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already got one.

 
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no, you can get an amp with speaker level inputs. Amps with speaker level inputs there's 55 amps on that link at crutchfield. you're just more vulnerable to noise with speaker level inputs if the wires are running long distances since they're not shielded like RCA's.

 
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Cool thanks for the info. I'll try and get one that has both speaker and rca inputs (dunno if that is common or not) in case I decide to join the new world and get a HU with rca inputs . Well I guess all I have to do is get the info from my subs and we're off and running trying to figure out what kinda system fits me best.

 
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all amps will have RCA's. that's the standard. it's an option to have the speaker level inputs. i doubt you'll even be able to find an amp without RCA's.

 
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I should just break down and buy a new HU. The one I have now has some good memories attached to it though, so it'll be hard to part with it, I've had it for 6-7 years now, now that I type that, it makes me think I really should get a new one. Well we'll see what everyone's input is as far as specs go with my subs, potential amp, etc, etc.

 
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Ouch. Yeah its time to let go of your current HU. Here's another option on the speaker level bit. They make standalone piggyback-type units that convert speaker level to RCA. Here's a link to one on Ebay:

330083481198 Which will cost all of $11 shipped.

That may make it easier to find an amp as you will have more choices and you'll still be able to use the amp when upgrade your HU to one with RCA preouts. The only thing with these mammajammas is that the sound quality is not going to be as great as you will run the potential of picking up more noise from ground issues (they require their own ground). This will be made worse if you use two of them - for your fronts and rears - to run into an amp. There ways to mitigate this through proper wire routing and grounding during the install but you're always better off with straight RCAs. It all depends on what your wallet can handle - quit getting tickets!

There are 8 different ways to skin the amplification cat if you want all your speakers powered by an amp. With your current head unit, you're probably limited to a 2-channel for your fronts and a 4-channel - capable of tri-mode operation - for your rears. This will make the most your wiring options on your existing headunit. Tri-mode just means you can run the rears of 2 channels and bridge the 3 and 4th for your subs. Or you can get a 5 channel amp, a 6 channel amp, three 2 channels, two 2 channels and a class D - the combinations are pretty limitless.

I built an amazingly good sounding system off Ebay parts for $200 in my old 87 CRX. I had 2 old Sony 2-channels for my fronts - doors and a center channel (by location only) - and an old 4 channel Sherwood for my 6x9s and 10" sub. I just used RCA Y-adapters to hook up all 4 amp inputs from the two outputs on my deck. It sounded excellent for the money I spent, although audio purists would probably turn their nose up at it. Hell I loved it.

 
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HA! Yeah my ticket situation is ridiculous. I beat the one today, it was dismissed The next one is for defective equipment... my tails are tinted. Whoopde****indoo. That's an easy win for me too. Change 'em out and I'm good, so thankfully my wallet isn't getting beat up this time around.

As far as the system goes, what you said up there is what I'm talkin' about. Nothing too crazy. I'm gonna look into a new HU cuz' it's time for one and it'll be much easier to work with that way. I never thought about doing the two channel/4 channel set up, I think that's an awesome idea. I just dunno where I'm gonna put the rear amp. I don't want it out in the open, I'll have to take a look around se what I like... hell I'd put it under the backseat if there was no chance of it overheating. Nobody ever sits back there. I don't wanna put it under the passenger seat, I plan on getting a dvd system and plan on putting the player under there... UNLESS I go all out and just buy an in dash dvd player. I dunno though. I still gotta get those specs. for you on those subs. I know it may be hard to believe I didn't have time to unscrew 6 screws and write down the info, but I needed all the sleep I could get. I'll post it up tomorrow afternoon. I'm out, time to rummage through ebay for HU's.

 
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Hey, since we completely hi-jacked jamis33's thread, create a new one in this section so you have your own thread.

<EDIT> LOL, nevermind! He hijacked yours! Too funny!

Why not mount the amp/amps in the trunk? That's where mine are.

 
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HA! Yeah we kinda strayed from the original topic, but it was a very straight forward answer.

I could mount them in the trunk, but I don' wanna lose any space in there. So in addition to putting the subs in the wheel well area, I wanna put the amps in a convenient location. I cant visualize the trunk right now, so perhaps there is a spot I would be willing to mount them.

