Big Stereos in Second Gen Wagons?

[Tr00b]

I am looking to do an extensive install in my 1999, I have done 10 plus big installs before. This system will have about 80 amps peak amp draw.These cars already have grounding and power issues so the "big 3" upgrade will be done...

 

It will be mostly a sound quality setup IE... Sound deadener at least on the doors, and rattle hunting... and the intention is for it to get pretty loud (3 12's or 1 15" somewhere in that realm) but clean.

 

I have some concerns with the way the fit and finish of the cabin especially the way the windows are designed. Even with the windows cracked, they flop around cheaply when you open and close the door. Hit them with some bass and that has to make about the same flimsy sound.

 

It seems to me that this thing would rattle and bark so bad that it won't be feasible to do a setup like this because of the way the car is designed. When my exhaust fell off, there was a mystery rattle in the dash that persisted about 80% of the time that I could not find. The back door rattled. Underbody rattled. Sunroof flops up and down like a fish when opening and closing doors.

 

Does anyone have any experience with how these cars withstand larger stereos and whetner they make a good platform for one?

[monkeyposeur]

I have two Audiobahn 12" (measured them and the seem closer to 14") subs in a box in the back of my wagon that I picked up for $20 lol. They are pretty ridiculous and let's just say I have pissed off a few people since I installed them. If I turn them up the wagon feels like its about to rattle apart but if I have them just right they sound great.

 

I also have two Audiopipe 10"s in the SS and they are great. I think the sound is better in the sedan since the rear fills are mounted higher.

 

In each car I have a Kenwood HU, OEM tweeters, Pioneer 6.5" coaxials in the front. For rear fill in the SS I have 6" Bose speakers and the stockers in the wagon.

[Zues Marine]

is this going in the back of a sedan or wagon?

[Stang70Fastback]

Well, I have my sub set to a level that makes the music enjoyable, and I have no audio issues. Then again, I am an audiophile, so my idea of "enjoyable" is probably about 1/20th of the volume that you probably plan on using...

[spooln30]

I had a a pair of kicker L7's with 2 1000w rms JL audio mono amps, a 4 farid cap 0 gauge wiring and a pioneer head unit in my 96 L and it was ear bleeding sound pressures. It wasn't as bad with the rear seats up but with them down it would hurt after 15 mins of rap music. I had a stone chip in my left upper corner of the windshield and one summer day I was listening to some Busta Rhymes song and my windshield cracked like a spider web. My side windows would move but it wasn't too bad. The bass became too much so I sold everything. Funny thing now is I barely listen to rap music anymore. LOL. Should be pretty deafening in a wagon. Ear plugs anyone.

[Tr00b]

Zeus Marine: Wagon.

 

Monkey, how many watts are you running in your wagon, or if you know, how many amps are you drawing running the amplifiers? How is the power system holding up do you get heavy dimming? What rattles the worst in the car?

 

Stang, This is NOT just driving around town boomboxing to piss people off, its going to be an audiophile grade system but if the car rattling and coming apart at every seam, its tougher to do that easily. I like my music loud, and playing it loud in a car that can take it gracefully is an art in and of itself.

 

Spooln, how well did the side windows hold up to the bass? How about the sunroof? Yeah L7's are no joke, I don't doubt your story one bit. I had a 15" L7 and it used to eject the rearview mirror into the backseat and flex convenience store windows. But it sounded like ass.

[Stang70Fastback]

Stang, This is NOT just driving around town boomboxing to piss people off, its going to be an audiophile grade system but if the car rattling and coming apart at every seam, its tougher to do that easily. I like my music loud, and playing it loud in a car that can take it gracefully is an art in and of itself.

 

Well I wouldn't think you have too much to worry about if you don't plan on trunk-rattling levels of bass then. I like my music loud too, but the only noticeable effects that I've ended up with are the rear-view mirrors (all three of them) vibrating to the sub, and an odd vibration/rattle from the front passenger side door that I have to track down (sounds like something came loose inside it.) Then again, I applied Second Skin Damplifier CLD to all of the doors, and the hatch and in a few other random locations, so my car is less prone to being rattly.

[Zues Marine]

i'd take the spare out of the well... risky but whatevs you got roadside right?

 

dynamat or equivalent the whole thing preferably, but thats spendy, so from the rear seat back, roof, everything back there

 

maybe get a thin layer of that sticky foam type tape and put it behind all the plastic trim to keep it from bouncing off the metal?

 

take out the jack from the spot in the back...you dont have a spare anymore anyway

then take off the clip, i promise that wont stay still.

 

youre probably going to want to do something to keep the upper brake light from wobbling, its on there pretty weak under that cover, i hear it rattle when i play on dirt

 

seatbelt hooks will probably be bouncing off the pillar, you could buckle them but... that looks pretty dumb, im sure you can figure something to do with them

 

 

thats all i can think of inside that would rattle in the back

[Zues Marine]

ohh.. the metal piece thats part of the lever for the hatch handle ...behind the carpet trim... that will rattle off both sides of the inner door too

[spooln30]

Tr00b, the door windows if all the way up would flex but no rattling and when they were down any bit they wasn't any rattles. This was a car with 180k. The window tracks on our cars are pretty good they don't use plastic crap like on other cars so don't worry about them. The main thing I would be worried about would be the alt. My OEM one crapped out even with the 4 farid cap. Plan on getting yours rebuilt with a higher amp rating if your trying to have a lot of wattage. I also was really surprised that from the outside nothing rattled except the license plate, which I backed with foam tape and the trunk lid. That I fixed with Dynamat and custom adjusting my trunks lock and latch assemblies, basically to have the trunk close tighter. I had no rattling after these fixes but you have a wagon so I'm not sure what you'll need to mod. I hate those guys who just throw some 15's in the trunk and while at stop lights all you hear is rattling. I will say that JL Audio amps I had were the best quality and sounding amps I've ever owned. So crisp and clean highs, mids and lows even without a crossover. On my DB app I had it would hit around 138 db on certain songs which is plenty loud imo.

