skathe

i got a 2010 tsx non tech package and have replaced all door and back speakers with JL audio C3 but i know they would sound better with more power going to them.

Anyone installed a 4 channel amp yet with the stock stereo?

skathe

is replacing the stock amp an option? anyone have a thread they can reference if so.

tsx_consultant

Can't help you on the amp question, but was it a noticeable upgrade just swapping speakers?

skathe

very noticeable difference. original speakers sounded a little muffled so i threw in some JL Audio C3's (little tough getting them to fit in rears). but now the issue i face is at high volumes my speakers arent getting enough power and sounds treble heavy (luckily got a 12" w3v3-4 JL sub in the back but its still not the quality i want.

Maybe i need to go aftermarket headunit? but i dont want to lose my steering wheel button functionality

skathe

probably need to run thicker speaker wire then the stock wiring as well but wanted some thoughts or suggestions first

iSeeYouTwo

Ask mellostack that kid has like 3 speakers on each of his front doors, lol. I just ordered a 4 channel amp to power my speakers, so I'll worry about that when I'm ready to take on the project. I think it'll be pretty straight forward though.

How did you get a signal to your sub? LOC?

skathe

i took out the stock sub bc it sucks and wanted more air movement, so i just pulled the signal from there with a LOC and can use my stock stereo to control it as well. what 4 channel you order?

iSeeYouTwo

Yeah I did the same. I'm running a JL 13w7.

I ordered a cheap but pretty good 4 channel amp. It's an Autotek Mean Machine 2000.4 that I won on eBay for $100 shipped BNIB. A lot of people from around my area run this amp and it provides plenty of power for what I'll be running.

skathe

w7 eh? that has to be overkill lmao that speaker is gigantic. got a pic of it in the trunk?

i just ordered a jl 300/4 to power my C3's in the door, install coming soon. will probably get a professional to do it.

iSeeYouTwo

I'll snap one for you when my trunk isn't a mess.

It's in a ported box that is rather small, but I'm thinking of building a different box for it that'll allow me to have even more trunk space.

I wouldn't consider it overkill because I loveeeee to listen to my music loud with hard hitting, clean bass.. and let me tell you, the 13w7 certainly delivers in this department!!!!!

Good luck on your install, I'm sure the C3's will sound great paired with the 300/4! Update this post with pics/videos once installed!


Edit: Where do you plan on getting a signal from for your 4 channel amp?! Just curious..

skathe

the tech i talked to said there is an adapter for the stock HU made by scosche that will allow this to work. i will make sure to get part numbers and all that in here. try and do this next weekend hopefully.

mellostack

bro try finding the right person... I dont let no one touch my car other than the guy i been learning everything from.... if u already installed the aftermarket speaker i know u are like "WTF" and the reason im saying that is because u are not hearing the big difference of the sound on the speaker. The reason for that is the need of a good amp, your car stock amp gives the speaker + your tweeter 400wat meaning "your stock amp is not doing shit at all"

mellostack

hey @iSeeYouTwo look what i got



did u get soemthing like that, i saw your message?
and if u did u are going to need a 0gauge wire going from the battery of your car all the way to your back, and u are going to need a 700/2 lanzar... its a competition amp its type price 325$ if u are lucky but on ebay going for 350$

iSeeYouTwo

Good shit! That's exactly what I have... you're tryna go deaf aren't you?! LOL. How much did you get them for?!

