Yeah it's definitely pushed well into the head unit. Given the number of cables sprouting out the back of the head unit now, it won't fit any other way. I suppose it may have gotten tweaked when I was yanking it under the carpet :p I'll whack in another one this afternoon and leave it running down the side of the centre-console, just for the time being I've got plenty of time over Christmas to play with that

I also need to get all cables from the cabin into the boot without going up the rear wheel arches, as they're just not long enough to reach the cd-changer corner that way. When I'm playing with that I'll install the new cable properly.

There's that lip between the rear seat and the boot floor that I need to go through. I'm having a Dremel off Santa too, so I'm considering making a path with that

Alternatively there are various rubber bungs in the floor panels all over, I'll try poking some wire through them and see if I can find a way through

Santas not leaving u a little sub too then lol

Nope, but he has managed to fit a new MTB frame in his sack! :p

New £3 RCA lead is in and now all 4 corners are blasting loud and pure

Once I've figured out getting those cables re-routed I'll have them all hidden and done. Maybe I'll even figure out to attach the amp to the side of the boot instead of sat on the floor

So I emailed Auto Style Online about the dead RCA lead in the Vibe fitting kit and they said they'd send me a new one, and they don't need the old one back first. That's rather excellent as I didn't want to remove trim to extract it, then do it once more to fit the replacement :no:

Anyway, they're actually sending me a COMPLETE wiring kit, which is kind of handy as I've just bought myself an active sub It's a used Vibe 12-incher which is probably far too big, but I paid £26 on eBay so who cares? :p

For that price and with Vibe's free wiring I can't go wrong! If the size is totally ridiculous I can always make a smaller box, maybe even get a smaller speaker too and just use the amp.

I'm not collecting it until next week and I'm off work until the New Year, so I plan to get everything tidied up and fully sorted. I just have a couple of questions on wiring in the new with the existing stuff:

Power lead from the Battery: Do I just attach the power lead for the new active subwoofer to the battery on top of the amp one I fitted last week? If I do, should I keep them apart on their route to the boot? My current lead is an 8awg and I think the new one will be too.

Remote switch on from the head unit: Do I need to connect 2 remote wires to the one coming out the back of the head unit? Or can I just split the existing remote cable as it reaches the boot?

The sub RCA from the head unit will be run alongside the current front and rear channel ones, does that sound like a bad idea?

Thanks for your ongoing help guys, it's sounding lush already and I can't wait to get some monster bass going

you can just split the remote mate, its only a small bit of power to turn them on

this is where your small power lead is a pain if you had a bigger power cable you couldve popped a distribution block in then took the powers from there

a 4awg would split to 2 8awg

if your going to run a new power then ontop would be fine, just use separate earths

i do reken mate your best plan would be a 4awg then split to 2 8s with a disti block

RCAS together will be fine

Thanks for that! I'm realising it would have been half the work if I'd bought all the kit THEN done the install in one go. I had no idea now long it'd take for me to gather the funds though, and of course I was impatient to install everything as soon as it arrived

I'll go with the two 8's as it means not buying anything else and I'll be sure to use separate earths, I hadn't thought about separating those. The amp and sub will be on opposite sides of the boot, so I likely would have done that anyway

I've just realised the wiring kit is going to my work address, so I can't get it until January 3rd :'(

Noooooooooooooo

Yup. Until the wiring kit is in hand I'll have to choose whether to run the amp OR the sub, but not both together

Just wanted to finish this thread off, got the sub installed today and it all sounds awesome! I'd always thought the Vibe Black Air components were a bit on the tinny side, I knew system was missing a sub. Now it's installed, the previously over-bright tweeters have transformed into perfect clarity. :yes: The woofers always had strong vocals and mid-range but no real bass, but with the backup from the sub it's all beautifully balanced

I'm going to experiment with a plug in the bass box's port (£7 on eBay), just too see what effect that has. For the meantime I'm just happy that I'm not going to be running any more bloody wires :p

With the amp mounted vertically on the front of the redundant CD-changer box the boot now looks like this:

I still need to sink the tweeters into the shelves or drill a nice little group of holes in the shelf and mount the tweeters underneath. I just dont want to put a 2" hole that would be left empty should I ever remove it all. Maybe next weekend I'll have a go

Finally, thanks to all that helped guide me on this little odyssey, it's been a challenge but it's finally reached the highest levels I ever wished for: Proper 'Mazin :p

Nice work bud

With the plug in you should get a tighter more controlled bass.

Personal pref tho bud..... Play n see

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.

would it be easier to run the power cable down the passanger side as this is the side the battary is on ???

Hi Holty, thanks for the thread revival! I did put my power down the left for exactly the reason that the battery is there.

I was gonna add to this topic to say that I spent more time fiddling with the settings of my new audio install than just driving along listening to it. I'd have it PERFECT for one song then another would come on and be thinking "just a little more this, a tad less that", and after a month I just ripped the whole lot out and eBayed it! :S

I did lose £50 on the amp but I made £41 on the sub

I also took out the Vibe Black Air Components as they really lack bass and needed a sub, I've replaced them with Infinity's which are much better all-rounders. The changover only cost me a fiver too, as I sold the Black Airs to a Kirby cleaner salesman that came to do a demo