7th Gen Audio Install w/Stock HU

[Bs03EX]

Cool - thanks again! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the front speakers just yet. I posted another question about using too many watts for my stock electrical system - looks like I would probably need to upgrade the Big 3 if I ran the components along with another amp - which I'd rather not mess with.

eemichael83 - are you having any problems with the stock alternator or did you upgrade the Big 3?? I don't think you mentioned anything??

[eemichael83]

Originally Posted by Bs03EX

Cool - thanks again! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the front speakers just yet. I posted another question about using too many watts for my stock electrical system - looks like I would probably need to upgrade the Big 3 if I ran the components along with another amp - which I'd rather not mess with.

eemichael83 - are you having any problems with the stock alternator or did you upgrade the Big 3?? I don't think you mentioned anything??

I did not upgrade the alternator, I dont have any caps, and I didnt upgrade any of the chassis and alternator wiring. I think any wiring upgrade will yield negligible results (there was a little discussion about this a page or two back) unless you were dealing with something like 1K+ Watts Continuous and at that point you would really need to upgrade the alternator anyway. I'm also using the stock battery still and am having no problems. I'm sure the stock battery will need replaced soon as its nearing 5 yrs old but thats no surprise. At night, sometimes the lights will dim just slightly. I can only notice it when i'm aimed at the wall in my garage or against a white car or something and that is when it is cranked up about as loud as I want it. I probably will not ever crank it up all the way with my high beams on though because I think at that point, if I was sitting idle, it could blow the alternator. I also posted a few test results on how many Amps the car draws sitting idle, with headlights on, and cooling fan, etc. a couple pages back for reference.

[Bs03EX]

Got it - sorry I missed that.

I think I'm just going to run my sub, amp and JL CS first and see how I like it. That way I won't be pushing the stock electrical system to the edge. If I need more volume up front, I'll go from there and start with some low wattage replacements or go all the way with a complete component system and another amp - but right now I think it will be ok. My goal is more depth of sound and some bump - not outright loudness. I probably would of been happy with a smaller or less demanding sub, but I got an awesome deal on the 12" Type R! The 6x9 Kappas I've got in there now make a huge difference with volume already.

Sorry if I seem like an idiot - the stock head unit w/ nav has been a little tricky as far as options go. If I had the money I'd replace the whole thing!!

Thanks - I really appreciate all the info!

[hjl47]

Originally Posted by Aarmin

You will want to use the supplied crossovers; they will basically send the lower frequencies to the woofer and high frequencies to the tweeter, so your drivers will not strane to reproduce frequencies outside their efficient range.

The main concern for your components without the x-over, is the tweeter. Running all frequencies to the tweeter is a no no.

Having the crossovers up front will help you run shorter wires. Finding the right place to house them can be tricky . I've seen people mount them in the door (note: could arise some rain-water issues), in the door panel pocket (in plain site), under the seats, even as far back as the trunk (longer speaker wire more prone to noise inheritance).

Some details on my own trick:
I have a 2005 Accord with component speakers. I personally mounted my driver side speakers' components crossover on top (way out of site) of the 'plastic panel' right underneath the dash; to me it's a perfect place. The passenger side crossover is simply placed underneath the passenger seat (on the front side); also out of sight, unless you look close enough.


Oh, being Infiniti speakers they will... the highs are quite bright.

question, where do the wires come from for the factory wired tweeter? do the wires go from the HU to the door, then to tweeter or wired individually from the HU? If so this would change how the crossovers would be wired, thinking about getting some components wondering about how to wire.

[cpr]

Hello, this thread has been extremely helpful and has influenced every component I have bought for my 2005 v6 Accord coupe. the question I have for you is regarding the component speakers and 6x9s I have. I bought the same Alpine type S speakers and was hoping to run them off a US Acoustics USB 4085. You said in an earlier post that 65 watts was the max you could run using the stock wiring in the doors. I was wondering at what point I would risk melting the wires? Can I run 85 watts to the speakers and not risk burning up my car? Please keep in mind the 85 RMS figure is at 12.9 volts.

Another question I had for you was weather you thought there was any signal loss in running the 2 17' RCA patch cables to the gain adjuster?

Also, did you put polyfill in your sub enclosure? I am planning on running a ported 12 Type R and was wondering if it would be beneficial? I will be around 1.43 cubic feet after subtracting the sub displacement.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[eemichael83]

Hello cpr, I'm glad the post has helped you out! Sorry for the late response, but here goes.

For your amp running at 85W-RMS, I would turn the gain to about 75%. This will bring you down to about 60-65W RMS range. It will also protect your amp from overheating and prolong its life. It might seem like a waste to not use all of the power but keep in mind that the Type S speakers are rated at less than 85W RMS and anything over their rated handling will give you distortion.

There is no audible signal loss by running the 2 17' RCA cables. You might be running 5-8V through the RCA cables, but the current (amperage) is so low that the power loss due to the resistance of the wires is negligible.

I also did not use polyfill. I built my sealed subwoofer enclosure to the "Optimum" specs by Alpine. You only use polyfill when your enclosure is smaller than what is meant for the sub. Polyfill effectively increases your enclosure size (by as much as 20% from what i've read). Since you have a ported enclosure at 1.43cu-ft, you will probably want to experiment a little with polyfill (use polyester fiberfill) because the optimum ported enclosure for the 12" Type R is 1.7cu-ft gross internal volume. Just experiment with the amount of fill.

