I want to get more power without having to rewire for an amp and my stereo says 50wX4 22rms, but the mosfet ones say the same thing. Does anyone know if they are more powerful with mosfet?
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All modern radios use mosfet's. The only other replacement is for a tube amp radio.

 

The technology used (MOSFET, bipolar transistor, tube) is independent from the designed power level. In other words any of these technologies can be used design at low, medium or high power amplifiers.

 

I'm just wondering why some jvc, or pioneer say they have mosfet and some don't. They are basically saying having mosfet built in amp is better than the ones without. Does anyone know from experience if the one with mosfet has a superior sound?
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MOSFET amplifiers are not inherently better or worse than non-MOSFET ones. If one amp does not tout itself as MOSFET, it possibly has giant chips for the entire power amp assembly. These are proprietary devices that might be hard to replace years down the road. An amp using discrete transistors which might be MOSFETS but not necessarily would be easier to fix if the transistors failed.

 

Ic. I get a new car stereo every couple years so I'm not worried about repair. Just wondering what has the cleanest sound. My friend's pioneer that touts mosfet is the best sounds stereo i've heard, but he probably has nice speakers too, but has no external amp. My jvc is ok, but doesn't sound as nice even with my mb quarts in the front doors.
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jeff, almost all amps I know of these days are made using MOSFETS. That is the way they make them now. The reason behind the MOSFETS is they tend to eat up less power, therefore, the amp doesn't get as hot and therefore tends to last longer. Also, you can get away with fewer MOSFETS than transistors (more gain can be obtained with each stage of MOSFETS).

As for MOSFETS making more power, a watt is a watt. That is a measure of power. Now, there is 2 different kinds of watts, peak and RMS (Root Mean Square). Peak power is just that, an instantaneous point of power. That is a useful number if you listen to pulses of sound. But, most music is continuous noises. So, don't put a lot of value into peak power. So, that leaves you with RMS power. This is the average power that is put out over time (same power that a DC signal would create). As a general rule, amps that advertise a peak power that is more than 2 times the RMS power are normally fudging the numbers to make their amps seem bigger than they really are. Also be aware of amps that only advertise their peak numbers. They are figuring the "dumb audio guys" are going to buy their stuff thinking they are getting these big, loud systems when they are simply spending too much money.

As for why some brands advertise MOSFET on their amps and others don't, it is all in the way they are trying to promote their product. What truely matters when it comes to audio quality is the class of amplifiers used. You have C, B, AB, A and D class amps. What you are shooting for is the Class A (100% waveform reproduction) and Class D (digital conversion of analog signal, resulting in a 100% waveform reproduction) amps. The class C (less than 50% waveform reproduction), Class B (up to 75% reproduction) and class AB (approaching 100% reproduction) are not giving you the whole waveform, therefore are giving you distortion.

If you want to know more about amps, let me know. As you can see, I know a thing or two about the different classes and construction of amps.

 

jeff, good sound quality is a function of transferring a clean signal to the amplifier (either internal to the radio or to an external amp) along with an amplifier that doesn't introduce distortion and then putting that power to the appropriately sized speaker. You get this combination right and you can even take medium grade speakers and get good sound out of them. But, you start getting things wrong and you can take $1000's of electronics and make them sound like hell.

 

Thanks Thermo,

I should have asked you from the beginning, but is there an aftermarket radio with a nice built in amp? Something with an rms of 40w per 4 channels? I would think in a double din size that should exist, but I haven't been able to see one when I search.
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Jeff, most of the head units are going to top out at about 22 W RMS due to the fact that this is the point at which the need for a DC-DC converter would be required to get more power. This would make the radio bigger and also more expensive. Besides, if you are looking at that kind of power, you are building up a full blown system more than likely and the radio amplifiers are no where near as clean as an external amp (about 1% for an indash unit, around 0.05% for a decent external amp). So, if you are looking for more power, going with an external amp is the only way to go. I personally like the Soundstream amps, but make sure to stick with the Tarantula series or the Picaso. Their lower end units are just that. I also have had good luck with the mid to upper end Clarion amps. I'm in the process of installing a Kicker amp into my Jag (5 channel KX700.5).

