Where to mount a stereo amp?

[gvr4ever]

I'm taking the time to rewire my fuel pump (again) all hidden and out of the way. I am sending the wire down below the stereo and I was going to send it under the carpet and out by the vent under the drivers seat. I was going to let it be exposed under the driver seat and then run the wire along the plastic cover for all the stock factory wires in the back seat on the drivers side of the car to the trunk.

I then realized, I never want to do this again, so now would be a good time to run new speaker wires and a power line for a powered sub for da trunk. Right now I have just have the stock speaker wires hooked up to a new head unit. I currently don't have a amp installed, but later I want too. Nothing major, just a little alpine amp to utilize the speakers I installed. Anyweay, I've never mounted or installed a amp before, but I want it up front. Any ideals on where to put it? Also please share if there is a better way to run my wires. I wanted to run them on top of the plastic cover for all the factory wires to keep them away from the metal.

 

[Matticus]

The first owner of my Galant installed this crazy amp under the passenger seat. It is like a 4-5 channel amp. It runs the fronts, mids, rears, and a pair of 8" subs in the trunk (8s bump hard YO!) It is a pretty big amp and fits very nicely under the seat. I think the manufacturer of the system was ADC or something like that. So, my vote is the passenger seat.

 

[blacksheep]

Ok, here is the way I would suggest doing it...

1) Run power wire for your amp and fuel pump on passengers side of the car following steps similar to the ones below. Look in tech section on "Reloacting battery to trunk) on how to fish the power wires thru the grommet in passenger fender. Else, run 1 big power wire and use a distriution block for power wires to amp and pump...

2) Run your RCA's and speaker wire on the drivers side along the edge or so. Easiest way is to stuff the wire in the carpet behind the deck, then take off drivers side door scuff guard and anything else to give your carpet some room to lift up, reach underneath, grab and pull.

3) Then take off rear drivers side door scuff guard, pull carpet thru.

4) Take off rear seat bottom and back. Easy as hell to do (2 tabs to pull, 3 bolts to loosen and push) and route wires thru.

5) Run fuel pump wire behind the panelling and the rear panelling around tailights. The relay can be wired in and hidden as well under here.

6) Amp can be mounted to the seat back, or trunk floor (careful when "screwing" in there)

My install is similar. My car is fully gutted so I can do all this a lot easier and my battery is in the trunk, so amp and fuel pump wiring is different to a certain point. I hope to chronicle this with a VFAQ.

Last but not the least, take your time and dont think you need to get it all done. With time and effort comes the cleanest installs. Look at number3, Turbowop and some others rides...

Hope this helps!

 

quote:Originally posted by Matticus:
I think the manufacturer of the system was ADC or something like that. Either ADS or ARC Audio. Both very high end, and bad-ass amp manufacturers.

 

[Gabor]

So KC, you just screwed the amps down to the back of the seats? How thick is that material on there?
I was going to actualy add a piece of plywood there first.

Gabor
692/1000

 

[blacksheep]

Gabor - No, I am not sure yet. My 5 channel alpine is a big mofo so it will block the pass thru. So, I want to do trunk floor like you said with a sheet of plywood coz that pass thru will let some bass thru.

Behind the seats there is another "cardboardish" trim panel. I would adapt plywood to that and screw it in.

Or I may just say screw it to the pass-thru, weld in a fireplate for the regulations and then screw an amp to it...

 

[G]

actually the correct way to run the wires is to run the power wires down the passenger side of the car, since it's the side that the battery is on. then run the speaker wires down the drivers side, finally run any & all rca's down the middle of the car under the carpet. why this way?
to avoid unwanted signals entering the sound system through the rca's (engine whine) running rca's next to all the cars stock wiring on either side of the car is a bad idea. it's more work but it's worth it.

 

[blacksheep]

OK, if you wann get technical...

 

[number3]

My Soundstream ref 405 is under the passenger seat.

Harry

 

[Matticus]

quote:Originally posted by Hibrn8:
quote:Originally posted by Matticus:
I think the manufacturer of the system was ADC or something like that. Either ADS or ARC Audio. Both very high end, and bad-ass amp manufacturers. That's it, ADS. When I got the car it had like 10 different manuals and installer notes with the car. I need new speakers, the current speakers are a bit tired I think.

 

[gvr4ever]

Thanks for all the replies.

Some of my carpet is up in the back seat, the back seat is up. I'm on a roll, but I sure don't want to do it again

Please post pics of your cleanest install.

Thanks

 

Aye, ADS is a very reputable audio company both home and car.
Under the seat should be fine as long as its not too big that it sticks out and can be easily seen.One of the biggest tasks is getting good grounding points so as to not introduce major noise into the system a la Alt whine.Before putting the interior back together,test the system while the car is running and rev it while listening for pops,buzzes, and the infamous alt whine.If you get any noise that dont seem right, then you don't have to rip everything apart again.
Just a thought

 

I'm not picky when it comes to interior stuff and I have wires sticking out in various places. However, I think my front speaker install was actually pretty clean (a rarity):

http://www.minnstech.com/pics/tweeter_mid.jpg

Note the speaker wire...

I forget why it was out in that pic, but its behind the panel now.

Oh, here's the only other pic I have:

http://www.minnstech.com/pics/battery_amp.JPG

Yes, the zip tie is the only thing holding the piece of wood in place. That was taken awhile ago. Its slightly 'cleaner' now but not much...

Mark

 

[Hertz]

How's that ground working for you? Is that the only one you've used?

 

I know people have had problems with grounding at the strut tower so I choose that other spot. Its worked fine for me.

Mark

 

[blacksheep]

Some pics I took while wiring. I dunno if it helps anyone here, but you can see how my 2 gauge battery relocation wire is on the passengers side, RCA's in the middle and speaker wire on the drivers side (kinda)

I had to cut some metal here and there so I could lay the wires flat and run under stuff so it doesnt show thru the carpet.

I still need to run speaker wire for the midbass that will go in the rear deck, Fuel pump rewire, amp wiring, kill switch wiring, That trunk floor will be an organized mess.

God bless ducktape!

 

[Romanova]

Nice sexy seat belts KC! Where is my set?

 

quote:Originally posted by blacksheep:
Some pics I took while wiring. I dunno if it helps anyone here, but you can see how my 2 gauge battery relocation wire is on the passengers side, RCA's in the middle and speaker wire on the drivers side (kinda)

I had to cut some metal here and there so I could lay the wires flat and run under stuff so it doesnt show thru the carpet.

I still need to run speaker wire for the midbass that will go in the rear deck, Fuel pump rewire, amp wiring, kill switch wiring, That trunk floor will be an organized mess.

God bless ducktape!

Audio newbie question here, is that some kind of RCA ribbon cable?

 

[blacksheep]

Harms - Its actually regular RCA cable, but twisted. Rockford Fosgate makes it and its a set of 3 pairs of RCA cables all atached together. This way I dont run 3 seperate sets for my speaker, midbass and sub. They also have wire clips of some sort all attached to them and makes it almost like ribbon cable. It laid down real flat and easy. I got the set from sounddomain.com.

I wish I could say the same for the 2 gauge

It fought me all the way to the trunk.

 

[turboflanagan]

I had two amps mounted in the trunk with a sub. Did a crappy job. It all got stolen and insurance covered a new system.

Two JL amps that JUST fit on the trunk side of the back seat. One 10" sub in the left rear corner of trunk. Battery and Cap in right rear of trunk behind the trim panel. I would like to make a nice fiberglass enclosure for the sub so it looks better and clean up the wires some, but that is low on my priority list right now.