Strabo

First off Kudos to the Members and Mods.
I've been a guest for a while and have gleaned some valuable info
If this post is in the wrong area, feel free to move it.

The car is a 2004 Impala with a totally stock system, no Onstar, factory deck, 6.5's in front, 6x9's in the back and between them is a small silver amplifier.

The new system so far:
Pioneer DEH-P4100UB
Periphery GMCO wiring harness
Antenna Adapter BAA4B
Dash Kit BKGMK420
Infinity Kappa 62.9i 6.5's
Infinity Kappa 692.7i 6x9's
FutureShop Instillation
Amplifier (not yet bought, your thoughts welcomed)
Sub-woofer (not yet bought, your thoughts welcomed)

The questions I have are:
1) Should I have the installer use the factory amp in the install or have it bypassed, and why?

2) Does anyone know the rating of the silver factory amp?

3) Will ALL of the factory warning chimes and alerts be retained with that wiring harness, if not which ones are lost?

4) With regards to Amp and Sub suggestions, I'm not looking to blow out the windows, but I do listen to harder edged rock and punk while the wife prefers top 40 dance stuff, so input is welcome here. Probably not looking for more than a true 50-70 watt RMS boost to the decks 14 watt RMS output.

5)Can anyone shed light on Infinity's "True Four Ohms"? Here is a quote from the website
• True Four Ohms— All Kappa speakers feature two ohm voice coils. Original factory-installed speaker wiring in many cars is 18-22 gauge. This wire, and heating in the voice coil when power is applied, increase the impedance “seen” by the amplifier or head unit. The impedance of Kappa Speakers has been adjusted to compensate for this increase and can be safely driven by any head unit.

If the Pioneer is 4 Ohms and the Infinity's are stated as 2 ohm on the web page but on the box there is a printed graphic of a HU with 4 Ohm and a check mark....do I have a problem? The installer is "supposed" to be installing all new speaker wire as part of the deal.

6) Take a guess at what the package cost is worth (with install) and keep it real so I can figure out if I got a deal!

I'm sure more questions will follow so till then, thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies.

danyman

iTrader: (1)

price wise
GMCO 125
harness 25 or 17
ant adapter 20$ or 15
pioneer 4100 219new prob got it for 189
speakers( kappas harsh as f**k ) 62.9i 199 new prob got for 179 or even 159
692.7i new 249 prob got for 219

deck install 39
2speaker install 49 each
hope they dont charge to put in that gmco. ( if so its a rip should be incl with the deck install as its an essencial peace )

if price wize you have what i said PROB got that at. deal is allright since its prob cost plus 10% to 20%

infinity speakers being 2ohm ya thats true. deck seeing 2ohm yes and not 4ohm. the deck will run hotter trust me


factory amp maybe 25x4watts rms. if your not adding a 4ch amp keep it. better than nothing.

GMCO WILL retain all chimes. glade you took it. the sound of the chime is stupid tho lmao sounds cheap


SUB AND AMP. impala humm sealed trunk hard as hell to get bass in the cabin without the seats down. you will need more than 50 watts bud. 600 watts would do you job with 2 10"

if you want to stick at FS for that stuff grab the 2 10" red mtx in the box with the 600.1 mtx amp make sure you have the 4gauge wire


well thats it for me lol

danyman

iTrader: (1)

ohh btw those kappas dont really like low power. tried it with a deck and they are horrible. with an amp its better alot better but the tweeters are f**ing harsh


forgot to add amp install for the subs 79

sub and amp not sure what kind of deal they can make you. since its a whole setup they might cut you some few 100$ off

Strabo

Would keeping the Factory Amp as part of the install require any additional sort of wiring harness or headaches for the installer?

With regards to the "True Four Ohm" claim, if the included crossover connects the tweeter and main speaker seperatly, each being a 2 ohm load, would that mean that the head unit "sees" 4 ohm load?

danyman

iTrader: (1)

they say by making the speaker 2ohm and factory wire being small... the wire has a high resistance soo the deck only sees 4ohm... i dought it lol

and its not really a xover. its just a little box with a capacitor in it and its just easyer to connect.

the harness should be able to make the amp turn on. he just needs to make sure that the turn on wire is connected. and he will try to make it work anyway. if it doesnt work he will call you to let you know whats going on and he might have to bypass it.

