Well, took me over 2 hours last night, but below is a wiring diagram of my stereo setup. I should have the installation completely finished by next Friday I am thinking. All products (Head unit, amps, speakers, subs) are all Kenwood eXcelon. I have had two 12" eXcelon subs and have gotten a lot of compliments on them in the past year, and I'm hoping that adding two more 12's and their high perf. 11" (which will be receiving 800-1000) will really hit hard. Any suggestions on how the wiring looks? This is my first install, but I've done tons of research, etc. and think it will be nice when finished.

 

Get rid of the 11". Why are you mixing different size subs? Everything else looks good.

 

I know, it seems dumb. I have found the sub brand new on ebay for only $200, not returned or refurbished and seller had perfect feedback. The sub retails for $500 in local shops. I had to jump on it. I have switches running to all my sub amps though (from the head units remote turn on lead, not shown in diagram), so that I can choose to just run the one 11" or two 12s or four 12s, and so on.

 

looks good. post some pics when you get them installed and let us know how it went.

 

definitely. I can't wait to get this damn project finished. had the car ripped apart for almost 2 months now. always something breaking, or something needing to be special ordered. now just waiting on my 200 amp alternator which should be in on the 22nd

 

Here is how I would run it... Ditch the ground block... You are better off just grounding each amp individually to help keep the ground wires shorter IMO. And I would use a fuse block instead of individual fuses for each amp.

What are you planning on doing for speaker wires? You going to run the OEM wires that go into the doors for the separates? Or are you going to pull new wires into the doors?

I'm in Norwich.. Let me know if you need some help.

 

Couple things. Why the relay before the head unit? Yes, I have aftermarket speaker wire running directly from the amp through the doors to the crossovers, not spliced off the factory wire like Tweeter did in my old Integra. Also, I am not getting rid of the 11" sub and amp. I have already spent the money and designed the entire physical system (box and amp layout) in the car. I looked for a fused block, but could not find one with one 0 awg in and three 4 awg outs. I was planning on daisy chaining the RCA's from the head unit to mono amps 1, 2, and 3

 

oops... that was supposed to be a fuse, not a relay... DUHHH...

And I know TIFF used to make a 0 gauge in, 4 4 gauge out.

 

Audiopipe has a (1) 1/0ga. in and (4) 4ga. out distribution block. I bet there are some other companies who make what you need.

 

Dude, must see some pics of it when completed. Keep us updated.

 

yes, def will post pics. many will probably bitch about too much weight, and what's the point of adding a turbo if I'm adding 300 lbs to the car, but I don't even care anymore. I like it, and that's all that really matters to me, I don't race, and the car is plenty fast enough at 7 psi for daily driving even w/ the extra weight. should have pics within 2weeks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eric’s R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Audiopipe has a (1) 1/0ga. in and (4) 4ga. out distribution block. I bet there are some other companies who make what you need.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I found it on ebay for only $12, but is it OK to ground all my amps through this one block, even though the 4th amp is powered directly from the battery and not the d-block (does this make sense?)

 

dont use a ground block. You are better off grounding your amps directly to have shorter ground wires. The shorter you can make your ground wires, the better.

And FYI, the 12's are goign to cancel out the sound of the 11... If you put a switch on the remote for that 11, turn it on and off, you will hear little to no sound from the 11... You'll be better off selling it and putting the money towards something else.

 

It won't add any more sound or bass to the system at all though? What if it was a 12", wouldn't it make more bass?

 

Yes it would...but being the different sized subwoofer, the 12's are going to cancel the sound of the 11" sub. Basically, because the different sized subs put out different frequency responses... NOW... If you were going to use the 11" sub as a WOOFER, instead of a SUBWOOFER, that would work out well... but i'm not sure if the 11" would have the frequency response to be able to handle that.

 

IIRC the MA Audio 0 gu. kit has a 0 to 4 gu. block

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ScrapinSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Here is how I would run it... Ditch the ground block... You are better off just grounding each amp individually to help keep the ground wires shorter IMO. And I would use a fuse block instead of individual fuses for each amp.

What are you planning on doing for speaker wires? You going to run the OEM wires that go into the doors for the separates? Or are you going to pull new wires into the doors?

