ok, so i'm installing this all myself. I've done many vehicles, but this one seems to be a pretty good challenge. the car is a jiggsaw puzzle to take apart and it's not very user friendly.

anyways, here is my setup:
infinity 6.5 kappa components for up front
infinity 6x9 2 ways for rear deck
kicker 700.5 5 channel, 110x4; 420x1
audiobahn aw1000 (old 600 watt version)

i'm having a shop make me a custom ported enclosure.

I used the aem-nis2 and hooked it up behind the head unit, i ran kicker premium twisted pair audio cables. out back and 4 gauge wiring. so far i only have the 6x9's installed in the rear and i ran new wire to them, 16 gauge. Playing with the stereo tonight, it sounded kinda crappy. The 6x9's didn't seem like they handled that much power and they weren't as loud as the stock ones. Could this be because i still am running my bose amp? I figured that having that stock amp still running might be messing up the voltage to the RCA's. This is only temporary until i finish my front doors on saturday, but it just made me worry.

What else could be the cause of this? any suggestions would be helpful. I double checked all my wiring. The only thing i have yet to do is check the line voltage and match my deck output with my amp input. That shouldn't take out my lows though. The highs were still loud, but not getting the extension out of those 6x9's that my stock ones weren't. I had my x-over set at 60hz but i dropped it down just to check...no improvement.


edit: any have troubles mounting infinity 6x9's in the rear deck? my mounting holes don't line up so i can't put 4 bolts in them to hold them down. did you all drill new holes or do anything to fix this? I don't really want to drill in the car and i don't really want to destroy my 6x9's.

 

The Bose amp is the cause to many problems which comes from over-equalization.

 

^ Agreed get rid of it and buy a small 4 channel amp to power the door and deck speakers.

 

umm...not to be mean but did you even read my original post? go back and look at what all i've installed.... 110x4 amp......

i don't have this running through the bose amp, i just have the bose amp still hooked up for the fronts right now until i install my fronts.

 

Ummm, I did read your post and this is what you wrote.

After reading your post 3 more times I finally figured out what you've done. Wait until you install everything before you start troubleshooting.

Just to humor you, what signal are your new 6x9s getting?

 

where did you tap into the signal?

with the bose system tehre is this issue:

1. if you tap before the bose amp, you get a somehwat unequalized signal but VERY weak, less than 1volt in most cases, and when you feed htis to the amp, it means increased noise, hiss and more hcances of alternator whine, just weak overall cuase you may turn the amp's gain up a lot and it still sounds kinda poopy

2. if you tap after the bose amp, the signal is really strong, but maybe too strong, meaning you turn the volume on the stock heaudnit up just a little, and it gets loud and distort. more importantly, the bose amp eqs out the bass as the volume goes up, which is meant to save the stock speakres, but htsi translatest to a gutless performance of any aftermarket system.

thsi is why i recommend taking out the headunit in almost all the systems i do, its a big bottle neck, regardless of what some people may claim, i have done system involving identicaly components except for the headunit, and regarledless of how i tune it, there is still a noticable difference... you can help the situation by getting a line driver/eq and tapping BEFORE the bose amp ..tahts prolly your best bet if you must keep the stock HU

 

the 6x9's are receiving the amp.

i have everything installed now and all running off the amp. It sounds like garbage. I seriously think something is wrong with the amp because my front channels work fine, but when i plug the rears in i lose sound. i tried just plugging the rears in and i have to crank the gain way up just to barely hear anything.

I'm using the PAC audio aem-nis2, which is a LOC and it plugs in the back of the head unit. It has adjustable line outputs and i think i'll play with that and see, but for some reason when i go to check the voltage at my rca's i get nada.

all in all i think it stems off of something being wrong with the rear channels on this amp. I'm sick and tired of dealing with it today, all that wire running and **** and for nothing makes me annoyed with it. I'll play with it a little tomorrow but chances are it's all going to get ripped out and go back to stock. it at least sounded good then.

 

lol, i forgot about posting this. I guess i never updated.

Amp was sent back to kicker and there was a problem with it. fixed and returned and the system works fine.

I pulled the subs out for weight savings and will ultimately switch to a smaller amp for mids and highs for weight savings now.

 

Good it is working. Not sure about your LOC but keep in mind that the Bose in many if not all of the Infiniti models is a balance output, not an unbalanced RCA. This means that you should not be using the typical LOC used for speaker level outputs and is usually inductor based. Much better performance from one using ic based balanced receivers (which some amps actually have built in). If you really are considering separate amps for separate speakers based on frequency then consider going with a sound processor such as a couple of three ways which will give you the outputs you need for the separate amps and may well have the balanced inputs you need. Balance lines from any head unit is really the way to go to avoid noise in your system and to insure the best frequency response.

