I used 5.25's front and rear, and 6x9's on the side, with twin pheonix gold octain R 10d's in a ported box for subs, and right now i have a bazooka 600watt max power mono block amp (i'm looking for a good 2channel amp tho) to make it bump. currently i have a kenwood deck, which is way nicer than the alpine deck i bought a year ago (it sounded like poo!) i bought a new panisonic deck on line earlyer this week that comes with ipod controll, my friend has it and i love it.

 

I think i got what i want, i'm gonna do away with the speakers in the rear, put in some good 6x9's and the best i can afford for the dash, and finish out with 1 or 2 10's for some extra bass. It depends though i might end up keeping the rears...but i dont want a real flashy system because its like a "steal my stuff" sign lol




LINKS:
6x9's
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8287515&type=product&id=11728815 63579
Head Unit
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=300&i=113KDC138&tp=5684
Front
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=400&i=023GTX352&tp=105
Rear Doors (maybe)
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=400&i=136TR350CX&tp=105


Extra's
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=802&i=514REC11P&tp=150
not sure which one...
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Group/ProductMenu.aspx?g=120&tp=115&nvpair=FFPrice_Range %7c%5brank1%5dUp+to+%24200
These for all speakers
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=762&i=237XT69&tp=2809
And this stuff to wire it all up.
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Group/ProductMenu.aspx?g=711&tp=2919

 

Hi,

well, its like 12 degrees here, so it may be a while on the photos...

No on the re-wire, because they used the chassis I think everywhere for the neg side connection, and I found it better/easier to just run the wires where I wanted to.

I ran most of them under the carpet in non traffic areas, and/or under molding, etc...

one thing - be VERY carefull if you run it close to the screws in the molding - it makes it tigher and neater, BUT don't get a screw piecing the wire, or you will short the speaker to ground - won't hurt anything, but it will sound like crap, or actually could short the amp, depending, if the two wires are then also touching each other....

the dash is cake to re-wire once you have the top panel off...

The trickest part is running the pair to the rear door - all I did was share one of the grommets from the defrost I think... and I think I actually ended up running that set up through the top of the headliner, and then down on side...

I have my big amp and crossover right behind my seat on the floor... there should be a nice spot between the framework of the bench seats and the inner wall on the drivers side... perfect place for the amp.

I even put it under the carpet, and most of the time, I just lay the carpet on top of it, and people don't even know I have a system that way, unless I open the back of course, and they say - WOW look at those subs! :-)

I normally never really use the back door that much - actually tonight I did for the Christmas tree pick up, but normally, I run without the middle seat in, and it's great for just about anything....

also, get the wire that has the round and square insulation as part of the par - it's the coolest! - you can tell what is + and - without even having to look at the wire!

Ideally, you'd be soldering the wire to the speakers, but if you can't, next best thing are the stak-on clips that crimp on to the bare wire, and then slide onto the terminals... don't leave any of the bare wire exposed...

you can PM me if you want, etc... I'm sure this is long winded for others :-) (sorry board)

It's not hard to do, but you do just want to take your time when you do it.

 

good choices good choices. I have the deck thats like one level below this one, it sounds really nice. don't go with anything smaller than an 8 gauge wiring kit for your amp... you don't want to over load any thing.

also, buy a second inline fuse,

put one right by your battery, and one right by your amp. this helps with shorts both ways, and with removeing your subs

 

and get a cap too... will save the electrical system of the van, plus the music will sound better... 8 gauge is standard for power - but it is needed for sure - like DCRB said, an inline fuse at both ends is a good idea - I just have one on the amp actually, and it's fine, it's right near the battery and the cap, but you can never be too safe :-) I think it's a 50 or 100 amp fuse.

another thing - people will tell you to ground as close to the amp as possible - with my aero, I did this in 2 different places, but got so much engine "whine" doing that, that I decided to run a line all the way back to the battery as well, and it fixed the whine problem for me... again, most will say "don't run the neg all the way back like that" but I cared more about the sound quality than anything else, and I used a big enough wire to do it...