I already ran the 0 gauge wire in place of the 4 gauge and upgraded my fuse... I bought a 2000.4 channel Autotek that I think will do the trick for now... I'll make a video when it's all installed (hopefully this weekend).

mellostack

Lol now that's what I'm talking about u have to be Dominican, I bought these EV of an old buddy of mines he told me about the EV history about the company closing down and you could most probably find 10" the most but not 12" what I have now... And u must probably have 10" if u going to be using that amp... Make sure to run the wires for the tweeter sepertly if not you're going to be blowing tweeter from left to right "self experience".... I paid 450 for the speakers and bought the tweeters each for 100 and a buddy of mines made me the box for 65 but ima need a different box I want a leather one

skathe

finally got this installed and ran some better speaker wire.

iSeeYouTwo

Dude I love the placement of the amps! Did you make that yourself?! Does it rattle at all with the bass? Any videos? How did you end up running the 4 channel amp? So many questions, lol.

skathe

Ill try to answer any questions you may have below, ask if i dont!

i have grown tired of DIY so i got someone to do it for me but i can give all the specifics, dont have any pictures unfortunately except for finished product. I kept the HU stock. No rattling yet from shelf, but am gettin it in front speakers now at high volumes.

Thanks on the props for placement though it took me forever to figure out how i wanted to mount them because i wanted my sub easily removable for travelling etc. I saw there was plenty of space for a shelf for both amps. Built a wooden shelf that fit under the rear deck and was able to drill and bolt with no interference from the top once the rear deck cover was removed. Having too adjust the amps is a pain right now so i may lower it on the back.

For the 4-channel amp install, took the signal from the front and rear speakers and did a LOC for each set of speakers on the front and rear (sep input for front and rear speakers so i could keep fade capabilities). Then ran 14 gauge wire to all the door speakers from the 4chan.

ONLY problem i face now is it sounds like my speakers are ALWAYS ON (sounds like a speaker that is turned up to high volume but nothing playing) even at low volumes. I reach the too loud status at about volume 14 now instead of going to 40 and still not reaching it so im hoping i just need to turn the gain or somethin down on my 4 chan. Didnt get a chance to tune it yet.

Amps = Kenwood KAC9105D and JL 300/4v2
Door Speakers = JL Audio C3-650
Subwoofer = JL Audio W3v3

iSeeYouTwo

Great info, thanks bro. I'll probably end up building a similar shelf because there isn't much room behind the seats. If you have the specs on the shelf you have, that would be perfect!

I grabbed the signal from one of the rear deck speakers for my 4 channel and it sounds terrible because those speakers only receive certain frequencies that play just the instrumental of some songs and the background voices (if that makes any sense). So I ended up purchasing a Kicker zxsum8 signal summing interface to clean up all the frequencies that go from the HU to the aftermarket amps. Much less work than what you did, LOC for every speaker? I'd kill myself LOL.

I'll let you know how that goes..

As far as your speakers sounding like they are always on, I can almost guarantee that it is either the Gain on your amp or the Gain on the LOC's. You have to calibrate them...

skathe

thanks for the info, yeah i knew LOC wasnt the best option but didnt know of any other way around it. its actually just 1 LOC per set so 1 LOC for the front pair and 1 LOC for the back pair. I believe they are PAC LOCs but do LOC's affect the overall quality?

I will gladly measure my shelf and post the specs up later

Are you sure about the signals being sent? 2nd gen is 6.5 speakers all around so i figured the same signal would be sent to both but this could explain why my front speakers always sound so damn TREBLE HEAVY, ive tweaked and tweaked but i think i need to turn down the tweeters to -2db on the crossover.

im gonna look into the kicker product you mentioned. do you have a build thread going for your audio setup?

mellostack

u need an EQ trust me my amps are maxed out on gain... EQ does the job like a charm... another thing if u getting rattling get your self some dynamat xtreme give it a try where ever u hear it coming from... trust me u wont regret it

skathe

word, any suggestions on which to buy? im ignorant when it comes to EQs.



Also the shelf specs are 39"w x 11"depth x 5"h

iSeeYouTwo

Oh, gotcha. I thought you meant 1 LOC for EACH speaker, lol. But still that sounds like too much wiring is involved. LOC's don't necessarily affect the quality if you calibrate them correctly (my PAC LOC came with instructions on how to do so) -- You set the volume on your speakers to 3/4 up and adjust the Gain just below where you hear them starting to sound distorted.

