Jump to content
SAU Community

Installing A Sub Into My Car

PWND

By PWND,
in Car Audio & Electrical

 Share

Recommended Posts

PWND Grand Master

PWND

Posted
Posted

As topic says, i am just trying to get the sub going in my car. I already have a four chanel amp powering the front and the back splits sitting in there, and what i was thinking of doing for the time being, is disconnecting the rear splits from the amp, and just running them off my head deck, and powering the sub from there. The questions i have are:

1. How would i go about plugging and wiring the sub up? I already have all the leads for the amp and the splits coming in. i was just going to connect the rears directly to the spilts, but then how would i connect the imput? if i have to bring in a whole new lead from the car, i am better off purchasing another amp and having that power the sub.

2. If i was able to hook it up, would i have to purchase some sort of filter, so the high frequencies don't go through the sub? It's a boxed kicker 10 inch, and am not sure whether they come with filters built in...

3. Anything else I may have missed

Cheers

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/150514-installing-a-sub-into-my-car/
Share on other sites
sky017 Proficient

sky017

Posted
Posted

why dont you take all your speakers off the amp , and connect them to the head deck . and only run the sub off the amp . you will find it sounds much more clearer. and your bass will be more defined and clear.

i had the same situation when i made my sub . i found it didnt sound good together and the bass in the speakers were over powering the bass in the sub.

PWND Grand Master

PWND

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I am trying to hold of on that at the moment, because I think that will probably require me to rip the interior apart to get all the wiring together, because at the moment, all the wires, for both the fronts and the backs, come to the boot for the amp, and then they go to the speakers in the front and back. Just trying to see whether I can have the sub running without having to install any extra wiring. If not, I will have a look at other cost effective options...

Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers

Trav33 Mentor

Trav33

Posted
Posted

My splits don't run too well of the head unit, they needed an amp to give them lots of power - It wasnt a small deck either, Pioneer 4x45W. Not sure if you'll have the same prob running your splits off your deck?

I had a 4ch amp, and ran front splits off 2 channels, and the other 2 channels bridged for the sub. Worked Well!!

Does your amplifier have a frequency filter on it? Most do, you can flick it to Low Pass to only allow bass signals to be sent to the sub.

why dont you take all your speakers off the amp , and connect them to the head deck . and only run the sub off the amp . you will find it sounds much more clearer. and your bass will be more defined and clear.

i had the same situation when i made my sub . i found it didnt sound good together and the bass in the speakers were over powering the bass in the sub.

Sky - do you mean bridge all 4 channels to run one sub? Dont think that would work...

PWND Grand Master

PWND

Posted
  • Author
Posted

yeah, has a switch on there that i am guessing must be low and high frequency filter. Now i am still unsure whether i can use the cables that are coming from the head deck to the boot for the rear speakers to plug both into the sub and the rear speakers. or will i have to run a separate cable in just for the sub.

Also, whilst in a stereo shop getting a quote, the guy told me that skyline alternators are pretty basic, and that they would struggle if they have two amps running of them. Any truth to this? all i would be powering is two pairs of splits and a ten inch kicker.

gts25t4door Experienced

gts25t4door

Posted
Posted

To fix the small alternator problem get a big Optima battery they kick ass. I had one for a few weeks until my brother "borrowed it", it solved all my electrical problems with power drain.

I would recommend that you run 1 amp for the splits and 1 for the sub as splits really need more power then a stock head unit can provide. You will only need a few hundred watts to power a 10" kicker and that would be fairly cheap, just make sure that the amp has a low pass filter or depending on your head deck it may have a low pass corssover built into it.

Trav33 Mentor

Trav33

Posted
Posted
yeah, has a switch on there that i am guessing must be low and high frequency filter. Now i am still unsure whether i can use the cables that are coming from the head deck to the boot for the rear speakers to plug both into the sub and the rear speakers. or will i have to run a separate cable in just for the sub.

Also, whilst in a stereo shop getting a quote, the guy told me that skyline alternators are pretty basic, and that they would struggle if they have two amps running of them. Any truth to this? all i would be powering is two pairs of splits and a ten inch kicker.

The amp switch should have markings on it to show what its for? If its a low-pass / high-pass filter, you may also have an adjustment screw to set the cut-off frequency.

You could use the speaker cables running from the front of the car to the rear of the car for your rear-speakers - these wouldn't be used for anything now? If you've got money to spend, you could install new high-quality cable, but i wouldnt bother - if you end up getting another amp, the speaker cable wont be used.

PWND Grand Master

PWND

Posted
  • Author
Posted

the next question is, how do you bridge a sub? It's been nearly ten years since high school physics, and i can't remember the difference between parallel and bridged. Is bridged if i plug the wire from the positive out on one chanel to positive in on the sub, and the plug negative on the sub onto negative on the amp on the other chanel. or is am completely off?

