new system

[largeanincharge]

trying to put together a budget system for my 04 grand am gt.

been researching alot and am thinking about

HU: Alpine 9835
SUB: Fi BL 15"
AMP: Kicker 1200.1

not sure about the amp or HU really.. still looking for a budget amp that can put out 1000 + rms

what you guys think?

[1moreamp]

Well if you really want 1000 watts then I suggest you take your ride to a good electrical shop and have "The works" done to the electrical system so you can have 1000+watts of DC power to run all that gear with.
Stock auto's have maybe 300 to 500 watts of power to spare in their stock configuration. Detroit was building and selling light weight rides not sound systems. So your ride does not have enough of what it really takes to actually deliver 1000 watts of anything.

Pure regulated DC 14.4 volt power would be my start and if there was any funds left, then I think I would see what I could afford to buy after the car has had its beef up to handle the desired equipment...

I run a 1200 watt system and I need a 250 amp alternator and two battery's just to keep 14.4 volts online to run it with. And I don't run loads lower then four ohms on anything in this system of mine.

Alpine made some fine gear over the years, and I liked Kicker speakers < old school I guess> If you really look hard at the 1200.1 kicker I think you will see it really has like 800 watts unless you run 1 ohm. And running 1 ohm will most likely shorten the lifespan of the amp.

1 ohm stuff was old school competition, now its main line daily driver thanks to class D amp design, but 1 ohm still does the same thing and that is shorten the lifespan of the electronics by pushing the power devices to there limits on a pretty much constant basis.

A car driven 60 MPH last a lot longer then one driven 150 MPH. Its pretty much the same for car audio electronics.. and that's if you have the solid power to run what your planning.

Oh and speakers become very expendable along with battery's at the levels your asking about. Things pushed hard break.. I do wish you the best on your system though..and hope some of this makes sense to your quest...

[largeanincharge]

thanks for the reply man..

so u really think ill need a new alt? and possibly battery?

do you know off hand how much a new h.o. alt and electrical will cost?

[1moreamp]

I think if your looking to run the gear at the power level your aiming for you will need significant under hood work to actually use all that power in the first place.

You can goggle search HO alternators and high output battery's and the like but they all require wiring upgrades under the hood. I run twin 2 gauge grounds just from the alternator to the battery terminals.
And such power levels require large gauge wiring from the front of the car to the back where all the gear usually gets installed.

The plain facts are you will not hear much talk like this from the salesman in the store. Usually because they just sell audio gear and not charging system gear.

After being in this all of my life < almost 30 years> I say build the power system first then build a audio system that can use the power you now have to spare.

And I have killed a few stock alternators in my younger life getting where I am today so I am speaking from personal experience when I recommend starting under your hood then go buy all the gear you want.
At least it will function proper after you get the car setup to handle it.
Oh and also look into several box's of damping material such as Dyna-mat or others. The car body was never intended to handle all that low bass and everything will rattle badly especially your license plates and trunk and hood also .

I figure between the charging system modes and the body damping materials alone you will spend around $600.00 or more. So for you best results please think to add this overhead to you expected system costs.
The payback will be you always drive home instead of being towed or jump started on a regular basis, and the car will sound better and stronger well damped and with adequate power to drive the system.

Large systems require a bunch of extended thought into where the power comes from and how the car handles being resonated at 41 hertz a lot. After all you don't want to spend all that money in gear and have it sound like rattling tin cans as you cruise down the road.

Seen it a million times out here in Cali...best of luck now that your armed with the truth you need to make "sound"decisions...

[jol50]

What do you want just loud subs, do you have an amp and other speakers on highs now? I like Kenwood for cheap amps like a 9103/9104 (900rms rated), older 915x good too, though I don't think they quite make rated either but that is budget amps for you. Depends on your budget there are tons of amps. Good battery and wires and you should be able to run one of those I'd think. Might be able to get welding cable cheaper than audio cable, but I run a kicker 700.5 on a 5ga and calculators say that is enough. I pulled a peak of 74 amps with it once on a meter, but was clipping it and never do in use. If you want to go larger in future, then now is the time to put your big wiring in no doubt about that. I have a 4ga to add to mine if I need it, but if you go to huge amps you should get larger. You can wait and see with the alternator, but it is the best way to get the most from your amps. If you don't get much voltage drop with whatever amp you get then you don't need a larger one. I think mine is 125A alternator and I don't have problems with this amp. You will only get rated power if the voltage stays up at 14v.

http://www.bcae1.com/ go to the wire page and find the charts/etc that show what wire you need for the size amp(s) you will run.