ICE Advice: Amping the fronts or a rear sub?

Noddy · Post by **Noddy** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:42 am

Hey, i've made do with a s**t headunit and stock front speakers for ages in my 5 door 6N, so i've finally decided to bite the bullet and spend a little on ICE.

I'm a total newbie to ICE and so wanted some advice on what to spend my pennies on. Given that i'm on a budget I have two options:

[1]. Amp a set of high quality components in the front
[2]. Put some decent comps in the front but get an amp and sub in the boot

Its usually just me and my girlfriend in the car so i'm tempted to go for the first option but then again, it would sound pretty awesome having some stellar base in the rear. What do you guys recommend given that i'm on a reasonably tight budget?

Randall · Post by **Randall** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:00 pm

The way fourth and many ICE nuttaz will say the same. Get your self a nice set of comps upfront running off an amp and stick a 12" sub in ya boot

Noddy · Post by **Noddy** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:13 pm

Ok i've decided to go for a kinda of middle-ground.

I'm getting some nice comps up front and an amp and sub in the boot. The front comps aren't amped yet since I can't afford it but I can always upgrade that can't I?

Thanks for the advice so far Randall

Randall · Post by **Randall** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 2:16 pm

ME again lol

Yeah that will be fine mate, you can run comps up front without an amp and yes you can easily add one wen cash is right. Im currently not running an amp to my front comps @ the mo plus im looking for another sub as the 15" boot install kind of overtook n wasnt really pratical.

Ne more help give us a shout

Dinos-icenpaintman · Post by **Dinos-icenpaintman** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 2:53 pm

Also if you amp the fronts make sure you load the speaker leads "big resistor" from the head unit as you may burn the amp in the headunit out. Many of the aftermarket headunits give you the option to turn the internal amp off.

bass mekanik · Post by **bass mekanik** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:16 pm

Dinos-icenpaintman wrote:Also if you amp the fronts make sure you load the speaker leads "big resistor" from the head unit as you may burn the amp in the headunit out. Many of the aftermarket headunits give you the option to turn the internal amp off.

err. no. thats complete rubbish.

If the speaker outputs on a n amplifier dont see a resistance load (which they wouldnt do if the speakers were amped externally) then the circuit has no way of over heating as its not putting anything out!

please dont spew verbal diahoreha and scare people.

back on topic for a second, if you are looking for the best solution,

suggest you either wait and save a tad more or go second hand on a budget and get the following:

decent four channel amp (50% of budget)
front comps (30% of budget)
sub (15% of budget)
wiring (5%)

run comps off front two channels of amp.
run sub off rear two channels bridged.

sorted

Noddy · Post by **Noddy** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:03 pm

Thanks very much for the advice so far lads.

bass mekanik wrote:run comps off front two channels of amp.
run sub off rear two channels bridged.

Many thanks, Bass Mekanik, i'm heading a local ICE shop (Autosounds in Newcastle) to enquire about the total price of that kind of package. If its over Â£350 i'll just plump for front comps and wait to save the cash for a four channel amp and sub.

Cheers

bass mekanik · Post by **bass mekanik** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:11 pm

Noddy wrote:Thanks very much for the advice so far lads.

bass mekanik wrote:run comps off front two channels of amp.
run sub off rear two channels bridged.
Many thanks, Bass Mekanik, i'm heading a local ICE shop (Autosounds in Newcastle) to enquire about the total price of that kind of package. If its over Â£350 i'll just plump for front comps and wait to save the cash for a four channel amp and sub.

Cheers

no problem - glad to help

I would suggest at that budget that you go second hand personally as you will get a lot more for your money. particularly if you go for high end older kit and ebay it!

eg:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Denon-DCA-800_W0Q ... dZViewItem

That amp was around Â£800 in its day and will easily take on LOADS of modern day mid range kit. it was very underrated and will comfortably power an entire system. going rate on them now is around Â£100 for a minter but will make the run of the mill pioneer/alpine/sony amp look silly in performance terms.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ROCKFORD-200A4-AM ... dZViewItem

another little Gem- retail in its day around the Â£400 mark. under rated- will realistically do around about 1.5 times the rated poiwer. (this was the point just before rockford fosgate started going downhill- the last of the good kit)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DLS-Ultimate-A5-T ... dZViewItem

ABSOLUTE BARGAIN!!!!!!! thats a Â£700 amplifier- and it still sells brand new for that price!! a buy it now of Â£250 is a ridiculous steal. I have owned one of these before and trust me- they are pretty serious bits of kit. now I know thats a fairly large chunk of your budget- but at that price It would be best to buy it, spend another Â£100 on comps and then add a sub at a later date- believe me it is something you wont regret.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Phoenix-Gold-M50- ... dZViewItem

Another old skool monster- 2x50 watts my arse, its more like double that in real terms ( a lot of the old skool phoenix gold amps were majorly under-rated) it will do 300 RMS bridged easily- possibly even more. but this is a two channel amp so probably not best for your purposes.

ok moving on,

sub:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Diamond-M5102-8-1 ... dZViewItem

Thats the predeccesor to the current diamond audio M6 sub. retailed around Â£250ish in its day. goes loud enough (much more so than the average sony sub!) but more importantly sounds absolutely astounding. beautiful bit of kit (another one that I once owned- albeit the 12" version)
at that price its a bargain- even up to Â£100 its well worth it.

another totally different option which I would seriously consider in your position:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JL-audio-complete ... dZViewItem

the guy says he will take offers and split the auction, so i would offer him your full budget of Â£350 for the following he lists:

E1200 MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER
E2150 TWO CHANNEL AMPLIFIER
XR 17CM COMPONENTS WITH CROSSOVERS
12 INCH W3 SUBWOOFER

given his starting price i think thats a realistic offer and I would say thats a pretty awesome system for that sort of money as well.

you get the idea anyway- it is possible to get decent kit seoncd hand on a budget if you hunt for it!

Noddy · Post by **Noddy** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 2:00 pm

Ok, with comprehensive help from Bass Mekanik i'm begun to assemble a decent setup but I still have a few 'newbie-ish' questions:

First off, as I understand it, this is how I should aim to wire up the system. Making sure that the power and remote turn on are on one side of the vehicle, while all the speaker cabling and RCA's are on the other side. Is that correct?

Secondly, do I take speaker wire from the amp to the crossovers and then to the comps or is there some other order?

As always, I'd appreciate any advice you ICE enthusiasts can offer. Cheers.