GolfGTIforum.co.uk
General => Car audio => Topic started by: Shady Pioneer on 09 April 2008, 10:28
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So I was thinking, by the end of the month I'll have a sub and a 4 channel amp in the boot, but what's the best way to keep them secure? How do you guys do it in your MK3s?
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best way is to make a false floor and bolt them to that.
only other method i can think of is to screw your amp to the rear of the back seats and hope for the best with the sub.
:smiley:
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Don't really want to be making more holes than necessary really though, so false floor it is. Is it best to make the false floor to the exact size of the boot or just the width and depth I actually need? I assume people carpet over it as well?
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most people get a sheet of MDF or choice wood, take the carpet out of the boot and draw round it and cut. Then cut the said piece of wood at an appropriate place to fit hinges on it so you can still access your spare. Jobs a gud un.
Yes, you can buy accoustic carpet from halfords or similar audio places or you can just get some very shallow pile carpet from "somwhere" and use that.
:smiley:
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Do I need to have the spare in the car to pass an MOT? LOL! Because I may just not bother with the spare and try doing a decent floor that covers the whole boot and recarpet it.
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to my knowledge you dont need a spare for a mot.
However, you can practically guarantee next time you are 100 miles from anywhere with no signal at midnight you will get a flat. :angry:
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Could always carry one of those spray can puncture repair things!
My sub is in the nearside behind the wheelarch. I put the 4 ch amp in the other side hung on a metal frame I made from steel angle.
There is a write up of this in a link off my Project pages, but I note recently that the photos have been lost from that!
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Well the sub I'm gong for is going to come with a box to put it in, could I not just screw the amp into the top or side of that box?
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you could but then they both have a chance of being thrown around. best off securing them both independantly imo. :smiley:
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Because the box my sub came in was too large really (needed to be able to fit a buggy in the boot) I just custom-built a smaller one, which is shaped like a pyramid with the top chopped off, and the sub sits in the bottom pointing downwards...
I just made some little round 'feet' out of MDF for the bottom, and put screws through the centre of these before screwing them to the box, so it has 1/4" spikes sticking out the bottom. The feet ensure the sub isn't actually touching the carpet, and the spikes stop it from sliding around in the boot. The design (sub in the bottom, and narrowing towards the top) keeps the centre of gravity easily low enough to stop the whole thing falling over.
I stuffed it full of Cotton wool as that allegedly makes it sound like a larger box (and it does seem to work, sounds better than it did empty)
Some people get really stressed out about making sure the box is exactly the right shape and size... but I find this box doesn't sound a whole lot different to the box the sub came in. The important thing is that the sub is boxed (unboxed it sounds cack) The footprint of this little box is only around 14"x14", and that's with a 12" sub, and with the Amp screwed to the top it takes up hardly any space in the boot, plus the 'pyramid' sides mean it sits up against the back seats nicely, and I can easily remove it and stick it in another car without leaving any unsightly holes anywhere.
It looks a bit gash, but thats just cos I can't be arsed to carpet it at all :laugh:
king of the bodge, me. :evil:
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Just use Velcro - it will more than hold a sub box, and screw the amp onto the sub box itself.
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Velcro is a good idea! Should be cheap too, and if I'm screwing the amp to the box, just need to make sure I use smaller screws right?
The other thing I was gonna ask is, I'm fitting it myself, so I've heard that putting the power cable and RCA/remote cables down the same side intefer...is this true? Or can I route them down the same side of the car?
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yes it is true, however, unless your pulling a monster current i would have thought you will be ok to run them all the same way.
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Nah just a standard current (12v?) for powering 1 4 channel amp to goto a sub and front speakers. That's it.
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Nah just a standard current (12v?) for powering 1 4 channel amp to goto a sub and front speakers. That's it.
maybe i didnt explain corectly.
by monster current i mean powering something silly like 2 x 1000watt rms amps and another for components.
its adviseable to do it anyway but a lot on here havent and dont have any problems.
your supply is around 14.4v when the engine is running and about 12.8v (ish) when the engine is off.
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Haha! Nah that's cool man, I'm a tard with stuff like this hence why I'm here for the pros advice. Thanks for explaining.
I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out. Come on payday!!!
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by monster current i mean powering something silly like 2 x 1000watt rms amps and another for components.
its adviseable to do it anyway but a lot on here havent and dont have any problems.
your supply is around 14.4v when the engine is running and about 12.8v (ish) when the engine is off.
That's pretty misleading mate, you don't have to be drawing 160A to get interference over RCA's. If I put my RCA's within 5" of the fuel pump live I get incredible interference. When adding additional kit into your ICE system, do it right the first time - as your bound to run into issues, about 50% of installs end up with unwanted noise (ground loops, inductive noise etc.).
