civic amp/wires/sub install

alright guys, my first post here and I must confess I am a car audio newbie! hopefully you guys can offer some guidance. I just bought a single alpine SWR-1241D subwoofer (12" 4ohm 300w rms) and a KnuKoncepts 4 gauge amp wiring kit. I have a sony xplod mp3 head unit. I need help with putting in the wire kit mostly- along with everything else.

First, which amp should I get? I was looking at like a rockford fosgate punch 300s or 400s amp, they are cheap and there seems to be a good deal of satisfaction with them. any other suggestions on powering this sub (i picked 4 gauge wire just in case I ever went bigger I wouldn't have to tear up my car again)?

my big problem is I need to install the amp wiring and I have never done that before, I am good with cars and DIY and stuff but I feel I may need some guidance here. if anybody has installed on a 96+ honda civic please help me out here!!!!! like how do I get power cable through the firewall (supposedly there are auxiliary boots that come out underneath the battery)? and how does the power cable attach to the battery, do I need to buy a new terminal or something? I understand that I am not supposed to run the power cable with the RCA cables, I will need to run them down opposite sides of the car correct? and finally how do I get those wires under all that carpeting, panels, seats etc.?

I will deal with the rattles and the construction of my box later- if you could provide answers to any of the long line of questions above that would be GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

I highly recommend building a sealed box unless for some reason you really really want to have a ported box.  Ported boxes are a lot harder to make and it's so much easier to mess up just one tiny spec and have the whole thing sound like crap.  With a sealed box everything is a lot easier.  But it remains up to you.

That sub should have a sealed enclosure with an internal volume of 0.85 cu. ft.;  if you went with a ported box, 1.25 cu. ft. is the internal volume you'd want to be shooting for.  Also it would need a port 4" in diameter and 13" long.

Some of these calculators will help you out with the particular dimensions you'd want to have for your box, depending on what shape you decide to make it in.  When I made my first box I used a free DOS program called BlauBox from blaupunkt.  It's a little tricky to figure it out and it acts kind of quirky sometimes, but it proved invaluable for me because I was building a box like "wedge enclosure 2".

It's kind of hard to explain, but if you look at the photos from those calculators here at  the12volt.com, notice that although the calculator itself will account for material thickness, the picture does not.  Needless to say you're not going to be using paper-thin materials, and just imagine what your box would look like if you did not angle-cut one of the boards where it meets the other board.  You'd have two boards that would both touch each other at an angle, and only their edges would touch.  Not only is this not sturdy at all, but it's not a very good seal and it leaves a huge chunk of empty space at the front.  Very tacky.

But when you use the blaubox program, it takes into account the material thickness as well as the dimensions of each side. basically all you have to do is tell it what box style you want, what the internal volume should be,  and what size woofer it will be for.  It will put on the screen the dimensions of each piece of material, and also angles of all the cuts.  Supposedly it can print this stuff out for you but I never was able to figure out how to get that part to work.

Also I should point out that the box I made was kind of like this design, and so I had to worry about a few different angles, and that's where the blaubox program really helped me.  If you just want to make a plain old triangle wedge, the angles are pretty easy to figure out on your own.

Fortunately we have a table saw that can be adjusted to cut up to a 45 degree angle, and so for me making the angled cuts wasn't all that hard.  Also it had a brand new carbide tooth blade (MDF is not exactly the easiest material to cut through).  If you don't have access to a radial arm saw or a table saw, I highly recommend you just buy an enclosure rather than trying to build one yourself, unless you're willing to spend like 3 days to work on it.

Anyways, enough with my schpiel, check out this page for a lil more info if you're still interested.

Stock Civic the link below should help you out with your install.  I don't know if you have keyless entry but if you remove the radio you will no longer be able to operate certain features of your car.  As for your box if you want to maintain trunk space opt for a sealed enclosure.  If you don't care about trunk space go with a ported box, it requires less power.

In regards to the battery you will probably have to change your battery post because it is top mount and it will not be easy to add an additional wire.  Also, while under the hood you may think about replacing the ground wire, this will stabalize the flow of current to and from the amp.

In regards to your amp the choice is really up to you and what you are trying to achieve and how much you want to spend.  I agree with wvsquirrel, the JBL amp is a nice amp.  Actually I just did an install consisting of a JBL 600 and it is a very impressive amp.  Trust me the neighbors and the car at the red light will definitely hear you coming. 

https://www.installdr.com/InstallDocs/Honda/Civic.html

thanks for all the help here, with those calculators I think I can manage building a box myself (I took 2 years of woodshop and am continuously building projects). Do any of you guys use anything to kill resonances in your boxes, such as fiberglass insulation and stuff?

Are there any other amps you might suggest, that might be a little cheaper, like maybe by MTX, kenwood, pioneer, any else? I would like that JBL but I have to make sure I find it CHEAP

I already have a head unit so I am pretty sure I just hook up some rca outputs off the back of HU, I am familiar with installing and removing it. now I just have to wait for everything to ship, then begin the install!!!

