RC-PILOT

I have never installed an amp, so can someone explain how to best do what I am saving my money to do myself??

I am saving money for the fitted JL Stealthbox. I will eventually upgrade the door speakers too. (That much I can do )

What is best to do on a budget? One 5 chanel amp? One 4 ch & one sub amp? Or two 2 ch & 1 sub amp? I want to run about 300-400 watts to the sub, and somewhere between 50-100 watts to the factory speaker locations, then update the factory speakers later. Does that even sound about right? Do I need a capacitor? I really have no idea. Just want a really good sound quality, not competition level, or any of that.

Last... This is the big one for me... Can someone show or explain how to mount the amps and where to run the wires? That is where I really don't have a clue. I'm sure I'm not the only one, maybe just the only one to ask.

Things like how to power the amps and where & how to ground them "correctly". I read the sticky about noise induced by improper grounding. But where do you run all the wires & cables? How do you mount the amps? Surely you don't screw them through the floor pan!?

Anyway, you help or even pics would be a big help to me and others I'm sure. Thanks

buickid

I'll try my best!

On a budget, I'd buy a quality 50x4 amplifier (or around 50w), and a quality monoblock sub amplifier. Its better this way, in case you ever want to upgrade one of them. I would suggest a Kicker or Rockford amp, just because I know they produce quality products. Other brands may work for you though. I've had good experiences0 purchasing from Sonic Electronix.
Here are two 50x4 amps that I might suggest.
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...08ZX350.4.html
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...te+R300-4.html
The Rockford one is cheaper, but larger.

As far as amping up the factory speakers for now, that would probably work, but I'm not sure how much power they're rated for. Its highly possible that they may not handle 50 watts. You can buy the amp and run the wiring now, and hook up the speakers when you get them though. You don't need a cap, the money would be better spent getting a quality deep cycle battery. Optimas are widely available and a good product. Even better are batteries made for car audio, such as PowerMaster or Kinetik. (I prefer PowerMasters) With your setup though, an Optima should be plenty.


For the sub amp, it will depend on the final ohm load of the subwoofer. You mentioned the JL Stealthbox, which contains a Single Voice Coil (SVC) 4 ohm subwoofer rated for 500W RMS.
It is a little more difficult to make large amounts of power with a high impedance speaker, like a SVC 4ohm sub. If it had a Dual Voice Coil (DVC) 4 ohm sub, you could wire them in parallel to get a 2 ohm final load. Have you considered the knock-off E-bay StealthBox? It comes without a subwoofer, and you could pick from a variety of subwoofers to put in it, many of which come in a DVC 4ohm variety. JL tends to be over priced anyway (no one shoot me )

The amps might fit under the rear seat. Its easily removable by grasping the front firmly, and giving a sharp straight upward tug. Another possible place is under the front seats. Under the rear cargo cover offers a large amount of space to work with, but keep in mind the reduced airflow. I might suggest fitting the sub amp go under the rear seat, and the mids/highs amp go under the front seat. As far as wiring, the wires can be run through the door sills. Its quite easy. All you have to do is pull straight up on the plastic, and it pops right off. Just be gentle but firm. Don't be afraid to take things apart, they generally go back together pretty easily The xB has the most generous door sills I've seen, I easily fit 1/0 gauge wire through them. The power wire from the battery can be pulled through a rubber grommet behind the glove box. (Cut a slit in it first) Remove the glove box to make it easy on yourself. You'll generally want to run the RCA cable and power wire on different sides of the car, but feel free to experiment.

Power to the amps is run via a fused positive wire from the battery. Ground is run from the amp to a solid metal part of the frame/body that you sand/grind down to bare metal to maximum contact. As far as mounting the amps, I have always mounted them to my wood sub box. I've seen one installation done by a top quality shop in which the amp appeared to be screwed directly to the floor. I'm not too sure on that one though. Take a look at http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/caraudio.asp to get some basics down. If you still have questions that the site can't answer, feel free to post em up here, and I'll try to answer them. That site should cover most general topics though. I find that http://www.bcae1.com/ is also a very good read, and presents everything in a logical progression, from basics about electricity that are essential for you to know, into basic installation concepts. Then it goes into everything

Check it out, and let us know!

KaneoheKoa

RC, the best thing to do (after reading and printing buikid's post for reference) is to plan things out and decide that you're going to take a couple days to do this thing. I just finished my xB2 a couple of weeks ago, so the install is fresh in your mind. These are a few tips I learned.

1. TAKE YOUR TIME. DON'T RUSH. Give it a couple days to get done. Break the install into parts. Nothing is worse than rushing and then finding out you messed up and have to do it over again. REST.

2. Buy knee pads. You'll be spending a lot of your time on your knees. If you get the cheap foam ones, put a layer of duct tape on them to make them last longer.

3. Get familiar with the guts of the car, then look at the spots where you may want to put the equipment. Take off the seats and test fit the amps. Getting the rear seat off takes a really big yank (which also pulled a back muscle, ouch). I didn't see much space under the rear, but a good deal of space under the front seats. The rounded carpet profile in the corners under the seats can be cut for more space. Put some short lengths of wire in the connectors so they can give you an idea of a finished fit. Do not run any wires yet, just get to know your car.