Strabo

Well Danyman seems to know his stuff!
Had the HU and speakers installed on Tuesday and waited a while to play with it and then post the results.

Cost wise I feel like I got a good deal. Danyman's price quoting was pretty close (high $894 low $861) to where we started but after wheelin and tweekin the deal I ended up paying ~$775 before taxes and got a $50 Gift Card so ~$725 installed. It's not hard to spend $50 in FS so I'm counting that as a cash rebate!

The system sounds great, except that now I've created a money pit!

As Danyman said...these speakers need an amp. My sound level is probably 60 to 70 percent of what it was before with the factory head unit.
Before the install I tested the factory setup with a sound level meter, @1/2 volume ~84, @4/5+ volume ~94. Now with the new HU at full volume, I may see a peak of ~86 but the sound is sooo much crisper now. No muddy factory sound.
The true beauty of the Kappas is the +3dB enhancment on the positional tweeters. With the +3dB on for all 4 speakers with the 2 back tweets angled to the front and the 2 front sides angled up and to the occupants, I wouldn't say "f**n harsh" but "overly bright" sure fits! For my preference I ended up keeping the 2 rears on (+3dB) and positioning them more to the center than front and turning off the +3dB's on the fronts and positioning them up but away from the occupants. I also weighted the fronts by +2 on the fader. This "darkened" the highs and brought the sound stage right on the front dash!

But like I said, a money pit!
Now I need to find a good fit for the amp. For now I think thats all I need (can afford), maybe a self powered sub down the road but I want my sound level back, bigger and better than before, as was my intent pre-install!

Am I better off with one 4 channel amp or two 2 channel amps?
Remember space and cost is an issue. I'd still want the amp/amps mounted under the deck lid, will 2 fit?

There's one at Crutchfield Canada I was looking at, the Infinity Reference 475a for $350.
Details:

» 4-channel car amplifier
» 75 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms (90 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms)
» 180 watts RMS x 2 at 4 ohms in bridged mode
» CEA-2006 compliant
» variable high- and low-pass filters (32-320 Hz, 12 dB/octave)
» variable bass boost (0-6 dB at 50 Hz)
» Class-AB amplifier design
» MOSFET power supply
» preamp-level inputs and outputs
» fuse rating: 35A x 2
If I'm reading that right, with the 14 watts from the deck and the 90 from the amp (90 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms) I'll be able to give the Kappas ~104 watts RMS x 4 at 2 ohms? Or do I need more?
The price point sounds about right considering I'd still need an amp install kit and the install (~$180?)

Any other thoughts?

Oh and if MR2NR has a deal I'll be visiting that area next weekend?

MR2NR

iTrader: (66)

I do indeed have a deal and will make every opportunity available to have your installation done so as not to throw a major kink in your vacation plans.

danyman

iTrader: (1)

i installed at FS and i know theyre stuff and prices well lol thats y i was right on the money.....

Strabo

Best laid plans of mice an men....trip to west coast is cancelled now (father's surgury moved up by a week)...still interested in the deal though MR2NR, shipping can't be more than $20-$30 i'd bet....let's hear what you got?
Wanted...lots of RMS at 2 ohm for little $$$!!! TIA

BigRedGuy

iTrader: (11)

That amp will work fine with your speakers....I would get the four channel amp for the four corners if only to give you maximum control over the system. Those speakers will sound much better with a real amp......the power from the deck amp does not get added to the Infinity amps power rating.....the Infinity gets it's signal from RCA level outputs on the deck and the amp does the rest of the heavy lifting......

Save your sub amp money for now......first you need to decide which sub(s), how many of them, box type and size and then get an amp that will power that load properly......

You won't be able to decide all that until you hear how much better the mids and highs sound with a real amp powering them.....then you figure out how much more bass you'll need to fit in with the rest of it.......

Since you already know you'll be adding another amp later, I would get at least a 2ga wiring kit.....costs more now but saves replacing the long wires later.....it will also have the distro blocks you'll need to hook up the second amp whenever you do that part.

HTH