For Those With Systems In Their Z's
 

I am currently contemplating changing all the speakers, stereo, and maybe adding a sub to my Z.

I read a few other posts about this but i am wondering if I can get any new info.

How much did you pay for everything? What brands?

Also my main question is adding subs. I found sub boxes you can add to your trunk. Do you ever put anything else into your trunk? Cuase those boxes pretty much divide the trunkspace into 2.


Mainly want to find out that /\ and how much I should be prepared to spend for all the elements, installation, etc. I dont want the best system out there but I do want something nice.


Sorry if this post makes anyone mad =P And thanks for those willing to help and give their opinions

Here's me: LINK . I basically just added a sub but I dunno if you can add a sub much cheaper than that.

I can still put luggage and my gym bag in the trunk. Anything so big that you would need the space under the strutbar can fit in the passenger seat in my experience.

Stuff by Eclipse and Focale are outstanding IMO.

i would take out your door speakers and replace them with some 2way coax speakers, maybe put in another set of tweets where your factory ones are. dont replace the ones by your head the factory ones are like 17 ohms so there is barely anything coming out of them, if you put new ones in there it will jack with the staging of the sound. i personally dont like the prefab boxes as they are sealed, you get alot more sound out of a ported box but it takes more space. if trunk space is a must for you the you could buy one of the prefab boxes that fit under your strut bar? but .7 cu ft is really nothing.by the way you never said if you had a bose system. im in the process of building a ported box to hold 2 10"s but designed it to only loose space foward of strut bar but i will be ditching my spare? it will be tuned down to 33hrtz so this should slam. man sorry to ramble but theres so many variables, how much bass do you want you can always throw in a powered bazooka tube to your current factory system just to give you a little bump and get on off ebay for 125 or less. i will add that its not always about brand with subs but its always about its enclosure, you can make a cheaper sub slam with a correctly built box! basically heres what my system will be jenson vm9510 7" dvd/cd player, 2 10" quantum subs, audiobahn a1500hcx mono amp for subs, a sony xm-7547 4 channel amp, all stinger wire 0ga for power and ground, and all stinger acessories, sound mat(which is a must), i havent got or decided what 2ways im putting in the door but possibily pioner's rev's and some quality tweeters to take up factory tweets, a power acoustic digital x-over signal processor. when it comes down to it your system is what you can afford or want to spend, im just using equip ive had from previous cars. if you lived by me i would help you out. this really is to generic of a post but i thought i would add my 2 cents so you wouldnt feel left out.

try the audio forum. how much you spend is how much quality/customization you want to spend and how much bass you are looking for. I dont have a problem with space and all i have left is from in back of the seats to the start of the strut tower.

the better source is come to a local audio shop in your town, they will give you a better explanation of what need to be done. Get down all the cost, brand name they recommend then go up here check on the price. Then order it online and bring back to your local shop to install. Each of us here will give you different opinion and you will get more confuse. ;)

thanks guys... im actually trying to get a job at Bestbuy =P i heard their employee discount is pretty nice =P And once there ill ask around too


