Broke EF

Ok guys (and gals) I have a 2007 Chevy Cobalt and currently have the following:

Head Unit: Alpine CDA-9857

Front speakers: JL Audio C2-650x (6.5" coax)

Rear speakers: Diamond audio D393i (6x9" coax)

Sub: Infinity Perfect 10d VQ in a custom sealed fiberglass box

Sub Amp: Alpine MRP-M500

The interior speakers are driven off of the head unit, and I will most likely keep it that way. My big complaint is that I have no way to crossover the interiors. I am looking for a head unit with more audio adjustability, but still retains the same functionality for my iPod as my current Alpine. I have looked at the new Alpine units that do not have CD and though they are nice, it seems like you need a lot of add on’s for them to be truly bad ass. I have also been looking at the new Pioneers, but I don’t know how good they will be with the iPod (Alpine seems to excel at this). Let's hear what everyone has to say.



Thanks,

Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

look into a kenwood with USB (direct ipod control with the apple usb-ipod cable) or pioneer premeir units (with the pioneer usb-ipod adapter in the box)

i would stay away from the no cd alpine units. the quality on the output is boss/pyle/power acoutik quality

Broke EF

OK, I know I said I was against putting an amp on the interiors but the more I look around the better that seems. I think my plans have shifted into an Alpine MRP-F300 which is the same size as my current Alpine MRP-M500 meaning I can fit it under the driver seat keeping with my clean look. It is 50x4 so I don’t think I will have to worry too much about over powering the sub, but I will have much more head room. Wiring wise they both take 8ga input for power but different amp fuses, so I think I plan on getting a Stinger pro fused distribution block that takes 1 4ga in, through two separate AGU fuses (1 50 amp for the interior amp, and 1 60 amp for the sub amp) that then go to two 8ga outs. That takes care of power and fusing all in one so it will take up less space and look cleaner.


Now for my one concern, as it is with just the one amp when I turn the system up the lights will dim. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but I don’t want it to do that at all. Would I be better off getting a 1farad cap, or a better battery? I know this isn’t a very hardcore set up by any means, but should I consider upgrading the wire from the alternator to the batter, or is that a waste for what I have?


Thanks,
Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

i would look into an upgraded deep cycle battery over a cap. also remember if you add an amp on the speakers you will loose door chimes and such unless you want to do some craziness to keep them. lastly the battery/alt wire is fine. i wouldn't worry about it

Broke EF

Eh I have the harness to keep them now (GMOS LAN-04 I think) but because my front left speaker took a **** I have no chimes. It doesnt bother me in the least not having the chimes. I was thinking battery over cap, but wanted some other opnions. What battery should I look at? Stinger, Optima, how many amp ect...

Thanks,
Sean

While were at it, should I go with 12ga or 14ga wire for the speakers? My concern is getting it though the doors. I dont really think I will loose any sound quality going with 14ga but I may gain ease of install. If its a pain in the ass either way, I will just go with the 12 and fight it I guess.

Sean

ChriSS/SC

Pioneer FH-P8000BT

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

i would just tap the speaker wires from the amp so you dont have to run it thru the doors. real 16g is probably the biggest you could ever utilize with door speakers. any bigger doesn't make a difference. If you are still persistent on running them thru the doors the main task is unclipping and possibly tapping the white molex plugs. I just unclipped them and left them hanging but its a bitch to unclip them. after that it shouldnt be too hard to run a single wire thru the actual door jam grommet. i just unlcipped those as well ran the wire thru and clipped them back on. sorta difficult for me but i have 3 runs of wire and not the most installer friendly wire at that

Broke EF

I'm Definatly going to run my own wire along with the factory. That way when I sell the car I can open up the panel and unplug my run from the amp, and plug the stock wire back in so I can take my amp out easy. I havent cut any factory wiring yet, and I want to keep it that way. Allthough I may **** up the connectors running the wire though the door, Ill figure something out. I have done it before, I know how big of a pain in the ass it is.

Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

oh and battery wise just pick whatever. with the amount of power your running it shouldn't be an issue. good ones to look at are kinetik, powermaster, batcap, deka, carquest NGT, optima yellow

Broke EF

Does anybod have any idea what batterys fit easily?

Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

esh a straight swap. not many. most are too tall if they have top posts. look into one without the actual top posts and just the bolts instead

Broke EF

I found a Kinetic KHC800 for $88.96 I think that sounds like a good enough deal to pick it up. I can deal with mounting it once I have it.

Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

damn good price on that one... if you can do the 1400 but the 800 should work

Broke EF

Ordered up the 800, got it for $114.00 shipped! Now to order up all my stinger stuff, and the amp and Ill be all set.

