Thoughts on my planned Audio set-up?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 19, 2013
Messages
7,933
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
This for my 2001 Camaro that has the most monotone sound system I've ever heard in a car with a factory multi-channel amplifier.



Head Unit, Kenwood KDC-BT365U

5 Channel Amplifier, 60watts x 4 + 600watts Sub at 2 ohm's, Kenwood XR900-5

6 1/2" Component Speakers in the doors, JL Audio C3-600

6 1/2" 2 way speakers for the rear channels mounted in the sail panels, JL Audio C2-650X

Single 10" Subwoofer, JL Audio Steathbox

Pulling the entire interior & replacing all the speaker wiring (different routing), Running 4awg power & ground cables with a 175amp fuse for the Amp, 6 RCA's, Amp turn-on wire, power antenna wire, And install as much Dynamat as I can.
 
Last edited:
You have good taste man. JL Audio makes great speakers and subs. I would recommend the Alpine 5 channel amp. It is super clear. My buddy used it with his JL Audio system...it was so loud my dad came out of the house to yell at us because his bass was shaking the entire neighborhoods home windows! These are double pane vinyl airplane noise windows. So thats how much kick his system has.

The Dynamat should stop the rattling inside your vehicle that you will produce when this is installed.
smile.gif
 
Last edited:
Is 2.1kW of power actually practical, and if so, is 4 AWG appropriate?

DC_wire_selection_chartlg.jpg


HU doesnt look excessively flashy, and should be able to color match.

Your car doesnt have a double DIN delco HU?
 
175A seems a bit much for 4 awg, even without the chart. Remember that a fuse can sustain 135% of its rating for an hour. That would be over 225A.
Quick and dirty calculation by adding up the wattages of the amplifier, multiplying by 1.2 for inefficiency then divide by 12 to get amps is 84A.
I'd fuse it for 100A at the most.
I plan on running 1 awg to my trunk for amplifiers along with a motorola spectra (trunked 2 way radio) and siren. I was going to fuse it for "only" 120A. I do have a longer wheelbase than you though, so longer wiring.
 
I own a 2000 Camaro that I just went though the audio system. From my experience, you are spending WAY too much on rear speakers. The placement of the rear speakers is so close to the driver (and really close to ear level) that they completely destroy the front sound stage. I have to set the fade to 85% front to keep it sounding right.

Remember, the rear seat speakers are subwoofers (actually more of a mid-bass) in the factory system and changing to a full range significantly changes the dynamic.

If I did it all again, I'd seriously consider ditching the rear speakers all together. I am disappointed I spent $85 for speaker in the rear. I'd be returning a $170+ set.
 
the components are very nice. dynamat or similar is excellent. Lowes sells "Peal and Stick" in the roofing section which isn't bad and it's cheap. takes a few months for the tar smell to dissipate. the thing that gets harder is getting the acoustics right, and getting the imaging right. Tweeter could be too bright, and any time you fudge it with the EQ you introduce distortion at the top and bottom of the affected frequency band. Tweeter aim, placement, inner door treatment - all plays. Absolutely do everything you can to deaden the plastic interior panel of the door to remove resonance. Good audio at some point becomes a disease...

I don't think you'll need 4Ga wire to the amp, but it certainly won't hurt. A 10" sub is plenty for a small cabin unless you like hearing aid fashion. An 8 would be plenty and can be made just as tight and low if you build the box right.

Good luck and have fun!

-m
 
Originally Posted By: 190E26FTW
You have good taste man. JL Audio makes great speakers and subs. I would recommend the Alpine 5 channel amp. It is super clear. My buddy used it with his JL Audio system...it was so loud my dad came out of the house to yell at us because his bass was shaking the entire neighborhoods home windows! These are double pane vinyl airplane noise windows. So thats how much kick his system has.

The Dynamat should stop the rattling inside your vehicle that you will produce when this is installed.
smile.gif



Thanks man. Do you have experience with particular Kenwood Amplifier I linked to?



Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Is 2.1kW of power actually practical, and if so, is 4 AWG appropriate?

HU doesnt look excessively flashy, and should be able to color match.

Your car doesnt have a double DIN delco HU?