 
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the amps don't take up that much room if you do it right. i've got my sub amp mounted on the side of the sub enclosure. i've still got tons of space. i'm only running a single 12" and it's more than enough for me.

 
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You could always mount them to back of the seats - still in the trunk area. The only thing would be those big loads of lumber you buy at Home Depot that require you to put the seats down to get 'em home.

Or get AAA, lose your spare tire and put them/it down there.

Or get creative and mount a 1/4" piece of MDF to the inside of your trunk lid and attach the amps to that. Just be careful to not slam the truck closed anymore. Sky's the limit again.

 
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Yeah the one place I was thinking of was on the back of the seats if I couldn't find a better spot. I think I'm going to put one under each front seat. I'll end up getting a in dash dvd player if anything rather than get one separate from the HU. I plan on getting headrest monitors and I found a pretty good deal for the monitors and in dash unit, so I may do that.

I was also thinking about the spare tire idea, but I don't want the bodies dripping all over the amp and getting them dirty

I got the info. off the subs. and nothing seems useful except for the 12 OHM on there but here is everything exactly how it was written on there:

10MC1406 12OHM
557 00-08-03

There was writing on the back of the cone too, but I don't think thos numbers are relevant here. So now that we got the OHMs for the sub and have the HU info. above, we can work on something here?

Found the specs. for the subs now I don't know if they are 8 or 10"... I took a tape measure to it and I get both 8 and 10" so I just don't know exactly where to measure from, but I think they're tens. Either way here are both links for the specs. First one being for the 8's second one for the 10's. Last link is for the HU.

MTX Car Audio - Archive - Thunder5000

MTX Car Audio - Archive - Thunder5000

http://www.stylestandard.net/oswego/...F6/CDM7854.pdf

 
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Well,

If you're going to wire two of the subs up in parallel then your total resistance will be 6 ohms - not great considering most subs now come with a resistance between 4-8 ohms. The lower your ohms, the less work your amp has to do to push more power to them, which in turn works the amp harder. Electronics are funny that way. Bottom line is the lower you can get your speaker ohm rating, the more power you will be able to push to them from your amp.

We're working with two old-***, probably 10", MTX subs with an RMS power handling rating of 250 watts and a peak of 500 watts. So we don't want to push more than 250 watts RMS to the subs or they will blow. You shouldn't have much to worry about here because any amp that push 200-250 watts to one channel at 6 ohms is going to be fairly expensive and not fitting to your semi-budget build. So. Find yourself a decent amp that has the highest RMS power output you can afford at 4 ohms, and subtract a little for your 6 ohm load. I don't know how much, someone with a bigger brain than I have might know.

Now, once you find the amp you want, its time build your enclosures. You said you wanted small enclosures to maximize your trunk space. Unfortunately that's going to be hard given the specs of this subwoofer. With a Qtc value of 1.0 - slightly bassier than recorded value - you're still looking at a total volume requirement of .89 cubic feet. That means if the face of your box is 12.5" x 12.5" (ish) your box will have to be 14" deep if you're using 3/4" MDF. That's pretty damn big for a 10" sub. And its only one of them. Even if you go up to a Qtc value of 1.2 - the highest you really want to go and still have decent sounding bass - You're looking a required internal volume of .52 cubic feet and 12.5 x 12.5 x 9 for your box size of one woofer. Obviously this can be tuned with the amp and HU to get the sound you want.

Now all is not lost , as these are optimal sounding designs based on mathematical formulas developed by nerds and used by audiophiles. This is just to give you an idea of what will sound great and what will be acceptable for your needs and resources. You have some wiggle room obviously by playing with dimensions of the box to make it fit where you want it to.

Chew on that and let me know what you think.

 
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It's crazy how complicated this stuff is. I wish I could just wire some stuff together and it would sound good no matter what. I'm gonna go looking at best buy today for some prelim prices on stuff. Then I'll see how much the stuff really is on ebay. When I find what I think will work well, I'll post up on here again and see what you think.

 
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To answer your question from my FTN thread, right now I'm gonna start off slow with just getting an amp for my interior speakers. I have pioneer
tsa1671r (6 1/2 3 ways 220W) Electric130 recommended in another thread to get a kicker 4 channel amp to get the power I want. Ideas on that? After hearing your input, I'll get into how to wire it and stuff.

