R33 Amp Location + Set Up Advice

[LatinR33]

Hi all im wondering where would the best place to locate a 4 channel amp in my R33?? im not going to be using a sub woofer just decent quality speakers all round. Also im after nice sounding set up with a good balance of treble and bass which would sound nice and clear from outside. not a fan of sub woofers. what speaker would you suggest I use for the front and rear. I was thinking those cool pioneer splits the yellow ones 6.5 inch for the front any good?? your advice would be great thanks.

[rocketboy]

Those Pioneers are ok, the tweeters are a bit harse for my likings, but on the whole they are not too bad. The crossover may have an attenuation switch to turn down the tweets a bit if you go for the components.

Other than the Pioneers, I'd recommend Infinity, Focal, PBX, Soundstream, DLS...etc. There is a huge range of brands out there to chose from, but a good solid installation can make or break how the end result will sound. How much you wanna spend on them will also be a factor. Try to listen to a few and see what your ears like.

As for the amp, I'd suggest you mount it on the tray next to the battery under the parcel tray. That way you keep all of your boot and the amp is hidden from prying eyes. Also, If your battery is in your boot like most R33's, then you won't have the trouble of running much power wire.

Also, why are you after clear sound from the outside of the car? You planing on using it as a stereo for mates to listen to while hanging out? If you plan on listening to it for long lengths of time without the motor on, then I'd suggest you check your battery has a decent capacity to keep it powered.

Hope this helps.

[LatinR33]

yeh it does help alot. I just want a nice sounding system which is clear not distorted like heaps of systems ive heard on the street which sound terrible. Im going to check out this location now for the amp and make surei buy one which will fit nicely. ive been told infinity component speakers are awesome. I know a real good installer so should be good.

Edited April 16, 2006 by LatinR33

[wolverine]

if you want great sound then a set of high quality splits and a high quality sub with a quality amp are a must.

send an email to FHRX on this forum. he will be extremely helpful.

alternatively talk to the good installer you know and ask him about well sorted subs. i would never be without one since i bought a YST-800 at home several years ago. cars are no different. there is so much more warmth to music when the crossovers and the gains are set in 'your' own personal' sweet spot.

the amp can be mounted under the floor next to the space saver if you are looking for another location.

[Bliksem]

Heres Mine...

[mr 32]

i have the pionners in my capri and they are good you just need a good amp to drive them and have a good H/U with decent pre outs. i also would tell you to go into a car audio should and listen to all the splits they have and get them to run them off the amp you will by and the h/u if you can.

[rocketboy]

I have reloctaed my fuse box that is next to my battery to accomodate my sub amp, it's a fairly easy task, apart from having to take the back seat out

Yes, infinity are a favourite brand of mine, although there are a fair few better brands, I find infinity a good balance of bang for buck. At the moment I am runnig a full Infintity system. If you can afford the Perfect 5.1 or 6.1 components, they are the ones to have. Unfortunatley for me they do not do a nice 3-way components set, so I have settled for old Kappa 3-way setup. If your budget doesn't allow this then some of these infinity models should do a good job for you

60.5cs Kappa series. Older model, you may find cheap run out stock of these components.

60.7cs Kappa is the replacement for above model. These are 2ohm speakers, so essentially, you will get more power out of your amp to power them.

The models below these are Reference series, but if you can, stick to Kappa and better.

Again, if you can listen to a few different speakers in store, this will give you a general idea of how certain speakers sound. Unfortunatley, they will probably sound rather different once installed. This is generally because a car is a real shitty enviroment to try and produce nice accurate music from. Steering wheels in the way, resonating metal panels, sound wave reflection off interior materials etc etc.

Sound deadening will make a BIG improvement to your system also. There are top of the line brands out there like Dynamat Extreme, which although fairly expensive, it is renowned as one of the best brands out there. More bang for your buck would be something like 'Automotive Sound Deadening Panels'. Over here in NZ we have a brand called Bostik which makes these bitumen based (I think) panels. They are heated up so they become plyable, then a wax paper backing is pulled off and an adhesive surface is exposed for you to stick onto your door skins or other panel you choose to treat. For arond $100 for 10 x 500mmX500mm panels, this is a great investment. Installing on the inner and outer door skins will help you produce nice crisp/strong mid bass from your drivers.

