Amplifier Setup Question

[gregwils]

I have an old school Orion CO465XP 2/4 channel 520 watt amp. I would like to install 2 x 6.5" component speakers (4 ohm) in the doors, 2 x 4x6 rear deck (4 ohm) speakers and a slim 8" subwoofer (4 ohm) all powered by the Orion.

I am hoping I can wire the door speakers in parallel as the front left channel, the deck speakers in parallel as the front right channel and the subwoofer as a bridged rear channel. The speakers and subwoofer are all 4 ohm, the amp can push 2 ohms per channel or 4 ohm to bridged channel. I frequently fade front to rear, but never side to side. This would give me the ability to balance sub and speakers and front to rear speakers, but not side to side speakers - which is fine.

Speaker RMS ranges are approx 10-60, sub 50-150. AMP output @ 2 ohm is 4 x 130, output @ 4 ohm is 4 x 75 or 2 x 260 or ( 2 x 75 & 1 x 260). AMP specs from the manual.

I think I am okay, but amp RMS is at the midpoint of the speakers, not the high end.

I am really new to this and trying to accomplish this on a reasonanble budget. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks.

[gregwils]

Thinking about this further, this configuration appears to be pushing 260w to a 150rms sub.

[jason2guy]

i would wire the orion to the 4 speakers normally, then get a seperate amp for the sub. thats what i did. for the sub i got a 200w kicker from best buy for close to 100 bux. the kicker is a class d amp typically used for subs

[gregwils]

You're probably right. I was hoping to limit the amount of investment in audio stuff, because I normally just listen to the 400lb sound system hanging out the back.

[rwest]

Skip the rear speakers, cars are small and you don't go to a concert and sit with your back to the stage.

[T77911S]

you need to see if the amp is spec'd for bridged. if not you cant just bridge an amp.
also not sure If you can run L and R on the front and bridged on the rear anyway.

check to see if you have a line out for a separate amp for a sub as suggested.

I assume your speakers are 4 ohms each or is the 4ohms with 2 8ohm speakers in parallel?

it is better to have a bigger amp than the speakers. driving an amp hard into clipping puts a DC volt into the speakers which will blow them. too much power will also blow them, just don't bottom the speaker out which you should hear if you do.

when amp is bridged the input to the amp is different than when stereo.
in stereo the same signal is applied to left and right,
bridged mode, the positive may goto the left side and the negative portion will goto the right. this way one side is kind of pushing and the other is pulling.
the minimum ohms also goes up so 4 ohm may be the min you could run in bridged if it can normally handle 2 ohms.