My two cents: 1) Why are you getting two 5 channel amps? That amp would be plenty for a system by itself, but if you want two, I'd suggest the PDX-M6 and the PDX-F4, but that only gets you a bit more power than the one amp PDX-V9. 2) Two 12" subs is a lot of boom in a Z32. If that's what you want, cool, but one 12" will give you much more balanced sound. Some 1990 Bose rear boxes will be a great foundation for midbass, while non-Bose front brackets will fit and seal most 6.5" drivers. I'd suggest running the rear channels band-passed, somewhere between 90Hz and 4kHz. That'll keep the soundstage in front of you with the front channels running 90hz up to 20kHz. 3) Capacitors are a waste of money, focus on a good electrical foundation. Good grounding and a healthy alternator harness. 4) As far as interconnects, Monster XLN Pro are some excellent interconnects, Stinger also makes some decent stuff. Speaker wire you can get away with 16 AWG on the 4 main channels, 10 or 12 AWG on the sub channel. 5) If using components up front (highly recommended), be sure to locate the crossover as close to the drivers as possible.
Aazn will be the person to talk to. Most late model Head Units will have 6-channel RCA output. Get some quality RCA leads to run from head unit to your amplifiers. 3 sets in total (fronts, rears and subs).... unless of course you're running a 7.2 Channel DVD player If youre using component front speakers, there is ample room inside the door trim, possibly even within Bose speaker enclosures for the crossover. This I have done with both of mine, but sizing will differ. Overkill with amp feed wire isnt necessarily better. Most amplifier supply terminals will limit your cable sizing. Establish your demand, in watts, and then you can work out your current. Power(Watts) = I/Current (Amps) x Voltage (12v) Important to remember- *Its pointless having a sizeable power cable, then a pissant earth to your amplifiers. *Fuse it as close as possible to the battery. This is where OEM battery boxes come in handy. Turn them upside down, and you have a nice flat surface directly adjacent to your battery to mount any fuses etc. *Segregate/separate your power and audio cabling, to eliminate induced voltage/ noise through your system. You can get shielded RCA leads that require earthing at ONE end, not seen this in normal auto speaker cabling. .... and for the love of god, dont use a farking hammer to crimp anything. A poor connection= resistance= heat= increased resistance= phail
I mis-read your signal path. Thought you had 4 of those total, so I was confused. Ideally, you want those as close to the drivers as possible, to reduce total wire length.
I just had a look at JBhifi...they have kicker, sony & cadence amp install kits...they come in 4 guage & 8 guage...which one should i be getting? @BigTDogg - i chose 2 of the V9 amps as i wanted one to run both subs & the other to run the speakers. I would love to have some bose boxes all around but they are hard to come by around here...if you can get a set, feel free to let me know what do you mean by interconnects? As mentioned I'm not very savvy with all the audio stuff lol...what is the need for a crossover? Same with components...they the front speakers? @OZX_320 - thanks for that. I knew there was somebody local that did it but couldnt remember who...ill see if he chimes in on the thread if not ill get in touch with him I'm very confused with all the different parts needed for all this lol... Let me get this right...i should get a amplifier wiring kit - 4 guage or 8 guage? I should get a crossover - how many for my setup? Plus around 50m of generic speaker cable...anything else i should be getting? Thanks to everybody for all the help...its good to get some proper replies & answers. Abraham
If I am correct you have got 2xtype x 12" subs - My set up http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312314 I don't know if you remember my set up - but I ran 0gauge to a distribution block where I ran a 4gauge to my 4ch amp 0gauge to my mono block running my 2x10" subs There is a lot of potential wattage from your sub and speaker selection just mAke sure you set it up appropriately to take advantage of the sound quality Dynamat is a good start- I have 4 sheets left out of 9 when I did my car
Procky that is correct...i will be running 2 Type X 12" subs. I'm not doing this cheap...the way i see it...do it once, do it right. I do want what i pay for & hence why I'm hoping it gives me a very good sound quality...plus the v9 amps are the best ones from alpine i could find. The v9 amps are both 4 channel & mono according to its specs...so which guage wiring should i be getting? So you used 0 guage for your power? Would using the distribution board affect the quality at all? What is the benefit of using a distribution board? I do remember seeing yours & that is when i decided the type of setup I'm using Where did you source your Dynamat? Does the brand matter or are they all the same? Abraham
I got my dynamat from the states , has me foose on it lol. And the distribution block just allows you a switch board to change power wire gauge or turn one into 2,3 etc power wires for different amplifiers .