 

Thermo:

What's been up buddy long time no hear. Hope all is well. Ok, I'm tired of the BS responses I get in town. I have absolutely no clue whats going on in my JAG for audio. 2-4 speakers sound either blown or don't produce sound well period. The tweeters some what work. The sound is very muddy and shoddy.

I want to install new speakers all around so 4 new door speakers and 4 new tweeters. I do have the system without navigation (2002 X-Type 2.5L no navi with premium sound). I know the amp is mounted in the trunk flush from the top. Do I need to check the amp for bad connections, fuses etc, before buying stuff?

Ok here comes the question I can't get straight answers for....I know the amp and entire car is ran through a Fiber Optic network (crappy i'm sure) but I assume it mimics that of an actual optical network (like home theaters) if so then I assume its either one fiber optic cable or many considering the functions of the car plugging into the network.

How will I go about putting a aftermarket stereo system in? I would like an Alpine head unit, (should I even bother with tweeters?) door speakers, amps for them, and a sub amp and 2 12" subs.? I know for the head unit I have to get the mounting and wiring kit from Schoche, but when it comes to the amp hook up I"M 10000000% lost....how am I gonna get off the friggin fibernet

 

Kris, things are going good. Spending some time modifying Jags. He he he he he. need to spend some more time with mine for a mod or two.

As for your stereo, I will ask you this: does the mid bass and tweeter both not put out sound on the same corner of the car? If one works and one doesn't, then you have a bad speaker. The mid and tweet are ran in parallel with each other (no isolation between the two) and are only different due to a capacitor placed on the speaker.

As for the amp in the rear of the car, that is only for a subwoofer, it doesn't power the rest of the car. All the mid/tweeter power comes from the radio in the dash.

When it comes to the fiber optic portion of the stereo, that is only really handling the information between the CD changer and the radio. So, if you are installing a new head unit, might as well rip out the fiber cable.

As for designing a stereo, this is where things will get a little muddy as there is no one way to make a good sounding system. You first need to ask yourself what you are willing to pay. Obviously, the more you pay, the more likely you are to get a good sounding system. Running separate speakers tends to result in better sound too (granted, also tends to cost more too). Also, how much power are you thinking you need to run? The alternator on these cars is pretty hefty (160 amp unit). So, you have some room to play with when it comes to the stereo.

As for wiring up an amp, pretty much you are going to be running a new power wire from the battery/alternator back to the trunk, this will be tied into the power input of the amp. You will have a second wire of the same gauge that runs from the ground on the amp to the body of the car. You will then run a single wire and your RCAs from the head unit back to the amp. From there, you are running your speaker wires from the amp out to the speakers as appropriate. I tend to run channel 1 as the driver's front, channel 2 as the passenger front, 3 as driver's rear, 4 as the passenger rear. The big thing to keep in mind with this is to make sure that the positive speaker output of the amp is connected to the positive on the applicable speaker. You start getting this mixed up, you will end up with a sound in the car that isn't what all you where thinking it was going to be.

let me know in more detail what you have in mind and I'm sure we can get you taken care of. I am in the middle of installing a sound system into my car and I am going separates all the way around, dual 12" subs in the trunk powered off of a 5 channel amp. I am using the factory radio to power all of this via a rig that I am making up (remember, I don't do things the easy way). It will be nice since I will be using pretty much all factory parts except for the short wires I'm adding between the radio plug and the line to RCA converter. I'm pulling the factory speaker wires out of the plug since I won't be using the factory speaker wiring anyways.

 

Thermo: You may not remember but you helped me on my 1998 Expedition (those were the days before the magazine made it bloated lol) with my stereo. So I'm pretty experienced but I'm not an installer but I know my way around enough (and a technical person anywho). I' m ok on the basics but this being the first car i've ever owned with a Fiber Network so I didn't know anything but fright since all the car shops i know frown when I pull up.