I was speaking about the high end alpines, not the crap at best buy, etc... Kenwood makes a nice unit too, and I always liked their receivers, if you planned on listening to the radio, it's maybe one of the best... but most people I know don't listen to the radio with a system - kinda defeats the purpose :-)

Circuit city used to have a High end wall - and at least you can listen to some heads there to give you an idea...

I find that usually the ones that sound the best, have the controls I like least - it's strange, but that might just be me... I like ***** for volume, but the really high end offerings usually don't have those :-) - but the $49 Walmart ones do! :-)

I didn't know you could fit any 5 and a 1/4 inch speaker in the rears, but I guess you can - it's tight back there... so they must be pretty flat.

Actually, I think I have 4.25 inch speakers in both now that I think about it more - I was actually (at the time) going to put some 6 inch 2 ways in the doors too, but with the window regulators there all the time, it would have been tough to put in some really nice ones...

Another thing - don't forget to cap and coil your system, unless you are going with an electronic crossover - you don't really want to feed anything below 250HZ to a 5 inch speaker... or you will lose some of the imagining, and you are making that poor little driver do all that extra work for nothing... I think some amps have them built in now, and you can select the crossover point...

I like 100-90hz for 10 inch subs, and like 80 or so for 12's if you go with 15's, which I doubt, I'd bring it down to 60hz,

so, in my system, the fronts and rears are set at 275hz and up, the 6x9's are set to 100hz and up, and my subs are set at 100hz I was thinking of going down to 90 at one point, but the crossover I use is very steep, like 24db per octave, so there is very little bleed...

The whole Idea with all this, is whatever YOU like - and also, for the space, what will sound the best for the type of material that you will mostly play... I would set up a system slightly different for a classical user than a Rap user.... but a good system, set up right, will play most anything, and it will sound great...

 

After shopping online i went outside to drive to some stores and look around. Ironically the van wouldnt start...lol.

 

Actually this is quite interesting and informative, and there is nothing wrong with being long winded.

 

WOW i never even thought about tuneing stuff like that... I'm going to be investing in a pair of amps... a good two channel and a good four way amp. I'm thinking about get a door componet set too, so i get good front end bass for those nights when i don't feel like bumpin the subs (some times i don't feel like much bass!)

the 5.25's i put in the rear are actualy mounted to the pannel it's self vs. in the hatch, and then i used four self threading screws to help hold the pannel it place. it actualy looks quite clean. suprisingly enough i origonaly bought 3 1/2's for the rear, and they had good trebal but the bass was icky (they were infinities) and i had orrigonaly boughten a set of boss 5.25's (i didn't know boss was crap?) and had those sitting around, so i took these capacitors that are bass reducing and installed them to each boss speaker and they get great trebal and barly move but make GOOD bass. my six by nines are pioneer, and i had to make them custom, i bought them online, and about a month later one of the tweater things stoped working ( i can hear the diff.). my friend had a set of four way pioneers, so i took the four way parts from his 6x9's and put them on mine... sounds beast! lol they beat very nice for a floating system. my fronts are phoenix gold rsd 5.25's with silk dome tweeters. they sound great and don't distort almost at all for floating speakers

mono block amps are good for one sub; when i had one ten in a ported box, the bazooka amp i have was like god mode... but now with diff. subs and a pair instead of a single one it just doesn't quite cut it.

 

Hey 93nighthawk why don't you pix of your aero on your domain?

 

I do, I thought I had the link in my sig. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2044116

In a second I will add it to my sig.

EDIT: The pics are kinda old, but not much has changed to the van, besides it has snow on it now, and I no longer live at the place in my first cardomain pics, I just recently moved across state to a place with no garage.

 

another tip for anyone - don't skimp on the quality of wire either - as I said 16 gauge would be all I would use or 14 even, but run something decent like canarie, or Ph Gold, or even the GOOD monster stuff is ok... it's all about the gold content...

The thing is, crummy wire doesn't matter when you have crap to begin with, but if you are buying the higher end stuff, wire will make all the difference, esp if you are really driving the amp... will allow it to deliver the signal much better

I should have taken photos of everything I did to my 89 back in 93... maybe, if I keep it, I will pimp it a little bit this spring, and then share some photos... :-)