Long time guys, but I've had a bunch of audio parts sitting in boxes for over two years and I want to finally finish my system this summer. I have Focal component speakers and a box with 2 JL 12w6v2's in them. Right now, I have a Kenwood 9104d amp that is only powering one of the JL's, so I figured I'd buy a 2nd one of these amps to power the 2nd sub as well. That would mean my setup would have a total of 3 amps.

What I need to know is, how should I plan the power wiring of all 3 of these amps. How does the remote wire work as well when you have 3 amps? Can you just daisy-chain them to eachother? I figured I have to buy a splitter to split the power into 3 separate wires, so I will be doing that shortly.

Where the hell can I mount 3 amps in the tC's trunk? I was thinking the big multi-channel on the big side of the back seat, 1 mono sub amp on the little side of the seat, and trying to fit the last mono sub under the bed somewhere.

Also, how are the RCA cables going to work when you have 3 amps? All this stuff is still confusing me :/

Oh, and will I need a capacitor with all this power?

 

do you have a stock head unit? if you do it will really complify this. and a capacitor wouldn't be a bad idea, in my opinion they can make a system sound better. what size power wire are you going to run?
and the remote wire you can daisy chain it.
definitely like the subs

 

watch the crutchfield videos on youtube
they explain everything in detail

 

Instead of buying another amp to power the second sub, sell the first one and buy a good amp to power both. This will cut down having to worry about where to mount the amps in your car. And im assuming you have a dedicated 4 channel amp for the components and rears, leave that as is.

Basically, minimizing the amount of wiring youre going to have to run is going to save you a lot of headaches. The space in the tC is limited as it is, running 3 amps IS possible of course, but the amount of space needed for them to be thermally efficient for is a big concern.

Another reason to limit wiring is cross talk between wires, or EMF. "well what about twisted pair wire.." this and that blah blah blah. It minimizes it AT THE MOST. Its virtually impossible to be rid of it completely.

 

Im running three amps in my car, two boston surf boards for my subs and one kenwood for my components. I dont have an updated pic of my current setup but here is an older one.




the remote wire i just split into three wires along with the power. I am also running a cap as well. you will also have to do the same with the rca's. to minimize the EMF is running the power on one side of the car and the rca on the other side. the only time i hear it is when my system is off, i hear a little buzz when my rpm changes but its gone when i raise the volume.

with my current setup, i have taken out the false floor and placed the kenwood amp in the spare tire area with the speaker box only covering it up by 1/4. I carpeted the areas that needed it.

 

I have an Alpine ida-x100 head unit. I was planning on running 4 gauge power cables and splitting them with a block. Yes, I have a Clarion multi-channel amp that I am planning on using for the components.

If I were to sell my current mono amp for one to replace it, what would you guys recommend? I remember looking into amps that put out 1000+rms at a 1ohm load, but I remember reading somewhere that the JL's can't handle that or something. Something about them only being wired for 4 or 8 ohm? I don't remember, I kind of forgot, but right now the Kenwood amp I have is giving 1 of the subs 500 RMS at 4 Ohm soo....

And could you guys just fully explain the RCA situation for 3 amps? I'm still a little confused on how that would be wired...

 

Its best to look into downsizing the amount of equipment into your car. The tC is small, but sounds awesome with the correct setup. You wont need to run farad caps, which in my opinion are basically bandaids. The stock alternator can handle plenty of knock. I had a 2000 watt system with no dimming of the lights at full blast for a minute or two.

Anyways, to wire the 3 amps, youre going to need a distribution block for power and ground, and also a few Y splitters to wire them up and get them to work properly. Only problem is, using that many Y Splitters is going to degrade your SQ significantly. And itll look like rats and birds made your trunk a home

As far as what 2 channel amp to get, look up on sonicelectronix.com. They have awesome deals on car stereo equipment. Dont really know the specs on your subs and what they can handle, but look around and im sure youll find something.

If you still want to go the 3 amp route, just google "wiring multiple amps"

GL

 

I am also running on 2 12w6v2, I have JL's 1000/1 amp. been using it for over 9 years.

I agree with the idea that you should take the small space in tc as a consideration.

but here is an idea, I have 09 tC, so i recently(finally) took out the stock sub box and relocate my amp in there.

Running 0/1 gauge from battery to block, 2 4 gauges to speaker amp and sub amp.

 

if i was you i would keep the four channel and get a single channel that is 1 ohm stable. as for the rca wires some amps have pass through connections for them so you don't have to wire all of the rca's from the deck to the subs in the rear. if your amp has the pass through feature you can run one rca line to that amp then run another shorter rca from that amp to the next amp.

you can wire the w6's to 2 ohm or 8 ohm loads. (dual 4 ohm speakers). i would wire the subs into 2 ohm loads then wire them parallel for a 1 ohm load.

you just have to wire the jumper cables correctly on the speaker inputs. for 8 ohm sub wire one jumper cable from vc1- to vc2+. for a 2 ohm sub wire one jumper cable from vc1- to vc2- and one jumper cable from vc1+ to vc2+.

i would have to agree with the others about using 2 amps only. it will be a lot less complicating.

 

^^Precisely. If you wanted ridiculous knock with a ____ ton of equipment in your car, you should have gotten a Suburban haha. But other then that, keep in mind more equipment does not mean better sound. Start with quality equipment, and run it flawlessly and it will sound perfect.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm probably going to figure out how to get 1 amp for both the subs instead of 2. I've read elsewhere though that running the w6's at 1 ohm is not a good idea, so I'm unsure right now. My current Kenwood amp can run 900w at 2 ohm and when I had both hooked up to that, i just don't remember it being very punchy or loud, they sounded underpowered maybe? (They can run from 150-600rms)

 

Well typical rule of thumb is you want to power the subs somewhere between 70-100% of there RMS, not Max. Of course the closer to 100% the better. So find an amp that best matches that, and youre golden