Last weekend I added the following equipment to my CS Performance.
Alpine 7892 HU
Sony 1002HX Amp
Sony 404-EQX Amp
Custom Amp rack in cubby behind drivers seat
JL 10W3 in spare tire compartment
Infinity Kappa 6.5 in rear
All moved over from my winter beater car

This wekend I'm going to put in new JL XR 6.5 components and I am wondering where the best place to mount the crossover is. I see most people putting them in the door, but the installation instructions say specifically not to do this. If not in the doors, I was thinking about putting them in the cubby on the amp rack. Any thoughts?

 

I was planning on putting them in the stock sub location behind the driver's seat on the amp rack somehow to protect them from moisture and so I can fiddle with them. The problem lies in routing the wires through the plug in the doors. I do seem to recall a post showing how to modify the door harness plugs to allow wires to be pushed through. It all depends on how the speakers in the door are wired together. If it's some crap with a capacitor stuck on the tweeter and only a pair of speaker wires going into the door, you will have to run at least a pair of wires through the factory door harness loom and somehow into the door from there. Mounting the crossovers in the doors makes installation much easier, but they'll be exposed to moisture and you will not be able to mess with settings, so getting the XRs set perfectly before putting the doorpanels back on will be very important.

 

there is a link to a thread in how to run wires through the factory harness in the doors

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=26598

Here is where I mounted my x'overs....

<edit>
oh yeah, I bi-wired them, so I have 2 pairs of wires to each door.
</edit>

 

Please forgive the ignorance of a newbie - I am in the research stage of my system, and am looking like I am going to be doing it piece by piece; starting off with replacing the speakers and adding a sub/amp. I've already replaced the factory head unit. My question is pretty basic - in what scenario would I need a crossover? I am being told that I will need just one amp to power the front components (Infinity Perfect), the rear speakers (Infinity Kappa), and the one subwoofer (JL 10"). I am not really sure which amp to buy, but do I need a crossover in this situation? What exactly would it do for me?

Thanks!

sundevil67

 

I have my crossovers under the glove compartment and the amps mounted in the cubby behind driver's seat. Seems to work very well in this scenario since I can get to either very easily for signal tinkering.

It is very difficult getting larger crossovers behind the door panels especially if you have installed soundproofing in there like me. There is however a large enough spot behind and under the arm rest (take off the cushion on the door armrest to see what I mean). Sundevel, you need a crossover if you will be running a component set up front (seperate Tweeter and midrange speaker), the xover seperates the high and low frequencies for the respective speaker. I would also recommend running larger wire to the compoenents themselves throught the door jam connector (at least 16 gauge for mid). I can honestly say getting thick wires through that connector was one of the trickiest knuckle-busting projects I did for the Z stereo so have fun ;-(((

 

So you're saying with Infinity Perfect components up front and regular Infinity Kappa's in the rear, I will need a crossover? Which one would you recommend?

Thanks so much for the info -

oh, and I won't be knuckle busting - I will be getting a professional install; I am just doing all the research now.

Adam

 

The component sets will most likely come with their own crossovers. Some crossovers allow you to connect a rear-fill speaker (greatly) attenuated in addition to the tweet and mid-range. this means a 2 channel amp would be all you need to run all 4 speakers. But I think most people here either have a 4 channel for the job or simply use the fronts only. You may find like me that the rear speakers are pretty useless if you have great components up front. they mess up the illusion that the music is coming from in front and above you. Anyways, if you are still thinking about the original setup you posted I personally had bad luck with Sony amps..they are cheaply priced for a reason I guess. I would spend the money on great components and a great amp.

 

i mounted mine in the door under the arm rest where that foam is ... it seemd like good place to keep from water..
had to drill hole throgh that door jam harness ... but other then that a cake job
zerog

 

I think you mixed us up - I was the one asking about the crossovers, but it was "bastard" who had the sony amp. I am not sure which amp to choose actually. However, I think I would need more than just one 2 channel amp to power the components, the rear speakers, AND a sub, right? I have been reading lots of conflicting reports about the inclusion of rear speakers. It is not a fortune of money to try it out, but I would rather not buy and install a new set of Infinitys and then end up not using them. Man, I wish I could try out both configurations and then decide. My sub will be a JL 10" - any amp recommendations for this situation? I used to have an Alphasonik that I loved - but I don't think they make those anymore.

 

Sorry Sundevil, I try to go back and read the entire posts but it gets confusing with so many replies.

Anywayz, I am running two amps: a 400W4 channel P/G Xenon(for the 6.5's) and a mono 300W RMS Alpine for the 12" sub in the wheel well. It sounds spectacular with Diamond Audio 600s up front but if I had to do it all over again I would probably opt not to spend the money on rear 6.5s and I would get a JL 2 channel amp instead of 4 channel. I would just get a set of rear fill speakers and run them either off the crossovers or from the HU power, OR not have any rear speakers. Most of the time I find myself adjusting the fade to 95% front anyway. The only reason I put anything to the rears is probably because I have the tweets mounted down near the front mids and I want to raise the sound a little, but I plan to correct that in future with an additional set of ambient tweets in the stock location. I would keep a seperate amp for the sub in your install, but you may opt for a single amp of quality to run it all (4/3/2 or maybe 5 channel if you really need rear 6.5 power).

Regarding Amps, consider the signal quality you will be sending it. Will you be using 2 or 3 sets of RCA? what output voltage from HU? does HU offer hi/lo crossover thresholds or must the amps do this function? Will you need 0, 4, 8 gauge wiring? A capacitor? JL has nice choices if you can afford.

Why do I say 2 channel? Because the rears will not need that power so it is somewhat a waste, and 4 channel high power amps are heavy if you are concerned with weight. Consider your sub amp will be around 10 - 15 lbs and a 4 channel can be 15 - 20 lbs, your sub and enclosure about 45 lbs, soundproofing/dampening 30 - 50 lbs, accessories 10 lbs. This all adds up to well over 110 lbs. In my car I have 50 lbs of soundproofing so any weight savings is something I crave.

 

I have my crossovers mounted behind the kick panels at the driver's and passenger's feet. My 6.5" speakers are in the stock door location and the tweeters are mounted in the kick panels. I figured if I wanted to monkey with the settings or had to replace a tweeter - much more likely than the midrange speaker - I wouldn't have to go tearing into the door to do it this way. No regrets 8 weeks in.