[RomeoMustBuy]

Hi there everyone,

Im about to install a sound upgrade in my 2001 mod. 156, and have some questions you may be willing to help me with. (its my first car, and first time installing sound)

I got for this project:

- Alpine iDA-X305SBT (18w rms x4 channels )
- Alpine KTP-445a power pack (45w rms x4 channels)
- Morel Dotech Ovation 6 component speakers (for the front doors)
- Alpine SPS-610 (for the rear doors)
- Infintiy Basslink (for the trunk)

Would you add or change anything? Im not out to get eye-popping Meade like bass, but to have a great hi-fi quality sound for almost any type of music: classic, jazz, pop, rock, dub step, etc...

And now to the question... How to get all of it connected?

As I have figured out..

the power-pack (aka. amp) will be connected between the car and the head-unit, and hidden behind the head unit.

the rear door speakers will just be swapped with the old ones.

the basslink (powered sub) in the trunk, will need to have one cable directly to the battery, and one to an earth point (any suggestions?), and then.. what speaker cables should I put in it? the ones that are under the shelf? (got 2 speaker cables there, one at each side, with the yellow connector).

and then the front component speakers? cause now it is as it came from factory, you got the 6.5 inch speaker with its plug, and the 1"? tweeter with another plug.. but, if Im installing components of such quality as the morels, I would like to use the included crossover boxes.

The Crossover has positive and negative ports for: "Amp In" - "Tweeter Out" and "Woofer Out", so do I just connect from the old 6.5 each speakers into "Amp In" and then the others as they are named (tweeter out to tweeters and woofer out to woofers", and leave the old tweeter plugs unplugged? Is there any adjustment to do in the head unit? cause til now, it has been doing the crossover work of splitting the signal, so I guess that If I don't change anything on the HU, the cable that I install on the "amp in" of the crossover won't have that tweeter signals, and thus the crossover won't have nothing to send to the tweets.

Or do I have this all wrong?

Any suggestion of where to put the crossovers? anyone have installed some inside the doors and have some pics of it?

Any other ideas or things I should do? what about cables? would it be better off, getting rid of all the actual cabling, and rewire the whole? and any thickness in them? even for those that goes from the old plugs to the crossover and therefrom to the speakers?

should I put the basslink facing the behind of the car or the back seats?.. and maybe leaving open the compartment at the back seats?

Thanks for your kindliness, and time spent reading.

Cheers!

 

[RomeoMustBuy]

Although I'm not totally up on the Alfa system I have done audio installs on many other cars in the past so will offer some more generic advice.

I've not heard of the Alpine Power Pack, but from your description it sounds like a small in-line amp used for component speakers. Depending on its wiring methods and size you may find it won't fit behind the head unit in the dash, there is very rarely much space behind there. Generally amps are mounted in the boot of a vehicle, for space reasons but mainly because the boot is generally cooler than the rest of the car which allows the amps to work without overheating. If it simply a plug-and-play amp that connects directly into the head unit wiring you may find some space behind the glove box and this will probably be the best area to mount it.

Your front components and crossovers are an easy install despite how complicated it first looks. The crossover receives a signal from the head unit, and then splits this signal into 2 - one for the large speaker and one for the tweeter. The only original wiring you should use (if any) is the feed into the crossover, the wiring out of the crossover should be made up by you using the contents of the kit. Mounting of the actual crossover unit is dependant on the space available in the door, but generally I've mounted them on the external door skin using double sided tape. With the door card removed check where the window sits when it is lowered, and try and mount the crossover underneath the window. A little bit of cling film over the top of the crossover unit will keep any errant water out of there.

Setting up the head unit for the front components is easy - you don't have to change anything. The crossover unit that comes with the speakers does all the signal splitting for you, ensuring the speakers only get the frequencies they can cope with.

Speaker cabling - there are soooo many myths here it is unreal, so to dispel the biggest of them I'll say this - most speaker cabling and connectors are of exactly the same quality. You can pay twice the price for thicker gold plated cabling and connectors, but in a road vehicle running a medium grade install and used at a reasonable listening volume, you will never notice any difference in quality. My advice is to use as much of the original speaker wiring as possible. Having done a few complete installs I have to say that replacing the speaker wiring was always the hardest part of the job!! Passing the cables through doors, fixing it all down, connectors, so many problems for absolutely no quality gain at all.

