I've been searching around for the cheapest way to build a basic system for the max. I have hardly any money and I can't buy some of the insane stuff you guys are running. I was searching and reading about different and cheap methods, and one involved an rca adaptor for the bose HU. It will allow me to add an amp while leaving the amped door speakers as is, I think.

So I was wondering if someone could help me out here. What type of sub/enclosure would give me decent bass without draining my wallet? One larger sub, or two subs? And alot of guys run two amps and I don't know how that works, or why. Is one amp for each sub or are you guys running your door speakers off of the other amp?
I'm looking for any general info/insight, and if anyone is running off the bose hu with that adaptor please let me know how it is! I appreciate any advice bigtime, like I said, I'm a total noob at audio.

 

You can get plenty loud in a 4th gen with only one sub. I suggest you pull out the rear seat support, it's not needed anyways and the foam barrier.

Now for getting a signal you can splice rca wires into the speaker outputs of the bose hu, that way you have a signal for your amps that isn't crossed over at all.

 

So I can just buy RCA wires, and literally just solder them onto speaker outputs and then run the rca to the amp? Hmm... Now what brand of subwoofers do I stay AWAY from?

 

Yep, insted of naming all the crappy brands, tell us what you're looking at and we'll tell you how bad or good they are

 

Ok, Kicker Comp c12-8 or something.. 12".. Mixed reviews, some say they hit nice and others say with any real wattage they suck.. any opinions? I need something cheeeeaaaap

 

Whats you budget? You would want the c12-4, if you go 8 ohm your amps gonna be sending out less power.

 

My budget is 350-400 bucks, give or take. I want to buy a used amp to save money but I'm not sure I want used subs as I don't know how hard they've been pounded. Good call, I didn't realize the 8 was 8 ohms... screw that
Kicker comp c12-4 is pretty cheap, I'd like to run 2 of them. I'd also like to buy a box/sub combo but I think I'm dreaming here. So heres my list of crap to buy, help me add stuff if I'm wrong:

Monster cable
Amp (not sure how many watts or brand)
Either 1 or 2 subs right now leaning towards kicker c12-4
RCA adaptors, having trouble finding the ones you describe but for 50 bucks I can get one made for bose radio thats plug and play.

 

Instead of splicing stuff up, I think I'm gonna use a line-level converter to add my amp. Anyone know how well this works and what brand of converter is decent?

 

Depends on his amp selection and amount of drivers n00bcakes.

 

if you want to just toss money out, please send it my way. I gots kids to feed.

 

I don't know of any amp that'll run more power at 8ohms

 

I dont know anyone that has more of a problem reading than you..


kthnx

 

So you don't think its worth using?? I thought the speaker connections were higher level than what I need for the RCAs? My whole reason for this thread is to get info, so please explain, I'm confused!

What I know so far:
Running a power wire from battery to amp
Splicing, or converting to rca from radio to amp
Running radio ACC wire to amp (rather than remote)
Running connection from amp to subs using speaker wire

I didn't know any of this before yesterday, so bare with me please guys, never done anything except HU and speaker install on any car before, let alone a blose system..

 

Ok look at it this way...

Each speaker in the bose system is amplified with its own amplifier in the 4th gen bose. Each amplifier is getting a low level signal from the bose, straight from the speaker outputs.... u can tap into that with rca's and run those right into the amp.

Get it?

 

Yeah, I guess that makes sense, so on cars without amplified speakers the line lever converter would be necessary. Well then... I bought some RCA cable today and on the package it says "CAUTION, DO NOT SPLICE DIRECTLY TO THE OUTPUT ONLY USE LINE LEVEL CONVERTER". I'll assume this is BS to get people to buy the converter... But I'm not cutting my cords till someone confirms it haha

 

Yea cut'em, or get another set of cheep cheep cheep female input rca's and splice those in so u can reuse the long rca's

 

I have a Converter in my car and it works fine. Can't remember what brand it is off hand. I have an '05 Max w/ Bose and I decided to go this route w/ connecting my amp.

 

Thanks for the info. Did you run the amp to speakers or subs?

 

My amp is running my sub. If you're looking for a cheap setup, try a 12" Alpine Type R 4ohm Dual Voice Coil ($150 - $220) and a single sub box ported(preference) about 2.5 - 3.0 cu ft tuned to 32hz. I would never say get a cheap amp, but you can find decent amps for not too much. My first amp was a Sony 1200 watt 1ohm stable(yeah right, more like 300rms and 8ohm stable.lol) running 2 JL 12" W6v1 back in '98. Sounded decent b/c I had the box custom made to fit my car. I had nice subs but a cheap amp, but it made a world of difference to have a custom box compared to a prefab. However, blew my subs due to clipping and distortion.

 

The old sony's weren't that bad, especially the mobile es pieces.

 

Any opinions here on an Eclipse XA1000 640w amp? It got good reviews but sometimes those are people who just installed the product and never heard bass before, so I'm asking all you maxima audio experts!

 

Solid amp, it should be able to get the job done for your application.

 

Yeah, they were okay, I just don't like when companies overrate their amps to make them more appealing and marketable.

 

One last (hopefully) question:
Does that amp have two outputs for two subs or do I have to wire the subs parallel to one another? I looked for info about its output, and I can't find it.

 

The older ES line from the mid 90s and prior were far from being overrated. They didnt nothing less than they claimed.

 

Just voicing my personal and "only" experience with it, tried to wire it down to 1.5ohms and it didn't accept it. Ended up running the 6's @ 6 ohms. Tied it to my L7 b/c it was in my other car, sounded bad compared to my Rockford.

 

It's 1 channel (mono) and it's 2ohm stable @ 480watts RMS. Didn't know if you thought the 640watts was RMS or max.

 

WOW noobcakes i was just cracking up, thanks for the entertainment

 

Cool. That seriously helped, thanks for the input.

 

An ebay auction claimed it to be 640 watts. I looked other places and yeah, you're right it's not.