Installing ice in a touring

Post Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:52 pm

right fella's need some help.... im gonna be installing my new speakers in the week.. ive got pioneer fronts 13cm at 150w and pioneers 300w 6x9... i got some 6x9 boxes to house the speakers as there is nowhere to house decent speakers in a touring.. im going to be putting these behind the back seats powered by an amp.. the amp is only a shitty mosfet thing which is about 500w but its plenty cause its a very powerfull little unit.. thing is i wanna know the best way to install my amp to save on loads of wires running from the head unit. i also wanna power the fron speakers from an amp as the head unit seems to be under powering my speakers... the stereo pushes 50w a channel but the fronts are really distorted at high volume... any help would be great fellas, thanks

Post Sun Apr 02, 2006 8:56 pm

cheers

Post Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:22 pm

Twiggy,

You will need a power cable run to the amp (presuming your battery is under the bonnet?), a phono (rca) pair from the h/u to the amp and speaker wires running back to the front speakers (and to the rears obviousely!). You will also have to run a small remote (rem) cable from the h/u to the amp - gives it a small signal when the h/u is on which tells the amp to power on!
Amp will obviousely need to be earthed aswell - shorter cable the better!

Pro installers will run power, signal and speaker cables all seperately - I have run systems in E30's with the power cables down one side of the car and speaker/signal cables together on the other side, but it does add a risk of interference!

Also, it will be worth putting some dynamat (or similar) sound proofing behind the front speakers!

6x9's behind the rear seats i think will sound very muffled - i would've gone for a small sub in the back and just some good amp'd speakers up front!

Haven't done an install for a while but gotta brush up - i'm buying up loadsa gear to put in my touring!! Gonna have some expensive DLS 3 way fronts with 8" drivers in the doors (hopefully!), JL 13W7 sub in the back on the big JL 1000/1 amp, sony h/u with motorized screen, cd changer and minidisc changer - and maybe digital (freeview) tv!

Good luck!!

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:57 am

why cant i use the main power coming from the stereo? is it nessesary to run a main live from the battery? ive always used the main live from the back of the stereo and fused it? have i been doing it wrong then

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:22 am

I wouldn't ever split the main power lead that feeds the h/u!!

It's usually a pretty thin cable which is only designed to take the small current the h/u needs.

An amp normally draws a lot more current - even if it's not a big powerfull amp!

If you try and draw a big current through it, there is a chance it could get too hot and melt, etc - can be very dangerous!

Also, the better the power feed, the better your amp will perform!
Your earth cable also needs to be substantial - at least as good as the +ve feed.

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:52 am

best thing to do mate...

pop to halfords and get a 500w amp wiring kit its abot Ã‚£30 and has all the wires and instructions on how to fit.

what i normaly do is;

remove the drivers and passengers seats

run the power cable & remote cable down the drivers side

run speaker wires down the passenger side.

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:22 am

And run the RCA/phono cables down the center!

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:03 am

great stuff, thanks for all your help fella's

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:57 am

Twiggy this is what I did in my touring -

I put a ported twin bass box in the boot, screwed the amp onto the box so it becomes effectively one thing. Ran good quality speaker wires from amp to speakers - as the amp is bolted to speaker box only needed short lengths of wire. The speakers face downwards and the ports from the box face the rear of the car. 6X9s sound great and it may be worth haveing them face the rear of the car so the sound bounces around to give a good sound stage - maybe worth experiementing here.

Ran good quality wires -
one from battery positive to the amp- through the rubber grommet section behind the glove box through the bulk head. Chose to run the rca (phono) leads and 'remote-amp-switch-on-wire' from the head unit to the amp behind glove box and along side of car.

Ran all the wires along the passesnger side of the car by removing trim and eventually brought them out of the cubby hole where the first aid kit goes. (I don't get any interference from rca wires and power cables close together - I suppose because they are well insulated cables.)

I set up an earth lead on the bodywork as there is a screw you can use there inside cubby hole (sanded the paintwork off to bare metal around
screw hole to ensure a good earth on bodywork)- used a nice thick short cable.

It is then easy to remove bass box and amp all together if I need to load up the boot and just have to cover the live wire from the battery with tape or disconnect from battery and tuck wires back into cubby hole. East to swap to another car too (just addd wires).

I put bass filters (available from a good car hifi shop) on the rear speakers to stop them getting bass signal as these are tiny naff little things. Now they act as tweaters and don't distort when I turn up the volume.

Put component spearkers in front with tweaters on back of wing mirror trim (wires for that were there already and spliced into loom that goes through plug connection on door into grey and yellow wires - I think) - but wouldn't bother again with that as rear speakers are good enough. Your new front speakers will be good enough - I don't have the fronts amped up and don't think they need it. (Others do think it is worth amping the fronts but they are such small speakers - why bother?!)

Good luck - will make a big difference.

Post Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:54 pm

spot on mate, great write up.... ill let you know how it all pans out... ive installed the 6x9's today.. they are in mdf carpeted box's running just off the head unit for now untill the weekend, its already made a huge difference... weekend i shall be amping them up and puitting in a bass box.. again buddy great write up and thank you for your help! may actually do a boot build at the weekend

Post Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:44 pm

TW166Y wrote:spot on mate, great write up.... ill let you know how it all pans out... ive installed the 6x9's today.. they are in mdf carpeted box's running just off the head unit for now untill the weekend, its already made a huge difference... weekend i shall be amping them up and puitting in a bass box.. again buddy great write up and thank you for your help! may actually do a boot build at the weekend

just dont try to power the amp of the headunit power supply

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:36 am

m-dtech wrote:
TW166Y wrote:spot on mate, great write up.... ill let you know how it all pans out... ive installed the 6x9's today.. they are in mdf carpeted box's running just off the head unit for now untill the weekend, its already made a huge difference... weekend i shall be amping them up and puitting in a bass box.. again buddy great write up and thank you for your help! may actually do a boot build at the weekend
just dont try to power the amp of the headunit power supply

NO i wont.... i remember now the last time i did it... i only used the remote antenna wire from the head unit and ran a main supply from the battery... havnt wired one up since i was about 19.... my how the years creap up on you

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:56 pm

Probably telling you guys to suck eggs but when I did a system in my old car I fused the power lead to the amp, from the battery as close as i could. I think the fuse was only about an inch or so from the battery terminal, that way if it does surge for any reason it doesnt blow the amp or melt the cable

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:36 pm

^^^^
yes I've been thinking "Ah I didn't mention making sure there was a fuse on that thick power cable running from the battery..."

Anyway if you buy an installation kit it should come with one built into the power cable.

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:43 pm

thanks guys... i just cant justify spending Ã‚£30 on wire.....

fcuk it though looks like its the only way unless i can find a decent hardware shop

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:50 pm

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Boss-Audio-4AWG-C ... dZViewItem

cable by the metre sent to your door
get 5 meters just to be on the safe side

buying a kit is much easier though - too much? Ã‚£30? - you must be as skint as me!

Post Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:23 pm

mate i am...... got no job and when i spunk money on my car the mrs wants to know why which is understandable.... she says money should be spent on bills and all that crap

just gotta be carefull with pennies mate and i hate it like nothing else believe me.... looking for work at the moment and i cant wait to find a job for the simple reason of getting the mrs off my back!

Post Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:17 pm

build is in progress.... should be done by the weekend... i hope anyway... will post pics when done