I'm in Norwich.. Let me know if you need some help.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why are you telling him to split the Left and Right channels up into the amplifiers??? That makes no sense whatsoever unless he's shelling out $500+ for a head unit that has balanced outputs... It's not that it won't work it's just that it would be MUCH better for him to Y out a right and a left into each amp and let the amp merge the signals together.


I agree though, that there is no need for the 11" sub and that it will actually hurt the performance of the 12's. As well as the lack of a need for a grounding block.

That, and I would advise going against wiring the rear speakers off the deck. You will have absolutely no control over fading at different volume levels. Also it will significantly reduce heat and current draw from the head unit. Even if you have to get a $50 little amp to hide it's better than running off the head unit.

 

My reasoning for splitting the L & R between the amps was to retain stereo sound.

Now that I look at it, it could run like you are saying too Phat_Jax...

But what are the 12" subs? SVC? DVC? OHM Load? Maybe you can bridge them, then run 1 amp on the L channel, and 1 amp on the R channel.

 

The 12" subs are 4 ohm SVC. They will each be getting about 300 watts if wired like I have shown. The 11" sub is a dual-3 ohm DVC, which wired in parallel will show 1.5 ohms, which will deliver about 800 watts to the 11" sub. The main reason for the ground block is that I only have two good grounding points available (both fairly small (12mm) bolts to the chassis/spare tire well). These two points have to be able to ground the 2nd battery and the 4 amps. With this, I was going to use one bolt to ground the battery and the 4th amp, and the other bolt as the ground for the 3 amps from the ground block. I do notice the head unit gets pretty hot at high volumes, maybe or maybe not from powering the rear speakers, but I really have no place to hide another amp, except for maybe under the passenger side seat. I had no problems running the system for the last year and a half (before purchasing the additonal subs and amps) with the deck powering the rear speaks and the amp powering the fronts. I was planning on just daisy chaining my RCAs from one to the other, don't know why it is necessary for Y-splitting, etc.

 

Also, here are links to the products I am using for any additional info or clarification:

4x 12" Subs:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2438

1x 11" Sub:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2535

3x Mono Sub Amps:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2424

1x 2-channel Amp:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2425

Head unit: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2421

Front components:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2428

Rear speakers:
http://www.kenwoodusa.com/prod...=2434

 

If you absolutely HAVE to use the 11", i would have the 12's frequency from &gt;180hz, and have the 11" sub from 200hz - 500hz. That way the 11 can be more of a midbass driver. I would wire the 11" sub at 3ohms... You don't need 800 watts going to a midbass driver... thats just OVERKILL...

Are you looking for SPL? SQ? Bling? Multimedia? From the look of your setup, you just want SPL.

 

Originally SPL (although I realize there are better subs to do the job, but my setup is different), I kind of bought the 11" just because I found it for a good price, and always wanted to hear either their 11" or 13" comp subs. If had to go back, I would get rid of all the subs and get like three of their 13" ones that can take a nice 1200 RMS.

 

two recomandations:

get a X-over of some sort to solve all your rca signal splitting problems

use the ground block. even though the wires will be a little bit longer, they will meet at one point which will save you from ground loop problems.

I don't see how adding the 11" will hurt spl levels, as long as it is in phase, but sound quality might diminish slightly...your call on that one

 

The different sized sub has different frequency response levels and causes the 12's to act as though they are out of phase.

And for the grounding, i forgot to add... Just grind the paint off the chassis right next to the amp and bolt the wire to the chassis in different spots... Your entire chassis is grounded... Using existing bolt holes is actually not recommended by IASCA rules if I recall.

If I recall, aren't you supposed to drill a hole, grind paint from top & bottom, the nut & bolt with double washers on the connection, then spray undercoating over the bolt on the outside of the car?

Its been a few years since I read the IASCA rule book, but I think I remember that was the way to get the best ground penetration.

And your TOTAL LENGTH FROM AMP TO GROUND SHOULD NEVER BE MORE THAN 18"

 

Damn, 18" isn't very long. I will be cutting it very close. Also, how should the boxes be "tuned" (feels dumb). This is something I know nothing about.