Few more questions about audio.

[90civicGL]

So as some of you know, I picked up an Alpine MRP-M1000 amp and x2 4 ohm SWS-1243D subs.

Head unit wise I am pretty set on the Pioneer DEH-4450BT

With the speakers I'm after something cheap and effective. I am looking at the

6.5" Sony SW-GTX1641 front, How much benefit does having the splits have? Cause coaxial just seems way easier. (have a 2" mounting depth which is fairly good I think)

5.25" Sony SW-GTF1326.

So the reviews Ive read of the sony speakers is the highs and mids are great, and the bass is just mediocre, but having subs I don't mind that, I'm mainly after mid and high in my speakers.

So with the Headunit, speakers, amp and subs mentioned above, would they make a balanced decent sounding reasonably cheap setup?

This brings me to my next question, I can figure what speaker sizes I can fit in the 1990 ED civic hatch. Every place I find is just all arguing that it is 6.5" front and rear, then others say only 5.25's will fit front rear, others 6.5 front and 5.25 rear.

I don't mind having to clip away a little bit of plastic to let the magnet fit, but I don't want it scraping against the window/glass or to have to do any major custom work, and I want the stock grill covers to go back on without modification.

And wiring wise I will need to buy an adapter harness for the head unit correct?

What would be a rough estimate of length of cable I would need to wire up headunit, speakers front and rear, amp and subs. Subs are in back, and would try get amp under passenger seat.

I guessed.

3 meters for REMOTE ??? ga wire.
1 meter for GROUND 8 ga wire
4 meters for POWER 8 ga wire
25 meters for SPEAKER 12 ga wire.
3 meter for BIG 3 upgrade 0 ga wire.

And I have no clue what ga wire has been used inside the sub box to connect the subs to the terminals on the box and so on.

Thank you guys.

[trism]

Dont worry about rear speakers. You sit in the front, cater for yourself. Its just wasted money and time fitting rear speakers.

Fronts will take a 6.5" easily.

Id get a cheap 2 channel amp for the front speakers as well. Its amazing the difference it makes. I can sell you one for 50 bucks.

As for wiring, just go get yourself a prepacked amp wiring kit from a car parts store, Aerpro is fine.

[90civicGL]

Dont worry about rear speakers. You sit in the front, cater for yourself. Its just wasted money and time fitting rear speakers.

Fronts will take a 6.5" easily.

Id get a cheap 2 channel amp for the front speakers as well. Its amazing the difference it makes. I can sell you one for 50 bucks.

As for wiring, just go get yourself a prepacked amp wiring kit from a car parts store, Aerpro is fine.

I think it would bug me not having speakers in the rear, I know im in the front, but surly having another whole lot of sound 1 meter away from you, with the speakers facing you makes a noticeable difference. Looking at 2 ch amps, seems like 100w at 4ohms seems standard for a lot of the cheaper ones. Would this be fine for speakers rated at 75w rms 40hms?

Also is it only the amp that needs to be connected to the positive on the battery? Speakers get power through headunit, which gets power through the wiring harness correct?

[trism]

when you go see a band, or go to a music festival, or anything like that, where does the music come from? infront of you, not from behind you, or all around you.

Seriously, sound coming from behind you doesnt matter.

As for amps, it doest matter that the amp is more powerful that what the speakers can handle. In fact its better. It means the gains can be turned down nice and low, and you wont overwork the amp.

And yes, only the amp is connected directly to the battery. The speakers dont need a power supply, they receive the signal from eeither the amp or the headunit.

[90civicGL]

Good point, but I still think it would bug me not having speakers in the back.

As for an amp wiring kit. Would something like this work? Do you think it provides enough length of everything with the position of my set up? Amp under seat and subs in boot.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CADENCE-4...ht_4232wt_1139

And then I guess i just need some more speaker wire to connect the other speakers.

[Drifter995]

ok, i'll cover a few things here:

1. You don't need speakers in the back, save your money and purchase a set of decent splits for up front. get some ones that sound great to you, who cares what other people think? if you go out and buy a set that is apparently good, you could put them in your car, and find they sound like arse to you. As trism said, at a concert, sounds come from infront of you, not behind.

2. if you get a headunit, you'll want something with 2rca's (sub out/ rear out left and right, front out left and right) so you can run the monoblock and 2 channel.

3. If you so desperately want rears, keep the stock ones and run them off the headunit. you'll get your rear fill, and it'll be cheaper.

