Box & System Wiring Advice

[Sean5.0]

Okay. I've combed the forum and there is TONS of great advice and info out there! This has been so much help! Thank You!

I currently have a Sony XM-405eqx (40*4, 100*1, w/ equalizer) to power 4 Polk DX7's. All is currently unistalled. For bass I was thinking about a JBL GTo 12'' in a bandpass box, but I have heard that this may limit the mid-bass and as I plan to limit the bass freq. to the coaxials, this presents a problem. I have noticed that most of you guys have sealed or ported boxes. Does this mean that bandpass sounds like **** in explorers? Also, any clean wiring tips (stringing, grounding, amp placement) is appreciated. I have found some good advice as to the latter in the forum, but it would be great if somebody could take the time to sum it up for me!

Any of you guys have alarms? It seems like audio would be a good place to discuss it.

Thanks

 

[sideswipe]

I had a bandpass box and it sounded like ****. I recommend sealed or ported for an X. I have a Clifford/Avital alarm and its been great. remote start, windows rollup, etc.

 

[Jason94sport]

I have a viper alarm installed. I had a shop do it. $150 installed.

 

[leenjen]

i hate bandpass. they have such a limited frequency range. if you want spl, go ported and have the subs rear facing.

 

[JTang]

All these catalogs and mags say that bandpass is great for stuff like rap and rock, but they're not even good for that. They sound what you'll basically get is bass that seems to come from know where and then totally disappear when you're expecting it cause of the crappy frequency range. When you listen to the radio and hear some guy with a low voice talking, you'll hear the bandpass box mumbling with low notes because it artificially manipulates the notes to be louder than you'd expect. If you're on a budget, go for one single sub ported or sealed rather than the typical 2 subs in a bandpass combo. Go to any store that sells them and listen to a song with heavy drum bass and heavy musical bass. You'll notice that only the drum bass really gets played and the musical bass will usually be missing. Depending on the box of course, but this tends to be the norm.

 

[Sean5.0]

Thanks! This has been really helpful. I had heard somewhat the same thing and now I am definitely going with a single ported 12"

I pulled the seats to run the wiring under the rug and through the center console. I'll probably mount my amp under the rear right (passenger) seat.

I'm considering springing for the expensive Monstor Cable components (4gauge sheilded, 16g wiring, connectors, etc.) but wondered if these really made any noticeable difference. I would like to use new speaker wiring runs, to leave the stock setup unspliced and clean. Interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Just for future reference, I will post pics of the consoles and stock wiring as I tear it apart. I'll post the pics eventually. Thanks Again!

 

[leenjen]

go to a local car stereo shop to buy your wires. good 14guage speaker wire will cost about $.35 ft. good 4 guage power wire will cost about $1 ft. maybe less.

 

[Sean5.0]

Would those be shielded? And does that matter?

 

[leenjen]

they will most likely be shielded, but they dont have to be. if you run your wires seperately (power wires one way, speaker wires the other way) you wont get any interferance or whining.

 

[Sean5.0]

How far should each be seperated. I was planning on running everything through the center console so that only gives me a few inches of seperation. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[leenjen]

just try not to run the wires where they touch. leave a couple inches and you'll be fine.

 

[cjyoung77]

Wiring Kit

Hey guys, I've got what I think is a pretty good deal for a wiring kit. JC Whitney has a Monster Cable wiring kit for about $15 plus shipping. I bought 4, one for each amp. I got 4 RCA's, 4 black ground cable, etc. It is all pretty good quality and looks good since it is nicely color coded. Oh yeah, I did run to a Lightning Cap and to a fuse block and then to the amps for better power availability all the time since not all the amps are hitting at the same time. (About .5 farad for each amp) hope this helps a little