Help with Audio upgrades for 96 grand am

Hey everybody, thanks for taking the time to read this.

I've got a 96 grand am SE and I've recently started upgrading the sound system. I put in a new Eclipse head unit with MP3 decoder, and a 4 channel amp is running the inside speakers(Infinity Reference series). I recently built a box for two 12" subs(Phoenix XS). The first amp is 4 X 80 watts RMS and the second one which I'm putting in is gonna be 600 watts RMS. My question is: Is my alternator strong enough to provide the current it's gonna take, or do I have to get a cap or an extra battery? The lights inside already dim when the bass hits. Thanks in advance, your feedback would be greatly appritiated.

Adding a cap would be a good idea. I had a 500 watt amp with a 12" kicker sub and it didn't hurt the battery any, but once you start adding two amps or so, it does take a drain on it. I've seen some people add a second battery, but you should be fine with a good cap.

I'll look at a 1 farad cap, that should do the trick... right?

That should work, my store i used to work at sold the 1.5 farad, but 1 should work since your first amp wasn't that big, if you was going with 2 600 watt amps, i would maybe suggest a bigger cap

Hey thanks a lot for all your help man I appretiate it, I've got a different amp instead it's a Rockford Fosgate only 380 Watts RMS but still decent, so I'll pick up a 1 - 1.5 Farad capacitor. What's the difference between a digital cap and non digital or analog etc.? Now I just need a security system so my own neighbours don't jack my system. lol

No problem, I highly recommend Fosgate AMPs to begin with because they always can push higher than what they are rated for, Kicker amps are good too, but stay away from the Sonys and the Kenwoods and stuff like that.

I had the kicker sub along with the fosgate amp, it really wasn't enough to push the sub, but it sounded really good. I had that along with a JVC headunit with MP3 playback and Sirius satellite (via FM mod) along with it. It was nice :)

As far as the digital and analog cap, there is no difference except for the readouts....a lot of people who enters their cars into db shows usually goes for the digital one because it looks better, but analogs are cheaper and does the same trick so i would go with one of those unless you planning to show it off :)

Hope that helps, let me know how it goes :)

The wiring of two amps can get quite tricky from what I've been told, could nebody get me some schematics of how I should hook things up? I know I need two D blocks and a couple of fuses, but I'm not sure exactly how to hook everything up. The capacitor I've got I'm guessing should go to my rockford fosgate amp since it's running 2 12" subs, but how do I hook this up, should it be in series or parallel? I don't wanna fry my nice new amps... that would really SUCK!!! But If somebody knows what they're doing and could provide me with some scematics I'm sure I could pull it off. I'd appetiate some help on this one. Thanks!

Sorry buddy, that's all I know on it from there, I could recommend amps and subs all day long, but I really don't know much on hooking it up =)

If you had a friend that could do it that you trust, I'd go that route..but since you spent a lot on the amps and subs already, I would take the extra route and have a pro install it, that way if it blows due to wiring, they'll replace it (varies from installer to installer though..check the fine print)

Hope that helps.

No problem, you've helped me out a lot thanks for all your help. I'll keep you up on how everything ends up. Right now things are on hold cuz I don't know all the accessories I need to buy to wire this thing up, funny that I'm studying electronics engineering and I deal with this kind of thing everyday. But I don't trust myself so I'm gonna search around for some schematics and pics of other ppl's systems and then I should be set. The guys at the shop want way too much for the install. I'll keep it on hold for now. Thanks again buddy.

If anybody still cares, I finally finished off my system, the capacitor and amps are all working perfectly. System gets ear bleedingly loud now! Only thing that bothers me is that the sound is all cluttered, I hear notes coming from each speaker at different times, and i've no longer got a trunk because it's full of amps and wire(looks like i'm carrying a bomb in my trunk)haha. Other than that it's SWEET! Thanks for all the help and always remember to rock on!

Great to hear it man, you say the sound is cluttered, are you talking about the subs or the speakers themselves? If its the subs, what kind of box are you using?? I've had better luck with bandpass style boxes than the sealed ones, they just seem to get better bass reproduction.

As for the speakers, the front don't really matter, to be honest, I'd just make sure you have a decent 6x9 pair in the rear though, I got a good set of Pioneer that make it sound really sweet. Anyways, glad to hear you got everything squared away!

It's mostly the highs that are cluttered, I think this is because the highs are all reaching my ears at different time due to speaker distances, and I read that human hearing is sensitive to higher frequecies, but anyways I'm not gonna be that picky, haha. As for the bass, I've got the subs in a 2.4 cubic foot SEALED box that I built myself. I don't trust my carpentry enough to build a bandpass or vented box. lol The bass hits hard, hard enough to rattle my trunk lid even when it's closed(which is kind of annoying) I'm not going to bother with the dynamat though, i tried it's too much trouble. If I keep the bass to a saine level it's not that big of a problem. Sounds like you've got some expierience, so you say you really noticed a big difference with different type boxes?

well i worked the past 4 years or so in two different electronics stores, but the last year or so is where i really got into the car audio side of things. I've been fortunate enough to be able to test different set-ups, and customers were nice enough to talk about their setups, what they liked, didn't like, and so forth so I could get a better sense of what people need.

The main thing with the boxes is, it really depends what type of bass you're going for. The sealed boxes gives you a more defined thump whereas the vented or bandpass boxes gives you a more wider range of bass., if that makes sense. You also have to take in account for how big the trunk space is, sometimes dynomat helps, but then you start getting into some cash to line it, Personally, i think it kills too much bass.

The best way to judge boxes is to go down to the local music store and test out the subs, any good retailer will have a demo set up with a closed and open box subs, of course the bass won't be a true sound because of the open area of a store, but I found that most of my customers went with open boxes.

Oh, I meant to ask, what do you have the gain set on the amp? well you said it was a 380 watt rms, right? if you got it pushing two subs, then it should be okay set to max. I thought you might have been maxing out the subs to cause the rattle, then again I had a rattle going on when I had my one L5 kicker solo baric in the back of my trunk :\

You might try to play around with the positioning of the sub too, i noticed less vibration on the hood with the sub pointed toward the back of the car, i know a lot of people who does it the other way around with the sub pointed toward the front, but like i said it really varies due to trunk space and other things.

Anyways, hope that helps.

I've got my gain set on 3/4, rockford's can be maxed with no problem, but if I max it the whole car rattles, lol. From what I've heard my subs are good quality and can take a lot more watts then they're rated for. The problem I had before I got the rockford amp was that the earlier amp I was using was being taxed to it's capacity. It was clipping like mad, and the clipping led was going on everytime the bass hit. I could hear sort of a rattle coming from the actual speaker but it was hard to tell until i opened my trunk. Now however I can pump the full power of this amp into my subs and they'll behave perfectly. That's why I'm parranoid, because I can't tell if it's the car rattling or the actual speakers. Since I got the new amp i've got no worries. As for the box type I was considering a vented box because it's more responsive, but it takes more space and things quickly get complicated. Some songs the bass is perfect and it's so crisp and then other songs it just rattles like a mofo and i'm forced to turn down the bass.