I'm thinking about purchasing one and installing it myself. I don't have any experience with this, but I'm decently adept at following instructions.

 

Am I going to regret the do-it-yourself urge? Anyone?

hey its easy. somple 12v and ground. once you accomplish this any other electrical work will seem more understandable

 

disconnect the- battery terminal so you dont short anything out, the amp needs a constant hot wire off the battery, a ground, and the remote wire that turns it on from the radio or a switch

First off, stereos in cars and trucks is a fun, but spendy hobby. I noticed that I've always wanted a louder stereo with more bass. Up until I was going through an alternator a week. You are going to have to upgrade the elec charging system via battery cap, dual batteries, higher output alternator. (If you are going above 600 or 700 Watt amps)

 

Do you have a aftermarket CD player in the dash? if so, take it out, or get access to the wires. There will be a blue wire. splice into that wire for the remote wire. You can use 16 to 20 gauge wire for that.

 

For the power wire, you need something like 4 to 8 gauge wire. You will need about 20 feet of it if you want to run the wires under the carpet or floorboard trim if its a wagon. Hook this wire the positive slot on the amp. Take a 30+ amp fuse holder and hook it between the positive wire and the battery.

 

Take another short section of 4 to 8 guage wire for the ground. You want you ground wire as short as possible. I use one of the bolts for the rear seatbelts. Its a fairly big bolt, so look for a big O-ring connector.

 

Now you need a pair of RCA cables. They will run from the AUX or Subwoofer outputs on the back of the CD player. plug the other end into the amp.

 

Get speaker wire of your choice. Remeber thicker wire with stereos is better except for signal wires like the remote wire (acts as a switch that turns the amp on, and then the amp is powered by the positive)

 

Hook the positive on the battery back up, test it out.

 

Another thing, cd players, speakers, subs and amps are something that are worth putting money into. Just make sure you do soundproofing along with the stereo modifications. Subarus rattle like hell with a loud stereo in it. Find some Dynamat or sound proofing sheets and soundproof the car. Do the whole trunk if its going in a trunk. If its a wagon, do the back hatch under the trim panels, under the carpet, under the head liner above the back cargo area. All this can be done and the inside will still look normal if you take a little time and dont break any of the plastic.

 

Good luck, lemme know if something doesnt work

I agree. go for it.

 

I run a 6 way amp with component speakers in the doors and two 8"s in the rear.

it does take some time to install a system properly. I have seen too many hack jobs form sterio places with free/cheap install.

cruthfield is a good resource. they have good fitment guides and a full range of quality stuff.

Where do yo guys put your subs? I have a 97 Impreza wagon and would like to keep my spare tire and would like to get rid of my box and move my 10 someplace less in the way. Any ideas?

Where do yo guys put your subs? I have a 97 Impreza wagon and would like to keep my spare tire and would like to get rid of my box and move my 10 someplace less in the way. Any ideas?

I mounted mine in the side pannels. facing in to the body. problem is the pannel is not sealed well enough to get good performace that way. going to turn them aroud and build inclosures soon.

i must add my two cents seeing as i have put my fair share of stereos in, make sure to run your power wire at least 8 gauge for up to 500 watts, make sure you put the RCA cables and power wire ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE CAR, if you dont you WILL hear alternator whine. I made my 10'' sub enclosure out of a concrete tube, get them at home depot for like $7. measure the inside diameter of the tube and do the equation for volume in a cylinder, 3.14 times radius squared times height equals volume. use inches to make it simple. then oyur going to have to cut out two round ends, dont forget to add the thickness of the ends to your overall cylinder height, you need at least 2 cubic feet of volume for a 10'' sub and 3 cubic feet for a 12'' sub. and grab yourself a port from an audio store, theyre like 20-25 bucks, cut it acordding to their formula, the port should look like the end of a trumpet or other musical instrument, both ends of the port should look like that. use silicone sealant, grab that at home depot too, like $5 for that, and some 1 1/4'' drywall screws, about a pound box will do just fine, grab some plumbers tape and when your done you willl use it to fasten the sub tube to the car using screws, and make sure you dont screw threw any hardlines underneath the car, you should be fine. make sure to buy an amp that complements your sub. if you get a dual voice coil sub with 2 ohms of impedance, get an amp that is stable down to 2 ohms and make sure it is 2 channel, next bridge the amp to make the most power that it can, and hook it up, talk to the guy at stereo king and ask him what subs and amp to buy for blah amount of bass. if you have any questions about a sub and amp combo you want to try, get the figures form the boxes of both and pm me with them so i can tell you if the two will work together, or if youre going to blow your sub in a week if you use that combo. kinda long, dang i was trying to keep it short.

 

 

 

~Josh~

get JL Audio W7 12" and a 10"

 

get seperate boxes and you put the 10 in the back on the drivers side. the 12 inch goes on the passenger side to equal out the pounding.

 

Now get a 1000 watt Kicker or Rockford Fosgate Amp

interesting. I have routed the RCA and power wires together without any alternator noise. did it on my current and previous set up.

 

my cousin did have that problem before in a system he did. never found the cause. dont know how he wired it. I know he added one of those capacitor/noise reducers to quiet it down. he was told it was because of the low grade amp he used.

Where do yo guys put your subs? I have a 97 Impreza wagon and would like to keep my spare tire and would like to get rid of my box and move my 10 someplace less in the way. Any ideas?

 

in the 86 gl wagon i had,i mounted both 10 subs in the storage compartments in the back.one on either side.wasn't able to seal good enough though.