Read the entire operational/installation manual for the Amplifier, It specified a 4 AWG as the largest gauge that will fit & 6 AWG as the smallest that should be used, When the Amp gets here I will see how big I can go.
The max rated Amp draw is 80amps, According to your chart, 4 AWG will work at 15' I don't think my lead will be that long.
I'm also kicking around the idea of relocating the battery to the hatch area when I have the interior out, I will use 1/0 AWG to the battery.....Then a @ 2' 4 AWG wire to the Amplifier, Should give me up to 100amps according to your chart.
I already have a spools of 1/0 & 4 AWG welding cable from past projects & really don't want to buy 2 AWG wire if I don't have to.

Has a odd-ball DIN-1.5 Delco Monsoon, I don't really care for aftermarket HU's....But the Delco one doesn't have auxiliary input jack, CD player doesn't work, And no RCA outputs. I personally don't want a big LCD screen in my car. If they had one that would display OBD data & had all the other features of a HU.....I would buy one!!
 
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
175A seems a bit much for 4 awg, even without the chart. Remember that a fuse can sustain 135% of its rating for an hour. That would be over 225A.
Quick and dirty calculation by adding up the wattages of the amplifier, multiplying by 1.2 for inefficiency then divide by 12 to get amps is 84A.
I'd fuse it for 100A at the most.
I plan on running 1 awg to my trunk for amplifiers along with a motorola spectra (trunked 2 way radio) and siren. I was going to fuse it for "only" 120A. I do have a longer wheelbase than you though, so longer wiring.


I agree, But the Amplifier itself is fused with 3 40amp ATC fuses, The 175amp fuse at the battery will just protect the run of cable to the back against a hard short in case of an accident/collision which would send full battery amperage through the lead & blow the fuse before the cable has a chance to heat up.
 
Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
I own a 2000 Camaro that I just went though the audio system. From my experience, you are spending WAY too much on rear speakers. The placement of the rear speakers is so close to the driver (and really close to ear level) that they completely destroy the front sound stage. I have to set the fade to 85% front to keep it sounding right.

Remember, the rear seat speakers are subwoofers (actually more of a mid-bass) in the factory system and changing to a full range significantly changes the dynamic.

If I did it all again, I'd seriously consider ditching the rear speakers all together. I am disappointed I spent $85 for speaker in the rear. I'd be returning a $170+ set.



Thank you very much!! This is the exact feedback I'm looking for, I'm a member over on LS1Tech.com but the advice over there is geared toward buying from site vendors. (Little cliques running around telling folks what's the best flavor of the month)

I have a brand new set of Kenwood KFC-1695PS in the box that was intended for a truck I sold. If I'm going to end-up fading it so much to the front.....Does this sound like a good speaker for the sails? I install customer supplied audio all the time but know very little on how to adjust/stage/purchase audio equipment.
 
Originally Posted By: meep
the components are very nice. dynamat or similar is excellent. Lowes sells "Peal and Stick" in the roofing section which isn't bad and it's cheap. takes a few months for the tar smell to dissipate. the thing that gets harder is getting the acoustics right, and getting the imaging right. Tweeter could be too bright, and any time you fudge it with the EQ you introduce distortion at the top and bottom of the affected frequency band. Tweeter aim, placement, inner door treatment - all plays. Absolutely do everything you can to deaden the plastic interior panel of the door to remove resonance. Good audio at some point becomes a disease...

I don't think you'll need 4Ga wire to the amp, but it certainly won't hurt. A 10" sub is plenty for a small cabin unless you like hearing aid fashion. An 8 would be plenty and can be made just as tight and low if you build the box right.

Good luck and have fun!

-m




Another great reply, Thank you!

I'm going to use Dynamat because it last's for years & years in the Texas heat, I've seen to many melted globs of Tar & Foil in the bottom of doors to use something from a home improvement store, And any kind of smell afterwards is not acceptable on this vehicle. I do appreciate you naming the actual product & where to acquire it

The JL Audio Stealthbox is made for my car, I don't possess the skills to build a custom enclosure myself & be happy with the results.
 
Originally Posted By: clinebarger

I have a brand new set of Kenwood KFC-1695PS in the box that was intended for a truck I sold. If I'm going to end-up fading it so much to the front.....Does this sound like a good speaker for the sails? I install customer supplied audio all the time but know very little on how to adjust/stage/purchase audio equipment.


