i have a question... power problems

[jakrabbit]

ok. so i am gettin a new infiniti right away( not actually new, but new
to me) and i will be swapping out the stock stereo for a rockford one.
i already have a pair of 6x9 three ways, 500w amp, a clarion deck, and
a 12" sub from a previous vehicle. I have never tackled a project this
ambitious as it is nonly my second time.. haha

so here is my plan:

front doors-new 4" speakers
rear deck- my 6x9s
possibly a new faceplate with a usb port( will that allow me to play
music off my cell phone?)
rear deck- another new pair of small speakers (less than 4")
trunk- 12" and a new 8" sub
trunk- amp.

here are my questions:

is this going to be too many speakers for my car's battery to handle?
will it run down my alternator?

and...

what kind of wire will i need for the speakers placed on the rear deck?
because i will have to have two speakers attached to one wire in order
to hook it up to my deck... will it work?? will i need more powerful
wire than your average speaker wire??? :confused:

thanks in advance


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[Matt Ion]

jakrabbit wrote:
> ok. so i am gettin a new infiniti right away( not actually new, but new
> to me) and i will be swapping out the stock stereo for a rockford one.
> i already have a pair of 6x9 three ways, 500w amp, a clarion deck, and
> a 12" sub from a previous vehicle. I have never tackled a project this
> ambitious as it is nonly my second time.. haha
>
> so here is my plan:
>
> front doors-new 4" speakers
> rear deck- my 6x9s
> possibly a new faceplate with a usb port( will that allow me to play
> music off my cell phone?)
> rear deck- another new pair of small speakers (less than 4")
> trunk- 12" and a new 8" sub
> trunk- amp.
>
> here are my questions:
>
> is this going to be too many speakers for my car's battery to handle?

Not necessarily. Number and size of speakers has nothing to do with
your car's electrical system... number and output power of the AMPS does.

> will it run down my alternator?

Impossible to say without knowing how much power your amp(s) will be
drawing. In any case, your alternator doesn't "run down". Your battery
can, if it's not being charged, or if your system is drawing more
current than your alternator can produce.

As a generalization, I would expect you won't have any problems with
your charging system with most low-end amps driving only a 12" and 8" sub.

> what kind of wire will i need for the speakers placed on the rear deck?
> because i will have to have two speakers attached to one wire in order
> to hook it up to my deck... will it work??

Sure it'll work, but it'll sound like crap.

Wait... ONE wire? Surely you mean one PAIR of wires... modern decks
have floating grounds on their outputs, you MUST have a positive and
negative wire to each speaker.

If you're just running the speakers off deck power, you can probably get
away with just using the existing factory speaker wiring. Most car
audio shops can sell you a wiring harness that has color-coded wiring to
match those on your deck, and will let you simply plug into the factory
wiring harness. Then you'll have all your power and speaker connections
done and functioning properly, with no guess-work.

> will i need more powerful wire than your average speaker wire???

No, not unless you're planning to add an amp for your speakers.

A few other questions/thoughts:

Why two different-sized subs? A matched pair of 10s would serve you
better than one 12" and one 8".

How do you plan on mounting the 6x9s? Without looking it up, I would
expect the rear deck of that car is designed to accommodate ROUND 5.25"
or 6.5" speakers. 6x9s won't mount there without some sort of adapter
plates. We won't even get into the whole oval-vs-round speaker quality
debate (many maintain that oval speakers are an inherently poor design
vs. round types).

With the 6x9s in the back, what would be the purpose of another pair of
4s? You won't even hear them unless you feed them significantly more
power than you're giving the 6x9s.

Again without looking up the particulars of that car, I would have
thought the stock front speaker locations are also designed to take
5.25" or 6.5" drivers - 4" ones would be hard to mount there and would
be ridiculously thin-sounding.

It would help to know the exact year and model of this Infiniti, then it
would be possible to look up what equipment it's designed to fit properly.