The amplifier is one part of your car stereo system that will rarely be seen, but always will be heard. The amplifier plays a vital role in your audio system—the amplifier takes a weak signal and adds enough energy to it so that you can power your speakers, and thereby make the audio loud enough that you can hear it. Given that amplifiers add energy, the louder you want your music, the more energy you need to add.
Car stereo Amplifiers are typically rated in watts per channel, a specification that indicates how much power they can deliver. The more channels you have, the more powerful your amplifier must be—a simple 10 watt per channel amp has to supply 20 watts for a stereo system, but 50 watts for a five channel audio system.
The best amplifiers for car stereo rarely are included with any but the most expensive cars by the manufacturer. If you are the sort of person who sees your car as a way to get from point A to point B, but really cares about the music you’re listening to, then you are probably going to have to add your car stereo after you buy the car. While some manufacturers, such as Honda and Ford, sometimes include subwoofers as a premium option, they aren’t real subwoofers. They are plastic boxes with highly efficient but ordinary loudspeakers powered by a measly ten-watt amp. For someone who cares about audio, this just won’t do.
Human hearing goes from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, typically (although as you get older you’ll lose a lot of the high frequency hearing). The lower bass notes are more felt than heard. The only way to get deep, powerful bass, especially bass below 30Hz, is to move a lot of air. A real subwoofer has a sturdy driver that can move a lot of air. This requires a lot of power, typically at least 100 watts. Subwoofer amplifiers are separate from the main amplifiers in your car, as bass requires substantially more energy to recreate properly than midrange or treble audio.
If you have a home theater system in your car to keep the kids amused, or if you are an audiophile who prefers high resolution audio formats like SACD and DVD Audio, you will want to equip your car with an amplifier that can handle surround sound rather than just stereo. After all, you’ll probably have speakers in the back of the car anyway, and if you like strong bass you’ll have a subwoofer. High definition audio formats require 5.1 sound capability actually. he 5.1 format indicates by the name 5.1 the number of discrete (separate) channels it allows. For example, 5.1 sound has to one center channel, a left and right channel, and two surround speakers and a subwoofer (the .1 part). Incidentally, you need at least two loudspeakers to create the illusion of sound having any direction other than from the speaker itself.
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