I will say that it is a huge PITA to do aftermarket door speakers and wire them to an amp. I got 2 of them done last night. They are sounding great and are well worth it.

How did everyone run their door speakers to an amp?

 

best buy



EDIT: and this guy just noticed this is xb2. sweet. plus one for lack of observation.

 

Most people don't run new wires, they just use the stock lines.

Did you do the front or rear? The fronts are a lot easier than the rears. I slightly cheated since I don't run rear speakers and just added 12 ga lines in to the front doors for the 8" woofers I have in there.

 

Are yours ran off the deck or an amp? I was told to properly do it to an amp you need to run new lines.

 

yeah i am not looking forward to installing this weekend. Heres something to think about when running amp wires through the stock wires. running all that wire to the head unit and then through the little tiny wires the car has will increase the resistance and theoreticly lower the power from your amp. how much i dont know but my kappas i am putting in are 2.3 ohm and are supposed to draw a 4 ohm load through factory wiring (being so tiny).

Any who, I am going to use fish tape to run the wires through the conduits. I am going to edead as much of the door as possible and i am not sure where the huge tweeter is going yet. It will fit in the sail panel with some modification but will most likely be surface mounted near the woofer.

 

I've amped the front compnents, and replaced them as well.

I ran all new 16awg speaker wire. Going to redo everything when I get a new 4 channel, and run a full active front stage. So I'll have to have 2 runs of speaker wire to each door. I run it through the rubber grommet.

In my opinion, if you're going to amplify the speakers, running new wire is the right way to do it.

 

How hard was the front?

 

I made the mistake of running 12ga speaker wire (from a home theater project) from my spare tire area to the front (running down the center of the car). Did require taking out the seats (drat, no loose change to collect) and a couple panels. The hardest part was getting the wire through the wire harness boot in the door. That took nearly an hour to do. Next time, it'll be 16ga.

 

Right now I'm running off the deck as I still have some work left to build my pods for the 2" full range drivers. It will all be run off an amp once I hook it up, for now it just looks pretty in the floor of the hatch. I've got two sets of 12-ga run in to the front doors and it was pretty easy. Just pop the loom off from the door and a-pillar in between so you can run the lines through the hole and then through the loom and in to the other hole. Then you can put it back together with the wire already in it.

 

I ran 16g speaker wire thru the front door grommets. Made use of skinny fingers, some vaseline, and lots of determination to get it throught the boots.
Wires are routed from doors --> under door scuff --> under seats --> amp.

My front speakers are 6.5" Infinity Kappa 60.9cs components. Tweets fit in the sail panel with a bit of modification (Dremel ftw). The crossovers were glued into a carved out section of the door panel. Had to make baffles out of plywood to mount the drivers.
They're powered by a 2-channel Blaupunkt THA275 Thin Series amp that's placed under the driver seat.
Under the passenger seat I have a Boss BASS600 sub/amp. HU is the Pioneer Premium with the preouts.
My audio is wired with a fused 4g line split into two 8g thru fused distribution block.
I purchased all my stuff on eBay and saved lots of $$$ with parts & by installing it myself.

Install time for the system was 10 hrs solo.
Totally worth it for experience gained and satisfaction of knowing I did it all on my own.
Speakers are sounding better and better as they break in. It beats my expectations, especially for the price I paid.

Gotta say
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to all forum members who contribute their pics and advice on systems and installs.
Without you guys I wouldn't have the confidence that I could accomplish something like this and not fry the electrical in my car.
More money in the future will mean better audio upgrades but for now I'm stoked.

 

Getting the speaker wire through the factory grommet was difficult. ESPECIALLY on the driver's side. Driver's side, by nature, has more wiring for all the power windows. I used a wire hanger and patience. You could scoop up a small section of thin wall tubing from Lowe's or Home Depot. That way, you can insert the tubing through the grommet, feed wires through hassle free, then pull the tube back out.
If doing this I recommend starting at that point. That way you can still lay out all the wires to the rear.

 

I used a short piece of stiff wire (coat hanger) with a piece of twine tied on the end, then pulled that through. Then tie the twine to the speaker wire, and pull with care.