System for minivan

[Deejor 10+ year member]

Hi all,

I have a 2004 Honda Odyssey minivan that I've already upgraded the head unit to a Pioineer AVH-P3400BH. I grabbed a pair of speakers (Infinity Reference 6032si 6.5) a few weeks ago off Amazon in an uneducated attempt to improve my setup. You can guess how well that worked.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the new speakers sound worse than the stock ones did. I've decided that if I want to jam out in my car like I used to I'll have to get serious about it and do some research.

I've been lurking around for a few weeks trying to search out what equipment to focus on. I've come to the conclusion that I will definitely need a 4-channel amp initially to drive the Infinity's and later on probably some much better 6.5's in front and and additional set in the rear. My eventual plan was to build a box following an example I found online (Stage 2: Custom Center Console Sub Photo Gallery by shinjohn at pbase.com) for a sealed sub box that fits between the front seats. I would much prefer not to mess with the rear trunk area as I use it a lot to carry mountain bikes. Given that plan I figured I would eventually need a decent sub amp as well.

So at this point I'm looking to choose a 4-ch amp to get things rolling and get the wiring done in such a way that I can expand later. Basically trying to understand the amount of power I'm going to draw with the setup I will eventually be running. I have been looking at PPI as it seems to get favorable reviews here, originally I was looking at the PPI 800.4 but realized that it was a Class A/B which have pretty bad efficiency. Since then I've been eyeing the PPI 900.4 as it is a Class D.

The big question basically is what gauge wire should I run for power/ground. A buddy at work seems to think that I'll be fine with a smaller gauge but I'm not so sure. Depending on the efficiency of the amp you get I could conceivably pull ~600 watts from a PPI 900.4 at max output plus with a dedicated sub amp like a JBL GTO-501EZ pulling somewhere in the range of 370-525 watts so I'm basically looking at 1000-1200 watts peak draw on my battery. Granted I will not be running full blast usually so I'm guessing the normal range will be half that or less.

Seems like a 4 gauge kit might be sufficient for what I'm planning on running eventually but I'm not really sure. Would I be better served by running a 0/1 gauge kit and is there any reason to do the big 3 upgrade with the type of system I'm looking at running?

Appreciate any inputs you guys have to give.

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[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

Just get a 5-6 channel. Run the 4 gauge. Ofc of course and you'll be fine

 

[Deejor 10+ year member]

Yes tempting. Makes things much easier from a spacing and wiring perspective. It seems typically the 5-6 ch amps put out less than 100watts per channel RMS on the 4ch outputs. I'm not hung up on these Infinitys, I doubt they are great. I just grabbed them after having a few too many beers one night off Amazon since they were about $50 and I thought it would juice my stock system up a bit. I would like to get an amp setup that I can kind of grow into should I decide to upgrade.

That said, the PPI 900.5 seems like quick solution. Is 70W enough to drive 180W rated speakers?

 

[CSCStang]

Alpine MRV-F300. Great price and very durable. Stays cool too.

 

[timhof13 10+ year member]

I have a ctsounds 5 channel brand new I the box I've considered selling, will put out good power. Has the new remote with voltage and manual turn off. I've run many five channels and you can get plenty loud on 75 x 4 . Heck bridge the fronts and run the rears off the hu of your worried

 

[CSCStang]

Those speakers are rated at 50w rms 4ohm.......180w peak at 2ohm. The Alpine is a good match, or go with the amp being offered above.

 

[Deejor 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'm actually liking mylows10 suggestion the more I learn about the power ratings. I looked up the deck power rating and saw it was 50Wx4 but then did a bit more searching and found out that its actually more like 15Wx4. 75W would seem to be plenty for most 6.5's I'm assuming.

Like I mentioned earlier I am eventually wanting to get a sub or two in the van (just not the same without it) and while looking at different amps I saw some prebuilt sealed subwoofer boxes to hold a single 10 that would easily fit right between the two front seats underneath my foldaway console. The box runs around $40 and the woofers seem to range from about $50-$80. With the PPI 900.5 at $210, nvx ofc 4ga wiring kit for $70, box and woofer at $100 I'm off and running for about $400 with minimal effort. The amp is rated for 440W RMS @2ohms on the sub channel, seems sufficient for even 2 10's.

Anyone see any holes in the logic or problems with the equipment choices? I'll probably research the woofer more this weekend to see if I can figure out what would work best for that enclosure.

 

[Deejor 10+ year member]

Reading up a bit more on the subs and seems my initial (uneducated) choice was perhaps not ideal. Thinking maybe about going to the SA-E10V2 (D4) and running it at 2ohms to pull 440W. I'm guessing if I wanted to move to 2 of these eventually I would need to go with a bigger amp...