Suggestions for a 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe

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I'm looking to completely replace the stock Bose system in my 2004 Infiniti G35 coupe. I haven't been able to find a dash kit for this car, though, so, replacing the head unit may have to wait... In the meantime, I've got a budget of ~$2k for amps, crossovers and drivers (money for a replacement head unit / dash kit not included in this figure). I'm new to car audio and would like to get some suggestions re how to put this money to good use.

We listen to a lot of electronic dance music, so bass is key. We also listen to a fair amount of jazz, bossa and African rhythm. So, priorities in order, are:

1. low distortion
2. flat response
3. high SPL

IIRC, the speakers in the front doors are 6.5", there are two 4" in the panels on the sides in the back seat, and a pair of 6x9's in the rear windows. The trunk is smallish, so it can't take more than 12" subs or a very big box. Kicker panels with components might not be out of the question if there's a strong argument for cutting holes into the panels...

Thanks in advance.

brad
 
Will you be handling the installation yourself? Or will you have an installer do this for you? I think that could make quite a difference on where your $2k goes :)

For mids/tweets, you could pick up the Seas Lotus Excel series.. I think they run ~$800.. Madisound has them listed for $830. That takes care of the front stage. For the subs, well, pick a brand you like and look for one that meets your box requirements. Perhaps an Adire Audio Koda (12", $259.. 15" $289)?

For amps, I personally would go and try to pick up some old Soundstream Class A reference series amps, but that's just me. You can probably get those a heckuva lot cheaper than what you'd have to pay for something current. Since soundstream's quality has gone to crap in recent years, you could go with another brand like Precision Power (DCX 1000.4, 125x4, $900). I don't know how other competition brands of yore are doing quality-wise now (Orion, Phoenix Gold, etc.).

If you're not installing all this yourself, you're probably going to need to budget 1/3rd to 1/2 of your cash to have it installed nicely in your G35, depending on the shop, their reputation, and the quality of their work.
 
Thanks for the info. I couldn't find the DCX1000.4 you mentioned, but I did find a PCX4125 that's 4x 125W for $600 on sale at Audio Warehouse Express.

The Lotus Reference package looks perfect.

Any recommendations for books or websites with information on installation? I've built several home audio amps and speakers, but haven't done anything with car audio since 1990.... I'm a little hesitant to attempt the installation unless I know exactly what I'm getting myself into...
 
I'm in the same boat.. I haven't followed the car audio scene since maybe 97 at the latest.. In fact, when looking for magazines, I can't even find the favorites of mine from back in the day! (I think Car Audio and Electronics is still published, but it's about half the size it used to be).

For installation stuff, you might want to poke around on Amazon. I know there used to be quite a few books that were recommended, but I honestly don't remember any of them, and my collection of car audio magazines is in a bunch of boxes in storage somewhere =)

I think if you have experience building speakers, you'll have no problem. You'll probably want to familiarize yourself with fiberglass molding if you're not already -- that can help you make things look a lot better. If you've finished home speakers, then you'll probably have no problem making a beautiful subwoofer enclosure -- most places make a box, cover it in carpet, and call it done.

One thing you may want to think about is sound deadening material (partsexpress is a great place for some of this stuff).. I don't know if you want to rip out your interior and lay down some dynamat, but that will probably help quiet things down quite a bit as well.

I would suggest looking to see if someone has an adapter for your bose headunit to get line-level outs on it. You could also make a balanced line interface/receiver (ala Zapco) to send the signal to your trunk. That would probably help reduce the noise.

After you get the interface to the headunit taken care of, the rest is just running cables. You'll probably need to run 4 gauge cable to your trunk (positive) and upgrade your ground cable to at least 4 gauge. Then run your RCA's to the trunk, and you shuold be good to go. I think the most difficult part will be running the cable. You'll probably want to run fresh speaker cables to the lotus drivers. You may also have a hard time with getting the sub enclosure mounted -- I don't know because I haven't seen the trunk of a G35. If the trunk is too odd of a shap or too much of a pain to work with, you could always look at some Dayton IB or one of the other infinite-baffle drivers and go with that instead, to save you the weight of the enclosure.

The last piece you may want to think about is an equalizer/cross-over. I would love to see one of those behringer combo units put into a car (it's probably been done, I just haven't seen it). If you go that route, another possibility (maybe getting into the "crazy" realm here) would be to mount a changer in the trunk and run the SPDIF to the behringer, then have a remote volume control in the cabin -- then you have your highend system, and with a few relays, you can flip between the bose "radio" and your highend system.

But, that might be getting a little nutty, especially at the 2k price you set =)
 
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