[mirancer]

The rca's are all ready ran so no pictures there. I am using monster 300 series 4 ch. rca's and a 400 series sub rca. Im using stinger HPM power and ground wire, stinger circuit breaker, streetwires disto blocks, streetwires power ring connectors. Pictures below are just the engine bay power wire install/routing.

Firewall grommet

 

[automaticman]

interesting, that power cable looks exactly like the Kicker 1/0 ga power wire i used, even the pre-installed nylon braid. Wouldn't suprise me if they were both manufactured by the same company. Stuff was extremely flexible.

So you gonna at least give us a list of gear?

 

[mau5]

looks good n stock. mines way too busy.... and be sure to be mindful of the circuit breaker, they have been known to get stuck but that depends on what all you got going on behind the scenes there.

 

[mirancer]

automaticman - i did a search on the kicker cable you are using and they do look the same. the cable is made by the same company and both kicker and stinger buy it from the manufacture. LOL i wouldnt put it past both those companies to say that theirs is the best. and i have to agree with you that that cable is extremely flexible.

Luckydog - Yeah i decided on a different setup with my mazda. on my last car you could see the cables and circuit breaker. Granted it was a neat install but there were alot of cables. Never heard of circuit breakers sticking. Never had a problem with my last one and dont think ill have a problem with this one. But ill keep an eye on it though.

As for what im gonna be running. (answer to automaticmans question) I'll be transplanting my old audio stuff from my last car to the mazda.
Subwoofer amp is a Sony XES-M3 (way before the Xplod crap) 500 watts rms x 1 bridged at 4 ohms.
Highs and mids amp is a Sony XM-5046 also ES series 50 x 4 at 4 ohms.(stable down to 1 ohm)
Total power 700 watts.
Current sub and enclosure ill be using is a MTX Sledgehammer enclosure with a 12 inch Thunder 8500. 500 watts rms at 4 ohms.
Yes i know the 1/0 gauge wire maybe over kill for a 700 watt system, but i plan to upgrade to a 1000 watt sub amp so that i can use one of my other 2 subs i have sitting in my room. Which are a MTX Thundercast 1000 watts rms at 4 ohms or my favorite sub of all 3, the old school Cerwin Vega Stroker :drool: again another sub rated at 1000 watts at 4 ohms.
The deck is a Sony MEX-1GP. I cant think of any other deck that has a built in 1gig of memory in the faceplate and you can rip cd's directly to the face from your computer. How cool is that! :shock:
There are some other tid bits but nothing worth mentioning.

Ill be taking more pics of the progress.

 

[automaticman]

Sony Mobile ES was nice gear for sure. You know what kind of components you're going to run with that amp? You aren't leaving the OEM speakers in are you?

If you want to rip music onto your headunit take a look at some of the new pioneer's with dual USB inputs. Just grab a partable laptop hardrive and load it up with music and search through it at usb 2.0 speed. I think all the new units from the deh-p3100ub on up have usb built in. I'd go for either the 5100 or the 7100 if you want bluetooth.

 

[djaura]

[quote author=automaticman link=topic=138961.msg3001397#msg3001397 date=1237365965]
Sony Mobile ES was nice gear for sure. You know what kind of components you're going to run with that amp? You aren't leaving the OEM speakers in are you?

If you want to rip music onto your headunit take a look at some of the new pioneer's with dual USB inputs. Just grab a partable laptop hardrive and load it up with music and search through it at usb 2.0 speed. I think all the new units from the deh-p3100ub on up have usb built in. I'd go for either the 5100 or the 7100 if you want bluetooth.
[/quote]

Or you could go with the deh-p4001hd. Comes with aux in/usb/4 volt preouts/included HD radio tuner and other stuff. If you're not into the fancy graphic bullshit, it's pretty much perfect. I'm currently using a 4 gig thumb drive with the usb and play is instant and sounds great. Picked it up from Best Buy for $200.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9119036&type=product&id=1218026345771

 

[mazdadvd]

that's cool. I'm studing

 

[automaticman]

the reason I'd recommend the pioneer with the OEL graphics is that it makes scrolling through folders a lot easier with a multi-line display. The units I mentioned also have a 7 band EQ. If I didn/t care about the usb port i'd jump on the deh-p800prs in a second.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/Source/CD-Players/Premier/DEH-P800PRS

they make an add on usb adaptor as well, that may solve that issue, but I haven't been able to play with it much to see how it compares to the built in usb.

