need some guidance for some subs

[dstang01]

hey guys, the headunit that came in my car took a crap, so i picked up an alpine CDE-9874 headunit with my buddys best buy employees discount and installed it today. I have it connected to the stock mach 460 amp and speakers, it sounds pretty good all around, but I was wondering how much effort and expense it would be to add a sub setup for some more bass. Im not looking for a hard thumping system, just a nice low end you can sort of feel, nothing to wake the neighbours. Im open to suggestions

 

[08blueskunk]

is it a vert?? if so have your buddy pick up a 10" Alpine type "R" at best buy and get a good 300-400w RMS amp, and a standard sealed 10" sub box, it will fit good and they sound awesome in sealed boxes. i have one in my 97 cobra convertible and it was perfect,

If you want to go a different route, www.audioenhancers.com makes a dual 10" trunk box for mustang verts, Circuit city can order the box , about a week to ship and you can put a variety of subs in them, The box is about $180

 

[dstang01]

is it a vert?? if so have your buddy pick up a 10" Alpine type "R" at best buy and get a good 300-400w RMS amp, and a standard sealed 10" sub box, it will fit good and they sound awesome in sealed boxes. i have one in my 97 cobra convertible and it was perfect,

If you want to go a different route, www.audioenhancers.com makes a dual 10" trunk box for mustang verts, Circuit city can order the box , about a week to ship and you can put a variety of subs in them, The box is about $180

Thats great that you have a vert too, i figured that might complicate things to get it sounding right. What are the pros and cons of 10" vs 12", single vs dual? People seem to suggest a single 10" in a sealed box for my application, i want a little bass to accompany my stock mach 460 speakers and Im not looking to spend a whole lot. Id also like to be able to take the sub in and out of the car pretty easily. Sounds like that might be my best bet.

My alpine head unit has two RCA outputs (four plugs) on the back of it, I assume one of these is how Id connect the aftermarket amp? Im a car audio noob, so forgive me. I hear about people using LOCs and stuff, but thats only when running a stock head unit, correct? Ideally, installing an amp/sub should be pretty much plug and play right?

 

[03TrueBlue]

Yes you can use a pair of those RCA for the sub. Just have to run Rca's , remote turn on wire and a power wire to the amp.

 

[08blueskunk]

You will need:

RCA to DECK
Remote turn on to the DECK
Power wire to the BATTERY
gound wire screwed to a METAL BODY PANEL in the trunk.

IN the convertible there isn't alot of room to mount an amp, So take the upper "roof" plastic/molded carpet panel out of the trunk (held by 3 plastic plug screws starring at you when you open the lid.) and mount your amp there and cut a slit to run your wires out to the amp mounted on the underside and reinstall it. now your amp is mounted on the "roof" and the wires are cleanly out of teh way and hidden. This is a great place so it is not mounted to the floor of the trunk and gives plenty of room for a 10" sealed box.

You will want 10" vs 12" because you wont have very good luck fitting 12" box without custom making something.

10" vs. 12" sound wise. a 10 is best for quick hard bass beats (found in most rock music) a 12" will give a more drawn out bass note (found more in hip hop.) a sealed box basically means when the note stops playing the sub stops moveing, giving a "quick punchy sound", a Vented or ported box allows for a "looser" sound because it allows the sub to follow through a little more even after the bass note has stopped playing a note will sound like it last a little bit longer.

So figure out what you listen to most and go from there. if you want the most accurate to the intent of the musician a 10" is usually the best, if you want loud "look at me bass" 12 are the best.

 

[dstang01]

You will need:

RCA to DECK
Remote turn on to the DECK
Power wire to the BATTERY
gound wire screwed to a METAL BODY PANEL in the trunk.

IN the convertible there isn't alot of room to mount an amp, So take the upper "roof" plastic/molded carpet panel out of the trunk (held by 3 plastic plug screws starring at you when you open the lid.) and mount your amp there and cut a slit to run your wires out to the amp mounted on the underside and reinstall it. now your amp is mounted on the "roof" and the wires are cleanly out of teh way and hidden. This is a great place so it is not mounted to the floor of the trunk and gives plenty of room for a 10" sealed box.