As for the subs, I looked real quick at my sub box when taking them out to see the model number. All three have their own enclosure and each one is roughly (exterior dimensions) 12x12x12. Now being that I only want two of them, one on each side, I'm trying to figure what I can do as far as box dimensions. I don't know if those numbers are ideal for the subs I have (prior post for specs) But when I had them hooked up in my last car, it thumped pretty good. I can make the box about 13" high before the trunk hinge starts to hit it. I can also make it about 13" wide to keep it a square shape. doing those would let me make it less deep which in turn would prevent too much loss of the trunk.

Is it possible that instead of a 12x12x12 box, I can trim it down to say 11x11x11, and then make the same modifactions I made before to in turn give me even MORE trunk space, or will they not work properly in that scenario?

 
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most subs will work in smaller enclosures, they just won't hit as hard. i doubt you'd notice much difference to the ear by going from 12" cube to 11" cube. unless you're trying to win SPL contests, you should be fine. you can find some Kicker 4x50RMS amps for around $150 i think. you can get a 400w mono amp for around $125. Kicker's always been good to me. i love their subs. it's been awhile for all this, so refresh my memory on what all you're wanting to run. specs on each would be helpful.

 
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Well to get a more accurate set of specs, I need to know how big my subs are. I put links a previous post for those and my HU as well. But I was unsure if I had 10's or 8's. If I measured from one spot, it was 10, another spot it was eight. Where exactly should I put the end of my tape measure to figure out how big they are? Once I get that figured out, I will repost the proper links for the specs so we all don't have to keep going back in the thread.

 
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TTT... This thread died and I still need help.

Can anyone help me with where exactly to take the measurements from so we can move forward in figuring out what is the best setup for me? Thanks.

 
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To be honest, manufactuers vary in their actual measurements of the subs, but use a general system such as 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, etc. A good rule of thumb is to measure from one screw hole to the screw hole opposite of it. if the number comes out >8, you probably have the 10" version.

 
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Also, if this is your first box build, I would stick to the good old recangular box shape. Unfortionatly, the only feasible way of makeing a box that fits behind the wheel wells in the trunk(indents) is to make a fiberglass enclosure, which I do not recommend unless youve done glass before. I cant really recomend a box size for you since I dont know the specs of your sub, but a best guess would say that most 10" subs require anywhere from .4-.9 cubic feet of enlocure volume each. This is actually pretty small. Its going to be tough to maintain spare tire access with that cheapy piece of cardboard in there underneath the carpet if you are going to put a box on top of it. Also remember, that as the box gets bigger, the less power is needed to drive the subwoofer to its mechanical limits. If I were you and I didnt want to do the custom drunk DIY on this site, I would make a long, slim box that was short enough to clear the trunk hinges that swing down on the sides of the trunk when you shut it. Then I would run the long box along the side of the trunk, and mount the amplifier to the back of the box where the "indent" is. If you want to run multiple subs you could put another bow on the other side. You would still be able to get into the tire well fairly easily and you will still have a good ammount of room and access to the cabin through the seats for long objects that you might have to lug in your trunk.

 
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Awesome, thanks for the input. I realize now that I have 3 10's in the one box, but as I said before, they have their own enclosures. Each one is about 12x12x12 (exterior) I'm thinking about just cutting this box down into three pieces, and using two of the subs on either side of the trunk. It wouldn't fit perfectly like I would like them to, but I also do not think it's going to be too much of a space problem. Before I do that though here is the link to the subs, I can't find where it says the best dimensions are for the enclosure (if it's even on there)

http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/archive/thunderSub51012.cfm

If I could cut down the size of the boxes, that would definitely be better for my situation, but If it's gonna make 'em sound like shi+, then of course I won't do it. I had this box in my old car--- mercury sable, and it sounded awesome. So I'm hoping whoever put them in the box, did the right thing to begin with.

Let me know what you think.

 
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i can't find a data sheet for yours, but the thunder 5500 in 10" recommends a Net Internal Volume: 0.75 ft³ for a sealed box and a Net Internal Volume: 1.45 ft³ for a ported box. here's the link where i found it and it has a cutting guide for how to build the proper boxes:
http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/products...a_T5510-04.pdf

 
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Man. We went through this already. Next thing you know, you'll be forgetting who made that sig for you..... Damn squids.

