Honda Accord

Q I have just installed a second Alpine F-300 V12 4 channel amp in my car. I am running the front one bridged into two channels. Each channel has a MB Quart 6.5 mid with the bridged tweeter (a couple years old). Plus I have installed the factory Honda Accord 1.5" tweets (parallel before the MB quart crossover) in my dash for center fill. I have them capped off and they work well, but (you knew that was coming) my amp heats up real fast (2-3 min. of hard running). What do you think? I tested the speaker line and the multimeter read that I have 3.5 ohms resistance. The amp is supposed to be run at 4 ohms bridged; would it make that much of a difference? I am also running (2) coaxial 4-ohm Kenwood 6 x 9's and (2) 1-inch Infinity reference tweets (through the reference x-over) in the rear off of the other amp. That one heats up too, but not as bad. I get close to the same reading off of those. Can you give me some pointers?Well, I hope you can help, thanks.DevlinVia the Internet

Don't worry about a measurement of 3.5 ohms. What you were measuring was the DC resistance of the length of fine copper wire that makes up the voice coil. When a speaker is operating, it varies wildly and overall exhibits a nominal 4 ohms. To measure that requires an impedance meter or some other piece of specialized equipment.

Every amplifier will exhibit different thermal characteristics based on its design and on the load it is driving, as well as other considerations (like the installation). Some amplifiers are notorious for running hot and performing well, while others run quite cool. The big question is, "Does the amplifier shut down by going into protection mode?" If not, then the amp is happy and hot. Just keep air circulating past the amp and it should give you great performance.

Q I have a '96 Jeep Cherokee Sport. I still have the factory-installed stereo in it and am looking for a better, customized stereo to buy. Also, I have a Nomad Jukebox MP3 player, so I want the stereo to be able to play MP3s, not just regular audio CDs. Where can I go to get such a stereo installed? Is a local car stereo store or a national store/Web site better? Which products do you recommend, including bass and actual car speaker products? Keep in mind that I am only a senior in high school and cannot afford too much from my part-time job.Thanks.BrianVia the Internet

You have several options available to you. The simplest option is to choose one of the growing numbers of head units that can play MP3 CD's such as the Kenwood Excellon Z828 that comes as original equipment on the Mazda MP3 Protg. This requires that you burn your own CD's, but you likely do that anyway. Another option is to select a head unit that has an auxiliary input that will accept the output from the Nomad.

Any mobile electronics specialist shop will be able to perform the installation in your Jeep. By utilizing a local specialist, you will be able to directly capitalize on the expertise of a technician that has the ability to interface the Nomad to the head unit and design a sensible, cost effective system that will give you the most boom for the lowest buck.

Q Do you know where I can find an RCA video signal amplifier? I'm trying to connect my computer to the Pioneer AVX-P7000CD & AVM-P9000R combo. The quality of the image is not very good. Or, are there any converters that go directly from the Pioneer's RGB Input to the computer's VGA output?Thank you,Stefan BotezVia the Internet