CX-5 Owners with big bass setups? Power Qs
- Thread starter floridaplur
- Start date
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- Canada
Me as well, haha. I mounted a Kicker CX 600.1 amp and an AudioControl LC2i LOC to the box for my 12" Infinity Kappa sub when I wanted some extra punch from the OEM system in my IS250. I don't know if I would ever do it again.. I had no issues, and it made it really easy to make space in the trunk for long trips because all I had to do was disconnect the wires and everything came out at once. Plus everything was well hidden. LOC was accessible from the back seat via the ski passthrough.
Excuse the messy trunk..
Excuse the messy trunk..
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- 2017 CX-5 Sport
No judgement, I used to do the same. Although, I'm pretty sure that's what killed my last two amps.
Outside of some major major builds, an amp should have no problem taking vibration from systems under 150db. Over that it would get slightly more questionable. My opinions. Clipping from people using Gain knob like it’s a volume nob is the #1 amp killer.
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- 2017 CX-5 Sport
This time around I played it safe and went with a RCA "Gain Knob" which is, in my opinion, a much better option.
Got two of my ground wires done. Used 4g for this that I had from the old RP1200 install. Running an RP2K now all 1/0 going to that. This is my first install into an actual nice car so taking things one step at a time lol
Yeah, I need to swap that for a 300A breaker asap. I had that installed at the point of 4g wire and 1500w. I’ve stepped up a bit now
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- Canada
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- 2016 CX-5 GT
Would love to know how and what you connected for the big 3 as I’m in the middle of doing my CX-5 full 1/0 and not sure the best approach to connect the alternator to the main battery, especially because will likely require a generator upgrade (if it can take it) so was thinking of just running the extra alternator wire straight to the battery positive using a KnuKonceptz terminal with OEM integration post to allow the OEM fused terminal/hub to just slide onto that integration post, I believe I will have to fuse the add on 1/0 wire from alternator to battery (at the battery) with a 250amp fuse. It’s confusing because the OEM terminal hub has a 250 Amp fuse labeled starter and another 200 Amp fuse labeled Main, don’t think I want to mess with that was thinking straight to the battery is best?!?
Since this thread… I’ve gone a LONG way. I actually gutted my car and did a full B Pillar 6th order wall with 2 18” Sundown ZV6. After what feels like forever, Brand X has finally got working high output alternators for our cars as well.
As far as the big 3… I went from alternator housing bolt to the battery negative terminal as well as to the chassis. Alternator positive pin to the positive terminal. I’m not running a stock battery anymore, so from the battery terminals both power and ground run all the way to the back of the car where the lithium is (I have a battery delete box under hood). I’d suggest running ground all the way from battery to rear for the amp as well, these cars have a lot of resistance being unibody.
Ignore how ugly my doors are right now, this was temporary until I have time to do the fiberglass work.
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- Canada
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- 2016 CX-5 GT
I actually don’t understand what you mean by alternator housing bolt to negative battery, can you please elaborate as to exactly why? I planned on running 1/0 from alternator to positive (fused at 200-250 amp), 1/0 engine block to chassis (ground) and 1/0 battery negative to chassis (ground), I hear some go engine block to battery negative (ground) but never heard of the alternator body back to battery negative. I hear you on the amp ground back to battery negative though, was there any good grounds back there? What was the resistance drop that made you run the ground back to the battery? I want to get a better alternator and hopefully second dedicated battery and am open to suggestions, will be at 1200/1 (2 Ohms) Class D HD series, 300/4 and 300/2 (4 Ohms) Class A/B all JL Audio amps, subs and components, full active with AudioControl DSP.
A bolt holding your alternator on your engine block is what you would use for the engine block ground. It’s going to be the closest to absolute zero resistance you will find.
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I was getting readings between 0.4-0.7 from everything in the back as far as grounds. Our cars don’t love stereos from factory. The alternator has a hard time keeping up and the car shifts sluggishly under load. If you’re comfortable with it, for that setup you could bypass the stock battery like I did and build a small 48ah headway bank and be golden for much much cheaper and many less issues than getting a high output alternator working. It’s very simple and easy to do, I could walk you through balancing and assembly over video call pretty easily.
Those Kapa subs are awesome, I had one back in the day on an alpine amp and it looks like they have a recent sub that looks similar as far as the cone and dust cap but it’s no longer a kappa but maybe an entry level product.Me as well, haha. I mounted a Kicker CX 600.1 amp and an AudioControl LC2i LOC to the box for my 12" Infinity Kappa sub when I wanted some extra punch from the OEM system in my IS250. I don't know if I would ever do it again.. I had no issues, and it made it really easy to make space in the trunk for long trips because all I had to do was disconnect the wires and everything came out at once. Plus everything was well hidden. LOC was accessible from the back seat via the ski passthrough.
Excuse the messy trunk..
I don’t have real big bass but I’ve gone through a few different setups I’ve installed as far as amplification and stuff until I settled on what I have now. A lot of it was reusing stuff I already had as well as trying some new. I like modest efficient clean stealth installs but I do appreciate big bass it just doesn’t suit my lifestyle with carrying around kids and tools. The kicker amps are what I have currently with the JBL speakers/sub. I might do components one day active but I just took the lazy route since my trim doesn’t have the pillar tweeters.
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- Canada
Yeah I really loved the way it looked, and it really filled out the lower end on my otherwise stock system. It was a great sub that was held back by the other components, for sure.
I found an old pic of mine, ugly grill on it unfortunately, and I had the amp mounted to the box as well with no problems back in 08 and that amp is the same one I had installed in my CX5 in early 22 so that’s 14yrs no issues and still kicking .
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- Canada
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- 2016 CX-5 GT
Ok I’m all in on the headway bank ordered 34 cells yesterday, my question is am I going to have an issue charging it with my crappy 100Amp alternator or how does that all work?
Seems like still going to need the lead acid factory battery to start it as live in cold climate (-40C starts) so will get an isolator to preserve that battery for the engine, so going to have a 64 amp/hr headway, gonna run probably1200w/RMS (100Amp) for subs and another 600w/4 RMS (50Amp) and 300w/4 RMS (40Amp) for doors/dash speakers.
