkt head unit - ebay - 85.00
Boston Accoustics 4's in the doors - craigslist 20.00
Polk Audio 5.25s in the rear deck - new retail best buy 80.00
Kicker 10" in factory ported enclosure - craigslist - 65.00
JL Audio e1400D - craigslist  65.00

[R.O.R-2.0]

Good call ROR. I found a Kicker 10, JL Audio e1400D and wiring kit on craigslist for 130. As soon as I hooked up the preouts on the Blaupunkt it recognized it and kicked on the highpass. This little setup hits hard. Had to dial it back a bit. Dont need a ton of bass for DMB.

So the system components are:

Blaupunkt head unit - ebay - 85.00
Boston Accoustics 4's in the doors - craigslist 20.00
Polk Audio 5.25s in the rear deck - new retail best buy 80.00
Kicker 10" in factory ported enclosure - craigslist - 65.00
JL Audio e1400D - craigslist  65.00

my 400 dollar kenwood excelon head unit doesnt self sense the amp outputs pass frequency, so i doubt yours does. i imagine you need to read the book and figure out how to set it, or if it has one. im betting it doesnt have one.

the amp has a low pass filter built in tho, so thats why it worked.. im sure whoever had it before you had it set up to drive a sub, so it was set for low pass..

highpass = only high frequencies pass
lowpass = only low frequencies pass

[VWCaddy]

Can you recommend some highpass filters? This is what I wanna do. A ten inch single speaker box or tube with a powered amp, and the highpass filters.

I just used a passive L/C filter in front of the smaller speakers, set to a higher frequency than the subwoofer.  I did something like 1000 Hz on the small 3.5" dash speakers and something like a few hundred Hz on the 5.25" speakers I have in the door panels up front.  I recall looking up the specs on the speakers I was using (JBLs) and then picking out the L and C values from the tables on the page below:
- http://www.car-fi.com/techcenter/xovers.htm

I built the filters so I could plug them into the speaker terminals and hook the feed wires up to them to make it easy to install/modify/remove in the future.

I am driving the 2 pair of regular speakers out of the head unit built-in amp.  It likely has some sort of built-in filtering, but I think it was at too low a freq. for the speakers I had.  Adding the high pass filters at the smaller speakers cut out the distortion I got with heavy bass and then let the sub fill that back in.  I also added some foam baffles behind the door panel speakers and that helped cut down the rattling in the door.