Car info
Car is a 2004 Toyota Echo 4 Door Hatch 1.5L 5 Speed, doesn't have anything aftermarket in the electrical system besides the audio stuff, very simple roll down windows no power seats. Wanted a light simple easy to work on car for audio.
What the car had before
Everything stock, stock cd player/head unit and 4 speakers in total (2 in the dash and 2 in the front doors, that's it no speakers anywhere else). Single 6 Ga Alt cable, single 6 Ga battery ground, all factory cables
What the car has right now
Pioneer MVH-S322BT Single DIN Deck
-New 6.5" 2 way Unknown brand speakers in the 2 front doors
-New 3.5" 2 way Pioneer TS-A878 speakers in the dash
-Stetsom Vulcan 3000 1 ohm version, 1 ohm RMS power at 12.6V - 3100w, 1 ohm RMS power at 14.4V - 3500w
-2x Planet Audio AC10D 10" 4 ohm DVC subs rated at 750rms each, dont think that's accurate tho they are tiny
-QPower Dual 10 slot port box from visions, 1 cubic foot per side, Tuned to 42 Hz. With the way im running my 2nd battery this box fits perfectly and cannot fit a wider box unless i move the battery, fits almost perfectly, can still have the seats up the way it is. Dimensions are, Height 12", Width 32", Depth 14.25". Im running the box with the subs and port facing up. There is a bit more room to make the box deeper and a little more height.
-Full size Red Top optima battery in the engine bay with 3 separate grounds, one to the top of the transmission, one to strut tower, another to the body.
-Half sized Yellow Top Optima battery in the rear also with 3 separate grounds, one to a seatbelt bolt, and 2 to the body.
-Stock 80 Amp Alternator (looking into a bigger one that will fit later this year)
-Added a 2nd Alt charge wire, 4 Ga, Added an extra 4 Ga ground cable from the Alt bracket to the other strut tower.
-2x 4 Ga power runs from the front batt to the rear batt, then to the amp.
-2x 4 Ga grounds from rear batt to amp
-Sub wires are 10 Ga
-120A fuse halfway back on the 2 Power cables (i had that size for the 1200w Amp so now i probably need like a 280A fuse just to be safe or 300A?) amp doesn't have any fuses
All Power, Ground, And sub wires are OFC throughout the entire car
My current Concerns about the setup
-The head unit, im afraid its to cheap and low quality to give me great sounding music, Although it has 4v pre outs i think.
- The RCA cables going from the head unit to the stetsom, they are cheap ones that came in a 80$ wiring kit.
-The 2x 4 Ga power runs, im afraid this isnt enough cable to carry enough current for this amp, it was good for my 1200w Hifonics amp, had next to no voltage drop (i have a cig lighter voltage gauge up front), but now with the stetsom when i crank the music all the way it goes from 14.4v down to 13.2v, maybe from the tiny alt? Im afraid ill have to rewire the entire car with 0, or 1/0 Ga. Wich i will do if i have to.
So im friends with a a guy who has been doing competitions in Alberta for years and he talked me into doing the 2x 4 gauge runs of power from the front to the back then also to the amp and told me to triple up on the grounds for each battery when i usually just do 1 big power wire. These 4 Ga cables im using, they say 4 Ga and OFC on all of them but when you strip the insulation off them it looks smaller than 4 Ga, kinda looks wimpy.
What I ultimately want out of the setup
I know in my original post i said i wanted to play really loud music while being reliable, hence the somewhat redundant/extra power and ground cables, but the new stetsom amp really helped out alot, before the speakers upfront were overpowering the bass and now its almost the other way around, its just a matter of time for the Planet audio subs before they are partially cooked i think, now i dont get to stupid with the volume and if i hear them having a hard time i turn it down but i also dont care if i blow one, they were 70$ on
amazon and i have a 3rd one in the house as a spare. Im still curious about using my custom 12, but it doesn't have any information on it, and id need an entire drop in recone for it, (44 lb motor, custom basket, 3" coil that is wrecked, one of the spiders that came with it is to big for the basket. thats all i know about it) and i think id have enough space for a single ported 12 box, but im afraid it just wont do well with music. IF i can run that 12 i was curious about using Birch instead of MDF, heard its lighter. Anyways ill attach some pics and see what you guys thing, dont be afraid to rip on my setup, i wanna know where it can improve.