The (Audio) Plan

Around last Thanksgiving I acquired a used 2009 Prius, believe it's Package 2. At the time, I was a little ambivalent about the car. It met my needs, by I had a mild case of Prius Stigmatitis. Yes, it met my needs for functional space, room for my growing kids when I have to haul them, and so on. But really it isn't all that exciting a car to drive. Fast forward to today, and I'm gradually starting to fall in love with the thing. I'm buying it something new about every third day like some girl I'm trying to impress. I really appreciate the mileage, the car's "personality" fits my own, being a tech oriented person.

But good crap that stereo has to go.

So I've rounded up most of what I need. Having done only two installs in my lifetime (and only one well), I'm nervous. I know I can do it, but I'll have to be very patient to do it to the level I want to. Here's what I have planned:

Stealth install using the JVC KD-AHD59 I pulled from my old Nissan (supports bluetooth via add on, does HD Radio and Ipod out of the box). It's underpowered, so I'm adding an amp for the first time. Alpine 50X4 MRP-F300. Fronts will be Polk DB6501 components, rears DB651 coaxials. At this point, I'm planning on running all of those off the first Alpine amp. A case could be made to run just the fronts at 75W, leaving the backs powered off the JVC receiver.

I'm considering fiberglassing an enclosure into the back right cubby, probably with an MB Quart shallow mount sub. I've not worked with fiberglass before, but the process looks pretty straightforward. That should get me the cubic footage I'm looking for. That also means another amp to drive the sub, probably another Alpine. I would mount both in the cargo tray on a sheet of 1/2" MDF. I will not be adding a left side sub to complement, as my golf clubs MUST fit! :rockon:

I have roughly 100 sq. ft of edead 45 and 80, plus some scrap mastic (from McMaster Carr) to kill vibration with. Plan is to do the doors (the 80 on 25% of the middle door section outside, the 45 on the inner skin), front floor area (45 plus some foam), back floor area, and back deck under the equipment back there. That will probably use up my material, but if there's anything left I'll pop the back seat and do under it.

So all of this brings me to my 2-3 questions about the process. First, what gauge of wire do I need? I have a roll of Belden speaker wire, of unknown gauge. It worked fine for my home theater install with the longest run being about 30 feet. I'm guessing I can use that here, though it may be as light as 18 gauge and I've read that using something that thin is bad juju. I have many hundreds of feet, however. Free is tempting.

Second, I would understand my wiring to be as follows: hook up the wiring harnesses to the deck as normal save the speakers, which will be run directly from the deck via the harness to the amps in back (not mating to the Toyota end of the harness). The amps will then output to the speakers. So I'll have much wire running fro and to, which is fine. I've gotta have everything else out anyway. So I'm going deck > amp input > amp output > speakers, correct?

Finally, how do I piggy back the amps? Presumably I don't want two separate sources pulling from the 12V. Do they have means for hooking one to the battery and then passing through to another amp?

Same story on the sub. Presuming I go sub-preout from the deck > 2nd amp > sub for my wire routing?

Thanks for any input you might have, and please correct me if I've got it utterly wrong.

 

Thank you for the response, F8L. I've checked the back of the JVC, looks like I have left and right outputs for the front speakers and the sub. Seems fairly obvious to run RCAs from them to each corresponding amp. Then speaker wire to the front speakers, and 12gauge or so to the sub. But what about the back speakers? There's no RCA output for those from the JVC.

Amp for the sub is likely to be another Alpine, MRP-M500, 300W@4ohm.

I understand the power distribution block. Thanks for making that clear.

I'll be doing my best to keep the install clean, with either loom or mesh to keep the cables tidy.

 

Ah, okay. That makes some sense. And yes, the amp does have it's own controls that way.

No, I have no plans to show the system off. It will be clean and pretty, but hardly competition level. I prefer velcro to zip ties, but I think that's because I've spent half my lifetime cutting off old zip ties. Such is the life of a computer guy.

I'll do that. I start this Friday with some edead installation. Thanks again for your help.

 

Did the back end yesterday with a couple of layers of eDead80. Had one spot where I couldn't seem to get the vibration under control, but I'm not gonna sweat it. Doors start probably in the morning. I'll hook up the speakers and run some wire at the same time. I may be without a stereo for a few days while I complete everything.

 

Now there's a surprise!

So this evening I went out to work on the rear passenger side door. There's been a rattle coming from that location. I knew when I purchased the car that it had gotten a bit of damage there - the body work was shoddy.

So I take out the screws, pop the panel, peel away half the vapor barrierand I'm getting ready to put some eDead on the outside skin. Take a peek inside, and find A FOOT LONG RUSTY FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER and a 9" SECTION OF 2X4. Yes, seriously. Just laying in the door. My ten year old son looked at me in amazement and says, "well, I guess that's what makes the horrible bonk sound when I shut the door." Yeah, that would do it.

A layer of eDead and put back together, the door now closes with a satisfying thunk. No more bonk and rattle. Not bad for fifteen minutes of work.