Lol ill have a look & see what i can find on dynamat. As for the distribution board ill see if it would help with my setup & get one if i do. Abraham
Lol...well you need spend the money to pull the bitches I'm actually able to get the parts at a discount so will be saving a bit when compared to retail price so I'm quite happy with that. Abraham
Listen to OZX_320 advice as there are some good gems in there. Particularly the good quality RCA feeds from the head unit. Doesn't matter if you have the best amps and speakers in the world. It can be let down with shoddy line signal and interferance with cheap RCA feeds from the head unit. Sound system are mainly about minimising the losses eg power, speaker efficency. Rule of thumb- the smaller the diameter of the wire the more resistance. (power and speaker) A car cabin is the worst environment to get excellent sound. What are your aims: good sound, loud clear sound, competition sound offs, massive bass. Capacitors are used to stop amplifer "clipping" at full power. Clipping is where an amplifier runs out of steam (limited amps from the battery) on the peak of the bass signal and the top of the sine wave is flattened across the top. You will hear this as distortion. This effectivly becomes a DC feed to the speaker. This DC feed heats up the voice coil and blisters causing a scratchy sound or burns out the voice coil. Clipping also stresses the final amplifer transistors shortening their life. In short capacitors are not a "waste" if you run full volume with heavy bass. A 2 farad should be ample if your wanting to go in that direction. If normal listening then not required.
IMO this is what a typical basic setup should consist of: Good front speakers An amp Small Sub Head unit Wiring That will give you a basic-midrange improvement on a stock setup...depends wether you want quality or sacrifice quality for massive bass... Realistically some 8 gauge wire with in line fuse, will be enough to power a 4 channel 600watt amp which is what I have...then running the front speakers amped off that and bridging channels for the subwoofer... My setup is minimal while maximizing sound quality...couple of great front speakers, 4 channel amp and a slimeline sub... Rear speakers are a waste of time if your driving you'll only be listening to the fronts anyway! And lastly a good head unit with quality EQ control and at least 2 RCA out puts Get a good wiring kit speakers, amp, sub, headunit and you'll be satisfied I reckon...look around at JBL, JL audio, soundstream, alpine (as mentioned) and to a lesser degree pioneer for some entry-mid range level systems, then big bucks and big end in Focal, boston and to a lesser degree Rockford Fosgate Oh and generally speaking I'd avoid JB hi-fi they are over priced and sell average quality items at best...look at a specialist supplier or local sound system installer for reccomendations on brand quality and prices
Not really I used mongoose sound deadening instead of dynamat much cheaper and was able to reduce noise of after market fuel pump from ear bleeding levels to non existent. Although there is a new dynamat that is apparently 1/3 the weight of the other stuff if that matters which it should.
