P5 Audio Setup Advice

[16902]

I have been reading through a lot of the stickies and threads in here lately and now have a much better understanding of what I want to do with my P5. I am no audiophile or spl competitor but I just want a good sound while keeping my headunit. Maybe I will even look into a factory 6 disc changer someday. However, I now have a couple of new questions.

I want to keep my stock head unit like a few other people around here so I figure I will need one of these: (NE-774V - 2nd item on page)http://www.davidnavone.com/adaptor_products.htm.

However, I want to replace my factory speakers and add a 10 or 12 inch sub as well. So, is it possible to use a 5 channel amp to power all of them? Or is it better to use a 4 channel amp and a powered sub such as the Infinity Basslink: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-u06PPMizXUJ/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=108BASSLIN&g=51000?

I would use one of these amps for the 5 channel setup: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-u06PPMizXUJ/cgi-bin/prodgroup.asp?cm_re_o=kwufEzM%2Al5Tvii%2A5Tvni&g=120&nvpair=AG%5FNumber%5Fof%5FChannels%7CFF6%40Channel.

I think they might be fundamentally the same amp since they are made by the same company.

Help me out, I've never kept the stock head unit in a car before. (first)

Thanks to all for their patience and advice.

 

[chuyler1]

While reading the stickies, did you catch the discussion on rear speakers? Most of the mods here agree that you do not need rear speakers to make a great sounding system. Instead of spending money on additional amplifier channels and multiple sets of speakers, you put that money toward better equipment.

I've never been a fan of those all-in-one bass units such as the Infinity basslink or bazooka bass tubes. Some people like the way they sound but I think they are too boomy and under-powered. If you can afford it, you should go with a typical subwoofer and box setup.

Ok, with all that said, if you still want to go the 5-channel route, I recommend this amp:
http://www.mobilesq.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=26_46_49&products_id=79
or this amp if you want to spend a little more:
http://www.mobilesq.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=26_46_48&products_id=69

If you bite the bullet and take my word that you don't need rear speakers, DLS also makes 3-channel amps also. www.mobilesq.com is the only authorized online dealer for DLS so you won't find this brand at Crutchfield.

There is also the option of using two amps. One 4-ch or 2-ch plus one mono subwoofer amp. However, this usually ends up costing more.

Oh, and one more thing. The DLS amps have high-level inputs with autostart feature. That means you can connect the speaker outputs of the stock stereo directly to them and you don't even need a remote turn-on wire.

 

[16902]

Yeah, I read about the rear speaker opinions. I guess I was just kind of reluctant to give up the rears for fear of the fronts not completely filling in and the sub overwhelming but I guess that is all in components and tuning. If I leave out the rears I guess it leaves me with more money to buy a nicer front setup.....hmmmm.

Thanks for the advice....oh and what is your opinon as far as adaptors for hooking up the external amp to the stock unit?

 

[chuyler1]

Well, you will be alright using a LOC or just connecting the speaker outputs to the amp (if it has speaker-level inputs)...but that will end up being your weakest link. Eventually you may want to upgrade the head unit.

 

[Poseur]

If you go the amp'd front stage and sub route, (like you should, and we've even got a very recent success story http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2868220#post2868220) you can always just get a decent 4channel amp use the front channels for your fronts, and bridge the rear channels to your sub. The benefit of this setup is that should you decide you need more power down the line, you can bridge both front and rear to send a TON of power to just your front stage, and then add a second amp for your sub.

Personaly I've never been a big fan of the all-in-one amp setups, and with our cars, there's plenty of under-seat amp room for atleast 2, so you're not space-limited.

 

[Airmack]

Okay, for HU's check out Eclipse Audio, they have freaking 8 volt preamp outputs!

Tell me how much $$ you want to spend in total and I bet I can set you in the right direction...

 

[Poseur]

that 8v preamp output isnot always a good thing. Alot of amps out there aren't capable of handling thatmuch signal. It's kind of a pain.That being said eclipse decks ARE nice. and only some higherend ones are 8v. However, Headunit choice isn't on the agenda here (yet) Getting speakers and power taken care of first might just do the trick without the need to have that non-oe look that's soo appealing to thieves.