I need a job badly lol

I had a custom job done on my car. I specifically asked for something to look as stock as possible. Impossible to tell there is a system unless you look in the hatch for my amp and capacitor. Supposed to be relocated one of these days to a more concealed area. With seats upright, you cannot see woofers. I went Alpine type S speakers all around (2 rear, 2 front, 2 tweeters). Plus, two 10" type S subs behind the seats. Ripped out the old wimpy BOSE woofer and type S in there and custom plate on the passenger side and dumped the other S in there. AMP to power them is MRD-M605. Great power match. My system gets head from CDA-9851. Dynamat everything but still rattles like nuts on the tailgate. Can't really help it unless I dump some more money into it. Here's where I wimped out - another amp to power my speakers. The current amp powers just the woofers and although the speakers sound amazing...I cannot imagine how out of this world they would sound when delivered with the proper power. Still, I bought a cap to make sure that my system doesn't overload my alternator. Final price came close to $2,000 CAD. Install was $900. Not a cheap job and car was left for 4 days but I was ALMOST completely satisfied. Not entirely satisfied because my radio doesn't pick up stations which I learned from here is due to a power antenna line not being connected to boost the signal. I know it is the blue wire that needs to be crimped to another wire (I think white on harness) but I forgot. I'll take it back when I have time and let them fix it. Otherwise, the system is just amazing. I don't regret spending the cash and if you are going to do a job like this...do it right. Better to take small steps but buy quality products than dump something mediocre and change it again and again. Also...not sure how true this is but I heard and from experience in electronic retail, it's better to go with all one brand because the products performance is maximized and made 100% compatible. Again, I'm no system guru so we'll leave that last line as a possibility and not fact unless someone else here can back it up.

Here was my old setup...

Alpine IVA-D300 In-Dash DVD - $1700
4 gauge Monster Cable - ~$100?
Optima Yellow Top battery - Sponsor
Audiobahn Amp - I forge which model, but it was I think $175 from eBay
Two Rockford Fosgate P2 10" Subwoofers - $120 ea.
Custom fiberglass subwoofer boxes - $600
Subwoofer box paint - $300

It sounded absolutely awesome in that car. It hit rediculously loud for what it was. Here is a pic...

http://www.sincity350z.com/hinsystem.JPG

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...ereoWork29.jpg

$1450 Pioneer AVIC N2 (DVD/Nav)
$150 Pioneer CDX-P680
$250 Infinty 611a (600w class D subwoofer amp)
$230 Infinity 7541a (520w 4-channel amp)
$120 Farenhiet 7000MHR (7" screen)
$37 E-bay Special rear view camera
$250 Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 (front components)
$220 (pair!) Infinty Kappa Perfect 10dVQ (subwoofers)
$400 Valentine One
$99 Zenclosures dual 10" box
$60 2 Farad cap
$60 Voice and IR remote controls
$100 wire, fuse block, distruibution panel, RCA cables, LEDs, cooling fan, and cold cathode neons.
$ 0 24 hours worth of labor, blood, lots of sweat, and a couple of tears when the bills arrived.

$3426 with just my own labor which would have been another $300 at least.

I use the car only for fun and hardly drive it at all except on Fridays and to temple on Sundays. I use my SUV to haul groceries and to make Home Depot runs. There is a tiny bit of room behind the sub-woofers for a bit of junk but not much. I keep want to make a Las Vegas run with this thing but I don't know if there's enough room for two overnight bags back there for the wife and I ... I guess she'll just stay home.

UNLV here I come!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...ox/Handles.jpg

I put the bars on the subwoofers in case I wanted to throw someone thing back there. The handles are there so I can handcuff the wife to the ... so I can tug the subwoofer out of place, disconnect the wires (wrapping them with tape), and pull the nearly 70 pound box out of the trunk to make more room.

If you want/need trunk space or maybe want a "stealth" look so people can't tell if you have subs or not, try putting your subs where the spare tire/jack is and point them straight up, towards the sky. It sounds fine there and no one can tell you have a system in your car , plus you have your full trunk space. Only drawback is you have no spare :p

http://eden.rutgers.edu/~pengchao/350z_subs.jpg
http://eden.rutgers.edu/~pengchao/350z_boxes.jpg

The picture of all of the boxes in a previous post reminded me of a picture I took a while ago when I got most of my system in. I had all of the audio equipment listed in my signature, minus the XM, installed into my Z at one time. All of it, shipped to my house and installed, ran about $1600. Not bad considering the retail on a lot of the stuff. The two amps are mounted behind my seat.

If I could do it again, I wouldn't have gone with Infinity amps, or subs for that matter. I probrably would've gone with JL. Oh well, it sounds pretty good. I had A LOT of problems with the amps and the components. Most have been worked out but it's not perfect yet.