4. Draw out on a large sheet of paper where things will go, what wires will be used. As each part gets done, cross it off. Do only what you can comfortable do in a day. When it gets dark, stop and clean up. Working at night, even in a well lit garage is tiring and invites mistakes.

5. Once you found a place for your amps, gather your tools and parts. I used a plastic multi-drawer rolling bin (Iris brand, like you use by your desk) to store and organize everything. Saves time and keeps everything at hand (and less likely to think that you have early onset Alzheimer's because you forgot where you put that %#8!? cutter). Also, get lots of wire ties and tie anchors.

5. Replace your positive battery post connector with a better one that will handle 0 gauge cable. And put those anti-corrosion pads on too (my new 2010 posts had blue fuzz only a month old).

6. Instead of cutting a slit in the rubber wiring grommet, get a pen with a metal body (about 3/8" dia) and take it apart and file the large end to make a cutter. A couple of twists on the grommet and you're thru. Much easier to run the wire through and neater too (be sure to brag to your friends on how clean your install is). Poke a pencil through to the interior and then use the pen body again to make the interior hole.

7. Label every wire with white electrical tape and a fine point magic marker. Make two labels per end: where it came from, where it's going to. And things like +, -, L & R.

8. When wire tying, just make it snug, not choking tight. They used to use waxed thread to bundle wires together in early computers, aircraft and spacecraft before wire ties came into being. All the tie had to do is hold it together. Use a razor blade to cut the excess off at the body (prevents nasty scrapes when you run your arm over them).

9. When wiring, think neat, not fast. Nothing looks better than a clean install, even if you have cheap equipment. Nothing looks worse than really great equipment and sloppy wiring.


Well, those are my two cents worth of advice gleaned from 5 years in the car audio (and 15 years in professional audio) business. We have a saying in pro-audio: strive for technical excellence, because good enough is the real enemy of best.
WORK DELIBERATELY, STOP WHEN TIRED.

I'll be posting my xB2 in the coming week, once I find my camera's batteries.

Stingray Blue 2010 xB2
Sony CTX-GT640
Prestige and Kenwood amps (over the spare mounted)
Infinity Reference 2 way components front, Fosgate 5' coax rear pillar cubbies
Fosgate 8's under front seats

rakisto

hey RC-Pilot, still havnt gotten around to taking pictures of the new stealthbox sorry. Anyways, these are my plans for my XB2.

Alpine ida-x100
Imprint KTX-H100 / PXA-h100
KCE-400bt (parrot bluetooth)

Front Speakers: PPi 356cs 6.5" Component speakers
Back speakers: *For now* Alpine type-r SPR-17s 6.5" Component Speakers
What i would like for my back speakers are another pair of 356cs's if i can find em for cheap.
Sub you already know : JL audio stealthbox for scion xb2

amps:
For Sub - mrp-m850 (got this sucker for $50 clearance at best buy hahah) 500w RMS @ 4ohm
For Speakers - Alpine pdx4.100 - rated 100w x 4 RMS @ 4ohm - [birth sheet says 123w per channel n_n]

i plan on running my fosgate wiring (4gauge w/ a cap) to the back and mount everything in either an amp rack over the spare tire or pack the amps underneith the seats. Im not sure what i wanna do yet. A part of me doesnt want people kicking my amplifiers under the seats, then again i know the mrp-m850 well, the _____ loves to heat up while the pdx stays ice cold! so i dont wanna put it over the spare tire cuz the carpet will be blocking air flow... dilemma!

you see where i stand haha

good luck sir.

buickid

Good advice from KaneoheKoa! Especially breaking it apart into steps. I did my head unit one day, ran wiring one weekend, and other things in stages. Remember that a good job takes time. Don't be afraid to drive around with trim off if you need to use the car. Better than rushing to put everything back and screwing something up.

As far as the battery terminal, you can use a ring terminal on the stock battery terminals. I find the stock battery terminal to be pretty good, you can stack on two or three ring terminals on and the nut still threads on well. I have some battery terminals that I won at a sound comp, but I don't like how you have to cut the cable and run it into the terminal. With the stock terminals, you can disconnect and reconnect things as you wish with only a wrench.

To cut zip-ties really nice, use a flush cutter. I originally used a razor, but sometimes they don't get perfectly smooth and are still sharp. Theres also the risk of slicing things in close proximity if the razor slips (wires, fingers, etc).

Another tip, disconnect the negative terminal before you work on anything. Keeps your from welding tools to stuff or blowing up airbags.

One more thing, KnuKoncepts has great wiring and has a couple kits. http://www.knukonceptz.com/
All my wiring is from there.

KaneoheKoa

Did I mention that when using a razor to cut zip ties, KEEP FINGERS CLEAR. They are very good at finding the pointy ends of a razor. Kudos to Buikid on flush cutters. Get the ones that really do cut flush. Normally when I used them (loaned them and lost them), I would put one blade on the tie body (the bulge part) and the other flush to the body over the tie excess then cut. It takes a sharp cutter, but it cuts it off smooth.

RC-PILOT

LOTS of great advise. Thanks everyone. I will keep a link to this so I can refer back to it as I gather parts for the job.

buickid

Don't forget, its always better to ask questions!