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Recently decided to do a cheaper audio system in my truck. It is my daily driver so I like my music. I drive 50-70 miles a day so I like my music. Most of the stuff I installed I had already laying around. Here is a list of all of the stuff that I installed. Before I begin yes I know that the amps are cheaper quality but they have definitely been good. This is also just a for fun system on the cheap. I plan to do a way better system eventually when I have money but for the time being have to pay for college this will have to do.
2X Boss Audio 300.2 600 watt 2 channel
JVC KD-R660 4 pre outs Front and Rear/Sub at 2.5 Volt.
Pair of Scosche 6X8 4 ways
Pair of Pioneer 6X8 2 way
Pair of Kenwood 6X9 5 ways (Don't ask why 5 way. I bought them when I was just starting/learning in car audio and was like. "OHH 5 Way Must Be Really Good..." Yes I have learned that a 2 way vs 5 way there is basically no difference.) I can post the links if anyone really wants them.
That is the basic stuff that I am working with. I will get into how I wired the amps/speakers and how with 6 speakers. I have opted out of doing subs right now because 1. Money 2. Building the box to my liking. 3. I didn't want to deal with subs right yet. Will eventually.
There where already upgraded speakers in the truck with the stock Head unit. They sounded a little better than stock but not much.
Before I started installing anything new I pulled all the old speakers/ Head unit. As you will see the original speaker connectors where cut off so I head shrinked the speaker wire ends and zip tied them back to the factory wiring.
After that I installed the New Head unit. Didn't get any pictures of that but if you want them I can upload some. I used a cheap dash kit and wiring harness from Walmart. I soldering the radio harness and adapter harness together then electrical tapes and zip tied it all together. Here is a picture of what the radio looks like.
On to running the Power Wires for the amps. I used Sky High Car Audio 8 AWG wire and Scosche 8 AWG wire. Had both laying around in case a friend wanted a system put in. I was originally thinking about maybe running 4 AWG to a distribution block down to dual 8 AWG but I didn't have enough 4 AWG for it to run from battery to rear of cab where amps are going to be at. So I just ran the 8 from battery to back. Everyplace that the wire was outside the cab was wrapped/ electrical tapes and zip tied to make sure that it is protected. The Scoshe 8 AWG had a built in 50 AMP fuse but I had to run to Walmart and picked up a cheap 8 AWG 40 AMP fuse holder.
Here is what the Power wire looks like before installed.
I soldered all my connections
Here is the Amp holder. Didn't like how the ends were open so taped them then zip tied to make sure they wont get water
Ran the wires down the factory wiring down under the truck to a grommet.
looking up from the wheel well.
Zip tied the cables every place I could to make sure it wouldn't move. Went into the first grommet right behind the wheel well.
Where I ran it between frame and cab. Right behind the fender well.
On to the next post because can't put anymore pictures. Up next it running the power wire in cab and running speaker wire.
Once in the cab I ran the power wire on the right side of the cab all along the factory wiring. I zip tied it along every foot or so. yes there is rust I am working/thinking of ways to fix. Been talking with Jbrew on diffrent tread about it.
I ran the power wire up under all the plastic panels to keep it hidden. The amps will be going under the seat so to get access to that space I took out the seat. Including off the back wall. I unfortunantly didn't get any pictures of that but if anyone wants a tutorial of how to take out the rear seat I can make one. Just ask.
Okay after I had to the power wire ran I then started on the speaker wire. Doing the back doors was easy since I pulled the back seat I could just pull all the plastic panels and slide the wire right through the rubber grommet into the door. On the back doors I used KnuKoncepts 14 AWG tinned speaker wire. With the thought of future speaker and amp upgrades. I know that 14 is a little over kill but I like to know that it was over done. I didn't have the right connectors to have easy disconnect on speakers so I just soldered the wires to the speakers. I put the Scouche 6X8's in the back doors.
Sorry I am terrible at getting pictures so here is what it looks like with everything put back together.
After the rear doors I started to tackle the from doors. These are a little harder... Especially the driver door. Will get into that later. So I had to take a hanger and cut it down to be able to run the wires.
Hanger I used Just taped the wire to it and slowly fished it through.
Passenger door from cab
Passenger door inside.
Reused the repaced front speakers. 40 RMS @4 ohms and 250 max.. We will see how long they last.
Next post will have finish running speaker wires and running RCA's Also I ran the remote wire from the radio down to the passenger side and ran it with the speaker wire. To run the remote wire I had to run it straight down below the radio down to where the plastic cover is on the transmission hump from there I had to fish it under the dash to the passenger side. I didn't want any power wires ran on the side with the RCA's to make sure that there is no feed back.
The driver door was hard. The parking brake was in the way and couldn't get to the grommet so it took a little finess. I had to pull the grommet from between the door and cab out of the cab so I could direct the hanger a little easier. After I got the hanger through I had to use needle nose to grab the hanger and pull it down. Then taped the speaker wire to the hanger inside the cab and slowly fished it back through. After that I ran the speaker wire all the way to the back. I also ran the RCA's on this side away from the power wire.
