tons of questions..

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

i'm a jobless high school student that's new to car audio, and i've been piecing together a system for my 2001 f150 supercrew. all i have right now is a sony head unit(cdx-gt350mp), factory door speakers, a 12 inch pioneer shallow mount sub (2ohm), and a 1000W kenwood amp (kac-7204). my main obstacle being money, i've done everything myself...and now i'm gettiing hungry to do more. i have a ton of questions and am in serious need of answers, so i'll just list them off..

i have my sub bridged on my amp, should i keep it that way?

why does my amp blow a fuse after 5 minutes of use? (i've sanded my ground location (under a seat mount) and placed insolation between the seat mount and the ground, leaving the ground soley connected to the body of the truck)

would a capacitor fix the dimming of my lights when my sub hits? or do i need a beefier alternator?

could i run new door speakers off my head unit, or could i run them off my existing amp? or would i have to purchase a seperate amp all together?

will my amp kill my battery?

should i get a bass knob? (my head unit has a crossover unit)

can i pay someone to tune my amp, if so how much would i be looking at? (i've tried and i'm still getting distortion)

what would be the best door speakers to purchase? (keeping in mind that i'm broke.)

thats all the questions i can think of at the moment, but i'm sure more will come to me..thanks for any help you have to offer!

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[BlactimusCrime 10+ year member]

1) how big is your fuse?

2) dont waste youre money on a cap, do the big 3, if u dont know what that is, look it up. youre alt should be fine

3) you can replace the door speakers and run them as is if you cant afford a multi channel amp

4) its a possibility that youre batt could be killed quicker, but its not too likely unless you let your stuff play with the truck off. if u replace your batt get a deka g31 gell cell

5) bass knobs are unnecessary esp if you have sub control on your head unit

6) the distortion is prolly from your stock door speakers. but if its for sure your sub, turn the amp gains off, adjust your HU to max listening volume, and sub level, then slowly turn up the gain on the amp until you hear distortion come thru the sub.

7) search thru the classifieds here on this site, deals can be had on pretty good equipment.

and as far as the amp being bridged, it depends on the power your sub takes, and if the amp is able to be bridged at that load

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

1) how big is your fuse?2) dont waste youre money on a cap, do the big 3, if u dont know what that is, look it up. youre alt should be fine

3) you can replace the door speakers and run them as is if you cant afford a multi channel amp

4) its a possibility that youre batt could be killed quicker, but its not too likely unless you let your stuff play with the truck off. if u replace your batt get a deka g31 gell cell

5) bass knobs are unnecessary esp if you have sub control on your head unit

6) the distortion is prolly from your stock door speakers. but if its for sure your sub, turn the amp gains off, adjust your HU to max listening volume, and sub level, then slowly turn up the gain on the amp until you hear distortion come thru the sub.

7) search thru the classifieds here on this site, deals can be had on pretty good equipment.

and as far as the amp being bridged, it depends on the power your sub takes, and if the amp is able to be bridged at that load

^ what he said

 

[SpedBoy 10+ year member]

Its blowing fuses becasue you have to cheap of a power wire, go get yourself a 4-6 guage with at least a 75 amp fuse, capacitor will fix the dimming of your lights, but has been shown to hurt your alternator in long run, just get a better battery and google The Big 3 upgrade. You will want to have 2 amps one for sub, other for door speakers, Check into the audiopipe 1500d, there nice cheap amps and lots of power

 

[BlactimusCrime 10+ year member]

Its blowing fuses becasue you have to cheap of a power wire, go get yourself a 4-6 guage with at least a 75 amp fuse, capacitor will fix the dimming of your lights, but has been shown to hurt your alternator in long run, just get a better battery and google The Big 3 upgrade. You will want to have 2 amps one for sub, other for door speakers, Check into the audiopipe 1500d, there nice cheap amps and lots of power

I said that....

and he doesnt need another sub amp, if he can afford it he needs a 2 or 4 chan for his doors.

But 4 gauge wiring and about 100a fuse is what you need. a 75a wont get it done.---take that back.. i was thinking 1000rms.. but dont put a bigger fuse in the amp, it needs a 40

 

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

my amp is a 2 channel amp, which is bridged to my 1500W max sub, i have 8 gauge wires for everything, my fuse is a 40a which is the stock fuse the amp came with as far as i know

 

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

another question, my truck has 4 6x8 factory speakers, should i replace them all with 6x9s or go for smaller speakers in the front?

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

i agree you need to identify the source of distortion. keep head unit bass boosts at 0 until you can put crossovers on the speakers. it's common for factory speakers to distort from bass - especially when an aftermarket head unit is used. also note that the distortion you hear in the speakers at high volume is mostly the head unit amp.

what volume range do you have on the head unit and what volume are you at when you have distortion?

 

[BlactimusCrime 10+ year member]

another question, my truck has 4 6x8 factory speakers, should i replace them all with 6x9s or go for smaller speakers in the front?

youll have to cut out stuff to make 6x9s fit..

I used a set of 5.25 coax in the 6x8 holes in my lincoln doors. you can make an adapter pretty easy.

 

[BlactimusCrime 10+ year member]

OP how big is the wiring from youre batt to your amp?

 

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

the battery to the amp is an 8 gauge walmart brand wire

 

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

by upgrading my door speakers, without purchasing a seperate amp, would i eliminate the factory distortion?

 

[BlactimusCrime 10+ year member]

the battery to the amp is an 8 gauge walmart brand wire

the brand is fine, i used scosche wire forever. but you need to get the bigger stuff. at least run 4 gauge bro. that could be part of the source of your dimming and blowing fuses both

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

also, if your going to go with a 1500 watt amp to push that sub i would suggest a mbquart 1500.1d, i had one on my single 12 doing 140 legal, the mb will do more power than the ap and is a lot more efficient, the ap 1500 is a current hog.

 

[gunn3rrr 10+ year member]

thanks for all the input guys. but i have another question, i was free airing my sub the other day just to test it out, fresh out of the box, and it stunk up my car with a kind of electrical smell. should i be worried or is it just normal for new subs?