As for trunk space...as if the car doesn't lack it already, the sub box greatly reduces the practicality of the car lol. I usually just end up putting my books and bag in between the seats and the back of the box or just on the passenger seat. Kinda sucks but I got used to it.

Easy to get carried away once you start putting it together but a fun project ( particularly if you can do without the car for a couple of days ). Be careful choosing your installer if you go that route, like anything, some are great and others..... https://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-video/163288-stereo-install-completed-thanks-to-you-guys.html

i just finished putting my system in.. well most of it anyway... so far i have:
kenwood ddx-7017
kenwood ipod adapter
alpine mrv-f345 4-channel
rockford fosgate p8002 2-channel
infinity kappa perfect 6.1 components
alpine type-r 6.5"
custom door pods
fosgate amp kit
2 alpine type r 10" subs(not installed yet)
2 door kits of dynamat

i have just under 2k invested in all of it. dont get me wrong that is about 5k worth of stereo stuff including install.. but thats a benifit of working at best buy as a car audio installer.. i get the stuff cheep and install it myself.. :) i love everything i have put in it sounds amazing! i cant wait until my subs are in but i havnt built the box for them yet... :/

Phoenix Gold Ti500.4 Amp
CDT HD-62 comp
CDT CL6EX coax
2 Image Dynamics IDQ10 Subs
Sony WX-7700MDX H/U
Mike's strut sub box

About $2K not including labor

to the posteer who said it might be necessary to run all the same product brand. that is false, ive had several systems and ran one all the same product and didnt notice a difference and most people who are big into car audio will tell you thats kind of a dumb thing. if you can get product b at a better price and its a better product why get product a bc it matches?
for a reasonable system i would spend about 300 for h/u (get at least 4v outs) 2-250ish on a single sub, about the same on an amp for sub, about 250 for a good component set and 150-200 on an amp for that set. so that right there is anout 900-1g. plus box and wiring. plus about another 2-300 in labor if you pay to get it done. thats if bought new and also authorized.
you might want to check out woofersetc.com and ikesound.com as well as sounddomain.com. the first two will have the best interent prices around other than ebay but SD is authorized on everything they sell, plus they have a pretty good audio forum. but odnt go on there and post a general question like this as you will get flamed or no response at all. do some searches.
if you boght from ikesound or woofersetc you could get an alpine tyupe r 12 for about 110, a refurb'd dei amp for about 100 a comp set for less than 200 easily, an amp for that for less than 100 and a pretty damn good cd player, like a pioneer premier 860 for about 350. also check into more dedicated online retailers like resonant engineering, elemental designs, cdt audio, digital designs etc.
and lastly dont be afraid to go sealed, you get pretty damn quick response that way and better low end extension, you will lose some overal spl but with such a small car and a rear hatch window, it wont matter.

edit:oh yeah i hvae an eclipse 8445 hu (400, authorized), had eclipse components but i ran them over yesterdya (250 brand new i think, but htese are over three years old. i will be replacing them with cdt 6.5s at a steal for 235 shipped authorized) idmax 10 (200, bought from SD open box, authorized) jbl px600.2 (200 also open box and authorized from SD) and a eclipse 4 channel amp that i bought from ebay years ago(ended up costing me about 200 for the amp plus 100 to get it fixed after it broke). made the box myself so that cost about 20 bcuks for wood and 10 bucks for glue, screws and caulk gun. wires ive had for years from previous systems so ill say 150 for wires. total cost is about 1400 bucks which is pretty good considering i got a steal on the idmax and jbl amp. and the eclipse comps ive had forever as well as the eclipse amp.

How do you like that HU? I was thinking about getting one for the system I'm pricing right now, and pairing it with some Focal Power or Polyglass components/subs.

On topic: This thread has the pricing for the configurations I'm looking at right now. You can probably get stuff cheaper where you live.