Installing Sound System, any tips?

[maz]

last time i bought my sound system, i took it to a local shop that deals with them and they fitted it for me to my old car, it cost a few bob so i would like to try and save the pennys when fitting it to the R...so i was just wondering if you guys know of anything i need to watch out for while trying to fit it my self. ive reverse engineered it basicaly and have it all layed out on the floor with the wires going to where they all came from. will i be able to just put it all into the R without changing anything? or will i run into problems?

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product/products_id/1321.html

this is the kit i have, not top of the range but when set up correctly it sound pretty damn good.

thanks in advance chaps

/maz

 

[SickBoy]

have fun m8 !!!

Make sure you run the power lead for the amp down one side of the car and the audio lead from the head unit down the other !!!

Lee

 

[Andybtsn]

Hey,

Ditch the 6x9's, sell them on ebay.

The best setup you could of gone for without spending lots, are the JBL front components (17cm Speaker, tweetors and crossover) like you have, a JBL amp, and JBL sub, this would of saved ruining you're parcel shelf making 6x9's fit, and also would sound ALOT better.

Ask anyone in the know of ICE, 6x9's and Subs don't mix too well.

Just some advice to consider

 

[6Miester]

I changed all the the speaker cables in mine as the standard wires are really thin.
Also its a pain changing the front door speakers as you can't just take of the grille. The whole door card needs removing.
Any questions just ask as i have recently done this.

Don't ask me any technical ICE questions though-i only changed the 4 speakers and fitted a decent head unit. Not into subs and all that stuff.
Mongoose is all you need!

 

[Mr GTiR]

Ask anyone in the know of ICE, 6x9's and Subs don't mix too well.

The reason for this is that most people put the 6X9's on the rear parcel shelf and the sub (s) drown out the sound from the 6x9's.

Another alternative is to mount the 6x9's in the rear quarter panels (there is enough room as my amps are mounted in each panel - see pic's below) and use them for rear fill.

With reragrds to the sub and amp, will you show off the install at all or not bothered? If not bothered just sling them in the boot and mount the amp to the back seat. If you want an install here is one i made years ago and was simple to do.

The best thing about this install is that i could go to shows and leave the back seats down and have the car locked up and not worry about it.

As it's been mentioned make sure you run the power cable down one sill and the speaker wires down the opposite sill. Run the RCA and remote amp wire down the centre tunel and make sure that all three sets of wire do not touch and have the miminal contact as possible.

Here is my power cable for the install - 4 guage!

I take it your going to run 4 channels for the 6x9's and componets and the other 2 bridged to run the amp? If so the amp is going to struggle to power the amp. You should really have a seperate smp for the sub as it will have dedicated power to run it all day long. Just my 2pence worth.

Give me a shout if you need any more advice as my bro does installs and did all mine. Btw, he does not do install for a living, just in his spare time as he works in Bingo full time ;-)

 

[maz]

wow thanks for the response guys, lots of excellent advise. and im not to bothered about showing off the equipment as round here it would just get my windows broken and my stuff nicked.

thanks for the pictures aswell, Mr GitR they are always mega helpfull, i like the idea of putting the 6x9's in the rear quarter panel. that sounds very practical!

thanks guys.

 

[CruiseGTi-R]

Connect amps earth before connecting RCA from amp to hu. Classic way to blow your hu if you don't.

Connect power to amp as the last thing you do (with inline fuse no more than a foot from +ve terminal).,

Go to town on getting good earths - parts of the Pulsar chassis aren't brilliantly earthed so you'll end up with buzzing. Worth running hu earth to where battery is earthed. If your amp is in the boot you could run earth back to battery point, but easier to form earth locally (its what I did, but mine still buzzes a bit).

Protect your door speakers if you've removed the plastic sleeve - mine got rain all over em lol.

I cannot stress how much you don't need the 6x9's though. You really really really don't need them. It will sound much better without them (and poss save you money). Comps and sub on their own are perfect. It frees up more channels on your amp to bridge channels for more power and sound quality - also possible to run active crossovers if you've enough channels for even more control of your comps.

Give me a shout if any probs

Cheers, toby

(Andy - nice install)

 

[np-gtir]

ice

as the rest have said fella , just keep to front components which are quite good as ive heard some myself
and sub in the back , the sub will just interfere with the ovals too much and drown out the sound , as said above mate you really really dont need those rears !! as for putting them in the rear quarters i wouldnt bother with that either! as cruisegtir said just free up some more channels for better quality and power!!

good luck

 

[Andybtsn]

On another note, does anyone have problems securing the headunit itselft?

Where mine is placed, there is nothing at the side of it to secure it, nor can i push the pins down to the bottom because of the cup holders!

 

[maz]

so seems like everyone is advising against using the 6x9's then, will that not give me a lack of volume? as i like my music loud, but also with good quality. so would i be sacraficing one for the other by leaving the 6x9's out?

hmm its totally confused me, cos i thought 6x9's was were all the goodness came from

 

[CruiseGTi-R]

6x9's try to do too much on their own. They try to replicate bass, mid bass and higher end, but all in one speaker assembly, and without a good enough way of sending each bit of the 6x9 the correct frequency range.

Component speakers have seperate mid-bass and tweeters, with a designated crossover box for each side to assign the correct frequencies.

Your woofer then fills in the low end frequencies. Together they'll give you the whole frequency range needed and all the volume you need.

If you really want massive volume make sure your comps have high enough RMS rating and your amp is up to the job RMS-wise too.

Its nice to have an amp with lots of 'headroom' - such that its RMS rating is higher than that of the comps. This way the amp won't run out of steam when you crank the volume.


Fun innit?