[Tr00b]

Stang, how much did the second skin help or did you do it before the install? Is that the spray on or the stick on? Well, sometimes when you are dealing with high volumes of sound quality.. Well, you rattle the crap out of it.

 

Zeus, these are some good ideas. Normally I keep the spare tire in, and build the box so under a certain amount of duress, I can remove the spare tire.

 

Spoolin: I was seriously concerned about the windows flopping around. Thanks for answering that q.

[Stang70Fastback]

It's the stick-on stuff. It made a noticeable difference to me in the sound quality. The most drastic improvement, though, was that closing the doors went from sounding like a bunch of loose metal being clunked to an actual, solid DOOR being shut, which is a pretty satisfying sound... or, as Jeremy Clarkson would say, "the same satisfying sound as a recently shot pheasant hitting the ground."

 

The sound definitely became a bit more... crisp... for lack of a better term.

[monkeyposeur]

Monkey, how many watts are you running in your wagon, or if you know, how many amps are you drawing running the amplifiers? How is the power system holding up do you get heavy dimming? What rattles the worst in the car?

 

Stang, This is NOT just driving around town boomboxing to piss people off.

 

I think the subs are rated at 800 watts, and my pos amp is rated at 1500 watts. Not sure what the tweeters and coaxials are rated at. I have a fairly new alternator and have done the grounding mod. I don't get any dimming whatsoever. I'd say the roof rattles the most but it's hard to say.

 

And no need to defend yourself to stang. He has train horns on his wagon, lol. It's not my goal to piss people off either. Well, every now and then I am guilty, but it depends on the situation. Usually I have the subs turned way down. But once you get used to good bass it's hard to go back. I listen to a wide variety of music too.

[Stang70Fastback]

Lol, I wasn't defending anything. Like you said, I'm the one with train horns, so y'all can do what you want, haha. I just literally don't understand the point of loud subs. It just drowns out the rest of the music, and guarantees that you'll have hearing problems when you get older, lol.

[spooln30]

I totally disagree, if you have quality mids and tweets powered by a amp and not just the deck the SQ will be great with subs. I have some 2 way Focal 6.75 mids in my doors and rear deck and them alone sound so good. When I had them in my 96 L with 2 15" Kicker L7's they sounded just as goof even with 130 db coming from the trunk. If you just throw subs in the trunk and not upgrade your mids and tweets then yes the subs will drown out the actual music. I did get sick of the bass but it wasn't from the SQ, I'm still surprised of how good the Focals sound, they by them selves produce good bass for a small speaker.

[Stang70Fastback]

Is this for listening to INSIDE the car though? Because again, I can blast my music at full volume and it would become painful to listen to. The volume you would need to match two 12" subs I feel would just be ridiculous! Oh well. To each their own I s'pose!

[monkeyposeur]

You can turn the subs way down to not allow them to drown out the rest of the sound. But it depends on each song you are listening to. I like rap among other types of music. I've found that on some songs my preset sub level is perfect, but the next song the at the same settings the subs are way way too much. It depends on the production levels I suppose.

 

Even though I am not always bumping the car apart, the subs at low levels feel really cool as well. You can feel it in your body which I like. I prefer the 10" subs in my wife's SS over my 12-14"s in my wagon, mostly. But her car is a sedan and the subs are in the trunk.

 

This may be due to the slightly smaller size, or due to the fact that her Audiopipe subs are better quality and better matched to the divided box. My Audiobahns may not in their ideal box and the box is ported which also may not be ideal.

[twisty]

im a big fan of really loud music. thats why im mostly deef now. i used to run a couple 12s in my impala, but really, one 10 is plenty for most peoples bass needs. dynomatting really gives you a higher level of SQ if done correctly, even tho it does add some weight to the vehicle. currently i have no subs in any of my vehicles. my old non ported double 12 box from my impala is in my shed tho, just needs dusted and a couple new drivers for it.

[Tr00b]

Right now I am not happy with the hu placement. Having a cup of coffee blocks the entire view of the hu? Annoying!

 

Monkey...

Wagons tend to be great for subwoofer systems. But audiobahns are not known to be great equipment.

 

Twisty that love for loud music. Does make a body deef.

[monkeyposeur]

Yeah, I'm not posting a testimonial or anything. I didn't say the Audiobahns were the best. But you can't beat what I paid for them if you tried. $20 for two in a MTX ported box. in fact I think they are now discontinued. They have chrome flames on them ha ha. They hit super hard and are more than enough for my needs.

 

I like the sound of my Audiopipe 10s much better. If I was going to recommend a setup to a friend I would just tell them to first get a high quality HU, good coaxials and rear fills, a decent amp and a single high quality 10" sub. Oh, and a pair of nice tweeters for the front. The OEM Subaru tweeters are surprisingly good btw.

[mailman]

Did some wagons come with speakers in the rear strut towers? I've got 4 door speakers, and thats IT. You can't hear a thing if you're in the cargo area.

[monkeyposeur]

First gens came with speakers in the rear strut towers. It's much more of an ideal placement compared to the second gens and sounds great in my experience.

[Zues Marine]

wagons have the speakers in the rear doors, unlike sedans.. unless its an lsi

[Hemingway]

Did some wagons come with speakers in the rear strut towers? I've got 4 door speakers, and thats IT. You can't hear a thing if you're in the cargo area.

 

Spend much time there?!?

[Tr00b]

Dead hookers like music too