Tumuerte

Hi all!

You guessed it, my first install. I've always had previous systems installed by Futureshop, and with some of the prices they're offering I figured I may be able to save my self a lot of cash to be spent elsewhere on the system.

Car: 2000 Mercury Cougar (Batt under hood on driver's side).
HU: Panasonic CQ-C5303U (2006)
Amp: JL Audio J2 250.1, 250 Watt RMS monoblock
Sub: Kicker 10CVR124, 12" DVC 4 Ohm, 400 Watt RMS
Box: ATrend 12" Square sealed box
Wiring kit: 8AWG, power, ground, signal standard kit. 1x RCA line.

I'm going for good sound quality, no car alarm blowing system. But I'd like to hear nice baselines for Hip Hop, dance, techno music. I will replace my factory speakers with higher qualities down the road, but for now I'd like to hear my bass.

Questions:

1) I think my Head unit has an amplifier onboard, is it already amplifying my current factory speakers via the wiring harness to the car?

2) I have three two RCA's dangling on the back of the HU, one says SW out, which I think it's "Subwoofer out", so I take it I'll be hooking up this one to my RCA going to my amp's input jacks? (another is AUX1 in, which I'm using for my iPhone)

3) Is the last RCA jack an out for perhaps an amp for my speakers?

4) I read somewhere that amps should not be installed on steel, is this correct? I thought they would be insulated enough not to be effected by this type of grounding. Reason I ask is because I'd like to install the amp on the back of my rear seat, it has a thin steel plate fully covering the back, this steel is then covered by very thin carpetting. (one has been installed on it before, but I don't know if this was the proper way to install it.

5) Is 12 AWG wire what I should use to wire my sub to my box, and sub to my amp?

6) Does having an amp hooked up to the RCA out on the HU effect how my other speakers sound?

7) I don't want my speakers to sound distorted or limit the amount of bass I could pump out of my sub. Do I need to block the bass they output? Do I need a "crossover" or "bass blockers"? I don't know what either are, I just heard about them here.

lots of questions, and even more curiosity....

Sinemeup

1) Yes it does, but it only outputs 12-15 RMS

2) Yes that's the SUB output

3) The remaining RCA is likely for your front channels (output to amp)

4) The back of your seat should suffice for mounting your amp, often I will put a thin piece of MDF underneath it and mount the amp to it

5) 12 gauge wire is plenty for your speaker to amp connections, especially considering you will only be running 250RMS (I'd be suprised if I have 12 ga wire on my 1200RMS)

6) No, it shouldn't affect how the other speakers sound... if it does then there is likely a problem with the unit itself

7) Your amp will have an adjustable crossover to set the desired frequency to limit how high (or low) of a frequency gets played through the amplifier... Used on a sub amp it will be referred to as a low pass filter (there are also such things as a high pass filter, band-pass filters and even one I have never noticed the band-stop filter edit: because it is usually termed as a notch filter)

Tell you what, go read all of this

bcae1.com

Then report back on everything you know

Tumuerte

First things, thank you for your advice, much appreciated. For this question, I was wondering if I could limit the front speakers bass output instead. I've seen some "capacitators" (brown pilled shaped units with a pliable wire on each end) wired into my front speakers in the past, and I guess these prevented bass frequencies from being played?? Is this what I should buy to avoid my front speakers from distorting due to increased bass settings from the Head Unit done so that it can output the most for the sub?

Damn that's a lot to digest, I'll check it out and report back for sure. Thank you, awesome link!