Anyway, 12x12x12 sealed box should sound just fine without going into all the technical details that we covered in the first part of thread. Keep in mind that when you hack into that existing 3x10" sub box, you're going to lose the middle enclosure. Its sides will become the sides for the outer two. I would try it with just the two (wired in parallel) and see how it sounds before you go building a new box. If it sounds decent then leave the third enclosure for another day. As fine an acoustical masterpiece that the Mecury Sable is, you may find you're happy with the sound in your civic with only 2 subs. My .02 is all.

 
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I'll only be a squid for ten more months, then you can blame it on me being a damn civilian. I'm still working on getting you that rep.--- haven't forgotten about you.

I forgot that we had went over this. But yeah I plan on cutting out the middle enclosure to ultimately end up with two "cube" boxes. One for each side. Since you tell me that they will sound okay, I will go with your word on it. Now to figure out the best amp to go with it without breaking the bank (I got two more tickets since the others I wrote about a few posts back--Virginia blows) Lol to your Sable comment... that thing was pimpin' haha. But it was fully loaded and it got me home for the weekends to go visit my dumb bitch ex, but that's a whole different story.

I agree with you and think that the two tens will sound fine. So what do you suggest as far as an amp? Two channel? Brand? Thanks

 
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you can get a good 2 channel Kicker amp off ebay for cheap. especially if you get last years model. i've had kicker stuff since 96 and i've always liked their quality. subs are awesome and so are the amps.

 
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^^^^ Word on electric130's Kicker advice.

I've always had good luck with Kenwood products myself. For the used stuff, stick with a name brand, and as long as its guaranteed not to be DOA, don't worry if its cheap. Just stay away from Boss, Pyle, Thunder, and other such garbage. I remember I had an AK-97 2,000 watt mosfet amp in high school. That piece of **** weighed like a 1/4 pound and barely had enough juice to run the power LED.

My advice is to find a 200 watt RMS, name brand, used 2-channel amp for $50-75 bucks and run your subs in parallel off that.

 
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i wouldn't go with anything used unless its from someone you know and you see it work in person. the kicker stuff i was talking about on ebay are new or reconditioned amps.

500w RMS at 4ohm mono Kicker

the subs you have will need a ton of power due to them being 12ohms. that amp above should do the trick though. that should do about 400w at 6ohms RMS. just put your 2 10 in parallel to make it a single 6ohm load.

 
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I looked at the amp...is that more power than I need? In the description, it says 1000 watt rms output. I don't know what RMS is, but when I looked at the specs of my subs it said something like 250 watts max RMS power handling. I don't know what RMS is or what it does. Along with that, it said 500 watt total output... wtf?? Why can't they just say get an amp that does this and that to make it sound good for the retards like me. They gotta be all technical and shi+ for you smart guys. I'm starting to take some classes to acquire my A&P license... they're basic electrical classes, so maybe it'll teach me something to where I can understand this stuff. Wire in parallel... over my head, bridging, also over my head. But I think one of you may have explained it before, so I'm gonna go back now and check. . .

Ok yeah, speedfoos explained parallel and someone else explained bridging. I understand that parallel lessens the output, but what exactly are you phsically doing that is wiring in parallel?

 
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that 1000w is at 2 ohms. 500w RMS at 4ohms, and maybe ~375-400w RMS at 6ohms. if you put 2 of your 12ohm subs in parallel, you'll have 6 ohms as seen by the amp. that's why buying high ohm speakers sucks because you need at least double the power to drive them. so then at 400wRMS, each speaker will get 200w RMS, which is still 50w RMS less than the specs. parallel is where you put the + from one speaker to the + of the other speaker and run that to the + of the amp. do the same with the - terminals. bridging is when you hook up a 2 channel amp to run as a single channel. with that mono amp i linked to, you won't bridge because it only has one output.

does all that make sense?

 
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Yuuup for the most part it does. So heres a question. Being that 2 channel amps tend to be cheaper, is it possible to get a 500w 2 channel amp, bridge and hook them up in parallel that way? Or does it not work like that?

The one thing I don't understand is the whole watts, rms, and ohms. What the hell is driving the subs? The watts, rms (whatever that is), or the ohms?