I'm positive! If you adjust the Fader on your headunit to just the rear you will notice that the voices are not as loud as your front speakers (which are wayyy louder). All that can be fixed with an equalizer (like mello mentioned) but the kicker product I purchased has one built in which can calibrate all the signals from the HU and provide clean signal outputs.

I don't at the moment because I'm in the testing phase to see what works out best for me. But I'll document everything and eventually make one!

mellostack

look into clarion eq's

iSeeYouTwo

Hey skathe do you mind snapping more pictures of your amp rack? Specifically the mounting points and different angles... thanks!

skathe

hey man just saw this, havent frequented the forums much due to getting to many ideas haha. ill take more pictures for you and post this weekend hopefully, if not shoot me a pm so i get an email.

pdog37

very cool idea for the amp racks,

skathe

shit forgot about the pics iseeyoutwo ill post some up later tonight.

iSeeYouTwo

No worries man. Whenever you have time!

skathe

alright finally got some more pics for ya, i didnt want to take rear deck off to take pictures of screw points but took best pics underneath i could. As you can see each end of the shelf goes to just the other side of the speakers.

First pic show middle mounting point to add more stability to shelf.


showing left side of shelf mount point next to speaker


showing right side (let me know if u want a better one)


frontal of middle mount point


spacing and wire tuck done behind and isnt visible with seats down either unless you get underneath to look, does making tweaking the amps a bit of a pain, think id rather have a slanted shelf by an extra inch in the back for easy tuning.



let me know if you need more insight man!

iSeeYouTwo

Looks super clean bro! They did a hell of a job. How much did they charge you for something like this? If you don't mind sharing.. And did you have to relocate your Nav Unit, or is yours a 2011+?

skathe

mine isnt a tech package unfortunately so no navi, its a 2010. i actually piad 360 for rewiring of all my speakers with 14 gauge, splitting the 4 gauge power to 2 8's for both amps and installing the 4 chan, so i think i got a damn good deal, rewiring is a pain in the ass.

iSeeYouTwo

Lucky you!

My nav unit is located in the trunk, right where your amp is on the right side. So in order to make this amp rack work, I'd have to relocate it to somewhere else... like under the passenger seat or in the spare tire well.

Sounds like another headache.

niebur3

I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting here? What does having an eq do with being maxed out on gain on an amplifier?

skathe

niebur he is suggesting an eq because of my issue with audio being treble heavy from the stock signals im sending to my speakers. i originally thought my issue may be related to the gain being up to high but once i lowered it the issue was still there at higher volumes

niebur3

If you take the signal pre-amp and use a line driver instead you will bypass all the factory processing most likely causing this issue. An eq is only a bandaid to reverse the eq already in the factory amplifier. But the factory amp also has a much higher noise floor and factory set crossovers. AND the fact that you could be greatly overdriving the input signal by using a LOC on an already dirty amplified signal. Ditch that factory amp!

mellostack

hey skathe i know its been a while since i checked up on az, been too busy with work. if you have a after market amp and im guessing your using you stock radio, meaning that you used a high to low converter... if u still getting weird noice from these speakers it could be that you have a cheap high to low, the reason im saying this is because i had a 20$ converter witch sucked a** ... last week i upgraded to this





its a little pricey i spent 95$ but its really worth it. On another note the reason i suggested an EQ is because i listen to all type of music.

niebur3

Again, you guys would get a much cleaner signal by tapping into the signal before the amplifier. The factory amp has built in processing to protect the cheap factory speakers.

I don't know what you mean with your comment about eq. An eq is used to balance the frequencies (correcting peaks and dips in frequency response). This is not something that is music style dependent. You are only cranking certain frequencies with something like that clarion piece you showed and make the amp work really hard and clip if up too high. A 3dB increase means you are asking the amp to double the power output at that frequency (and the ones around it).

mellostack

and u keep on talking about stock amp.... i do not have a stock amp i took that out and used all the cables it had running to it... i am not using my stock amp as a by-pass

skathe

so how can i be sure ive got the stock amp bypassed?