 

[guardian452]

wow, nice install. very clean indeed.

 

[mirancer]

thanks for the suggestions and comments. im gonna stick with my sony deck. like i said its the only deck i know that the faceplate IS the usb drive. I dont have to carry around a usb stick and insert it into a slot and have it sticking out of the faceplate. in my opinion it looks tacky. nor do i have to lug around my laptop and run a usb cable to it. yeah it only has 1 gig, but that was pretty big back when that deck was released. plus an added bonus was that it was very inexpensive. I bought it from the Sony family store that gives HUGH discounts on sony products if you work for sony. For example - the XES-M3 amp in stores retailed at 1000 bucks back in the day. I bought it at sony family store for 300 bucks. Thats a major discount.

As for the door speakers i'll be getting polk audio's db or MM series. I know what the db series sound like but not the MM series. I need to listen to those before i choose. also im not to sure on the size yet, but no smaller then 6 1/2. Im going with the polk audios cause they use a silk/polymar composite tweeter. i cant stand metallic type tweeters, to harsh and tinny. I like soft and warm which is the case with polk audios.
yes ive looked into other brands like Focal and Diamond Audio, etc. etc. but they werent what i was looking for. People will say that those are way better then polk's, but in the end im the one who is listening to them.

until the next update.

 

[automaticman]

just to clear things up, the pioneer units have a usb slot on the front, the the main connection is the second connector on teh rear of the unit and the included 3-4' extension cord. You run the cord into your glove box, and plug something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136229 into it.

Then to add music, instead of detaching your faceplate and loading 1 gig of music, you just unplug the hard drive and dump up to 250 gigs onto it. OR plug an ipod directly into it. The extra space means you can rip music at much higher, better sounding bit rates - the pioneer will decode up to 320kps WMA , as well as mp3 and aac. I just wanted to make sure you knew how the units can be used.

As for speakers, i do like the MM series a lot better than the db's, but they like a lot of power - 50watts may be a little light for them. At least the last MM series liked as close to 150w rms as you could get (i had them installed when i had my truck and noticed a big difference when i went from giving them 80w rms to 140w). The new ones might not need quite that much, but you cold always try bridging your amp, too.

I HAVE heard fantastic things about the SR series, esp if you like the smoother sound of a soft dome. The SR's use ring radiator tweeters made by VIFA.

If you like the sound of soft dome speakers, I'd agree that Focal and Diamond are probably not going to be your taste (probably along with Boston and MB Quart). A few brands that do use VERY high quality soft domes are CDT ( http://cdtaudio.com/ ) and Morel - worth taking a listen to.

 

[mirancer]

ok time for some more pics cause i got some more work done.

 

[mirancer]

time for an update on the audio install. all door speaker wires have been run. Im using stinger hpm 10 gauge wire. Those door connectors are a pain in the arse. amp remote turn on wire has been run. all wires are now going to their intended location. here are some pics of it partially complete.

 

[alpinemz3]

Man i have not seen those amps in a long time, i think I used them in my 1991 Nissan NX200 install. They are very sweat sounding amps though. I had the mobile ES series amps.

 

[mirancer]

Have to agree with you alpine. Ive had them for over 10+ years and they are still going strong. thats when sony KNEW how to make car audio stuffs.

 

[automaticman]

and then along came Xplod....

 

[mirancer]

worked on the wiring some more today. Found out that i didnt order enough fork connectors. :x I was really hoping that i would be done this weekend. Fat chance :lol: Sorry no pictures. Most of the wiring has been cleaned up and installed in their places. Just need to strip the wires that go to the distro blocks and use the remaining fork connectors i have to crimp on wires that need them. Maybe some pics tomorrow

 

[operator]

Looks good!! Can't wait to see the end result!!!

 

[m3dia_lab]

the setup looks really nice, i like the amp rack, id love to move mine like that... did you just make a cardboard template>?

 

[john_in_the_lbc]

i used that same stinger cable. so nice to work with :goodjob: