Hi everyone. A few questions. First, I have a 95 convertible. Earlier this year I removed the Bose unit and installed a Pioneer dxt-x4869bt head unit, it was a package deal with two 6.5 and two 6x9s. Made new speaker enclosures out of mdf and ran new wires. All works well, it's just not very powerful. I've never put another head unit or a sub in any car I've ever owned, so I'm really a rookie at this.
I picked up two new in the box Boss amps and and an 8" Boss sub.
The amps are ar1600.4 1600 watt 4 channel bridge able and r3002 600 watt 2 channel amp.
And a cx8 400 watt 4 ohm sub.
I have everything to do the install, as far as wire and all. I was going to build an enclosure to put the sub in the rear passenger storage compartment.
Ok, the questions. The info sheet that came with the big amp shows a diagram for running four speakers and a sub using just the one amp. Should I go that route? Or should I use the smaller amp as a dedicated sub amp? And if I do that, do I bridge the output to the sub or just use one channel?
If I use two amps, The head unit has two sets of low outs, rear or sub and front. How would I get the signal to the sub? Would I use an rca splitter and come off of the rear output to the sub amp?
I don't want ear splitting sound, just don't want to have turn up the sound until it distorts because the head unit is under powered.
This is the last thing before I start prepping my car for paint, I'm not gonna install this this week, but in the next few weeks and would like to have a sound gameplan and any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I would use both amps. Use the 4-ch for fronts and rears, then bridge the 2-ch for the sub.

Personally I would split the front signal at the big amp to supply fronts and rears, the just use gain settings on amp to balance front/rear volume. Then use rear/sub RCA's for the sub amp. That way you have control of the sub from the HU.