So I bought a sub, box, monoblock, and 4 - channel amp on ebay.


The guy wants to charge me 200 for install (4 speaker amping and sub amping) and 150 for wiring... Wiring?
Is that just rca kits or something? I see those on sonicelectronix for like 16 bucks each. Am I getting ripped off or looking at the wrong thing? Do I need a certain length for the cobalt?

If anyone could help me out on what I would need in terms of wiring that'd help a bunch. Any other insight?









PS - Hes also talking about making a side panel (for the left side recess of the trunk) to mount and then mount both amps on that. (carpeted and sexy) Thats so I can keep the spare and take the box out whenever I want to. 125$ extra for that sounds good? Seems high for cheap wood and moderate level carpentry.



Dont tell me to do it myself. Im smart enough to learn how do it but Im dopey enough to break something expensive.

 

Yea that's retarded bestbuy would do it much cheaper and bestbuy installs are like 70 for a sub amp and a little more for 4 channels I think

 

$150 for wiring?!
I got 2 RCA's, 30 ft of 0 gauge, and a whole bunch of 8 gauge for like $100.. and I doubt you'll need that much.

You'd probably be better off buying the wires yourself and supplying them for his use.

http://www.knukonceptz.com/

This is the cheapest I have ever found wire, and I love their wires.. my entire car audio system is wired with it.

 

Yeah I was thinking of just using him for labor because though best buy does it for 70 which is convincing, it be over 150 in total with them (2 amps) and this guy does a legit job - high product prices it seems though.


I would need 5 rca lines right? But 2 amp kits would give me power and only 2 rca lines...? That confuses me. I see theres a "4-channel rca" when I search rca. Then I would be good?
I get lost in the wires. Ive always been a home stereo guy so what wires I need confuses me.

 

How many inputs does the monoblock have?
My Hifonics monoblocks have 2 inputs each.

The RCA's should come in pairs (L and R) so you will need 3 15-20ft RCA's (I forget what length I got.. but they were perfect).
I got my Monster Audio RCA's at Radioshack for like $20 for two long ones, and another $5 for a short one to daisy chain my amps.

Also.. you have to see whether or not your four channel has an output that would allow you to daisy chain it to your mono. If it does, you will need only 2 long cables and a short cable as opposed to 3 long.

 

Ahhh thanks okay, I took a look at my amps and read your post and its making sense now.


Looking at a 4-gauge amp kit + an 8 gauge amp kit (scosche)
-Thats 2 pairs of 17ft rcas so I only need to buy one pair more.
-And then its 2 20ft speaker wire cables.
That should be enough? as the sub is right next to the amps, rear speakers are close-ish too


And thats 65 bucks. Damn that saves me money! Nothing wrong with my theory here?


By the way thanks, youre legit saving a stingy dude some of his beloved cash

 

dont get cheap ass wire. its a cobalt dude u only need like 7ft power/ground get the good ****. get some nice batt terminals too

 

Scosche kit as in the kits Wal-Mart has?
DO NOT get those..
They may say '4 gauge' and the wire might be the size of a 4 gauge on the outside, but it is mostly insulation.
Once you cut into the insulation on one of those cheap Wal-Mart kits, there is like NO wire.
For instance, the thickness of the wire (actual wire.. inside the insulation) in a 0-gauge Scosche kit (if those are indeed the cheap Wal-Mart kits) is comparable to the thickness of wire in a good brand 8-gauge wire. They are sooooo bad.

 

I don't think the initial costs you posted sounded bad. 350 for 2 amps and 4 speakers, plus sub install seems pretty good. You'll need almost 40 feet on it's own for the fronts depending on where you put the crossovers. The rest of it adds up (especially if you want it to look nice)

 

I took my car to best buy for new speakers, and a sub.

One of my speakers went out, so I took it to a shop only for audio install.

Best Buy did such a bad job, he thought I installed everything and had no idea what I was doing.

 

sorta depends on what all is being installed. If a customer came in to our shop wanting 4 speakers, 4 chan, sub amp and deck it would be just over 300 and for the most part we are cheap on the install prices

 

I thought I heard of Scosche before. Well I just went to the "best rated" one assuming that good reviews=no lies about guage

What if I went to that knuconcepts site and bought a klm 8 and 4 guage kit + another rca pair + (I guess) 20 more ft of speaker wire (I have coaxials). That stuff would be way better? Thats weird cause hell I just realized thats even cheaper.


Amps are going to be in the rear of trunk, so I only need like 3 feet of power wire each? I can buy 0 gauge for fun at that length.


Am I on the spot now? I get 350 isnt terrible but it seems like I'd save 50-100 dollars if I get my own wiring. AND that would stop him from jerkin it and giving me cheap wiring too! Hell even if I get that expensive kind on knuconcepts it looks like Im saving 60 bucks right?









ORRR http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ate+RFK4D.html +another rca

 

Just because a brand is well known does not mean it is quality.

Do you mean 20ft of speaker wire total? If you plan on rewiring all of your speakers, keep in mind that it takes approximately 15+ ft of speaker wire to go from my head unit to the trunk on just one run, and you would need two (positive and negative) runs.

Also, 3 ft of power wire is VERY conservative.. it took me about 5-7 ft of power wire to run from my battery to my amps which are placed near the backs of my rear seats.

