First post here.....and don't even have a Z yet. I'm ordering one in the next few weeks and have started to plan the stereo replacement. I currently have an '03 Maxima w/Bose and I don't want to deal with that style system again. If this car is meant purely for fun for me, it is going to have aftermarket audio. My question is, what are you guys getting away with on the stock electrical system. I'm not opposed to upgrading the alternator if needed, but I'm pretty sure I should be able run a decent setup at OK power levels without upgrading. So what are the experiences here? Where do the problems start? Also, if you did replace the alternator, what did you replace it with?

 

Hmmm... Lets see... The one main problem that I have noticed are the front speaker locations (depth and clearance)... If you do a search you will understand why... Im running 2 Alpine amps (mrd-m1005 & mrv-f545) with the stock alternator... No problems yet but I dont crank it all the way up...

Oh yeah, welcome to the board...

 

Thanks for the reply, and the welcome. Your setup is close to the power that I'll want to run, so that is encouraging. Sounds a lot like the way I'll want to run it too, not to boom all over town, but more to have enough power to avoid any distortion. I am aware of the crappy door mounting depth too. I was planning on most likely getting the Nazar pods to help out there, but I'll check the local shop's pod work too as an alternative.

 

I run an ED nine.1 and nine.2, 900 and 200 watts RMS, on top of that about 100 watts to run my laptop. Stock alternator and no problems.
Though I have the gains on my 900 watt amp pretty low as it's way to much power for me.

 

I run about 1100 watts out of my system and a hardwired XM tuner. This is all under the stock electricall system including a 1 Farad cap.

 

I am running a JL Audio 500/1 with a 300/4 and I run these hard all the time and no problems

 

I am feeding a JL Audio 1000/1, a Zapco Reference 1000, and a Zapco Reference 350 for amps. In addition I power my bottle heater which seems to draw a little current.

At times my headlight flicker with my midbass from my mids and highs alone, let alone when I turn the subs up. Both the 1000/1 and the Zapco 1000 can draw well in excess of 100 amps each at full tilt, but I never get anywhere near that amount of draw.