You didnt really go into much detail about your enclosure though. A ported/vented enclosure is a little more difficult to build and tune than a sealed enclosure. The port opening area (or port diameter if your using round instead of slot) is actually very very important. So is the port LENGTH. These two things will govern the frequency response and rolloff, they will also have an influence on when your sub will bottom out (max excursion) and other things. If you look up "helmholtz resonator" you can get an idea of how the port actually functions.

Hope that helps

[cpr]

hello,

alright, i finished installing the 6.5 type s mid woofers today but had a question about the tweeters. alpine appears to have supplied inline crossovers for the tweeters, but i didn't notice that you ended up using these in your install. is that correct? should i disregard them all together?

also, i ran the numbers and it appears that the tuning frequency of the box i purchased off ebay is 45 hertz (not ideal). they told me over the phone that it was 33 hertz, but obviously had no idea what i was talking about. is this way to hight to use? i like rock and hip hop. should i go for a sealed box until i have the space/resources to build a proper ported box? please advise. thanks.

[eemichael83]

Originally Posted by cpr

hello,

alright, i finished installing the 6.5 type s mid woofers today but had a question about the tweeters. alpine appears to have supplied inline crossovers for the tweeters, but i didn't notice that you ended up using these in your install. is that correct? should i disregard them all together?

also, i ran the numbers and it appears that the tuning frequency of the box i purchased off ebay is 45 hertz (not ideal). they told me over the phone that it was 33 hertz, but obviously had no idea what i was talking about. is this way to hight to use? i like rock and hip hop. should i go for a sealed box until i have the space/resources to build a proper ported box? please advise. thanks.

You should DEFINITELY use the tweeters that come with the type S speakers (with the inline crossover). There is a HUGE difference in the clarity and detail over the stock ones.

For your enclosure, you can try using polyfill to "enlarge" the box that you bought off of ebay. It is a cheap experiment and worth the try. As far as sealed vs ported, it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you are looking for accuracy and sound quality, then I would go with a sealed enclosure regardless of if I had the "space/resources to build a proper ported box" or not.

[cpr]

hello,

this is the inline crossover i am referring to. it came with the alpine speakers. did you use this in your install? where you able to fit it in the dash under where the tweeter fits?
[ATTACH]

[eemichael83]

Yes, that is exactly what I used. There is a fairly deep hole where the stock tweeter is and that inline crossover will stuff in there without rattling. You NEED to use that crossover though, if you don't you will be putting the tweeters through the full range of sound and they will sound terrible and you could damage them.

[jeff1soccer]

first off, very solid install, looks amazing
after reading this i decided to attempt something similar and my question is regarding wiring to the woofer in the door. i have a set of components and was going to run 70 rms to the set and wanted to run new wire to the speakers, but that doesnt seem to be a real option after removing the door panels. how dangerous is it to use the factory speaker wire for the woofer? the wires seem way too small and i have 14 gauge wire running to the crossovers and it concerns me. would you recommend running 14 gauge wire as close to the speaker as possible and splicing it into the smaller factory wire or just using smaller wire all the way up? any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated

[eemichael83]

Originally Posted by jeff1soccer

first off, very solid install, looks amazing
after reading this i decided to attempt something similar and my question is regarding wiring to the woofer in the door. i have a set of components and was going to run 70 rms to the set and wanted to run new wire to the speakers, but that doesnt seem to be a real option after removing the door panels. how dangerous is it to use the factory speaker wire for the woofer? the wires seem way too small and i have 14 gauge wire running to the crossovers and it concerns me. would you recommend running 14 gauge wire as close to the speaker as possible and splicing it into the smaller factory wire or just using smaller wire all the way up? any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated

If you can manage it, use the smaller gauge (thicker) wire all the way up to the woofer in the door. My setup is only running about 50W-RMS to the components so I didnt have to worry about it. I was going to run a thicker wire anyway, until I pulled that boot off the driver side door and found that there is a wiring harness that blocks the entire pass through hole and is all greased up. The easiest way, and probably the best way, to get around that would be to drill your own holes and use rubber grommets for the holes. You can also use a rubber tube similar to the way the stock tubing goes from the car to the door to hide the wires. Using thick wire and then attaching it to the thinner stock wire is going to be like pinching a water hose.

[eemichael83]

For anyone interested, I purchased a Sound Level Meter last week to dial in my Home Theater so I'll also be taking some measurements of what this install is doing. I'll take a Max SPL reading, and I'll get a plot of the response from 15 Hz-20kHz from the drivers seat at 75dB.

[eemichael83]

I had a few minutes today so I grabbed the SPL meter and one of those Bass Mechanics type CD's with some bass test tracks on it and took a max reading of 123dB (corrected) from the drivers seat (windows up). Windows down dropped the reading by about 1-2dB. Again, this is with the single sealed 10" Alpine with cheaper Alpine 500W amp. When I get more time I'll make a plot of the 15-20kHz sweep @ 75dB.

[nezzk24]

quick question...this is my first time using component speakers how do you wire the woofers and the tweeters if your not using an amp..........do u just use the regular stock wires into the woofer and use the supplied cables for the tweeters?