Creamedweasel

So I'm going to be setting up some car audio for my vehicle and I need to know what kind of wiring and any addiontional info on what I will be using. Car is a simple ugly 97 Cav 2dr Coupe.

Sony GT500 headunit
Sony XM2002GTR amp for sub
Sony XM554ZR amp for rest
Sony 12" Sub (1300w peak/380w RMS)

I will be making my own ported box for the sub, probably tuned to 40hz. As for speakers, I am wondering whether I should do 4way 6.5" in the front and 6x9"s in the back, or some other route. Any help would be greatful, as well as what wiring I should pick up for all this. PS, I am a sony . (Huge Discount)

20Sunfire05

iTrader: (1)

Hi,
To install the HU buy a wiring harness. It is soooo much easier and cleaner than ripping apart the stock harness.

Im not sure what gauge wire you will be using for your amps, but if you are cheap like me get your wire from napa. $30 got me 25ft of 4 gauge power wire.
And dont forget to fuse your power wire.

Select you wire gauge from this chart
Recommended Power and Ground Cable Sizes

Ill assume you had factory 4X6s in the front like me. I built an adaptor out of 3/4" plywood to fit my 6.5" in the doors. Not alot of depth in the door so watch you speaker choice. I installed a set of type R components today and I suggest you save the swearing, cutting and general pain in the *** and get something around 2.5" or shallower.

IMO, a good quality set of 2 way coaxials sound better than 3 or 4 ways. More isn't always better.

I dont run speakers in the rear and it sounds fine to me, but I never ride in my backseat.

www.j-body.org has tons of model specific info.

Creamedweasel

Thank you very much for that info. Any idea what type of fuse I should get?

20Sunfire05

iTrader: (1)

Figure out how much power you will be drawing and go a bit bigger. The fuses on the amp will protect it, the power wire fuses at the battery will prevent your car from burning down in the case of a short.

bobthebrat

Add up all the fuses on your amps. And go higher for your fuse.
A 4gauge wiring kit from wal-mart should suffice. It is like 30-40$ for the whole kit. And comes with fuses.

Creamedweasel

Alright, and now for a trickier thing, does anyone know of a good tried and true ported-box design I could use for this sub? I was thinking the simple bass reflex/4th order. Ideas would be excellent!

*edit* Let's say the total power draw from my amps is 72A, how much higher would I want for the power fuse? I assume this fuse is the one that goes 18" or less from my battery and straight to the amps. Also, should I have 2 seperate power cords for each amp or just 1 that is series/parallel/spliced... Thanks again!

Tom.F.1

iTrader: (1)

I had a 97 CavalierZ24, for 8 years, 368k. There is LOTS of depth in the door panels. I built out the speaker mount so the 6.5 Image dynamics were flush, my plywood spacers were 1-3/4" thick between the steel door and plastic door panel.
I had 4 way 6x9's in rear, ID midbass and 4" coax in the front and 2 12" pioneer subs.
When the car was robbed, they damaged door panels so i had to go bigger. I put in 6.5" JL W60 mini subs (used for low midbass) and eclipse 5-1/4" 3 ways. I still have them and the crossover if you're interested.

P.S. I was on my 3rd 105 amp alternator when i sold the cavalier.

Edit: I looked up your head unit. If you use the rear RCA's for sub. then the front RCA's will have to do for front and rear.
I'd suggest using the 4x100 wrms in bi-amp mode for the front and run the rear fill speakers off the deck.
Don't know if you have a Princess Auto out there, but they have a 4 gauge kit with fuse and rca cables for 29.99
Good Luck.

Tom.F.1

iTrader: (1)

I sent you a PM, but also if you want to do it the easy way, pioneer makes a nice 3 way 4x6 that would go behind the door panel right where the factory speaker was.
For me, that wasn't near enough front stage, so i had to go to extremes.

Like someone else said, there are lots of 2 way componet sets that would work.

And i also forgot to mention that yes, Usually a ported box is smaller than sealed.

bobthebrat

I can vouch for the Princess auto wiring kit. If it's the blue and silver cable one. Very nice kit, has everything you need.
And for a fuse I say run a 80amp or 100amp fuse.
I think a 80amp comes with the PA kit.

RScooby

iTrader: (3)

A ported box is almost, if not always, larger than a sealed box for the same driver. Was that a typo?