Do you mean the Dynamat SuperLite? 30% thinner and lighter, approx 2mm thick. Dynamat SuperLite is 3/64" compared to Dynamat Xtreme which is 1/16" http://www.dynamat.com/download/auto/2040_Auto_Brochure_Standard.pdf
Interconnects = your RCA cables. You need at least 2 pairs (for front and rear left and right) and likely will have a 3rd pair for sub channel. To do what you're describing, you only need one 5 channel amp. CH1 = Left Front CH2 = Right Front CH3 = Right Rear CH4 = Left Rear CH5 = Subs (wired in parallel) 500WRMS is plenty for a sub channel. Components speakers look like this: There's a separate woofer and tweeter, with a crossover between, sending the high frequency signals to the tweeter, and the mid-low frequencies to the woofer. So your signal from the channel 1 output would go from the amp (in the form of speaker wire) to the crossover, then two separate pairs of speaker wire to the tweeter and the woofer. Regular (coaxial) speakers look like this: Basically, coaxials are cheaper and easier to install. Components sound better, are slightly more complicated to install, and require more power than an equivalent coaxial. Oh, and IMHO, for a great value brand speaker, check out Hybrid Audio Technologies. They make great stuff, even their entry level stuff is better than entry or mid level Alpine. Bose boxes, check classifieds. On all forums. If I had a set, I'd ship them to Australia if you covered the shipping costs, as I'm sure many sellers would. 2+0 and 2+2 boxes are different, and 1990 was the only year with the 6.5" in the back. The non-Bose front brackets only fit 6.5" drivers, not oversized 6.5" or 6.75". The Bose rear boxes fit both. As for the dynamat, don't go nuts. All you really need to do is hit the sheet metal in the hatch. The outside stuff. The interior stuff has dampener already sprayed on it, and you'll get diminishing returns for added effort, cost and weight. Put a good layer on the outer door skin (from the inside, obviously), but don't worry too much about the inner door panel. Dynamat isn't about coverage, it's about dampening and reducing the resonances of panels in the car. Here's a link for good noise control in the doors: Works like a charm
Just a quick run down.. The type-x subs are old stock. Alpine will be bringing out a new one soon. Quick run down on how subs work. Subs move back and forth to make bass.. The more the sub moves the more noise (bass) they make.. So here we are looking for something called xmax. Xmax - how far a sub moves in 1 direction without loosing any sound quality. So say a sub has a xmax of 15mm then it moves 15mm up and 15mm down so you get 30mm of sub movement. Then you have sensitivity. Sensitivity - how efficient the sub is. So it means if you have a very high sensitivity cone. You can put less power through it and it would be louder then a normal sensitivity sub. That's just the basics. But that's all you need for now. The current type-r are just as good as the x's..... This is why. Type-r 20mm of xmax (40mm peak to peak) 85db of sensitivity 72mm Mechanical excursion (how far the sub can safely move without damaging itself) Type-x 19mm of xmax (38mm peak to peak) 84db of sensitivity 75mm Mechanical excursion (how far the sub can safely move without damaging itself) So that's why go the r...
ARGH had a big post written up on here and lost it... will summarize everything. fkn backspace on my laptop. amps your running 2 5 chan amps as mentioned above. 100w per channel and 500w to subs. 100w to speakers is very good. 500w to subs not enough. as those subs can take like 1000watts each. this is where it gets a little confusing. if you use 2 5chan amps. where is the speaker outputs for the speaker side going to go if your only going to be running sub chan. if you dont use it then your amp is going to heat up unevenly and damage itself over time. better off running a mono and a 4 chan. all the alpine range have a big mono that puts out over 1000w. look into any of them speaker amp. i dont like alpines new range as they have moved to class-d amps, class-d is more efficient but less quality (originally from sub amps) alpine commented saying something around the lines of "people dont care about quality anymore. every has move onto mp3's and cheap downloaded music, why should we make an amp that does not benefit" so their still good amps dont get me wrong. but if your building a sound quality car. alpine amps are NOT the way to go. sub amps GREAT! but speakers not so good... wiring amp you will be running close to 150Amps of current (power drawn form battery/alt when cranking) according to maths. you will need a minimum of 2GA cables.. i would say 0 to be safe. its not that much more.. and i do have a whole coil sitting in my garage. speakers all speaker cables do the same thing. people will argue with me.. i am running 150wrms though my stock wires and i dont see a problem. been like that for almost a year and not 1 problem. just go but a whole coil and use that, i would say go to selby acoustics in hallam and pick up a coil off them www.selbyacoustics.com.au RCA's stinger do a 6 chan kit to make your life easy. SI4617 (17 feet) SI4620 (20 feet) easy to run and still good quality. sound deadening yes dynamatt is the shiz. people use cheaper things but to be honest doesnt work as well.. i didnt go crazy with it like some people have. i did the back of my speakers (where the door panel was) this stops vibrations and gave me a much better sound. then around the mounting point of the speakers. you can lay it around the boot and stop vibrations as vibrations is things moving and absorbing the bass (energy) so if there is less things vibrating you get MOAR loud.
