I'm picking out my audio system right now, and need a little help. First off, what size speakers fit in the doors? 4"? That's what I thought it was. Also, the h/u I'm getting requires a direct fused connection to the battery. I think you have to replace the the original wire with a bigger one and maybe bypass the fuse box. I'm not sure exactly what to do, so I figured I'd ask.

 

you got the head unit part right.

Bose system has 4" up front, but you can install up to 6.5" if you make adapter plates (James I think does them)..

 

The stock Bose size is 4"

I believe the stock size for non-Bose is 4x6.

James92SE sells speaker pods that allow you to use either 6.5" speakers or 5.25" speakers, which are both much better choices than the stock size.

It is a lot better to use your current (stock) fuse box and wiring set up for your HU, so that you won't have constant power going to the HU. It also allows for things like the antenna to raise and lower when you turn the stereo off, etc.

If you plan on running a seperate power wire from your battery, do it for your amp (s). I think that is probably what you have seen others do.

There is also an Audio Forum on this site with some guys who actually have much more experience in car audio.

 

Wait, lemme guess, alpine V-drive? I just did this w/ help from some people on the org. You want to run a direct wire from the battery (heavy guage). The best place to do this is inside the front driver's side wheel well. Take off the wheel, then take off the wheel well lining (or atleast the half nearest the cabin of the car). The hood latch cable should be right there. You'll have to poke a hole in the rubber gasket around it and run the wire through there. It will come out in the upper left corner of the driver side pedal area. If you use the harness for the deck it will still hook up to the original signal wire so you will not have problems with power being on all the time. Plus you'll have your old HU power wire to do whatever you want with!

BTW I have the factory 1 din cup holder that fits under the HU for sale.

Also, definetly go with the 61/2 speaker pods from james. They'll sound so much better than any 4 inchers that you use.

 

Actually, some of the new head units draw so much power that you need to run a separate power line from the battery. the amps built into them are too big to use the whimpy 18-20awg wire provided by nissan for the stereo power.

All stereos also have switched (with the ACC on your ignition) and battery (always-on) power. that's how they retain all the memory settings when you shut the car off.
when you operate the stereo, it only uses a tiny bit of current from the switched wire to tell the stereo that it's okay to turn on.. all of the power that is actually uses to drive the circuitry and amplifier come from the constant power wire.

 

i have 6.5s up front and no adapter plate..i used the stock bose plate

 

Hey white90se do you have any pics of your car, i live near scranton and i was wondering if i have seen your maxima, i have the same car model year and color

 

not online...dont have a scanner yet...my car is not on the road right now...im in the process of fixing it after an accident...i saw your name last night..your from factoryville right?? what high school did you go to?? i went to western wayne..i go to the university of sranton now

 

I went to Tunkhannock, im now going to Penn State Erie

 

there was a guy in the audio section who said he has a 9815 and uses the stock harness and everything and says it works fine. any comments on that?

 

Yeah, Matt you have a point. I just prefer to use the stock harness and not fumble around with so many wires. If you are going through all of the trouble to run heavy gauge wire through your firewall, it is easiest to just run it back to your amp (s), not make multiple trips either through the firewall or from a block back to the HU.

Besides, I am not much of a fan of "deck power." If you are that concerned about power, you probably should be running amps, anyway.

I just recently decided to get 6x9s for rear fill and until then, I had my HU (Alpine 9807) set with no power coming from the HU. Everything else is running off of an amp. This is actually the first time I have used HU power in a long time. When I get a good monoblock for my sub, I will once again turn the power off coming from the HU.

 

I'd say using the stock harness on the alpine deck would work ok, you'd just be short power. It needs to draw the extra amps to up the voltage to make the extra power. I would say it's essentially like running a 9811 or something.

 

yup.. I've got a dead-head myself.. only RCAs on it, no internal amp at all.

but many of the new head units have outputs higher than 20w/channel. some are 35-40 RMS.. those are the ones that need more power.
any they DO need bigger wire than what's in the factory harness. the guys that have installed these decks on factory harness are missing out. if they upgrade the power wire to 10 awg or so, they'll see a HUGE improvement in SQ and SPL.
the diplay will quit flashing and all that jazz too.