Do all car stereos have inbuilt amps?

[amazon196969]

Hi there
excuse me for being uneducated in this area.. I am in the process of buying a new CD stereo for my ice cream van and don't know if car stereos all come with inbuilt amplifiers!!!
I assume they do but MMM me just female tryin to do it all and feeling like I'm asking a realy dumb question!!!
If they don't all come with amps how do I tell if I have one with an amp?

[Sonusthree]

Hi,

It's VERY VERY rare to find car stereos (also called head units) without in built amplifiers. Car stereos without power amplifiers are specialist items.

Most new 'car stereos' have four channels since most cars have four speakers.

You would usually find about 40 - 45 Watts per channel.

If you like .........

You can add an external/separate amplifier to your 'car stereo' if it has 'pre-outs'. This could then produce some deafening sound levels if that is your thing. You'd also need powerful speakers to handle the higher levels.

These are just generalisations but I hope I've answered your question.

Regards,
Martin.

[I Am An Idiot]

If it has speaker wires, it has a built in amplifier.

[anatech]

Hi Martin,

You would usually find about 40 - 45 Watts per channel.

In real life, this means about 12 wrms per channel. The excessive heat from all out running can cause these to mistrack on CD's or shut down. They get hot.

Hi amazon196969,
Interesting handle you have there. No comment.

How much power do you think you need, or what speakers do you have and how loud do you want them to go?

-Chris

[amazon196969]

Thanks everyone for the info.

Hi Chris

I need to project the sound from stereo currently cassette stereo(trying for CD/MP3) through a 4 ohm horn speaker thingy (you know the ones usually on ice cream vans) i'm sure they're in your countries too!!!
My handle is a nick name I pick up everywhere I venture the numbers are relivant to my year of birth! MMM perhaps others use this number for other reasons I have just been blessed being born in this year!!!

Kylie

[anatech]

Hi Kylie,
Well, it's a pleasure to have you around. Welcome to DiyAudio!

I would recommend a separate power amplifier. You may want to use more than 1 horn at a lower power as well. That way it isn't as screechy and annoying as the ones we have here! If you used four (4) horns arranged to front on angles and two rearward on angles, your coverage would be better and you could turn it down some. Just a thought.

For sure you need a real amplifier. I normally try to run PA systems at no more than a 70 ~ 80 % load. Therefore a 40 to 50 wrms amplifier will do nicely. I am thinking of it lasting as well as getting you the power you want. It is possible that you could do with an actual 30 wrms amplifer of a good quality.

The reason for my comments is the reality of running an amplifier off a 13 VDC supply. To get the power you need, the voltage muct be increased and real amplifiers do that with a power invertor. So supplies in the range of +/- 22 VDC to about +/- 30 VDC are required for your application. I mention this because most car amplifier power ratings are pure fable. Some of the older power amplifiers may be better than a new one.

-Chris

P.S. My wife has been called "the Amazon woman" by a few people. She is tall and solidly built.

[vizion]

What is the typical voltage output AC (at the speaker terminals) of Honda car stereos with integrated amps ?

[warpedhifi]

Back in the 90's you could get an aka "tuner" stereo's that just had pre-amp outputs only. The Alpine I used back in the 90's was just a tuner and not a receiver. This day and age, as far as I know nearly all stereos are receivers, which have built in amps. BUT, most companies have an option to turn off the internal amp if you are using pre-amps, to help cut down on heat. Anatech has given you some good info on PA systems.