Gazee Grand Master

Gazee

Posted
Posted
the next question is, how do you bridge a sub? It's been nearly ten years since high school physics, and i can't remember the difference between parallel and bridged. Is bridged if i plug the wire from the positive out on one chanel to positive in on the sub, and the plug negative on the sub onto negative on the amp on the other chanel. or is am completely off?

If you want to bridge your sub to 2 channels just say rear left and rear right for instance, you put the positives together and negatives together. So coming from the sub box you'll have a + and -, on the amp you'll have like + - and + - for each speaker, you put the sub negative to both the negatives on the amp and the sub positive to both positives on the amp. Easier done than said lol

But once you get the hang of it, its pretty simple. Also to add with the clarity of speakers, theres nothing better than having your speakers running through an amp, it comes down to the tune just like a car. If its not tuned properly it'll sound shit. If your cars not tuned properly it'll run shit lol

PWND Grand Master

PWND

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Might do that temporarily. Just not worry about the rear splits for a little while and have the sub and the fronts. don't have the time to rip the car apart to put more speaker cable through yet.

thanks for that

andz Mentor

andz

Posted
Posted
I had a 4ch amp, and ran front splits off 2 channels, and the other 2 channels bridged for the sub. Worked Well!!

yup same set up as mine...

2 channels bridged to run then sub, the other 2 each runs the 2 splits

the deck 50x4 or 45x4 runs the rears

so u only need 1 amp

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • The Bogan
      NC MX5

      By The Bogan · Posted

      No chop chop of anything mate, it is what it is, plus, I don't want any air that isn't either going through the cooling stack or intake getting into the engine compartment increasing under bonnet pressure  Yeah, the Mazda Speed aftermarket intake above is less than ideal for multiple reasons, the requirement to remove the bumper every time you need to service the filter, and also smaller in diameter than the NC1 OEM one Weirdly, Mazda Speed is part of the Mazda motorsport division, "form over function" and $$$$$ for Mazda from unsuspecting punters I suspect  After some googling about them it seems they added no power, but do increase some induction noise Meh In other news, the electricians have been busy today at the house, and are back tomorrow finishing up all the security stuff and exterior lighting, they also added some lighting on the garage ceiling, which will come in handy when working in the garage when it's not freezing out there My Birdies raised garden bed also arrived today as well, which I'll put together and place tomorrow, it's a big tall Bessie, 74cm high, 92cm wide and 214cm long, this will come in handy as I am starting to get "stockpiles" of good soils from doing landscaping, some of the clean rock, namely the river stone, will go into the bottom of the bed for drainage, as well as the old Apricot tree that was out the back,  and when it's full, I'll grab another one, I will be growing enough veggies to keep me both busy as well as supplementing the shopping list I'm also awaiting another quote for a new Colourbond front fence, as the "1980 style cemented in rock edging" that was there and "fashionable at the time" looked arse, and my god, the amount of cement used to fix the rock was insane, it took 1.5 days for me to break out 12 meters of the stuff by hand, trim the bushes back to the fence line and dump it out the back of the joint to deal with at a later date,I will soon need a skip bin to tip it all Unfortunately they did alot of the cemented in rock around the joint, which I hate, so a few pallets of retaining wall blocks for around the front and back where the cemented in rock is will be required to bring it up to a standard, and look, that I will be happy with 12 meters worth of rock and cement Finished smashing the fence line and ready for a fence to be installed, yes, the lawns need some TLC and thickness, the previous owner trimmed the grass to the roots 😢, the TLC I can provide, and nature over time will do the rest And there's probably about another 40 meters worth of this landscaping abomination left to do around the front and back gardens, I'm guessing maybe 3 or 4 tons worth, tip fees for this will be a killer Meh, all in all I'm having fun and keeping busy, plus, it's good PT
    • Murray_Calavera
      Ethanol Content Sensor - Always at 11%?

      By Murray_Calavera · Posted

      If I drove to a typical petrol station, what would my choices of fuel be? 
    • MBS206
      NC MX5

      By MBS206 · Posted

      Just cut the bottom of the guard out. It's no longer got a big duct, to a sealed box, or a restriction. It has all the cold air from outside. Also, that cai you showed looks terrible. Bends are NOT good for go gos!
    • The Bogan
      NC MX5

      By The Bogan · Posted

      Like I said, "black magic" LOL In the end,  it is what it is, and hopefully, what this here knuckle head has done is an improvement and not a hindrance Not that I actually notice any negatives now, or that I will get any seat of the pants benefits when all is said and done, but best practice says I shouldn't be pulling intake air from the hot engine bay  Famous last words: I cannot see it being any worse than what it is at the moment 🤔
    • GTSBoy
      NC MX5

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      If the gases flowing in those two tracts had the same properties, you could maybe use such broscience. But the exhaust has a different composition, different normal density, different actual density (because of different normal density, and mostly because of the massively higher temperature), and different viscosity (again because of much higher temperature). Consequently, all of the fluid dynamics parameters that matter, that you calculate from these inputs, such as the Reynolds number, friction factors (for wall friction) and so on, are all incomparable.
×
×
  • Create New...