Your sub - a sub works by moving massive amounts of air. Therefore it should be mounted in a position where there is enough air to move - the rear of the back seats is an ideal place as you have a boot full of air to move. This only applies to sealed sub enclosures, as ported enclosures work in a slightly different way but that's nothing to worry about in this case.

When connecting the wiring from the head unit to the sub/amp there are a few things that you should follow - always try to avoid the phono leads alongside anything that carries power. The phono leads carry a very low power signal and are very prone to interference, and there isn't much people can do to stop it. Don't be drawn in to more expensive leads with magnetic interference protection and gold plated connectors - they do not help!! Keep your phono leads apart from other leads, and only cross other leads at a 90degree angle.

There will probably also be settings on the head units for your sub-out (the phono leads that take the signal from the head unit to the subs amp), be sure to set these settings up, as sometimes the amp won't even switch on without these settings.

Hopefully this has helped you some, and not just made it more confusing!

Mark

Thanks a lot Mark,

well you enlightened some and confused on some other things hehe..

but let me simplify 2 key things.

yes the alpine power-pack is a 4 channel amp "plug & play" into the the head unit. some have it install behind the glove box, and others just behind the head unit. So no extra wiring from it.

the car has already on the front doors the 6.5" woofers and the 1" or so tweeters, and what I was thinking is.. are the signal splitted already? or does the woofer and tweeter receive same signal with all frequencies?

I guess I could just try it and see what happens? (how it sounds?)


then in the trunk there is already to wires with their plug under the shelf, one at the left and one at the right... I guess they where designated to have two 6x9 on the shelf? but... do I just plug one to the basslink or both? or none? in that case... what wire is the right one, where can I find it?


I hope this explained a bit more my 2 concerns.

Don't forget the stereo release tools (returnable/refundable) from Halfords. Coathangers just make a mess on the outgoing stereo that you could sell on ebay and sometimes don't work which results in wasted afternoon and a trip to Halfords anyway...

Nick

Hi Nick,

well... my head unit came with this release tools, so no problem here Thx anyway.

Go on the ICE forum bit and ask there there will be more help possibly:thumbs:

I was about to post this there, but didn't feel it was the right place, so I did a search on sound systems on the forum and most of them where inside here. But I will indeed check that part of the forum as well, maybe I find some info.

Thx for the tip

 

[RomeoMustBuy]

Are your 610s 6x9's or round door speakers?
If they are 6x9s I think in the 156 the covers are there on the shelf but no speakers unless it had a factory upgrade :thumbs:
Think it came as standard with rear door speakers not rear shelf so this space should be ready to fit . You may need to move the wiring if that's so as not sure the wiring goes to the shelf .

Yes, thanks on that info on space.. I´ll find somewhere to squeeze that m%#"fu%#! is not that big at dimensions: (7-7/8"W x 1-1/2"H x 2-9/16"D)

no the 610´s are 6.5 inches and are going to be installed on the rear doors.

I thought the shelf was ready for some 6x9 but found out they wherent... I buyed a year ago, a pair 6x9´s Rockford Fosgate P1694, and couldn't attach them to anything!.. and after lots of reading about how unnecessary they are, I won't be cutting the shelf, so I don't think I´ll be installing anything there, though.. the wires are already there between the shelf and the yellowish isolation stuff as it came standard in the car, what I don't know is if I should plug those (both or only 1) into the infinity basslink in the trunk... or extend a new wire/s for the bass.

Got some car parts stores with audio section, but they don't know anything, or are going to get their feet outside the store to see the car or anything... unless I pay them lots of money, just to check it out! so no option.. I must do this myself.

what I found out reading lots of articles on the net, was that the money should be spent in the front speakers.. and components are the way to go, the rear doors could just use the ones that came with the car, but some cheap alpine, sony, or anything almost, would be better than the standard ones. so I got the alpine cheap. then if you want more bass.. a sub is the way to go... 8" are ok, 10" are better, and 12" are in fact to much!.. (for good quality hi-fi like music).. if you want eye-popping get the biggest the trunk can fit!.. and so many amps your wallet can afford!, but again, Im not trying to pop eyes out of chicks!