I could use someone to give me a quick rundown of what im going to need to install in my car to run a mid-grade system, im an audio noob so bear with me. Im completely tearing out my interior and laying sound proofing so i figued i might as well lay down the ground work for my future system.

My front two speakers work as they sit they are aftermarket kenwoods from whoever had the car before me.. they have two connectors on the back and only one of them is hooked up to the rigged up factory harness. I want to component speakers, i realize i will need to mount the tweeters but i was hoping i could get some help with what wires i would need to run to and from where.

My two rear speakers do not exist.. no wiring nothing.. also wondering what i would need to run to and from where..

And last was wondering do the guages of the speaker wire etc. matter, i am planning on running an amp and sub in the hatch in the future, i know i will have to run RCA cables and an antenna wire to the hatch for that, but is there anything else?

Aplogies if i screwed up any terms or if overall i just sound like an ***... im trying to learn here and do everything myself, and everything i tear apart i have to go around fixing due to the previous ownership.

 

well the most important thing for an amp would be power, you need that, then you need the remote wire, maybe you refered to that as antenna wire, dunno but I have 3 remote wires in my car, one is hooked to a 4 ch amp straight out of radio's remote power, one is hooked to a toggle switch going to the amp for my subs, so that i can shut if off for COP mode or if i just don't want to listen to it, and i have one to a toggle switch for fans that will cool my amps off(i have 3 running 3600watts peak total power) other than that you should be ok
the gauge of wires well i think i used 16 gauge..

i would suggest you leave the stock wire setup,(well you don't have it so do whatever) i always get two plugs for my setup, the radio to car adapter plug, hook one up to the stock speaker wires, and one up to a set of wires that runs from the amp, then if your amp goes out you can just unplug one harness and plug your stock harness back in and you have sound for your ride home until you get your tools and fix ur amp or whatever went wrong

as far as the rear speakers i use 6.5" with a tweeter, i mounted the tweeter on top of the speaker grills, i had to make a kinda bracket to get them to fit in the big holes though, but they do sound good

also the drivers side is the POWER side and the passenger side will be your SOUND side,
you could do it vice versa if you wanted but the battery is on the DS so its just easier to keep it like that

well i hope i answered all of your questions clear enough, just pm me if you have any other questions

 

I disagree with Mike (sorry Mike)...I'd run all new speaker wire while everything is removed. Stock wiring is way small for anything of significant power. And get good quality wire, not Radio Shack brand.

If I'm reading it right, Mike also said he ran 16 gauge for his power cable (?) That's woefully small for a 3600 watt system. A system with that much power would need a minimum of 4 gauge and it would be advisabel to go even larger.

A lot of what he did say is good though...keep the power wires seperated from the audio cables to prevent noise. I took it one step further with power on the drivers side, low-level audio down the center and speaker level audio down the right side.

And, each amp will need power, ground and a remote turn on wire. Dependent on what head unit you choose you may even have a seperate "remote" and "antenna" wire. The reason for this is to enable the amps to be turned on without having to have the antenna up. This is common on a multi-source head unit, one with cd/dvd/ipod/satellite radio/etc capability. You don't need the antenna up if your listening to cd's or ipod or even satellite radio.

What year is your 7 and how much stereo do you want? You running a single amp or multiple? Gonna run a sub?

Kudo's for installing sound damping. I think it is one of the most overlooked aspects of a good system. I ran Dyamat Xtreme throughout and a double layer in portions of the rear of my FD. Road noise is practically non-existent now. Less noise means more music.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the additional reply, its a 93, and im looking a mid range system, not cheap but not totally off the wall, i am almost done deadening the trunk portion of the car and am moving down into the main part hoping to be done by the end of this week.

All i really want to run is nice speakers up front and in back, a decent amp, and a decent sub.. from what i have read component speakers with separate tweeters are the way to go for mid to high range systems.. so i intended on mounting the tweeters up front either into the top of the door panel or on the small triangles.. im running a pioneer dvh-p5000mp (http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Pioneer-DVH-P5000MP) which came with the car, i was hoping this would be sufficient for what i want but if it is not please let me know and suggest something else.

I have not run any wires in a car for quite some time and my mind is a bit rusty at the moment, but the power wire should not be much of a problem for me as my battery has been relocated to the trunk so all i should need to do is run a line to the amp from the battery and i should not have to worry about crossing my power with my speaker wires?

I believe mike was referring 16 gauge to the actual speaker wire that i should run... if someone could edit my picture to depict what i should do i would be very greatful. My entire interior of my car is ripped out including the dash and carpet so routing anything anywhere is not a problem.

 

Your head unit should be fine. Pioneer is good reliable equipment. I'm in a 93 as well and where you plan to put your front tweeters, on the small triangles, is exactly where I put mine. Worked out great.

You know, I kind of thought that's what Mike meant. Seemed odd he would use 16 gauge power wire. Anyway, let me know if I can be of any assistance.

 

Well that is cool everyone has opionions, I belive the stock wire is about 18g, which is plenty enough, if you actually look at a speaker connection, the wire that connects the coil to the plug is 18 to 20 gauge i think,( well it may be larger in good speakers), never measured it, then if you take into account that without an amp, running straight off the head unit, which is what he stated, then you are only putting about 16 to 20 wt rms per channel and 50 watt max, most head units have 200w max, with that small amount of current the stock wires work


i do agree with the 3 sides vice two, however if you run twisted pair rca cables, then you shouldn't have any problems with crossover with them and the speaker wires, FYI that is how the phone company runs 2500 lines underground and you can't hear anyone else talking but you and the person on the other end, if it works for them it should work for my 4 speaker setup

there are alot of people who use super expensive rca/speaker wire, unless you are going to be entering a DB drag race competition or something, i wouldn't worry about that, what your ear hears and what a meter hears are two different things, as long as you buy an actual speaker wire with suitable gauge, you should be okay, its when people start using extension cords and phone wires when you will really run into crappy sound (i have seen it done don't laugh)

 

heres a good, but expensive setup. (dont hastle me, MECP advanced, trained and shitloads of experience)
pioneer deh-6900, polk momo 6500(x2), polk momo 500.1, polk momo 400.4, monster 400 series wiring, monster cap, monster wiring kit, polk momo MM2124 (12" subs x2) and 5 computer fans. a big *** box of dynomat, and a shitload of mdf!

peace

heres how i wired it all, and yes, its microsoft paint

 

Expensive I guess...but I bet it would sound awesome.

 

the system i refer to was ~2g msrp i do believe, maybe ~1300 after discounts.

peace

 

Really? I would have expected much more