Sounds like you could end up like me. I wanted more after the cutting of the grill so I got kick pods... but now I'd like to go active

It's a slow project though...

 

KmanZ, what kind of amp did you go with?
Did you end up bridging the PDX for the Polks?

Man car audio is a sick...sick world. I see it in this cycle:

Ignorance and the Beginning of time===> Happy sounds good ====> Could be better====> Happier sounds better====> Could be Phenominal ====> To infinity and Beyond.

Curiosity is a biatch!

 

Hey man... I can answer this question for you... KmanZ went with PDX 4.150 and he is running his Polks in channels 1 and 2 for now. I have PDX 4.150 myself and I have it bridged running Focal 165 K2Ps and I actually did not set gains (they were left at the same level as previous owner had them at). However, the gains are around 60-70% and that is good considering that PDX bridged is 300x2.

I also agree that car audio is freaking addicting and you always do things to make it better... its nuts!

 

By the way.... I currently have 2 issues with my system that I have to take care of first...

1. I am getting alternator whine and I didn't have time this weekend to ground the RCA's behind the head unit and even if I ground them I am not sure if that will solve the problem as I have A LOT OF RCA cable left over which is under my amp rack and there is also bunch of power wire left over which is sitting with RCA cables... is this causing the alternator whine?

2. I have few slight rattles in the trunk that I have to locate and fix.

3. This is issue that I can't really fix my sub is in the left corner of the trunk pointing up on an angle so whenever it hits hard the hatch glass vibrates like crazy and it makes a slightly nasty rattle sound.

 

thanks for the reply ninor.

Do you happen to have a pioneer headunit? I grounded my RCA's to the HU chassis this weekend and the whine coming from my headlights went away.

It may or may not solve your problem, but the car audio game is all about variables. The less the better.

 

zephyr what pioneer unit do you have? ive had allot of trouble with the f90bt and about to give up on pioneer stuff

might be looking at a alpine w505 in the future

 

What kind of issues is the head unit giving you.

I've got an f700bt (not the same level of quality but similar product) and am crossing my fingers not to have to go to the 505 with the intuit active processor add-on.

 

I've got the same exact headunit. There is a threaded hole behind your F90Bt, use that with a supplied nut to ground your RCA outputs. See if that works.

(sorry to take your thread on a tangent Kmanz. Back to your scheduled broadcasting....) : Kmanz wants to go active!

 

Oh this thread is old and he no longer plans on going active!

But anyways... it's good to know that grounding the RCAs helped your issue! From what I heard... Pioneers are notorious for noise issues *cough* 880prs *cough* but I have Alpine 9887 and I don't think that is the issue... I'll maybe ground the RCAs during lunch tomorrow... I was being real lazy this weekend lol.

 

So, here is where my noobishness comes in. I'm assuming that 99% of head units send unbalanced signal and that it thus doesn't matter which pin of the RCA cable you ground (meaning you can ground the shroud since its easier)?

Is it as simple as soldiering/taping a ground wire to the outside of the RCA connection?

 

Yes sir!

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-v...eadlights.html

 

I'll ground the other end of them then, should be much easier since I have the ground block right there and I won't fight to fit it all behind the head unit. If I find room I'll do both.

This reminds me I need to upgrade my battery ground cable.

 

Someone mentioned that the closer the ground on the RCA to headunit the better?

That's why some people just ground the RCA outlet if the connections are on the headunit (as oppose to suspended like our Pioneer F-series) I just kept it fairly short, coiled up it up like a phone cord and kept it tidy. It could work for you at the other end...who knows.

 

Thanks for pinch hitting for me

There is a separate HU chassis ground wire for the 9887, if I remember correctly. It's been a year since I installed, so am not certain where I grounded it. I didn't have any whining up until I installed the mono-sub amp. It's subtle, not noticeable unless the music is muted, but its there I am going to make sure my power wires and RCA's aren't in contact underneath my amp rack.

Yeah, the cut grills being all warped and stuff look tacky. If I can't get them to sit in there flush, just another excuse to get kicks As for going active, I would just need to plug in the extra set of RCA's I have already ran, and take out the passive crossovers and hook the speaker outs directly to the amp and BAM! active If I get bored this summer, maybe...

 

You're welcome man

Yea, making sure that my power wires and RCA's cables aren't in contact underneath my amp rack would mean that I have to take B pillar plastic off, unscrew middle console, unbolt the amp rack, make sure they aren't in contact and then put it all back together... pfff I don't feel like doing all that... so I'll just pull out my HU (I forgot to screw the HU to the ISO metal cage that went into Metra kit so it's easy to take it out) and ground the RCAs.. if that solves the problem... voilaaa!!! If not... grrrr....

oh and for me to run active... all I need to do is connect the speaker wires directly to the amp and change the switch on the bottom of the head unit.... anddddd crossing the tweeters so you dont send a low note to them and cause them to blow.

I would probably leave the crossovers on the amp rack just in case I decide to run passive again... for some weird reason.

 

mines a little more dramatic, aside from the slight buzzing, when i play ipod and only ipod (dosnt happen on cd's or dvd's) the left channel is weaker than a jew in a concentration camp (sorry if your offended) but the right channel keeps right up

 

Def. not offended but that is weird. I don't even play ipod or mp3 discs anymore... lossless CDs sounds so much better. However, I have to convert my FLAC collection to Apple Lossless so I can listen to it all on ipod.

 

My grills aren't too bad. I'm too lazy to fix my passenger side right now but when done right... I actually prefer how the cloth looks compared to the original look but that's just me

My gf got me a nine.2x for my birthday so now I have a nine.2 (tweeters), nine.2x (mids), and nine.1 (sub) for my active setup whenever I'm ready.

I just have to build another amp ramp, but hopefully I'll be done with all this in about a year... My slowly, but surely project

 

Good call on leaving the passives there when you attempt the jump to active. As for checking the power and RCA positions under you amp rack, not sure how large you cut your MDF, but mine is small enough for me to reach my hand under and move wires around. I ran my power wire down passenger side, so all I need to do is reach in behind the rack and fish it out, and zip tie it up and out of the way. As for the power wires coming from the distro block, they are not in contact with the RCA's at all since they are only like 4-5 inches long.

As for adjusting to go active, we can HP filter the tweets at the amp so that it doesn't send lows. But, I think the HU is supposed to eventually control all of that. Lots of confusing settings to keep in mind before sending sound through.

Have you figured out a way to get the cloth & grills to sit tight and flush? I hope I haven't cut too much of the grill out and made it wobbly.

Make a thread for when you go active, I am interested in the process