Good luck with your install buddy. Interesting to hear what the vibe amp is like.

I'm afraid I don't really know great sound from half-decent, although I'm fully capable of identifying rubbish. Perhaps there'll be a local meet where I can get opinions from those with a clue!

Just keep a eye on how warm the 8awg gets mate

Ive seen a few melted ones back in my days of the car audio scene lol

I'll keep an eye on that, perhaps I'll get a fire extinguisher off Santa too

Does it make any difference if I'm running lowish volume almost all the time anyway!

hi mate I'm a audio fitter and have done some pretty decent systems in my time, will get some pics up soon

Are you planning to amp the tweeters off 2 channels and the mids of the other 2 making them active ? Or are you simply using 2 channels and running the components passively i.e the tweeters from crossovers or from the mid range speakers.

This will make a huge difference as you will have a complete nightmare with setup by making everything active, setting the correct frequency and soundstage can be a task for even me.

It will really make no difference if you use a 2, 4 or 5 channel amp UNLESS you wanting to go big power, for space and convenience a 5 channel is better.

Always run a 4 wag cable from the battery and ensure you have a very good earth from the amp, run this down the drivers side of the car and run and speaker cable, rca down the passenger side to eliminate interferance

CABLING is the most important part of your system, don't skimp on the cabling and even cheap amp can sound great, believe me i have supplied loan amps which are very cheap whilst repairs are done on expensive items and they sound exactly the same, not true in all cases but i cannot reiterate how important good cabling is.

here are some of the installs i have done some finished pics and some not and a custom dash for the car pc

I do always like neat ideas and that focal tweeter fit is just awesome i love it

if you wish i can tell you a cheat to do this mod and make it very very easy and it looks great. PLus its the perfect place for staging, the octy standard is terrible placing of the tweeters lol

My plan is to use each of the 4 channels to feed a crossover, out to the tweeter and woofer from there. I think this is the simplest, but detailed setup is one area I need to begin learning once I have everything in the car.

My head unit is a Kenwood BTC-KD61u http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/cd_receivers/cd/KDC-BT61U/ and it's got crossovers that can be applied in it's settings. As for whether I do this or try to get the amp to do it (assuming it can), is something I'm not really considering right now. I'll happily take any advice I can get once I get there though!

Running the leads down opposite sides of the car sounds good, and easy enough too

I'll pop into my local Motor Parts folks tomorrow, see if they have a better cable than the 8 I ordered, I can always eBay the 8. The local guy I was hoping could do my live and earth wiring is too busy, so I may just end up running all the RCAs and locating the amp this weekend. I'll might then be driving around in silence until I can get it sorted :'(

You'll get there bud, take it steady and you'll be fine

The octy interiors come out quick so it makes it alot easier and quicker too

If stuck for time get the power n rcas to the back, and place speaker cables, but dont disconect anything leave them rolled up, then another day do all the speaker connecting and such , least wont be without sound

if you wish i can tell you a cheat to do this mod and make it very very easy and it looks great. PLus its the perfect place for staging, the octy standard is terrible placing of the tweeters lol

I'll keep in mind for when i change my car if your still about mate

Its all in now and if start tinkering i will only get more ideas ££££

Have a look over on talk audio forum,always loads of stuff for sale,but once you go on there its a slippery slope,you get hooked.

I'm finding that this whole audio thing is like that!

I started out with a head unit and a set of £120 2-way speakers running through the stock wiring. Maybe 4 hours work tops for a NOOB like me.

Now I've got the head unit, an 8-speaker component set and 4 crossovers on improved wiring, an amp going in this weekend with even better wiring, another amp / sub combo in the pipeline and a £500 / ~10 hour running total! Probably another 20 hours hanging around on here trying to figure out what I'm doing

After all that I'm fully aware it's all relatively low-end equipment too :'(

That time will be going up this weekend when the amp goes in and it'll be another couple of hundred quid for a amp / sub too

Fortunately, since I changed from my 18 year old VTEC Prelude I'm not spending money keeping it working properly and can redirect funds to nice stuff :p

As a MTBer I'm used to things quickly getting out of hand when you're chasing a good setup. I've been reducing and simplifying my bikes though, so eBaying those has been feeding a bit of cash back to the car too

Got a nice little frame selling right now actually, which should cover a nice amp / sub setup easily enough: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170744841011?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Mate dont be mean to your stuff :( just look at it like this

Your jumping up alot from ur stock stuff so it will be proper mazing lol

Im trying to calm myself the other way, stupid in my golf to abit more sensible bit by bit in the octy ...... All the time fighting my inner voice going

"w7s and HD amps all round woooo" bloody voices!

Yes i just noticed my proper mazin im from Bristol leave me be :p Brizzle lol

S'aaalright mun. I'z from da vaaaleys see, and I az to try an talk propper on yerr an' aall. Isn't it?

I'm actually okay with the cost as I plan to keep the car for a long while, and I've never had half-decent audio. I've also done everything so it can easily be removed and the original stuff put back no problem (except the tweeter holders that I cut). That way I can take it all with me to another car, or if I get really fed up just eBay the whole shebang

Looking forward to hearing the amped-up components now. Running from the head unit I only get decent sound at higher volumes, a bit louder than that and it distorts :no:

Then if turn it down a little (so you can talk in the car), the bass really drops out. I'm assuming this is because of the lack of power being provided. I think the head unit is outputting 20w where the speaker's minimum inputs are 45 + 55w :S

IIRC isnt it after you past more than 3\4 volume you start running the risk of distorted sound?? dont quote me , i just remember most guidelines for amps say set up on 3/4 of headunits level

You'll have your filters too with the amp so you can cap off what you dont want etc, so when u got your sub mate you'll be well away

now if i only had a huge wodge of cash to buy something new for the boot although my little horde of 8s do amuse me greatly still

oooo i will try and put a photo up later of where i got the 4awg thru on riches when i did his install

That would be great to see, it's something I'm not looking forward to :'(

oooooooooops almost forgot i remembered while poking around on the jl audio site lol

1

2

Thats was 2 awg cable too so it was a GIT but it went............ so 4awg will go alot twice as easy

Thanks for those! It looks like both the wiring kit (the 8) and the amp HAVE been posted together and I"m expecting them today :p I paid £6 for express delivery on the amp, and I ordered the wiring kit separately with the slower, free delivery. Then I emailed and asked them to put the wiring in the box with the amp

I'll clear a car-sized space in my garage and make a start threading cable tonight, although it'll have to wait until after my boy's school Christmas concert :'(

I have tomorrow all day from 1pm onwards to play, so that should see some real progress

Edited 15 December, 201114 yr by ExHondaMan

Well it's all arrived on time and in one box as promised

Wiring kit contains one RCA lead, so that's clearly one short of a front / rear set

Ho hum, onto the engine-bay cable-routing before I get carried away with anything else.

Thanks for this pic, that's great! Errr, where does it come out inside the cabin? The second pic appears to be a close-up of the same section...

[quote name='Lloyd55vrs'

yeah the 2nd was showing the bung

inside it comes out behind the glovebox , im checking for pics

from memory i think there was a bit of carpet just blocking it abit that you pull down tad to get it

it was only the glovebox i had out so you dont have to pull the dash apart - i must admit i had rich pushing it from the engine so i felt the cable coming in

son of a .......... would you beleve i have pics of all parts of the install but not where the cable came in i must sack that camera man

Just give us a clue then! It's gonna be a tricky weekend of crawling around small spaces and scraped knuckles, but I'll take any hints I can get before I start

We're expecting snow tomorrow morning so I'm grabbing an extra RCA on the way home, I might get to spend all day on it tomorrow