Have a look at this website for more info and tutorials on sound deadening and other ways to improve your system - www.nzicemag.co.nz

[leo2nv]

Heres Mine...

nice set up.. but see where ther amp is right??? wats the metal thing underneath it?? cos my r33 doesnt have that???

[LatinR33]

Cool very informative. Im just going to go for the 4 speaker set up not sub. Keep the weight down as much as i can. I also been told the rears on a R33 are 6.5 inch's for a direct fit and the fronts are between a 6inch and a 6.5 inch this makes finding fronts hard. anyone have pics of their in cabin 4 speaker set ups?? would be great to see what other fellow skyliners have done.

[Bliksem]

nice set up.. but see where ther amp is right??? wats the metal thing underneath it?? cos my r33 doesnt have that???

No-one will have that metal peice thats because I made it to suit my amp

[Ol_Mate]

if you have a rear strut bar you could hang it off that. i ended up doing that and putting an 8" sub beside the battery. i'll post some pics later.

[LatinR33]

So anyone willing to post up pics of there set ups on r33's??

[wolverine]

some photos of amp and sub (the amp on the left was NOT installed by FHRX) they just drive the rear speakers for fill.

[leo2nv]

nice set up.. but see where ther amp is right??? wats the metal thing underneath it?? cos my r33 doesnt have that???

i see thats coolz.. i want too design sumthing similar but with 2 levels for 2 amps and have it on a angle for abit of show lol

how much did the material cost u?? and wat material is it?

[damuscat]

I have reloctaed my fuse box that is next to my battery to accomodate my sub amp, it's a fairly easy task, apart from having to take the back seat out

Would you have any pics of where you relocated the fuse box to? I might have to do this too because I really want to place the amp I just got in that spot near the battery. There isn't enough space as it is.. need roughly 2 inches more.

An alternative I've been thinking about is possibly moving the entire tray that holds the battery and the fuse box over to the left a bit. That would give me enough room though I'm not sure how easy it would be.

[RANDY]

After much thought, I think i'm just going to buy a shorter amp. Relocating battery tray means drilling new holes, and welding a nut on the other side for the thread...

Putting amps under the floor means making up a false floor...

All too difficult!

[d00dz]

So anyone willing to post up pics of there set ups on r33's??

http://members.iinet.net.au/~doodz/car/amp/

My pics

[damuscat]

I'm with you there RANDY! ... although the problem I have is that I already bought my amp .. and I don't particularly want to change it now.

I think I'll have to go with a setup like d00dz has. It looks good and doesn't really take up any boot space. My only annoyance with it though is stuff in the boot that will keep on hitting the amp potentially scratching it, or worse, damaging the cables. I suppose one could just make a cover for it.

d00dz, I take it you just used a piece of carpeted mdf or similar for the panel that you've bolted the amp to? Where did you get the matching carpet from?

[d00dz]

Just some boot carpet, from audio car shop lol. I asked them they had some.

Make partitions of MDF at the bottom so that the stuff in the boot wont move around.

My sub moves around in the boot havent had time and cbf'ed to make it secure. Yeh I used MDF panel, u can see the brackets I used.

[RANDY]

damuscat: I have already made up a rear section like doodzez one, with brackets to have the little bit on the right hand side at a 30 degree angle or so.

The factory mounts for that battery cover are not strong enough, so you'd have to do all those mounts like doodz has done. Drill holes into your parcel-shelf, mount brackets, rivet them in place etc etc.

Even then, i'm looking for a stock look. I want to get to my spare tyre without ripping the whole lot out, and get to the battery with the same ease.

I have made a new floor out of masonite, the full size of the original carpet, then glued the original carpet on. So I don't want to make up a whole new floor.

I was going to mount my Sony 12" in the battery cover bit that I made, with the magnet-end poking into the empty space next to the battery. This would have looked wicked, but alas, there are no simple mounting options. =-[

So, i'm sticking with my good 6.5" speakers, and swap to a small 4x100w amp next to the battery, and then calling it quits.