$199 on Ebay

For inside the box, the general rule of thumb is to use approx. 1 lb of poly-fill type stuffing per cubic ft. of enclosure volume, although a lot of times I don't like to use that much.  This is a little bit more than you'll need but you don't have to use all of it at once.

You might be able to find it cheaper at a fabric store, but they probably will only sell you it in much larger quantities (for example enough to stuff a pillow).  Same thing goes for the pink owens corning type insulation--unless you have some extra lying around it's going to be hard to purchase such a small amount.  Performance-wise I don't think there's any difference between poly-fill and fiberglass insulation.

I know we sell it in the installation bay at Best Buy.  I think we charge like 11 or 12 bucks.  Crutchfield sells it too I believe, as well as the fiber fill.  Let me know how the insulation thing at home depot goes....I have a feeling they're going to try and sell you one of those big 4 ft. in diameter rolls cuz I don't think they come in smaller sizes.  but hey it's worth a try.

One thing I'd recommend is to check out this link about how to do the carpet.  It can be a little tricky and let me just say I really wish I had something like that to guide me along when I put carpet on my first box.  I was so proud of the box and all, and then when I put carpet on it I did a crappy job and while it didn't ruin the look, I think it looks kinda cheesy as compared to before.

Yea I agree, the easiest way to cut the hole is definitely using a circle cutting jig and a router.  But if you don'thave a router or a jig, or don't want to get one, it can be done with a jigsaw.  It's a lot more work but it is still possible

When I do my boxes I use a spray type adhesive, and apply it to both the carpet and the box.  It sticks REALLY well and stands up to heat very well.  I don't have the 3m brand but I imagine it's just as good, if not better, than the stuff that I use.

Also I think it's worth mentioning that a lot of times people only have a very limited amount of material to work with, and therefore they have to use methods that will waste as little of the carpet as possible. But this also means sometimes it makes it harder and more time consuming, that just wrapping the whole box up real easy.

This is the harness you have to use if you have the factory keyless entry....you have to keep the stock head unit and plug it in to the female plug on this harness, and then relocate it somewhere in the vehicle.

UPDATE: my sub came today!!! so, I finished the box, the carpet looks alright (I admit it could look better but I am happy about it) wired up the sub for 2 ohm operation and it is installed in the box. I put in a good deal of fiberglass insulation (sold at home depot, they make small packages now for $4!) because I used 1/2 inch mdf instead of 5/8 or 3/4. next step is to install my amp wire kit - that'll be a trip, and I need to buy an amp. my friend said he could sell me his Kenwood amp for $50, it is the one from last year and it says 350w on it and is 2 channel, is it 2 ohm stable? will that provide adequate wattage to my sub (300w)? 

I'm pretty sure the amp you're describing is either this model, or the previous year's comparable model with identical specs and just a different exterior.  It is not 2-ohm mono stable.

In any case, that amp only puts out 150 watts RMS x 1 channel, and even then it'll only do that when you run it bridged to a 4-ohm load.  As we said earlier, since your sub has two 4-ohm voice coils, it's not possible to wire them up for a single 4-ohm.  Other than an 8-ohm bridged load (which you do NOT want to even consider doing as it will put out even less power), the only way you'd be able to run this sub would be with hooking both voice coils up to a single channel, for a 2-ohm STEREO load on the amp.  This will send 75 watts RMS to the sub, leaving basically half of the amp unused.  Needless to say, 37.5 watts per voice coil is seriously underpowering this subwoofer and I don't think you'd be pleased at all with the way it sounds.

If I were you I'd spend the extra $150 for the JBL BP600.1 amp.   Even at $199 it's a bargain considering how much power you get and how solid and versatile of an amp it is.

Normally I would recommend that if you're on a really tight budget you check out an inexpensive 2-channel amplifier, but the problem is that these only reach their full potential when you're able to bridge them. You can't do that with the DVC sub you have right now;  so you'd have to look for a 2-channel amp that puts out 150 watts RMS x 2 channels@ 4 ohms stereo, and you'd have to hook up each voice coil on a separate  amplifier output channel.  This is something you always want to try and avoid whenever possible.  Also, a 2-channel amp that puts out 150 watts RMS x 2 channels @ 4 ohms stereo is probably going to cost you close to the $200 that you'd shell out for the JBL amp.

alright that sounds good... I think I will just have to save a bit and get the JBL amp, sounds like what I need. I still need to install the wires anyway so it will give me time to do so.

I have a new question: my car rattles like a biatch, mostly the doors and kickpanels, so I was thinking I would put this fiberglass insulation behind the speakers in the door- could this be beneficial or will it just get in the way, not help the noises and possibly make a mess on my windows and stuff? I hope it helps, that would be great news... tell me what you think I can do.