On to the amp rack/ Amp install. Having 2 amps to install I wasn't sure where I was going to put them but then without having subs I had room under the seat also since I installed my rear seat lift it actually turned out nicely. Link to seat lift.
I decided that to make all the speaker wires similar lengths I decided to place them in the middle under the seat. I used thread rod with nuts to place the amps on top of each other with enough room to breath.
Running both amps in High Pass which blocks anything below 80hz.
After that I decided to measure out the grounds and decide where to ground them. I settled on under the rear carpet right along the back wall next to were the rear seat bolts down. I checked under neath first to make sure nothing was there. (There is nothing there but a lot of metal. I used some self taping screws along with washers. I know this isn't the best option for grounds but it works for know. I will be going back and painting over the grounds to help prevent rust.
After that I moved on to wiring the amps and speakers. I used U shaped connectors to install the speaker wires to the amp. Trying to make it a clean install. I also used them for the remote wire. I didn't have any big enough for the power or ground so I just screwed those down good and tight. With the thought of maybe picking some up and installing them. Even though the power wires weren't connected to the battery I am paranoid about being shocked so I taped the ends of all the power cables.
Remote wire. Jumper from amp 1 to 2
All speaker wires are like this.
All wires before cut to length. Went back zip tied together.
Power/Ground/remote wires. Still not cut to length
Power/Ground/Remote wires ran and hooked up. Cut to lenght
All wires hooked up.
RCA's
The way that I wired the amps is the bottom one is running the back "stage". The 6X9's are being installed under the seat also in some box's that I made. The bottom amp is being run in 2 ohms. Each channel has 2 speakers each 4 ohms.
The top amp is for the front stage. Each channel is only running 1 speaker at 4 ohms. With having everything wired this way in theory the rear stage is louder than the front which I like having a little more from the back. In my "big" install I want to make custom kick panels to help get speakers pointing toward me/ passengers to get it is as even as possible. Here is a final shot of what it looks like before the seat is put back in.
Last Post.... So after putting the rear seat back in I bet some people will ask what about all wires where the seat bolts on to the cab into the back. From the seat lift I don't use those anymore so I have that spot open. But just to make sure that there will be no shorts from a pinch I put the carpet between the metal bracket and the bolt that it is suppose to go to. Here is a picture of what I mean.
Carpet is between the bracket wires and bolt in the cab.
Overall I am happy with the install/upgrade. It I can get extremely loud with a fair amount of bass. I have yet to tune it. I am just running with the gain about 10-15% turned up. And it can still get loud enough for you to cringe. I have my equalizer run at Bass: 0 Mid: 0 Treble: -2 the speakers are pretty bright. The volume adjust is also set at 0 so it the setting "loud". They might get a little better when they fully break in. I have been running this set up for about a week and I like it. Anyone have any ways to tune the amp other than by ear. I have friends that builds and tunes speakers/boxs etc.. for a living but he only tunes by ear and I want to be sure that I have everything set right to have the best sound quality with higher volume.
Another question I am going to guess will come up is light's dimming... The answer is yes I have light dimming but only if it is at night with the head lights and the gauge light brightness turned all the way up. Will be doing the big 3 soon when I get some 4 AWG welding cable. The dimming starts when I hit 38-40 volume. The radio max's at 50 but I never push it past 48 because a lot of Head units start to distort right around that volume. I would love to have Steve meades tuning tools but I don't have that much money and I will only buy those if I start actually doing system installs a lot. Right now it is just for fun and if someone wants one. My truck also only has a 90 amp alt so in theory the amps them selves pull 70 amps and the rest is for the truck but that isn't the way it works... Does anyone know how to check how many amps the alt is actually putting out. It is a new alt because the old one took a dump from old age.
You can use a dmm to set the gains on your amps. Or purchase a DD-1.
If it were me, I'd opt for a stronger front stage than rear stage since it sounds more natural. But as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters.
There's a grommet on both sides of the rear floor, and that's what I used to run my ground to the frame.
You can use a dmm to set the gains on your amps. Or purchase a DD-1.
If it were me, I'd opt for a stronger front stage than rear stage since it sounds more natural. But as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters.
There's a grommet on both sides of the rear floor, and that's what I used to run my ground to the frame.
How do you set the gain with dmm? I have heard of it I just don't know how to do it. Also don't you have to go of the amp RMS numbers? Which I highly doubt are true. I like the back stage just barely louder that is why I want to try to put speaker in the kick panels because right now it is fair amount louder even with the gain turned all the way down. I dont want to turn up the front amp gain bcause it could smoke the speakers in seconds. I have used the search bar but couldn't find anyone that has tried that... what system do you have in your truck?
You can use a dmm to set the gains on your amps. Or purchase a DD-1.
If it were me, I'd opt for a stronger front stage than rear stage since it sounds more natural. But as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters.
There's a grommet on both sides of the rear floor, and that's what I used to run my ground to the frame.
Also where is your amps mounted because a run all the way to the frame from where my amps are would be a long run. I like to keep them as short as possible. Also where did you get that spray and how much was it?
05-06-2016, 12:16 PM
Audio System Upgrade/Install