Run your power leads down one side of the car, and the RCA's down the other (or down the middle). Try to not cross any wires at 90 Degs with the RCA's. Make sure you have a nice clean ground on the floorpan - try to avoid attaching it to panels that have been spot welded on (poor electrical contact), and always use suitable gauge +ve and -ve leads, with a fuse within 12" of the battery on the +ve.
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Well I only ever intend on having components and a sub and amp to power them all, I won't be upgrading ever again, unless it's to upgrade the sub maybe, so is it really worth going down two sides? Just it means much more work in getting the RCAs down the driver's side, and I know it sounds lazy but I wouldn't know where to start in that respect. :cry:
Just to give me a helping hand, send me in the right direction for a good amp fitting kit, with everything I will need so it's all there for when I get everything delivered.
Cheers guys
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I am a patronising ass....but....
Well I only ever intend on having components and a sub and amp to power them all, I won't be upgrading ever again, unless it's to upgrade the sub maybe, so is it really worth going down two sides? Just it means much more work in getting the RCAs down the driver's side, and I know it sounds lazy...
When adding additional kit into your ICE system, do it right the first time - as your bound to run into issues, about 50% of installs end up with unwanted noise (ground loops, inductive noise etc.).
It literally takes about 5 minutes to pull back the carpets and run the cables, hell, if the MK3 is anything like the MK2, you can strip the car down the floor pan in about 15 minutes. At the end of the day its up to do, but if you get line noise, those cables are going to be tore straight up again.
With regards to the wiring kit, what rating fuse does the amp use; gives a better indication of what power it actually draws (less the marketing hype). Then refer to http://www.rbeelectronics.com/wtable.htm
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Don't sweat it man, you're helping lol!
I'm getting this one:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-azLLBpocq42/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=108R475A
So...
And in regards to the wiring, I don't mind sending the other cable down the other end, it's just getting the RCA cable from the headunit, down to the driver's bottom trim which I'm gonna find really hard, from there it's pretty straighforward, it's that initial headunit stage.
And also I've noticed some headunit have a RCA cable which is also the remote turn on? Is that right?
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Wouldn't you be better off with something like this
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=120&i=500MRPF550&tp=115
Where it can run 3 channels, the Infiniti one just looks like it can run 4 channels, or 2x2 bridged - ie. 2 mono channels (subs only really). At least with the Alpine above (or any other than can support 3 channel), you can have stereo for the 2 front comps and bridge the remaining two channels for a mono sub.
Either way, with that price range, you're going to get about the same amount of power - 600W max, so you'll get away with 8awg cable. I guess your from the States - I don't really know any good places to get car audio gear....eBay? Its all much of a muchness, brand is 'technically' irrelevant.
Yeah. most RCA's have a single thin lead between them to run the Remote +ve from the HU (to turn the amp on and off with the HU), and if not, the kit usually comes supplied with a remote lead. The remote lead needs to be wired to the power aerial wire off the HU ISO connector, usually blue/white stripe.
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Oh no, that Infinity one is fine, I've checked to make sure it can run 3 channels, it's on the Crutchfield review, the sub whichever I get will be run at 180Watts RMS using 2 channels, the other 2 channels I'll be running the front components.
I'm not from the States I'm afraid, I'm from sunny sh!tty Yeovil lol! Somerset. I'm only going on Crutchfield because they had an in depth review of the said amp.
My idea is to keep everything I buy Infiinty Reference, so the comps are get will be Reference, the amp is, and the sub will be too!
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I'm a spesh, didn't even notice the English reg in your sig...I'm going to bed.
I wouldn't stick to the same brand for everything though - most companies aren't as good as manufacturing speakers as they are amps, or vice versa. Its best to mix and match to get the best for your price range. What's your total budget (and size of speaker holes), are you going to get door pods (HIGHLY recommended to make the most of out comps)...there's way more to ICE than meets the eye.
BTW, jump over to talkaudio.co.uk (http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/)'s forums - read through their posts, you'll learn a lot.
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Not saying a word :wink:
My budget is about £250 for the lot. I thought Infinity were good though? Damn SO MUCH CHOICE!!! help!
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What are Focal like, looked on that forum and someone suggest this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FOCAL-ACCESS-SOLUTION-25-A1-SUBWOOFER-BNIB_W0QQitemZ320237417298QQihZ011QQcategoryZ18799QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It has a built in amp for the sub and can also run 2 channels at 100watts RMS for front components which would be ideal...