adamlacey

iTrader: (1)

I have a few audio ?'s for u knowledgable type folks...

Is there a considerable advantage to hooking up a set of Infinity kappa components powered by an amp in the front as opposed to running off a decent head unit?

Also --- I have no tweeters installed in the car (stock GXE system) and wondering how anyone installed the components in a 4th gen... 6 1/2 size speaks all the way around? Then just cut a hole in the door? And where to put the crossover?

So if i have an amp powering the components- if i ran just the back speaks off the headunit, would i be able to get some decent bass...?
Or to get decent low end sounds at all do i need a sub. For some reason i want to avoid a subwoofer and just get really base speakers for the back deck.

Thanks --

nismo240sx

most definitely. there is a HUGE difference, and you should be very pleased with the results



the best tweeter mounting approach is to use double sided tape to stick the tweeter on, and find where you like it best, then drill into the door, and flush the tweets.



the factory size is 6 3/4, sometimes referred to as 6 1/2S, but that was confusing, so they changed the speck to 6 3/4.



you can either mount the crossovers under the dash, back by your amps, or put them in the door. if theyre in the door, make sure they are protected from the elements.



i try to reccomend using amps at all 4 corners if you MUST have rear speakers. i took out my rears, and the sound improved 100%, but i dont often carry rear passengers, so its not a big deal for me to lose them, and i was able to use the money i saved for some better front speakers.



almost definitely. you may not need a huge one, but you will probably need one. if you wanna keep a lot of room, you can put a 10" sub in a PROPERLY sized ported box (not from the mfg specs, but one from a program like winisd), or you can buy something like an infinity basslink. contrary to popular belief, a ported box doesnt have to lose sound quality to gain output.



kinda covered this already...but it is opinion. if youre open to learning a lot about car audio (and installing it all yourself), check out www.soundillusions.net there's a lot more people (number-wise) that know what theyre talking about, than here. guys, dont take that wrong, there are quite a few of you guys that know what youre doing...im not implying that. guys like don, dave, james, and a lot of the others really do know what theyre talking about, but most of the time, they know more about application specific stuff (ie "will this fit my maxima?").

later,
eric

ps, i hope i havent offended anyone here, as that is NOT my intention. there have been quite a few of you guys that have helped me a lot with audio for maximas...especially james. thanx bro.

adamlacey

iTrader: (1)

thanks, i appreciate the reply

Gates

iTrader: (2)

You'll want to use a seperate amp to power those components, it will sound a lot better simple because you'll be giving them the power that they want.

It's pretty easy to install components, since you don't have stock tweeters you can mount your tweeters wherever you think they sound best. I put my crossover in the doors, but you can mount them pretty much anywhere. In your trunk, glove box, etc.

If you don't want to get a sub because of cost concerns, you can put the money that you'd put into new rear speakers into a nice single sub. I have rear speakers running of my HU, but I have them turned off. Once in a while I'll turn them on if I have some passengers, but the only time I've used them lately was to compare them to my fron components when i showed my friend my system. In other words, your rear speakers don't really do too much, especially if you have a good set of components. You can easily hear my components clearly from the back seat. Again, a sub would obviously give you the best bass but if you really want to avoid one, do some research and find some components with good bass (I don't know anything about the kappa components)

adamlacey

iTrader: (1)

Does anyone have any good writeups on how to run wires underneath the seats and carpeting and stuff - i.e. from amps and sub in the back to the head unit and to front speakers ..

or does anyone have some good advice on doing this in a 4th gen.

I definitely want to install the stuff myself, just for the pride of doing it myself and being able to save money!

Thanks for any replies... so far this has been really helpful

adamlacey

iTrader: (1)

I'm pretty sold on using an amp to power some components, I really like the Infinity Kappa 60.5 components. I tested them out at this store called Ultimate Electronics. You can piece together different speakers and amps to see how they sound. Anyway, with the amp they sounded a lot better.

So I have a dumb wiring question --

When using amp does the wiring look like

headunit source ---> amp ---> crossover ---> speakers


or is it

headunit source ---> crossover ---> amp ----> speakers

nismo240sx

most of the time, the crossover is in the amplifier...which simplifies the whole setup procedure.

eric

MaximusMax

The only downfall to getting the crossover built in to the amp is the fact that if the crossover goes out, you have to take the whole amp out. I would get a seperate crossover, cause most of the time, they can handle a he!! of a lot more than the crossover built into the amp.

That one is correct...and Adam, how's Texas life, cause I haevn't been back there since the last time I hung out with you, Bingham, and Todd D.

nismo240sx

youre tellin me youve had crossover's go out in your amps? ive never heard of such a thing.

eric

phenryiv1

iTrader: (19)

I have heard of this. No different than a power supply goign out, or an RCA burning out. It is not COMMON, but it happens.

Anyway, I think that the original question was not really answered fully, in the respect that if you plan to use the crossover that come with the speakers, they will be passive crossovers, which go between the apm and the speakers. MOST (though obviously not all) setups use these. Only serious systems have a seperate amp for the mids and one for the tweets.

You can also have ACTIVE crossovers and seperate amps for each freqyency range of speakers, such as an amp for subs (duh), a second one for tweeters and a third one for midranges. Older amps did not have built-in crossovers, so stand-alone active crossovers, where the signal was still at RCA-level, were popular to divide sound by frequency and send it to the proper amp, then on to speakers.

I have had the Kappas (mine were 60.3 CS, I think) and I LOVED them. I used the passive crossovers with 100 watts per channel from a BIG, old skool Rockford Fosgate amp, and they SANG. Better than anything else, including some rather pricey Quarts and some decent Bostons.

Hope that helped. The above was my experience. I have not done "real" installs in a while, so I might be forgettign something...