- No actually I tried testing all speakers fading and etc. Basically all tweeters fire (very high pitch and muddied) and as far as the mid speakers I'd assume they are cracked. Occasionally they play good but the sound goes up and down (I assume voltage dips and I even adjusted the setting for adjusting sound levels based on speed). They only way I get good sound is to pump the volume to 30ish. I barely hear the words even then even when adjusting bass/treble (no mids how stupid).

-ok I've heard rumors it throws an ODB code if you yank it out ;( nothing bad but throws a code none the less.


As far as my system design I'm gonna ebay front and rear speakers. Front being 2 or 3 way and rear being just 2 way. I will hook those 4 up to a amp. I think I'm going with Alpine all around this time so an alpine 4 channel doing 50w RMs x4 should do the job. Alpine has a 1000w amp which I'd like two 10's or 12's from alpine to do the job. Alpine Head unit primarily i'm a Iphone/Ipod user so I dont want/care for CDS or even Dvd's.
As far as power goes to keep the cost down I'm gonna do 4gauge Scoshe (fused) to both amps. I'd like to do 0 Gauge but i'm not sure it will fit in my small car lol.

I'm not sure if my altenator has the power to do anything lol it seems I keep an engine error code poping up (my battery appears to be the culprit).


I'll try to drill down exactly on what products i'm going to get so you can have a outlook on my project. since I finally payed my car off (yea!) its time to get her back running good since she is running CRAPPY! but even then i need my music i go crazy!

 

Kris, if you are having battery voltage issues, try replacing the negative battery cable between the battery and the body of the car (this will also replace the cable between the battery and the engine). That should solve your voltage issue.

ONce you get an idea of what you want to run, let me know.

 

Not sure if I'm going to do it today or maybe tomorrow. I'll take pics of my battery so you can see the nice corrosion. Also another problem popped up last night. My girlfriend pulled on my door too hard and the door panel came off (front passenger)

little fyi - the window doesn't work the regulator went bad. I'm scavenging 700.00 to replace/fix it. However I have the window taped on the outside (is it better to do it inside?) and my mechanic put in two window wedges so the glass wouldn't fall but in doing that the door is useless.

Now that the panel is off I can see the speaker etc but my main concern is fixing the door to get it back on the hinge if possible ( or rather the plastic connectors....another problem the screw holding the door....gone...any clue size for that part?

I reused a part from my old expo (since both are ford) and I don't think that worked good.

 

Kris, look in the local yards, you may find an X-Type sitting around. Otherwise, let me know and I will pass on a yard that is local to me that I know has 3 X-Types sitting in it. I'm sure one of them has the parts you need.

As for taping the window up, outside is much better than inside. But, keep in mind that you will want to use something to clean the glue off of the paint once you have fixed the window. This is where a tape that is similar to say electrical tape will work better than duct tape as it will leave less residue.

 

Yea I learned the hard way on that tape. I actually had to scrub it off nice 3 hours of my life. Pretty much only thing residue wise is on the actually inside and outside window. I use clear tape now to not draw so much attention to it.

 

Yea problem with out junkyards here is the lack of late model cars. I use to have issues with the expedition and couldn't find anything period @ the yards. Now if I had an F-150 then all my needs met lol.

Im gonna try to take pictures tomorrow of the engine bay, HUD (read idiot lights) and door panel so you can see what i'm working with.

 

Kris, take a look at a website called http://www.brandywineparts.com. They have a few different yards that specialize in various vehicles (one for trucks, one for european cars, etc). So, make sure you send the info to the correct yard. But, they should be able to help you out. They will even ship the item to you as I recall.

The other yard I would check out is http://www.waltandverns.com. I have personally used them and they will bend over backwards to get you the parts you need. I am just not sure if they would have a Jag on their lot or not. But, they may be also able to cross-reference the parts and have something that would work too.

 

I will check into those. I saw this guy posting stuff: http://www.gaudinjaguarparts.com