Proposed System Install - opinions and comments wanted (my first post)

[Micah]

Hey, this is my first post ( go ahead SirNUKE - do your welcome thing )

I have a 2002 ES ( had it since October - so far I have over 12,000 miles on it ) and this is the stuff I will be installing, just thought I would run it by everyone here and get some opinions.

I used to work at Circuit City, so I have had most of this stuff for over 2 years.

Head Unit - Alpine CDA-7875
CD Changer - Alpine CHA-1214
Amplifiers - (2) MTX Blue Thunder PRO50X4
Front Speakers - Infinity Reference INI 5752CF 5"x7"
Rear Speakers - Infinity Reference INI 6953I 6"x9"
Subs - (2) MTX Blue Thunder 12"
Enclosure - (2) Single Sealed MTX box
- about 6 years old, I can't find the model linked on a page anywhere. If anyone really wants to know, I'll pull it from the enclosure to find out. When they came out, MTX had Road Thunder, and Blue Thunder - anything else was Xtant.
Street Wires 1 farad cap

all Monster Cable [1000-watt amp kit, 3 sets of the micro XL RCA's, and standard Monster Cable Speaker Wire]( 4 gauge wire from battery to distribution block - 8 gauge to amps )

Standard Monster Cable Speaker Wire for the rest of the car. I'm planning on running power on the drivers side, and signal up the passenger side. Not using any of the factory wiring. I'll be running the 3 RCA's back to the amps, one amp goes to the front and rear, the other amp is bridged into two channels for the subs.

I bought the Alpine AI-Net Adapter to give me an Aux input. I'll be hooking up my Nomad to this at first, then later a small switchbox between the Nomad and a DVD player, and my Sony IP5 camcorder, 5.6-inch LCD to be mounted in the passenger visor. ( Tax Return will be used to purchase the DVD player and LCD ).


Ok, question time - how hard is it to run speaker wire into the front doors for the 5x7's?
Recommendation on DVD player?? I've been looking at Blaupunkt and Farenheit. I need something that can play VCD, SVCD, DVD, MP3. ( under $200 )
Recommendation on LCD?? - I'm looking to spend less than $200 on my LCD.

oh, and if anyone is interested I have a set of Infinity Reference 5 1/4's and Alpine 5 1/4's - one set might be 6.5 - I don't remember - they came out of my old car 1994 Escort, so if you are interested, you could look up the speaker size.

Feel free to leave comments.....

 

[Murda]

Good setup in the making I'd say. Haven't really looked into the details of your components, but the only thing that jumps to mind is. What are you powering your subs with?

I could imagine that you're planning on powering your 2 subs with your 4x50 channel amp. I'm going to recommend against that.

Firstly, you're only going to get 100W RMS @ 4 ohms to each of your subs. I don't know your exact specs of your subs as there's no model number. But, they probably want more juice than that. As well, for sub, you're safer off with a class D amp which will end up being around the same price for more power.

Secondly, I don't know why I said firstly.

Good luck!

 

[Micah]

Heheh, The MTX amps are underrated, they came with a certificate showing they actually test out at 80Wx4 - and I had the amps and the subs in my old car. The AMP bridges to those subs just fine, - I actually didn't even have the gain up for the amps any more than 1/3rd.

- the thing I am curious about is
- running wire into the doors
- LCD and DVD ( which to buy )


by the way, those amps are two ohm stable
http://www.mtxaudio.com/caraudio/archive/pro50x4.cfm

 

[Equinox]

really, the hardest part of running the speaker wires is just taking off the front door panels, if you can manage that, the rest ends up being rather easy, just takes a little bit of looking around. On the driver side, I suggest taking off the interior panel that covers the fuse box area, and the area just above it, that sits adjacent to the door when it's closed, that way, when the door is open you can look straight through to dash from the side, and run whatever you want.

Passenger side is a little more, glove box mania, if you can't just run the wires by taking out your headunit and reaching around, and feeding it down above the legroom, and runing it across the lower area of the glove box, then you might wanna just take all that crap off. It's easy enough, just a couple screws behind the glove box, blah blah, whee

atleast, that is what you are talking about.. right?

 

[Equinox]

if you are looking for cheap, but reliable, when it comes to LCDs, you can try

Indash non motorized 7"

also they have a 5.6" non in dash, and a headrest 7" all real cheap, and reliable.

If you have the money, you should go something more along the lines of a beautifully flawless pioneer LCD =)

 

[1sty]

Running wires into the front doors is not easy as you have to remove both side of the plastic wiring clips from the door jams and this is only ince you pull back the rubber boot. Once off you have to find a blank area in each clip, line it up and drill through each. I ran 14 guage monster XLNinto my doors and it took 1/2 a day to do it.

As for LCDs. I have done several installs with internet bought LCDs for under $200. THEY HAVE ALL BEEN GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'd go for someing decent if you still have a hook up at circuit.

I would suggest using another amp for the sub simply becuase 2 12"s can easily over power interior speakers off of just a deck.

 

[Micah]

ok, did you read my post

ok, for the last time,

I have used the amps and the subs before, they are stable, and yes, they would be over powering if I was running them off the head deck.

BUT I AM NOT!!!!

ok, here we go - again

AMP #1 goes to Front and Rear Speakers @ 50W

AMP #2 goes to Subs - Bridged into two separate Channels @100W

the amps put out 78W per channel - MTX underrates their good AMPS

and yes, 400 Watts is plenty enough for me, so even if they don't put out 78W and they just do what they are supposed to, it's still fine. Hell - I had this hooked up in my 94 Escort and it was great. Only part that sucked was the speakers from the doors and the deck in my Escort didn't fit in the Protege, so I had to buy the Infinity. Speaking of which, yes - I know some people would spend the money on Kappa's, but if you check the frequency response, and you realize that I have two 12"s, I don't need Kappa's. The amps have built in crossovers, and so does the Head Deck. I only use the crossovers on the amps.

Thanks for the advice on taking apart the dash and getting wires to the doors. Thanks for the advice on the LCD's also. I'll look into getting my friends at Circuit to hook me up with an Alpine LCD to mount in the visor. But I have friends who have used the cheap farenheit screens and they have had them for over a year with no problems. I'll post pics when it's all done.

 

[1sty]

Missed the two amps part, sorry about that. Sounds like a good setup.

As for monitors the problems I have seen has been terrible off axis viewing, lack of brightness, choppy video, prone to ground loops, and no image when cold.

 

[Sir Nuke]

hello Micah and Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to our Club. There are TWO BIG fridge'S in the corner with anything you can think of in them...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have. (stash)

make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom don't care....and take it easy.

oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!! (stash)

your set up looks nice.....happy listening!!!