Well, over the winter I plan on upgrading my system myself, possibly with the help of a couple of savy car audio friends

Here is a basic outline of what I plan to do, with a couple of questions.

a) Deck

b) replace front component speakers

c) add driver side stealthbox with 10" sub, possibl passenger side box with another 10" as well

d) mount two amps in back, 2 ch for subs, 4ch for speakers

e) replace rear passenger sub/mids

QUESTION: do i replace these with mids? or "regular" speakers ie. 6.5" if I want to leave the bass for the sub(s) in the back

f)

QUESTION: what do I do with the sail panel speakers? there are two per side, a mid and a tweeter I think......i've heard conflicting recommendations.

QUESTION: how hard is it to run the wires and such myself? any special trim removal tools etc. i need?

Thanks guys,

 

I used a phillips screwdriver

As for the removal, it can be a pain in the *** depending on how hot it is outside. I did mine in 104 degree heat, I will NEVER do that again.

Alot of people say to skip the rear speakers in the sail panel. I went with 6.5 components up front, and 6.5 coaxials for the rear ( tweeters mounted on the woofer )

I personally do not notice much difference when I adjust the fader all the way to the front so that may back up the fact that rear fill is not needed. It's not true surround sound, now if you have one of those fancy head units with delay settings then it may make a difference.

I just went with rear fill for my rear passengers

All the interior parts came out very easilly, I plan on removing all carpet/seats/plastic panels and dynomatting my entire interior. Before my install I was a complete car audio newbie, I didn't even know how to install a head unit.

It's not that hard to pick up, alot of people on the forums helped me.

p.s. Buy your stealth box from Megabass at subthump.com, he is the man and you can't go wrong dealing with him.

 

Deck - Get an adapater harness. No prob. Just plug it in. I'm guessing you have the Monsoon system in your car? If you do, then you have the amp in the *** end, and wires from the HU to the amp and then back again. What you CAN do is replace the whole thing, it's usually the best. Leave the wires in there, unless necessary. Take the wiring where it goes to the amp in the rear and splice it to your amps that you buy. Here's my .02 on it. If you want to run wires, no special tools are needed, just time and patience. It's really easy, but dont run them parallel to power wires and such or you'll get noise. If you must run them near, run them perpeindicular. If you must run them parallel, keep something metal and like 12" between them if possible. Ex, you're gonna want a BIG power wire to the rear, atleat a 4 gauge wire. Next, your rears, the ones in the hatch, are high end speakers. Replace them with something better, if you want rear fill(I think they're 4"). I personally really like it, so thats me. The sail panels are another speaker, a 6.5" 'subwoofer' and not really needed. For fronts, get a decent set of components with seperate tweeters, mount the tweeters to the power mirror plastic triangle, and the 6.5" unit in the stock location.

For subs, may I send my personal choices of an infinity Kappa perfect 10", or an Alpine Type (R I think, whichever is more expensive)... But get a nice 4ohm sub. I like the kappa perfect because it has a really small enclosure volume, down to .5cu if packed and sealed, and will hit from 350watts up to 1400. For a sub amp, I'd get a MONO sub amp, specifically, I personally prefer the JBL power series or the Alpine V12 amps. The JBL power (I have a bp600) are 1 ohm stable, so you can run the subs in parallel, and at 2ohms, the 600bp puts out nearly 600rms and 850max, with a max draw of like 57 amps. It's a big draw. It wont win you any awards, but turned down, it should be enough. At 4 ohms, the amp runs 300rms and 600max. But because it's 1ohm stable, I would say get a dual voice coil perfect 10". The alpines are also killer amps, and the V12 series excel espicially in higher freq where the JBL amps start to croak. Also I've heard the alpines to be a little cleaner bass amps, though not as hard/efficient. For brute force though, the JBLs are a good buy.

If you want quality, I'd say a MB quarts are great speakers. I've personally never heard better, though the Kappa speakers, Kappa perfect components, Alpines and even some Kenwoods are decent. But all the output of the system depends on the HU. Dont skimp here and take your time. It will make all the difference. Dont go to Best Buy or Circuit city and listen to stuff to make your decision. Go to a big car show this fall and talk nice to the car competitors. There are so many F-bodies you should see a few, and if they'll let you sit in the car and hear it yourself (I notice a lot of guys are like that if you really are interested in their system, the pride in this stuff is incredible) not to mention they can first hand show you a lot of things. Even if you have to travel 3 hours to get there, spending an hour in actual cars listening to tuned huge investment systems will give you great feedback and ideas on how to do stuff. Another great thing, is leave your system open for expansion, you may never know when you want to upgrade, or even return to stock if you need to, so dont cut connectors, buy wiring harnesses every time. Doing it the right way the first time will help, I learned that the hard way.

That's a start. If you have any questions, ask.
Also, in my experience, go to ebay and deal with people more then 200 feedback, usually they dont scam. And prices on ebay cant be matched or beat by any store. In fact, I've known some audio shops to buy their stuff off ebay

And another thing to remember, that 1000watt sub may cost you $10 vs the 1400watt kappa perfect at $170, but there's a reason. You REALLY get what you pay for. And above all, demos are key. Example, I think MB quarts are killer, but for me they are TOO clear and give me a headache. I prefer the Blaupunkts and how they sound, but they happen to be cheaper. Had I opted for the Quarts, I would have been sorry. But had I opted for the even cheaper JVCs, I would have been also sorry.

 

Couple comments
The Perfect will NOT take 1400 watts. No way, no how. the 12 in a 1 cube sealed box starts to hammer the voice coil against the back plate with 800 watts. They are nice sounding subs, but they will not take that much power unless you use a TINY box, and then you loose the whole reason you have a sub... the low end.

No need to get a 4 ohm sub, if you get a dual 4 ohm Type R or IDQ, you could get a JBL 600.1, and get the whole 600 watts out of it right away, and later if you get another sub run it at 1 ohm and run each sub with 300 watts.... And you should NOT notice the distortion between the JBL and the Alpine.


I only partially agree here. For $125 you can get a better sub than the Perfect 12, and get a better warranty (Adire Shiva) Better for less money, and i will soon find out if the Elemental Designs K series falls into that category.


Clear is not the problem... it is that they have just way too bright of tweeter. My A/D/S coaxials are VERY clear and accurate, but they have a soft dome tweeter and listener fatigue is not a problem like a lot of the brighter speakers i have heard (infinity perfects, BA Pros, and Diamond M5 comes to mind). All are great speakers, but i agree that you must listen and see which ones fit your listening style.

 

I had a pair of kappa 12's - never put them on more then the 600.1, so I never put that much power into them, though they hit pretty damn hard.

Adire Shiva? Never heard of them, I'll have to look.

Also could have been some other problem, but at a car audio store where I heard it there, there was a big difference. No matter how much I tried to tweak it, the pair (actually were MTX 8000 subs) sounded a lot better with the alpine amp. Didnt give off as much, but it was cleaner. Could have been wiring, dont know, but no matter what I did to the JBL I couldnt clean it up.

And I still hate how our stock systems are wired, though they are decent for a stock system.

 

For some pics as well as installation ideas, check out the link in my sig.