QuestionQUESTION: Heres the deal. I just tried to put a Kenwood DNX 5120 headunit (DVD, sirius the whole nine) into my 2003 nissan maxima. THe maxima was fully loaded to start and had a 6 cd changer bose system stock. After putting the new head unit in i noticed that the speakers are not as load and the stock sub does not slam like it used to. Some one told me each speaker may have an induvidual amplifier on these cars and installing an amp to boost power would be a pain because i would have to rip out all speakers, replace them run new wires then put in the new amplifier. Do you have any opinion on this matter? I love the head unit and want it to slam again but i dont know if i can just wire in a new amp? What else can i do? please help
ANSWER: I am afraid they are right. The wiring in the bose cars is not just straight forward. There are hidden amps and hidden wiring issues. The best bet is to run your own 12 or 14 guage wires to each speaker, and wire directly from your headunit or amplifier. I do not think the sound quality will return without doing this. Hope this helps, Scott
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QUESTION: Ok thanks for the advice first and foremost but with that said i think i am going to gut the speakers and put new ones in the doors and wire them directly to my head unit and new amp. Heres the question though. I am buying an enclosed subwoofer off my friend and want to run some of the watts from the amp to the sub and some to the speakers. What type of amp do i need for this? I know it has to do with channels or ohms, actually i have no idea i want to slam again though the speakers and sub. Any input on the type of amp is should get? Or for that matter speakers while im in the market? I need 5.25 inches and 6.5 speakers. Thanks again.
ANSWER: Thomas, As far as speaker brands, I recommend Infinity above any others, then Polk Audio, Alpine, or Sony. I would suggest checking them out at your local stereo shop. Compare them all and pick the clearest sounding ones where cymbals sound like cymbals and not hisses, or you can hear every note of a piano run and not blurry sounds. As far as amps go, There are a few things to watch for. I would suggest a four channel amp for the door speakers, and a two channel amp for the subwoofer. For power, you should go by rms watts. An amp with 25 - 50 watts rms per channel will be plenty loud for your car. Your stock stereo had about 15 watts. It would be nice if it had a high pass filter built into it, so you could limit the signal going to the door speakers to just the highs and mids. Then, the amp for the sub should have a low pass filter built into, so you can send only lows to the sub. The sub amp should have 2 to 4 times the power of the door amp. If you got a 2 channel amp with 50 watts rms per channel, it could be wired into mono to put out 100 watts rms into one channel. Amps are not hard to pick out. Always go with a name brand, size equals power (a little bitty amp is not going to put out monstrous power, even if they say it does), and the more expensive the unit the better the parts used inside. I think you will definitely like your new system once you get it finished. I went out last night after answering your question and installed my DNX5120. It sounds great in my 06 Dodge ram, louder than the stock stereo was, go figure. Anyways, that is a way cool stereo, and I think it has some options built in to high-pass filter your door speakers, so your amp really doesn't need it. Hope this helps, Scott
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QUESTION: Man all this stuff i had no idea about and again thanks Scott you've been a lot of help in this process already. The sub i will purchasing from a friend is a Kicker L7 10 inch that can handle 600 watts of power. I get what your putting down about the amps but do i need a channel running to each speaker in my car? Is there any way to use the same amp to power my speakers and my sub? Hope I'm not annoying the hell out of you've been real responsive and i appreciate all your help!
AnswerThomas, No problem at all. I love building booming systems and telling others. You do not have to have separate channels going to your door speakers, but you won't have stereo sound or be able to fade or balance anymore. The individual channels let you balance, fade, and hear in stereo. You could wire your sub into one of the channels, but the added resistance to that channel would cause you not to hear that door speaker. The more resistance or ohms in a circuit, the less power is used. It is pretty much like I stated above. However, as I mentioned earlier, I just installed the same radio, and it has plenty of power by itself, so it should be able to power your new door speakers just fine. So then, all you need is the sub amp to power up that big sub. A word on watt power. If a sub can handle 600 watts "rms", that is a ton of power. If it says 600 watts max, then the rms watts is more like 300 watts. Either way, If you buy a 300 watt rms amp, you will not be able to stay in your car when you turn it up. 100 watts will shake your hair, kinda weird feeling. 200 watts will compress your chest, definitely weird feeling. Any more than that is just so loud that your ears really start to hurt. When matching sub power to door speakers, I always say 2 - 4 times the power. Most of the time, 2 times the power is plenty. Keep asking, I will answer anything. -Scott
