do not take this guys advice..... when i read this i actually laughed out loud, but just a little.

 

BY FAR, Best Buy is the most efficient place to have your system installed, if you don't know how to do it yourself. I did mine myself, bought my stuff piecemeal. A buddy of mine is an electrician and he was able to get me a lot of the wire, saving me TONS of money. Let me know how it comes out, I'm interested. Perhaps make a YouTube video?

 

welding cable is pretty cheap in bulk and goes right down to 2/0awg. more flexable then anything car related. and the rest is cheap besides what you choose for rca's but cheapies work fine there also.

 

myself, i would not recommend cheap RCA cables unless you want to take a big chance at engine noise. a really good set of subs/speakers and amps will only do a good job of reproducing really loud and clean engine noise with the wrong wiring. i found my new MONSTER CABLE rca's REAL CHEAP off ebay. i also bought 16' of 2/0 gauge MONSTER power cable for 34.95, very flexible and heat/chemical resistant for being under the vehicle hood. i'm not trying to promote MONSTER CABLE, that just happened to be the best quality cables that i found a deal on after searching for a couple of evenings. i will be using VOODOO twisted pair speaker wire to further ensure against engine noise. your stereo will only be as efficient as it's weakest link. i am an old (40ish) audiophile with many competition winning systems under my belt, i'm NOT trying to brag at all, i just hate to see people spend money on stuff that doesn't do what they hoped for. also, you should know, if you didn't, that on top of the difference between RMS and MAX power ratings, different manufacturers rate their amps with different testing procedures. ALPINE, for instance uses 12v tests for their rated/advertised power. most ALL manufacturers advertise 14.4v ratings. an ALPINE amp's "birth certificate" will show the rated power compaired to what it really puts out at 14.4v, which is the voltage your vehicle actually gives the amp with the engine running. as far as i know, ALPINE is the only manufacturer that does this. i may be wrong, but i beleive EVERY other manufacturer rates their amps based on what the amp is doing at 14.4v. if you do a little research, you can see it for yourself. if you could find an older ALPINE, like the mrd-500, mrd-501, or the mrd-1000, you will be very happy with the power and the price you can score one for. these amps have really nice onboard processors that allow you to set tons of parameters like: cross-over slope, 6, 12, or 24 db per octave, gain, parametric eq including width and level, subsonic filter level and frequency, phase, etc... i have ran all three of the amps i mentioned and they provide ALOT of VERY CLEAN, ACCURATE signal for your subs. good luck finding a mrd-1000 though, they are VERY rare. when i got mine some years ago, i went to an ALPINE dealer and none of the guys there had even seen one. they have a mrd-500 or 501 on ebay right now, i just saw it. was in a 350z and is mint. it's a solid piece of equipment. they take a little more time to set up and get "dialed in" for your particular set of equipment, but most amps don't give you this much control to shape the signal for what your system will sound best with. it reaps BIG rewards in sound quality. i am currently setting up a system in my "new" aquisition, a 94 4x4 sport fullsize 2 door. i scored a mrd-f752, another really, really rare ALPINE gem. if you google it 'alpine mrv-f752'. you'll see what i'm talking about. it shows the "birth certificate" or test report. the amp is a 5 channel rated at 75 x 4 plus 250 x 1 at 12 volts, 4 ohms, but you can see how much power it ACTUALLY puts out on the certification sheet. WAY more than the advertised power rating. VERY low total harmonic distortion too. anyway, just trying to help out, audio stuff has been my favorite hobby for a long time, just trying to share what i know. one last thing that i have found, be patient and get what you really want. don't settle for something less cause your in a hurry. we spend alot of time in our rides so waiting a couple of weeks to get those good cables, or find that killer amp is worth it when your riding around with your friends and all they can say when you crank it up is holy $#!+!!! it's makes it all worth the patience when it makes you smile, and lasts.... i do hate typing. let us know how you do. good luck with it. scott

 

Got it all set up on Sunday, took about 2 and a half hours. The wiring kit and installation came to right around $185 ($105 for 4 gauge RFK kit and $69.99 installation). Sounds real clean to me and gets loud enough for me, makes my mirrors shake and bounce. Everything is positioned they way I asked and the amp is mounted nicely. I'm very satisfied with my Kicker Compvr's, quite a deal for what I paid in total. I was able to save a lot of money on the sub woofers and the amplifier as well by shopping prices online. If I had a decent cam I would take a video but it wouldn't do any justice for the subs.

 

I have the same subs Kicker Comp VR 12's (2-ohm DVC). 400w RMS, 800w Peak. I have a Sony P5-1600S. Its a 1600w class D mono block so the watts match with the subs perfect. It is also 2-ohm stable. I also run a small power cap. Mono blocks are the only way to go with subs. Wire the subs in series in the box to kick them up to 4-ohm, then wire them parallel between the box and the amp to drop them back to 2-ohm. They beat hard all day. You wont be disappointed. The amp is only about $200 new. Very reasonable and powerful! The bigger the wire the better. 4-guage minimum for power and 8-guage minimum for your ground. Under the back seats is the best ground that i have found. I hope the advice helps you

 

after all i have used the hifonics brutis is by far one of the best amps i have ever came across they can handle constant use better than the kicker amps or kenwood those amps will blow way before the hifonics and they come in many sizes from 500 to 10000 so all u need to do is mach up your rms combuned from the subs to the rms from the hifonics brutis line