Hi Guys,

I'm a 18 year old, living in Australia, and I've just recently purchased a Mitsubishi Mirage, 1996 model. (They look very similar to American Lancers for those who dont know what it is).

I'm installing a stereo in the car, however my knowledge of speakers is quite limited.

I've decided to install 2 12" Sony XPLOD's (I think there each 1200W) in the boot, a BOSS 4channel 1200W Amplifer and some 6" speakers in the front. The head-deck is a Sony XPLOD too. (Looks very silvery, 45W x 4)

I'm just curious as to people's opinion's on the XPLOD's, (I've heard some people think there great, some say there terrible, when I was previewing them in the store they sound pretty good) and wether or not it would be a sweet system to install. I do have a budget, was hoping to keep it to $900 roughly (AUD). What do you guys think? Keep in mind, I dont know much about speakers and subs. Just like what I hear and like that Deep Bass kinda stuff.

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

My friend had 2 sony Xplod 10's in his car. He had a Sony Amp too, 222W max. Both speakers wired in didn't sound that great, just a marginal bump, couldn't really hear it. So I made a brigged connection @ 4Ohm to one 10 Xplod. Man, it was hitting HARD, like shake your teeth out hard.

Depening on the quality of the power output of the amp, mainly the RMS rating on the channels, will determine how loud and how accurate the bass will be. I've got a 4 Channel amp right now, and im going to be ditching it probably tomorrow because I think I blew it up tonight, stupid ground wire broke loose and all hell ensued

Either way, Xplod's aren't that bad, sure they might not be the best, but if your on a budget they do the job nicely

Have fun, and get a remote gain control..don't bump them 100% loud all the time otherwise you will be deaf, use that gain control and turn down the bass

Thanks nfinitefx_

What did you mean by



I have no idea what that all meant. Also if I gave out the specifications of that AMP that i'm getting, would you be able to tell me if it would be good enough, if not would you be able to give me a recommendation of what I would need. I've been told it's better to 'bridge' the connection between the two amps as you yield better results.

How do i do that?
Thanks again,

Sure, no problem lemme explain the Remote Gain Control.

On an amplifier, there is a small inset screw type device, labled GAIN. When you turn the gain all the way down, the volume of the speaker is reduced to almost nothing. When the gain is at it's higest setting you will shake your teeth loose, and you might even encounter some distortion. Other things that could happen as a result of your gain being set to max could be, your speakers can't take the amout of power they are receiving and they blow. Your amp might not be able to keep up, and over heat (most of the time auto-protect prevents this though), worst case you will blow your fuse on the amp, or in really really worst case, you will fry your amp...literally, Amps get hot, really hot. So, on good amps you will have a remote gain control, it's like a control box that mounts up near you, the driver, and you can adjust the gain from where you sit, it's really handy to have.

Sure, post those specs, ill take a look and give my best judgment

Yep, if your amp(s) are bridgeable, and you want to do it, go for it. When your bridging your amp your basically telling the amp to send all it's RMS power into one channel (on a 2 channel amp). On a 4 channel amp if you can bridge, most likely you will end up with 2 brigged channels. With bridging comes other things too. Some amps change the OHM of the speaker when you bridge. For example your amp may deliver 80W x 2 at 4OHM, but if you bridge to one channel, you may receive 100W x 1 at 2OHM. It all depends on your speakers at that point. Most subs can run both of those OHM, but a lot depends then again on your amp when your switching OHM's around. When im talking about OHM, Im speaking really of Impedance, in short this is what impedance is,

Impedance
The load value (in ohms) that the speakers present to the amplifier - the amount of resistance to the current flow. Low-impedance subs (less than 4 ohms) or multiple subs wired in parallel can cause problems with amplifiers which are not designed to deliver large amounts of current at a low impedance. This is especially important if you want to bridge your amplifier and run multiple subs.

It's a lot of information, but if you just follow the instructions that come with your amp you should be just fine, and you won't blow any of your speakers. The only time i've ever seen a speaker blow was when too much power was sent to the sub, the amp wasn't damaged but the speaker was junk after that.

So back to bridging, yes, if you can and want to bridge, or you need to bridge, and your amp can do it. Go for it.

To bridge your amp you really need to look at the manual, most of the time it will tell you how to bridge. Most of the time it's just using the positive connection from one channel and the negitive connection from the other channel. Most of the time that is. Your amplifier manual will tell you more about that if you are going to bridge.