4. To be safe, it's a good idea to get something around this:
6 meters 4awg minimum for power (by minimum, I mean 4awg minimum. I'd probably opt for 2awg myself, just to be safe, but 4awg will suffice)
1 meter of same awg as power, so if you go 4awg power, get 1 meter of 4awg for ground.
6 meters of 16awg i think it is remote wire
2 rca's
10 meters 12awg speaker wire for speakers. (that should be enough to get from front doors to boot and sub to monoblock.
at least 4 meters of same sized wire as power wire for big 3 upgrade. so at least 4 meters of 4awg. can use 0awg if you want, up to you really.

5. you sound like you're going off maximum power for a lot of things, always go off rms, as rms is pretty much the actual power.

6. Power on an amp is not like a light switch, it can be turned up and down. if the amp runs 100wrms x 2 it doesn't mean your speakers will get 100wrms in them. same with your monoblock, if you turn the gains down, you won't overpower them

[90civicGL]

Ok thank you for the wire measurements. Main thing that had lost me. As for measurements I always use RMS , learned that peak was all marketing a few years a go.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/RCA-2m-Pa...#ht_2307wt_905 Do cables like that actually make a difference? Or being a digital cable will a $10 one perform the same? I'm wanting to get the wiring and that kind of stuff set up properly so it will last and only have to be done once. So I want quality. And before someone says its only powering cheap speakers, I want to have the ability to power some better stuff without ripping it all apart and re doing it later.

Its really bugging me not knowing what wire was used inside the sub box.

So putting good speakers upfront and cheap speakers in the back wouldn't work would it, because the cheap ones wouldnt be able to keep up with the front ones when turned up and start to sound bad correct?

[Drifter995]

All good was hoping you didn't take it as a rant, was meant to be helpful :>

doesn't matter all that much if you're running them off the headunit... they're mainly for passengers in the back...
As for rca's, those would work well, else you can get stuff like stinger pro3 I think it is, and they are good quality.

As for the wires in the sub box, just use 12awg wire in it.. it'll be right. afaik.

and yes, if you wish to upgrade, putting good quality stuff in is a great idea. Leaves room for upgrading in the future. which I'm sure you will end up doing, haha

[TbM]

Good info here guise, 100% agree with drifter and trism that you dont need rear speakers, last 2 systems ive had have only been with front speakers with subs and it works great. It allows you to spend more on the speakers you will be listing too and you can still have plenty of volume if you buy decent splits.

Ive never been a fan of sony's car audio products, depending on your budget the main 2 speaker brand i recommend are Focal and Morel.

Yes you will either have to buy harness adapter or you can do it old school and just cut off the old plug then solder and heatshrink/tape the new harness onto the old.

If its bugging you not knowing what wire was using in your sub box take the sub out and have a look, this will also confirm if the coils are hooked up in series or paralell.

Whats your budget for the speakers?
Have you thought about sound deadening/enclosing the front doors?

[90civicGL]

Yer not taken as a rant at all, didn't quite catch on with the RCA cable. So the stinger is roughly $20 odd dollars, and the HiFi solid core is $70ish, So would there be a noticeable difference? Like physically looking at it on the pictures the HiFi solid core looks MUCH thicker. So although it might not matter with s type subs, what about say a couple of P2 or P1's?

And what is the quality of the stinger wire as a whole? Cause I see a lot of their stuff on ebay in pretty good priced roles. Seem to have all the gauges.

[TbM]

stinger is fine i use them in my current setup. You will also need an anl fuse and holder if you dont already have a fuse.

[90civicGL]

Sound deadening not atm, maybe one day if I put in a nice system. But this current system is more to just get one in the car. The current headunit is some old school sony with a 7 disc stacker. The speakers in the car are dead, and there is just a cheapish set of bookshelf speakers in the back. All my money has been going into restoring the car, so speaker and budget wise its more just anything that is good value/performance. So that there is something in the car. That's why I want to get all the wiring done correctly. So I can put in some better stuff later with a proper battery and stuff.

At repco while browsing for some tools I heard the sonys, they where the only speakers playing at the time so thats all I heard. Friend has some JVC's from SCA in his car and they sound OKish, as cheaper speakers should I guess. Diff friend had S type speakers all around connected to a 5ch amp, they didnt sound very nice. Now he has type R all around connected to a 4ch amp, they dont sound as good as what I thought they would.

But I guess budget wise maybe $250ish. Would it be better buying something around the price of the sony's and a 2ch amp, or some expensive speakers with no amp. And as I know the first reply will say good speakers and then buy an amp in a few months time. For the sake of this question lets assume the amp would have to come in 1-2 years time. If it helps at all am looking at purchasing in america even though shipping is like $100 for 2 sets speakers and an amp

So subs and mono amp I have, Am set on that headunit. So leaves speakers and wire open to suggestions.