Finally, keep in mind that I searched Google for awhile to find quality wire at a cheap price, and KnuKonceptz is the cheapest wire that I found. I decided to purchase some of their wire because it was so affordable, and I was VERY impressed with it's quality even after using about 3 different brands of wire on different vehicles. Even the Monster Cable power wire my local audio shop charged me $3.99 a foot (RIP OFF) for zero-gauge was comprable to the KnuKonceptz zero-gauge wire.

Quality wire is needed for a quality sound system.
You could buy $300+ components for your car, and if you use crappy wire it doesn't make a difference.

 

fosgate wiring is good. you can run plenty of power on that 4g.

sry if its jumping on the soap box here but all this name dropping of companies is stupid... almost every manufacture makes more then one "line" of wire. knu makes shitty ass cca same as the streetwires he posted earlier. i would take the walmart scouche over those. and even then scouche makes a better line too EFX. the aveo and the corvette have the same bowtie on them so don't expect everything from one "company" to be the same quality... if you do ur gonna get boned


What i would do in ur shoes is talk to the guy. say listen I've been doing some research and I'm a little hesitant on the price and on the wire ect so what can you do for me. If he says well i can work with the price and im buying ____ (and its good, i can confirm for u if u like) then go for it. and ask what the price would be if u buy ur own wire


the very last thing you want to do is assume anything. because at the end of the day u want him to be happy to do the work. If you start buying **** and assuming this and that it wont always turn out good. Just make sure he is comfortable with whatever your plan is before you do it. last thing u need is him to say nvm i dont want to do it and ur stuck with all this stuff looking for another installer

 

My local shop charged me $160 for head,amp,rear deck speakers.
I would've done it myself If i didnt work so much.

This shop has amazing prices, and does amazing work.
But most shop you can haggle with.

 

your getting ripped off.

 

is he supplying a capacitor with the wiring ?

 

Yeah thats a good idea. I was thinking about the idea of him getting pissed bringing my own wiring. Ill talk to him and see what brand he'll be rocking and if I can haggle, if I dont like it then Im cool getting the RF kit plus extras. I like the brand, I would've RF'd my car if I didn't Clarion it.


At those prices I could literally drive to florida and come out with more money...

No I meant 2 kits + xtra 20 ft = 60 ft in total of speaker wire. I thought each wire came with 2 lines (for pos+neg) in the insulation... I guess that's my home audio side

Then thats my LASTTT question. How much speaker wire will I need to amp 4 speakers in a balt? Im getting mixed answers. I would think 4+7ish for the back 2 and 16+16 for the front. and why did you say head unit to trunk, I thought speaker wire goes speaker to amp. Then rca to amp.


Btw, my amps actually will practically be on top of the battery but I was just exaggerating, I would buy a bit extra to be safe. And Im aware of bad wiring, but there's so much hype in the wire industry (MONSTER!) that you dont know whats real and whats bull.


A cap as in the long soup can? The one thing I do know is that cap's are band-aids for blah power. Ill only be running max (realistically) 600 cea rms from the spec-ratings anyway so I doubt Id have a problem.







PS - he mentioned in our conversation that he wouldnt need to take off the door panels. I realized later... WHAT? Wtf would he be doing to be able to do that?



thanks for the help all btw at least here I know Im not getting bull

 

Yeah it does go amp to speaker, and yes there is a positive/negative in one insulation.. sorry about that. I was slightly tipsy last night and I wasn't thinking clearly. Disregard my last post haha.

 

16ft is enough to go from the HU to the middle of the trunk... u may want more for the very back.

dont dont dont dont dont let him try yo run speaker wire into the door. get it at the HU if u have a non pioneer system and at the amp if its pioneer

 

depending on where you put your crossovers, you could need between 60 or 100 feet of speaker cable (allowing enough extra at each end to make easy connections, or changes if needed. ) and I would buy atleast 10 feet of each power and ground wire. (you will need about 20 feet of remote wire, from headunit to amps.) And Check what gauge your amps will take for power wire.

You can't install speakers in the doors without taking off the Panels either.

Hope the installer will run you through everything. Will help you understand and get an idea of his work.

Again $350 isn't bad for what your asking. Atleast not in this area.

Good luck whichever way you go. I'm sure you can seach here enough to install on your own, just would have to be careful.

if your questioning the price, what about going somwhere else for a quote too?

 

i'll second both statements.

 

Hahaha dont worry you were previously helpful enough already.

Yeah thats what he wanted to do, so he was right. thanks

Ok cool, speaker wire seems relatively cheap even with high end brands so Ill get extra. Yeah Ill talk to him tomorrow, see what he says and Ill decide what wire Im getting if I think hes going high. I do think his price quote is fair - he does good work - it just seems his products (like all of them) are a little over-priced compared to the web.



Thanks folks Ill check with this dude tomorrow afternoon. When I know what brand he uses I may ask but I think Im all good now.


Ill update on how it turns out if I remember over the boom boom rattle rattle of my cobalt

 

if your comparing the prices of product in store vs the web your never going to see them match up. most stuff u see on ebay is at or below normal dealer price... so you will never walk into a store and get those prices unless they are just trying to get rid of it

 

Whats been the problem running speaker wire into the door for you? (My speakers don't seem to like the weather in the doors, but thats another matter)