Touring ICE Cabling etc

[bigpimpin]

OK ICE experts, I'm changing the carpets in the touring and want to lay out my ICE cables at the same time.

I plan a modest install comprising:
- MP3 head
- Decent 2 or 3 Channel Amp
- Front components in original locations (kick panel and door pod tweeters)
- Rear 2 or 3 way speakers built into original locations (?)
- 1 Sub, possibly built into a box where the "cubpoards" are in the back or maybe a box behind the back seats.

Does this setup sound OK?
What guage of cable do I run to power the amp? and is it direct off the battery?
If I go for a 3 channel, 1 to the fronts, 1 to the backs and 1 to the sub?

Its been bloody ages since i've done this, just wondering what you guys think.

[Lee_Coupe]

Sounds good mate,

Im afraid I cant help much as my I.C.E skills are as basic as One sub, one amp, comps. lol

Would be good to get some ideas tho

[ed325i]

I would use 3 amps one for the fronts one for the backs and a big mono amp for the sub.

ED

[dips346]

[quote=

If I go for a 3 channel, 1 to the fronts, 1 to the backs and 1 to the sub?

Its been bloody ages since i've done this, just wondering what you guys think. [/quote]

best to use 4awg power spliting to 8 awg to amps through a fuse split box
and amps it would be better to use a 4 channel for the full range and a amp for the bass as this way you have control over the gain and amp is not over worked or go for a decent 5 channel amp <dont forget each channel is to a speaker not the PAIR as you will blow your full range if you put a pair to one channel>
hope this helps

[m-dtech]

you need a chan per speaker.

so an ideal set up would be.....

4 chan amp
(2 chan for front, 2 chan for rear)

2 chan amp or 1 ch mono amp for sub(s)


id go for infinity speakers up front & rear.

dont need 6x9s in a touring as there is plenty of air space for the bass to travel (no parcel shelf in the way)

bass will be awesome !

[placey]

bigpimpin

what's your budget? where is your battery located right now? what results are you looking for - sound quality or presure level? what kit do you have already and are intending to utilise as part of this install? how useful are you at installing? how much boot space are you prepared to sacrifice? what level of stealth/security is required? (considering where you live and where you leave your car) how many hours are you prepared to put in sourcing kit and then installing it?

if you answer these we can give a more considered response. (hopefully)

paul

[kam325itouring]

yo

I own a ICE shop, and i have done my tourer pics not comming out till whole car is finished...... sorry.

But what you should do is:

13cm components in the front

if you can get hold of them 10cm components for the rear

spend your money on a good headunit dont buy cheap shit!!!

Amp the fronts and the sub with a good four channel amp(ch1/2 for the front and bridge 3/4 for the sub or use two amps one for fronts one for sub.

dont bother amping rears not worth it!

a Bit of advice if your running cables fresh again use good stuff and use 4awg power and earth.

You can make i nice amp rack on the left panel (jack side)

and you can make a nice sub box on the other side for a 10" or 12" sub box size no less than .8cuft

hope this is any help dude!!!

[dark_sounds]

tbh,,, forget the rears all together if u dont have many passengers,,,, if i were you id answer placeys questions as he took it out of my mouth.

also out of interest, what kind of power are you running? u can get away with running 4awg down a hole already present, however any larger and you wont be able to,

so if your current draw is over 200ish, then id contemplate running 0 awg, (which will require drilling a hole in bulk head) and will also mean potentially running a second battery to help it.. though i dont think by the sounds of things youll need to be doing this.. again we need makes and models of gear.. and id save money and scrap the rear components ;) if there must be some rear fill, any old co axils run of the headunit is fine

[kam325itouring]

About the rear components i got a set in mine trust me it makes a difference, i could tell straight away. if you dont want to do that just dash some tweeters behind the grill. if you pop the rear grill off, there is a space there in the original bmw pod. the rears are just there for rear fill...

[bigpimpin]

Ok, here goes, All I have at the moment is a pair of infinitys for the front kick panels and nokia? tweeters in the pods.

Battery is in the front.

I just want a pretty basic system, dont want any over the top install.

I did think of hiding the amp in one side and the sub in the other.

I want decent quality gear, Head unit, amp(s) sub, front and rears but I may may replace the front stuff that I have.

I will pretty much be riding solo in the car 90% of the time if thats any help.

[placey]

bigpimpin

some questions answered so some info that hopefully you'll find helpful:

what size are the infinity spealers for the fronts? most likely they'll be 5 1/4. if you can possibly get 6 1/2s in there then do it, the difference is well worth the effort. if not then install them carefully using an mdf ring and some dynamat for best results. with regards tweeters it's well worth extending their wiring and trying them in various places in temporary mode - they may or may not sound best in your mirror pods but can be mounted prettty much anywhere. it doesn't take long to experiment with different locations with a piece of gaffer tape or two but the difference can be profound. listen for soundstage, imaging and balance between the two sides and decide where's best. it varies from tweeter to tweeter and listener to listener.

battery in the front so i suggest you run some 4-gauage cable through your baulkhead and down the drivers side sill to your amp location. it'll run pretty much any single amp you fit now and will take upgrades later without having to pull it out (unless you embark on an amp buying frenzy.) fuse your cable at both ends.

basic system - 2 amps is good - one for speakers and another for bass. don't bother asking your head unit to run any speakers it's just not worth it. if you need to know why then spend some time researching this - it'll be time well spent with an interesting learning curve.

amp one side opposite a sub is good - simple and clean. do you know how to achieve this?

