12V feed to the boot

[d3k4y0]

Just a quick question, where have people taken power for their amps in the boots? have you ran it through the car or picked it up somewhere in the boot?

[redline]

usually they are done by taking a seperate fused feed directly from the battery coz most of the wiring to the boot (unless its a 12 volt supply for a tow bar ) wouldnt be heavy enough to power an amp

[d3k4y0]

yeah, I was expecting to have to run straight from the batt.... I guess I was just hoping there was another way

[SteveP]

If you're fitting an amp it might be worth considering mounting it under the passenger seat, theres alot of room under there in 300s. Saves running wires all the way to the boot, and is easier to run speaker wires to the fronts

[redline]

best to play safe with this one as the amp will take a fair bit of juice

[d3k4y0]

If you're fitting an amp it might be worth considering mounting it under the passenger seat, theres alot of room under there in 300s. Saves running wires all the way to the boot, and is easier to run speaker wires to the fronts

nah, even tho it's only a temp measure for now, I've got an active box for £35, it's crap but as Car Audio Direct screwed me over with a blapunkt promo pack, and I'd already got wiring bits and an adaptor for the stereo which came to £40, so i thought i may as well put something there, I'm only powering the rears from it, so no need to run back to the front, was gonna run the power the opposite side to the audio, so under a seat would be alot harder to be as neat...

[d3k4y0]

so the question now moves on to,l where do i come through the bulkhead for ease of fitting?

[SteveP]

Blaupunkt are bar stewards with adapter wires!! Had to buy an adapter to use the RCA outs on mine, why dont they just put them on the back of the HU instead of having to fork out another tenner!

Theres lots of space and pre-bunged holes in the bulkhead of the drivers side behind the dash panel

[d3k4y0]

Bah

what a waste of a day

installed new wiring, removed all old wiring, spent almost 2 hours fiddling and it still sounds worse than the head unit alone.

I stand by my comment in the other thread,
good blaupunkt onboard amp + 6x9s > MOR 4 channel outboard amp + sub + 6x9s

[SteveP]

Must be a crap amp!? I noticed a huge difference in quality when switching to my Maystar amp than the Blaupunkt headunit. Generally though 6x9s and a sub is a no no

[Chris_C]

Dude... in what way does it sound crap??? There is not a snowflakes chance in a very toasty place that if that amp is worth more than £50, it can sound worse

I've never heard 6x9's and a sub in a conventional set up, so can't comment, but as Steve said, general conscensious is no.

Give us some idea of whats sounding crap, and it's hopefully something obvious. You got all your polarities right on the speakers? Out of phase is always a tad squiffy.

Oh, and please say you fused the big fat 'I'm going to blow the world apart if I short out' cable (Don't mean to take the p*ss, but i saw one not today.....)

[d3k4y0]

Well, first off, it's a crap amp, this is a certainty.
I ordered some really good value gear from CAD but they waited 5 days then told me they'd sold out, by which point I'd spent a fair whack of money on other bits (wiring kit , blaupunkt adapter, 5m quad phono lead etc), so me, being me, didn't want to see these things unused, so I got my mate to give me his sub/box/4 channel amp that he put together before he knew that cheap = crap. the box is very good, the sub is... adequate (splx 10") the amp is the weakest link, unbranded, says "1000WATTS OMG WTF LOL BANGING!" or something similar on the box, it's actually 50watt/channel and I think from maplins (shark?) it really is just a temporary measure until i can find a friendly priced 4 channel amp (preferably alpine/blaupunkt/rockford) getting a decent sub isn't a problem, I'll probably just go for a JBL 10" cos I can source one for under £50.


As it stands the sub is nothing like as tight as i want it to be, or as tight as it should be for a 10". kick drums sound excessively damped, I think I've tracked this down to a crap low pass filter that has been put in the box, because there's a very harsh drop off around 110Hz, the amp is too sparkly aswell, adding too much top end to the rear 6x9s so my front 4"s are doing al the mid range, and not making it up enough. and this isn't helped by the lack of a "mid" control on the HU. tomorrow I'm gonna try swapping the channels over, so i can control the 6x9 level against the sub and fronts level on the balance control. I'm also gonna look at swapping the filter out for one tht's from an audio manufacturer. not from a heavy electronics one...

[d3k4y0]

just as an extra thing, what tracks do you guys use when proofing setups?

I've been using some pretty standard test tracks

Yello - The Race (12" mix)

Peter Gabriel - Darkness

Jamiroquai - Cosmic Girl

Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl

Quindon Tarver - When Doves Cry

I've ran some of my own stuff through it that I mixed in studio1 on seriously sorted Genelecs, so i know precisely how they SHOULD sound, and what's lacking where

I've also ran the standard sets of test tones through it, for what it's worth, everytime i tweak I'll do a sweep around the relevant points, that's really how i know the filter is wank



When it's properly sorted I'm gonna run the new mix of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds through it, because it's still a masterpiece, and it's now got a slightly toned down 70's sound to it, it's practically perfect.

[foggyjames]

Something well recorded, but not too clean...most 'urban' music sounds 'good' (in a hi-fi context) on the crappiest gear. I've found the Razorlight album to be a nice compromise (it's deceptively edgy in places), but then I'm also a sucker for a bit of Leftfield.

12v feed from the battery...HELL YEAH! If the amp is worth bothering with, it'll be pulling at least 40A (flat out...peak y0!) for a 4x50w ish effort. Don't forget a big-ass ground point.

cheers

James