FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

I was wondering what was up with them. I had my dash apart a week or 2 ago to disable the alarm and noticed where the speakers were was a huge plastic box thing, and I couldnt see a speaker, though I didnt look close. Is it some sort of special housing that you have to keep or can it be removed for install of aftermarket? I was planning on going tomarrow and buying some speakers and a stereo for my car and was wondering. Anybody ever had any stereo work done by Circuit City? I can get the parts cheaper there and they offer free install on head unit, though Id rather bring it to a specialty shop, but since its free, why not.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

In a stock setup, that enclosure houses the amp and speaker. If you are going aftermarket you need to bypass the amp (run new wires) and make your aftermarket speaker fit the enclosure (or remove the enclosure and make mounts for the aftermarket speaker).

I've seen the work that Circuit City/Future Shop/Best Buy does and all I can say is run, do not walk, away from their installation department...

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Thanks, yeah, I sorta figured their installation wouldnt be worth the freeness. I guess they pretty much hire anyone who says they can install stereo stuff. I guess I will install the speakers myself, then bring the head unit to a guy I know who owns a shop, they do great stereo work, but it wont be free. Id rather spend $75 rather than get a free shitty job

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Is any of that junk in the housing needed? There are like 6 wires on a circuit board and some amp components. I guess I can take all of them out to make room for the new speaker which im sure has a larger magnet. I let out a nice laugh when I saw 10W on the back of the stock speaker

SouthSideSlider

see if any of ypour freins know who. or do it yourself its not that hard. i did mine. it was fine except the kenwood KDC-4019 cd player craped out on me

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Ive done ton of speakers, im just worried about the actual mounting of the head unit. I can wire it up, but all of my dash internals have been ripped out and I have nothing to mount to... I might try anyway If I can buy an install kit for it. Should be a nice setup though. Some nice 6 1/2'' Kicker speakers in the rear. All of the reviews Ive read are nothing but good, they have great bass and clarity. then the front 4'' Eclipse 2 way speakers, which also have awsome clarity and high volume handling. Pioneer head unit with 22watt rms, so it should be good for a non amplified system

jazzmanbob

if you remove the enclosure and just mount the speaker under the dash you will get very little bass as the front and rear wave of the speker will cancel each othe out. That is why that enclosure is there. As far as the wiring, if you are running off the head unit amp you can run the wires directly to the speaker. If your head unit has subwoofer outputs and you wish to use a sub then then you will need a separate amp for the subs.

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

yeah i was planning on keeping the front enclosure. No external amp will be wired up, just the built in amp. Shouldnt be hard to wire, just hard to mount

Akota

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!


DO NOT LET CIRCUIT CITY DO YOUR INSTALL. I STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST IT!!!

WHILE IT MIGHT BE FREE THINK AGAIN!!!!

I personally install car audio systems in my own vehicles and in friends cars. I had bought a subwoofer from CC. It was a Kicker 12CompVR. I however got a defetive one. The soder come off on the power connector on one of the voice coils. So I went and brought it back and had them replace it since I got the 2 yr City Advantage plan. The guy in the install bay said he would hook it up for me as a favor for it being a fucked up sub. I said ok so I letem do it. So I went inside and looked and came out and he said he was done. Alright. So I was driving home and it seemed fine, but a little less on the power side. Before I hit home, it dies. I get home and I take it out the sub box and notice the dumb **** hooked up the voice coils wrong.

He ran a wire from the negative to the positive on one voice coil, then ran the power to the negative and positive on the other voice coil. So he fucked up cause he ran all the power to one voice coil and let the other one go without power. He was suppose to hook up the positive on one coil to the negative on the other and vice versa. Essentially, he was suppose to jump the coils, but he didn't. This is such and easy thing to do. The ****** even had a wiring diagram in front of him for it. How the hell can you **** up? This guy wasn't a newbie either, he had been working there for a few years. So how the hell could he **** that up? I've also had friends complain about them.


SO I ADVISE YOU NOT GOING!!!!!!!

ibemrzach

I was the manager for car audio at Circuit for 3 years. Circuit is like any other retail store. Best Buy is not any better, that I can assure you. If you want anything on your car done right, do not bring it in the busy season (around Christmas) and don't bring it on weekends. If you bring your car and drop it off, and tell them they have it all day, during a weekday, I'm sure you will not have any problems. Though, obviously, I cannot speak for every Circuit.

It is not difficult to run new wires from the back of your headunit to your speakers. It is very simple actually. Speaker sizes should be 4x6 under the dash, and 6.5 everywhere else (doors, behind seats, towers), depending on what you have.

Also, to Akota, depending on how he wanted to wire up your sub (based on the ohm load and what amp you were using), most installers, unless seasoned and experienced, don't know offhand if they want to run the voice coils in a series or not.

Moral of the story:
If you don't do your own work, you only have yourself to blame.
If you do your own work, you still only have yourself to blame.

Store #0888, South Boulevard, Charlotte, NC

arghx

iTrader: (3)

Depends on the shop. Two of my friends work at Circuit City around here and are awesome at installs. Their quality is top-notch. My friend who works there installed my speakers in my GTU... he resoldered everything for me, ran wires, etc. The Best Buy across the street is overall lower quality though. One of the guys at Circuit used to work there.

Like any other service, get a referral. Oh and going when they're not busy is a good call too. Even the best installers will cut corners when they're slammed.

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Either way, Ive decided Id do it myself. Or try to. Like Ive already said, my only worry is the actual mounting of the head unit into the dash

Akota

I toldem to wire it up however. He didn't even jump the coils.. So thats def his issue.

I do my own **** and run it with a 500RMS MTX, with the gain down low.

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Just got my parts. Was going to install it tomarrow but it will be like 12 degrees and I dont have a garage to work in. So screw that. The install kit I got looks confusing as all hell. Plastic pieces galore. The wiring will be a sinch though. Just gotta figure out how to make my head unit sit flush and not wobble around. Final tally is:
Pioneer Head Unit
-22W RMS
-All the other modern fancies

Polk Audio 4'' 2-way speakers (front)
-105W peak
-35W RMS
85Hz-22KHz

Kicker 6.5'' 2-way speakers (rear)
-130W peak
-65W RMS
43Hz-21KHz

That Pioneer was the only head unit I saw that wasnt either too flashy with chrome all over it (which looks cheap to me) or a blue screen, which doesnt match interior colors. At least that head unit is simple and most powerful with 22w rms vs. sony and others with only like 17w rms

FCKing1995

iTrader: (3)

Also just noticed that the previous owner took the damn bracket out of the rear speaker housing, so I have to make one out of wood or something. Its just the metal rim on the shock tower, which is about 8-9'' across. Guess Ill do some carpet covered wood for a mounting surface. Be more stiff than flimsy metal anyway