I did a search and had many of my questions answered there, but I still have a few left. I'm wanting to replace the Bose system; I have MB Quart PSC216's for the doors, Boston Acoustic NX's for the rear, a Kenwood Excelon head unit, and a JL Audio 300/2 amp to power the Quarts. I've talked to a local audio shop to do the install (they seem pretty competent) but I'm still a little confused on the wiring. Is it necessary to rewire everything when doing an install like this, if so, how had is it to do, and how much do you think it should cost? It seems that people have mounted amps in various places, I would just like to know the pro's and con's of each (I don't have t-tops).


Thanks in advance,
Rob

 

that's some serious power for door speakers. Are you using that amp for some subs or are you using it for the mids/highs in the doors?

disclaimer: I know the monsoon really well, but I only know the bose system vaguely.

Here's my take. If you are going to replace the bose head unit and you're going to be putting an amp on everything else, you're going to do some heavy wiring anyway.

Your power/switched/ground wires for the deck can all be taken from the factory head unit wiring. A normal GM harness should work for that. All of the other wires will come from the amp.

From your AM (aftermarket) head unit, you're going to be running RCA cables back to the AM amp. Your amp will be sending signal back to the speakers off of all new wires anyway. You should run these new wires directly to the speakers in the door (not to the dash head unit factory wires). The amp's power will come directly from the battery and the ground will go directly to the chassis. The only wires that would have to be run is the RCA cables, speaker wires and power cables for the amp.

It should cost ~$100 for installation.

I have my amps mounted on the back wall of the car. You can see the link in the signature.

Pros:
- T-tops still fit (not a big deal for you)
- well hidden from view so it's not begging to be stolen
- you can put just about any amp you can imagine back there because there's plenty of room to work with. No real size restrictions

Cons:
- not many really
- oh yeah, the power cable has to be pretty long - 21 feet I think so you'll really want to use 4 guage as a minimum for power cable.

For a sub box, go to http://www.subthump.com, since you don't have t-tops go for one of the dual 12 boxes.