You will want 10" vs 12" because you wont have very good luck fitting 12" box without custom making something.

10" vs. 12" sound wise. a 10 is best for quick hard bass beats (found in most rock music) a 12" will give a more drawn out bass note (found more in hip hop.) a sealed box basically means when the note stops playing the sub stops moveing, giving a "quick punchy sound", a Vented or ported box allows for a "looser" sound because it allows the sub to follow through a little more even after the bass note has stopped playing a note will sound like it last a little bit longer.

So figure out what you listen to most and go from there. if you want the most accurate to the intent of the musician a 10" is usually the best, if you want loud "look at me bass" 12 are the best.

Thanks man, thats great info I was planning on mounting the amp where you mentioned (near the convertible assembly), I believe the stock mach 460 amps are located there too. So it sounds like this will be relatively easy to set up.. mount amp.. run an RCA line from deck to amp in trunk.. splice a wire into the remote turn on wire and connect it to the amp.. run battery cable from battery to amp in trunk.. ground the amp.. connect the sub and go!

By the way, I wired my alpine deck into what seems to be the stock harness, this was the way my old eclipse deck was wired too (wire to wire). This must mean I am using the stock mach 460 amps to power my speakers, some people mentioned its best to let the deck run the speakers directly and bypass the 460 amps any insight on this?

 

[2BADSTANGS]

Yes if you plan in running a sub, unless you plan on using a LOC, using the decks rca's to provide signal to the subs will create a volume mismatch. In other words the sub and the rest of the system will be at different volume levels as you adjust volume from the head unit instead of being matched from low volume through high. I have dealt with this as I am an installer and also have upgraded/ redone the mach system in my own '99 Cobra

 

[dstang01]

Yes if you plan in running a sub, unless you plan on using a LOC, using the decks rca's to provide signal to the subs will create a volume mismatch. In other words the sub and the rest of the system will be at different volume levels as you adjust volume from the head unit instead of being matched from low volume through high. I have dealt with this as I am an installer and also have upgraded/ redone the mach system in my own '99 Cobra

My head unit has subwoofer control, maybe this would solve the problem you're talking about? With my head unit, I can set treble, bass, balance, fader and subwoofer (the setting currently does nothing because I do not have one attached)

 

[2BADSTANGS]

Unless you're running a converter to feed the factory amps, basically heres whats gonna happen. With a factory head unit the factory amps are fed with a relatively low voltage signal. If you installed the aftermarket head unit and used the speaker outputs to feed the factory amps, you are feeding them a high voltage signal. If you use the RCA jacks (which are a low voltage signal) to feed your aftermarket amplifier, your factory/ aftermarket amps will not have equally matched inputs, causing unequal outputs. Ypu're sub control and the gain on an aftermarket amp will help the system sound better if set properly, but will not cure the mismatch. Easiest solution buy one of the wiring harnesses where you can adjust the levels that your deck sends to the factory amps to match the level being sent to the sub amp. I dont know the part# off hand, but I've used them many times. You can install this setup and make it work without doing this, but trust me, you wont be getting the most(or best quality sound) out of your system.

 

[08blueskunk]

dstang Your good to go don't worry about anything else (mismatch or anything) you have volume control for your sub on the deck so you can change the bass on the fly, (good for changes in music) A good audio system can never be perfectly tuned for evey song so you need to have quick controls to make minor adjustments.

What 2badstangs is talking about wont' effect you. He is correct but on our generations the factory deck pushed "high level" so swaping it to an aftermarket won't effect the amps. Power levels volume or anything else. Becaus eth factory amps run at high level.

Besides you alreayd had an aftermarket deck in to begin with and it worked fine.

 

[dstang01]

thanks a bunch guys, really clears things up. if you have some time check out this thread http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=756045 and give an opinion or two. Thanks