Either way, good luck with it all

Thanks for that Man.
Only a week to go until I get the sound system. I am so hanging for it!
Anyway, basically from what I know about the Amplifer, it's a BOSS Audio 1200W 4 Channel amp with 150RMS. (Apparently RMS is important). These guys at JB HIFY are trying to sell me a amp that gives out 350RMS at 800Watts I think? Anyway it's too expensive, this amp is costing me $299 and the Amp there trying to sell is $699 which is way over my budget. (trying to keep this under $900).

Anyway, so, yeah - it's a 150RMS, 1200W 4 channel. (Boss Audio).
I've decided that I'm going to get it professionally installed, not through friends, because apparently the guy reckons he knows a bit about amps, and you can do things other people can't? But do you reckon i'd get a fair bit of power if I bridged the amp to the 2 subs given the RMS on that Amplifer?
I'm not seeking HUGE Results, but I do want pretty kick ass sound's happening as I play High Five and the Wiggles around the street.

I've also decided that I'm getting 6" Speakers now, Sony Explod 220Watt Speakers (3 way).

What do you reckon. or

Hm, im guessing thats 150W RMS per channel which isn't too bad, but 150W from a 1200W rated amp isn't so good. Your Xplod subs might sound good with 150W RMS, but if you don't like the sound, try bridging. You will get HUGE results with bridging no doubt, but your Xplods may or may not like the amount of heavy hitting they are going to be doing. All depends on what the RMS of the subs are. If the install is done professionally they will set things up so your subs hit hard and don't blow.

They probably are charging you an install fee, thats why they want to do it for you. If this is your first time having a system, ya, let them do the grunt work. Because they are responsible for making sure it all works, and that when it's finished it looks neat and tidy. I rembember just last year being in high school and seeing lots of kids do it themselves. The wiring wasn't exactly great.
I did my own install but I took a long time to do it to make it look like it was professionally done. When I was all said and done it took me just about 3hrs to get everything all neat and tidy.

Heh, good to see your getting other speakers. However if you are getting 2 12's and they are getting decent power good luck hearing the 6" speakers, guessing those are 6 1/2's for your rear deck.

Sounds like you are getting what you want Go for it, your gonna love it Just make sure to get that remote gain control if you can.

Have fun either way

Hey nfinitefx_

Well okay, after long and frustrating calculations, tips, help from you and shopping around. I finally bought a sub.

Sadly, It wasn't a Sony XPLOD.

Thats the Front view of it, here's the side.


From what you can probably tell it's a 12" Kicker, 250Watt
and the amplifer I am getting is a Cadience. Its a 2 channel amplifer, 150RMS, and apparently this Kicker only needs 125RMS to power it. I think the amplifer is 100W I'm not too sure but the guy explained alot about it to me and he seems pretty trustworthy.

We also decided against the Sony XPLOD 6" speakers, (220watt,) and instead we got Pioneer 6" speakers, 3 way running at 250Watt I think? Not too sure on this. I get it Next Thursday, along with the headdeck and it all get's installed on the next day. (Friday). Professionally.

He previewed this sub and it certainly sounded awsome. And that was only in the room, so I imagined this sub in a small Mirage, and it will do some serious damage.

So I appreciate your help man.
It really helped alot.

Let me know what you think.

Nice Kicker Sub They make good subs for the money Much better than Xplod's in my vision

As long as your getting decent power to your sub, your most likly going to out pound everyone in your parking lot at HS. You will be the envy of most kids
A word of warnring though. With envy comes jelousy. With that comes the biggest concern, theft. It's alright for people to know what you have, but keep your car locked and put an alarm on it as soon as you can afford it. There are a lot of assholes in the world who will steal stuff from hard working people. My buddy had a 222W Sony amp and 10 Xplod 10's, I did the install for him, had everything looking all pro installed, 2 days later. Someone smashed his pasenger window, smashed his dome light, cut the cables to the amp and remote wire, and took his stuff. Assholes.

I've got an alarm on my car, Mazda 626, so I know if people have been touching my car rather than just looking

Right now im running a single 10" Rockford Fosgate Punch Z in a sealed box powered by a really shitty amp, which is out the door as soon as I make my last payment on my credit card from the holiday season. I'm looking to get an amp that throws down around 200W RMS for my RF sub RF rocks, literaly, i've already had to fix my box after it blew the seals on the box, oh ya, avoid QLogic boxes, heh
Running it all of a Panasonic DF-203U headunit, nice snazzy blue LCD and bed buttons, fold down/detachable face. Over the summer i'm going to get Sirrus Satellite Radio, ill let you know how that works out.

Well, seems like you set, keep us updated on how it all turns out

Hang out on the boards too, like to keep as many people around!
Have fun and welcome to 4peeps

the kicker/cadence combo is alot better than the xplod/boss combo

you did well.....staying away from the sony xplod(ing) subs