Sean

Broke EF

OK, I got the battery Friday and ordered the wire yesterday. The plan is to obviously change out the battery to the Kinetic HC800 and upgrade the ground. Currently the stock ground is just an 8ga to a ring terminal, so I'm going to change it to a 4ga and bring it to one of these. We will see how that works for now because upgrading the rest will be a big pain in the butt. I dont think I will have a problem with the factory power wire, its at least 4ga at the battery. When I start doing all the work I will look into the factory wiring a little more. Anyway thats all for now, just figured I'd give you all an update. I'll post pics when I'm installing it all in a couple weeks.

Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

if anything i would leave the stock bolt in if ur still using that lil bar its on. if your re locating it somewhere else then the ground block might work

MP Cobalt

iTrader: (4)

I got an Idea save some money and buy mine. It has ipod direct hookup and everything

Ishbar

I HATE the iPod direct because it defaults to shuffle and I can't ******* use my iPod to scroll to a specific band. I absolutely HATE using the head unit + remote to select my music.

So for now I use an Aux 1.

Broke EF

Orderd the amp today, hope to have it by this weekend so I can get this all wrapped up!

Sean

Broke EF

OK on with the install!!!

We will start with the door wiring. Since I have a 0 option car I ony had 2 small (20ga?) wires going to the door as seen here.


I took that out and was greeted with this.


I then decided that I could just taket that out since I dont need it for anything now, so I got this



And here is the stock wiring that came out


I then ran my new stinger 14ga wire through the stock gromets and threw in the new speakers (JL Audio C2-650x)


Moving on to the trunk I was changing the battery to a new Kinetic KHC800 battery, adding a ground, and redoing the amp wiring.

Here you can see the battery mocked up with the pices I had to make inorder to hold the battery with the factory tie down.


Here is the battery without the top piece (The wires were from a battery tender)


Here is the bottom piece to hold the battery from side to side and front to back movement.

and painted


Here is the new Stinger distrobution block that has 2 seprate fuses because each amp needs a different rating. It has 4ga in and 2 8ga out.


Here is new 4ga ground lug I added (the paint was ground off underneith it)


Here is a shot of all the power side of things


Here is the ground side


And over all


Next came running the new RCA's adding my Sirius box, and cleaning up some of my wiring behind the headunit. I didnt get many pics of all of this but you can see the sirius box on the bottom left and the strat of cleaning up the wiring.


Now the best part, installing the new amp!! Here is just seeing how it will look (you can see some of the mess in this pic)


Installed


And both together



Well thats all the pics I took, I was to busy working to get very many. Over all I am VERY happy with it, sounds a lot better and is a lot louder! Sorry for the long post, but Im excited about my stereo.


Sean

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

looks real nice. not many people coul/would do what you have pictured right there

brickloaf

damn he did everything the hard way! but im guessing he wanted the stock look...

why do you have 2 grounds on your battery?

Broke EF

Thanks, compared to the work I usually do to cars this is nothing.

I dont think I did anything the "hard" way, I could have dont it eaiser maybe. I guess I could have just thrown the amps on the back of the seats, and bought a box but whats the point in that?

I have 2 grounds becuase I was going to change the stock one untill people said to leave it. I already orderd all the stuff to change it so I figured Id just add another one. Cant have to good of a ground.

I really feel that I have accomplised all of my goals for this stereo so far. I wanted a stereo you didnt notice by just looking at the car. I didnt want to take up a lot of space (the sub has to take up some). And I didnt want to modify the car in anyway, meaning I want to be able to put it back to stock. A good example of that is the battery. I could have either made a new tie down, or modded the stock tie down to work with this battery but instead I worked around the stock one and made it work. On top of that it all sounds GREAT!!!


Sean

I have to ask because I never got around to looking and I was thinking. Which wire is the power wire from the alternator? I was kind of assuming it was the larger (4-2ga) wire, but the smaller wire (10-8ga) has a 50amp fuse on it. I would think that the main power wire from the alternator to the battery would have a fuse, and I would think that fuse would be close to the battery. If that is the main power wire then Im going to be placing an order for some wire this week.

Sean

Spun

iTrader: (1)

I don't think it runs right to the alt, I was told it goes to the fuse box first.
In anycase just run it piggy backed if your looking to upgrade the wire (run both the stock and aftermarket) and make sure you fuse it.

BTW-Sand the paint off from under that ground.
It looks good, really clean, or it will when you bust out a vacum for them carpets

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

the bigger wire is your power wire. the smaller fused one is actually for the BCM... lol i had that ghetto rigged for a while and every once in a while it would come out (shutting off the car) and i would have to pull over and fix it