There is some truth to trying as best as possible to ensure your speakers are "timbre-matched". That is, all speakers in a multi-speaker system should sound the same. This typically means staying with the same speaker series or at least the same manufacturer. The reality of it may be different though. I know many, many people running very expensive component sets up front and mediocre coax speakers (or even OEM speakers) in the rear for a bit of rear fill. A lot of them sound great to me.

If you have a set of unused speakers kicking around that fit and the alternative is spending $170 on a different set, I'd give them a go just to get a flavor of what it sounds like. Maybe it sounds fine. Maybe after you hear it, you think I'm full of it and go with your original JL Audio choice. Audio is personal.

The good thing is the rear speakers are super easy to access. The factory grill pops right off and you have access to all the fasteners. It's like a 5 minute job to swap those speakers.
 
I've had the same amplifier in my truck for about 2.5 years. No complaints whatsoever there.

Stealthbox is great. Spendy, but great if you are pinched for space like I am in the Canyon.

I wish that I would have just skipped the rear speakers, myself. Won't do that again.
 
Thanks guys, I ordered the Amp, Front Components, & the StealthBox.....Going to install the Kenwoods I already have in the Sails.

Got the Amp on Amazon for $150 cheaper, Also got 36 sq.ft. of Dynamat on the same order for $150!
Components & Stealthbox coming from Crutchfield.

This is probably a stupid question.....Does it matter how far away the crossovers are from the speakers? I would like to install them in the console, I will be using "Twisted Pair" speaker wire to keep interference to minimum if that helps. Space is limited in this car & I want to have easy access to them for tuning.
 
I don't see why it would matter, all else being equal. It seems to me that the best way would be to have the crossover as near the source unit as possible. Just so you aren't feeding unwanted signals the full length of the wire. I don't really think that anyone would be able to hear a difference either way.
 
imho I dont think induced noise in speaker wiring is a significant problem. You have to somehow induce enough current to drive a low impedance speaker. I guess if you wrapped it around the alternator wire a dozen turns you might but????
I just go to Home depot and buy a 100ft roll of the 16ga low voltage wiring intended for garden lights and use that for my speaker wiring. The insulation is impressively thick since its intended for burial. Makes it really well protected.

Any noise is going to come in through the low side, the RCA cabling. Where you have only a few volts driving a high impedance load (the amp). On top of that you are amplifing that signal so any noise is going to get amplified with it.

(I still dont understand why in the year of our lord 2017 we are still futzing with analog RCA connections in car audio when there are a multitude of digital standards that would solve pretty much every issue with noise AND cut the number of wires from 4 or 6 to 1 thin digital link. Its such a PITA to get a HU into its spot with half a dozen RCAs hanging off the back.)
 
Made some progress this weekend, I'm getting to old for this....I feel like I've been kicked by a Mule! My fault....I didn't have to do so much coverage with Dynamat, Ended up using 3 36ft boxes.

Got the RCA's, Speaker wire, Turn-on wire, & Power Cable ran, Door speakers installed, Door panels put back on, & carpet laid back down.

ccC7zuK.jpg


LUBAOD0.jpg


7l8iwtr.jpg


Ccrp94D.jpg


kIdpuLI.jpg


V8AvcN7.jpg


1fd4RDT.jpg
 
Got it finished & been driving it for a few days now.....The sound difference & power is amazing!!

Just like Mr. Horsepower said.....I had to fade the rear speakers out a lot. The front components do all that's needed for such a small area. I turned the "sub" Bass Boost at the Amp down to zero & that's all the tuning done so far.

My 150amp Alternator is keeping up nicely, Headlights & Fog Lights on, Cooling Fans, A/C On/Blower Motor at max, Volume at 38(Which is very loud), Idling at 750 RPM........14.3 volts at the battery, 14.1 volts at the Amplifier.
Very impressed on how efficient these Class D Amps are.

The Dynamat made a HUGE difference....Took a ton of the road noise out of the car along with some rattles I couldn't find!

5ahhcgE.jpg


acMwFMF.jpg


ckYVaHI.jpg


PDQQZm7.jpg


DhSe85w.jpg


7dXOahA.jpg


tue1xVv.jpg


tkbuKAM.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top