 

[sam1]

i had my rears out for quite some time, and while it sounds pretty good, i actually like it better with a little "fill" in the rear. i amped my fronts and ran my rears of the hu, then used the deck to fade more to the front to keep the soundstage more towards the driver. sounds better to me personally, plus it makes the back-seaters happy. now my new project is upgrading from a single 12 to a pair of 12s in an all new fg box. that and i desperately need to get rid of my sony deck. =)

 

[DaViper]

Yea, as Poseur said, check out my recent sucess in the thread he posted. I left my stock speakers in the rear, and I have a sub in my trunk (one that makes a ton more bass than a Basslink). I found that when I crank my audio the stocks in the rear distort a lot (even though they're unamplified), so I have adjusted my head unit to give more power to the fronts and less to the rears. The result is great, and when I sit in the back seat, if I didn't know that I only changed the fronts, I'd probably think that I was running 4 aftermarket amplified speakers!

-DaViper

 

[FoxPro5]

that 8v preamp output isnot always a good thing. Alot of amps out there aren't capable of handling thatmuch signal. It's kind of a pain.That being said eclipse decks ARE nice. and only some higherend ones are 8v. However, Headunit choice isn't on the agenda here (yet) Getting speakers and power taken care of first might just do the trick without the need to have that non-oe look that's soo appealing to thieves.

I've had four...yes 4 Eclipse 8v decks and have NEVER...NOT ONCE..seen 8v come out of any of them! The 8v output is MAXIMUM unclipped voltage measured across the signal leads at 1kHz. So it is safe to say that you will almost NEVER see 8v on those decks....UNLESS you listen to sine waves with the volume set to 80/80! Under normal dynamic music circumstances my 8053 pumped out a measley 4v at 75/80 consistantly the last time I measured it. And keep in mind this is with the BLA...which ups the output by 2v for a total of 10v.

Which amps aren't capable of handeling it??? Arc Audio makes some of the most rock solid amps in the industry...built by the man himself R. Zeff....and their XXK line has MAX input sensitivites of 2.5-2.8v! They are used in competition world wide and do not fail due high voltage signal inputs.

Consider the Audison SRx5 for a 5 channel that accepts line level inputs. The power and flexibility of the SRx series amps is stupid impressive. And that's Audison's intro line.

 

[FoxPro5]

Okay, for HU's check out Eclipse Audio, they have freaking 8 volt preamp outputs!

Tell me how much $$ you want to spend in total and I bet I can set you in the right direction...

Please read the above post on pre-out votage. It's one of the most missunderstood and hyped up topics in car audio.

Ok, $250.

 

[Poseur]

I'm not saying its on a level of entirely incompatible, but I often find that I windup having to settle for gains being higher than I normally would prefer.

I DO realize the actual output is NOT 8v, but then agian when was the last time someone's 5v pre-out actually put out 5? What it comes down to is it's a higher level than mostdecks generally put out, and thusly will put it towards the lowest gain setting most amps are designed for. Thusly for me I've on occasion wound up not being able to go as high up the volume scale as I generally would (bridging some highpowered 4ch amps to a single set of components would be one case) CUrrently I'm at a point with my cheap-but-works-for-now Avionixx subamp where it has a remote gain knob. It will scale up as high as you have your amps gain but will only go as low as the lowest setting. with all other things in my system being balanced and equal the sub is quite overpowering. remote knob adjusted down does nothing for this. I can knock it down from my deck, but I prefer to have balanced sound with all settings as close to zero as possible. My solve for this was to raise the gain on my cadence frontchannel amp soasto level out the sub's relative output. I tend to shuffle thigns about rather frequently (or had for awhile) so I can't recall which amps did what exactly.

Eitherway it really doesn't mattermuch. I was mostly attempting to point out that it might not be just plain outright the best selling feature for a HU ever as the poster seemed to be implying. And alltaht said I think this thread's kinda sputtered out bynow anyway.