'decent quality' is very vague. how much time are you willing to spend sourcing kit? if you budget 120 - 130 notes and some time you can pick up a used nakamichi cd400 head unit from ebay - quality kit indeed. it won't like computer disks however, if this is an issue stick with a more mainstream brand, e.g. alpine but the quality won't quite be there. (it'll still be very reasonable though)

sound quality comes from your front speakers in terms of stereo imagery, soundstage and detail so spend as much time and effort here as possible. add some bass from the back and you'll be away. rear speakers are rear fill only and, as such, less important to front seat passengers but not to be dismissed.

whatever you end up doing be sure to invest in at least one roll of dynamat and apply it carefully to wherever you end up fitting speakers. you'll not regret it.

hth - paul

[kam325itouring]

yo bigpimpin email me, i can send you pics what ive done to my car(cant get the pics on the site at the moment) , basically this is the set in my car is:

focal polyglass 13cm components in front in fiberglass kickpanel builds

lanzar tweeters in the rear, standard blaupunkt 10cm mids

alpine mp3 headunit

JL 12" W3v2 in custom made box in the right hand cubbie

Directed 1.2f power cap in left side cubbie, 4awg power used throughout.

Directed D1200 running sub, Directed A802 running front components both on custom amp rack on the left side.

the boot and front kickpanels sound deadend.

believe me it sounds awesome!! it out plays some cars that i have done with 2 x 12" subs!!!!!! but your car is a tourer so a 12" is all you need!!

[bigpimpin]

Kam, you can send pics to sandydonald@hotmail.com.
Cheers.

so, from the advice given above I need:
4guage power to the amp(s)
which I want to locate in one of the rear compartments.
Good Mids in kick panels (13cm) tweeters in the door pods.
12" Sub in the other rear compartment.
Amps, either 1x2 channel & 1x mono for sub or
1x3 channel.

Oh yeah, and a head unit !

I'm not a ICE fanatic and want to keep it stealthy, hence the factory locations to hide the speakers, I just want a half decent sounding system to let the hip hop flow!

[kam325itouring]

will do dude!!! just got to take decent pics tonight with my didgi camera, not a shitty camera phone!!!! soon you will be banging those tunes! cos everyone knows the e30 tourer is the best car out all the e30s to do sounds in!!!!

[miniblob]

As for the layout of the cables (don't think anyone's commented yet) - been a while but i think the best way is to lay the power cables down one side of the car, speaker cables down the other side and RCA's (phono leads) down the middle.

I'm sure someone will correct me if they're the wrong way round!!

[kam325itouring]

the way i did mine is:

ran power accross the engine bay down the pssenger side. cos my amps are all that side.

all the speaker wires, rca's, remote, and lead for my bass controller all down centre of the car, cos sometimes the rcas pick up interferance from the ecu on e30s, on 2.5s there is one passenger side and drivers side!! and i found running the cables down the centre is easier and gives you more cable to play with in the boot.

[placey]

the accepted advice is to run power cables down the drivers side sill - handy as front mounted batteries are that side too. signal cables down the passengers side (along with the car's loom) and speaker cables down the centre.

a decent earthing point in the boot should be easy enough to find - as close to your amp(s) as possible ideally. you'll then be very unlikely to experience earth loop problems.

it's not usual to experience interference problems due to cable routing these days so variations on the above should work well enough as it seems kam has proved.

note i only advise and never tell anyone what to do - but here's an exception - make sure you fuse your power cable at each end. the battery end protects your car and your amp end protects your amp(s).

paul

[kam325itouring]

bigpimpin i sent you the pics. let me know what you think dude.

[dark_sounds]

if youve got half decent cabling, (double shielded atleast) youll generally find that running speaker wire with the rca wont be a problem.

personally i have ran the RCA down the middle in order to shorten length and keep headunit signal voltage higher and thus less loss in signal, by the time it reaches the amp.

once youve got the cabling laid out before you put everything together d oa test run, and see how it is, if no good, then change around.

[kam325itouring]

bigpimpin did you get my pics????

[bigpimpin]

Kam, just back from a heavy weekend, I'll check them tomorrow.

Cheers.

[dark_sounds]

i dont my wiring today,, everything,,, wiring in a e30 is very very easy indeed. itslike they thought of people like us when designing it!

should have taken pics.. but yuou wont have any troubles