 

thanks for the info. i used balanced lines for my show truck install since the amp and headunit both had connections for it.

I'm pretty sure this is made specifically for the type of output that our car offers. It does not look like conventional line converters that i have seen from other vehicles.

 

Does it have a positive connection and a ground?

 

Hard to tell when I looked it up since it has a power lead and a negative however it offers a remote turn on which would require this. The one thing it states is that it is 'Transformer isolated for optimal sound and performance'.

This typically means it is inductor based. From the price I would surmise this to be the case since an IC based on would typically run this much in kit form.

It does give its frequency response but doesn't give any clues to the response curve which typically can roll off on either the high or low end (or both). In many LOCs what they will contain is a set of audio transformers which is where you get your ground isolation from and allows you to connect a balanced output (speakers are often balanced outputs in newer cars) to a non-balanced input (rca cables). The audio transformers can be in various ratios for an example 1:1 would be the same input and output levels which just isolates the grounds, a 2:1 would be a step down such as may be used for speaker level outputs to rca, a 1:2 could be used for going from a lower level balanced signal to rca. The ratios I gave as simply examples and you could have anything in between along with pots used for setting the levels.

A balance receiver is often IC based and typically uses no audio transformers or inductors (key word typically). One of the advantages would be that their outputs are typically flat where inductors are often not.

They are sometimes used when a HU has only rca outs as well. In this case typically you have a balance transmitter. The balance transmitter will often take the voltage up a little bit, sometimes as high as 50 volts or so. Since the signal voltage is high than any noise introduced afterwards is at a much lower level compared to the signal, the signal to noise ratio is higher (s/n). It would be located as close as possible to the HU. At the other end would be the balance receiver designed to handle these higher voltages and would be used to create the rca output.

If the device you mention has a flat response to the RCAs then the biggest issue I would see at this point is that of the length of the RCAs which are often prone to noise injection. A secondary issue would be the load impedance the device places on the stock system. This often is a bigger issue however for those that add a subwoofer by tapping in before the stock amp to avoid the built in equalization using an inductor based LOC. By doing so they have place an inductor on the stock balance inputs which can really affect the frequency response of the rest of the system.

If the aftermarket amp supports balance inputs directly from the head unit (many mention they accept balance inputs but often these are speaker level balance inputs) then you really probably don't need any converter at all beyond a method of making the connections at the HU. At that point probably the only thing that may be needed would be a method of providing an amp on signal (which the Bose system does as well). However in the case of the PAC-AOEM it appears they are simply using the ignition on to do that.

In any case good to hear you got it working to your satisfaction. You mentioned the idea of using different combinations of amp (I may be reading this wrong as you mentioned weight savings).

What I am thinking about doing is to sort of mimic the stock system in concept. Using the OEM head unit (I have an 08 with Nav) I would use two of these units for the front giving me stereo outputs for the woofers midrange, and tweeters:

http://www.audiocontrol.com/t34/5251...Crossover.html

In this way the front is like the stock system. The backs on the other hand would be similar to what is there now with a set of component speakers. The setup would connect into a subwoofer as well. If you look at this you will see how the setup would work (page two - 1st and 3rd diagrams):

http://rs.audiocontrol.com/company_38//2xs_OM.pdf

I would use three non-identical 4 channel amps which would yield a spare set. You could duplicate the front to the rear and mount the woofers on the deck or in the trunk if desired as an optional setup (even after intially going with the single two channel two method for the rear) using one more 2 channel 3 way crossover.

 

wow, that was pretty detailed.

i did mention moving to a different amp. I have a 5 channel now which is quite large due to the subwoofer component. I was thinking of switching it out for a small 4 channel amp since i have already removed my subs. i almost never have music on in the car anyways when i'm driving. about the only time is when the gf comes with me on a ride.

 

In reality you could go with single channel amps. At the output needed for each door you really could get away with fairly small single channel amps with almost no extra features. These could be located almost anywhere, the closer to the output (the speakers) possible the better if using a balance signal to get there (and I mean even in the doors themselves). Basically I like the cross over idea since I believe it is far better to do the cross over of the frequencies prior to amplification instead of after. For example many will use a bass blocker on the midrange/tweeter combination to keep the midrange and highs defined better, not needed with a cross over prior to the amp that already separates the frequency range delivered to the amp. You will have no bass to block on those speakers.

I like what I posted since it does exactly what I am after. There are many others that I have looked at that come close, but even from this company none that seems to do what I would want. For example they have a 6 channel in and 8 channel out but if you look at how it configures it doesn't look like you can end up with a three way in the same way as I desire it. Not sure exactly where I would mount all of this but I have some target areas on the rear of the back seat especially down low which tends to be wasted, maybe in the middle of the bottom cushion in the back, just need to inventory the space I know must exist.

I personally don't need to break the seams in my trunk so space would be a concern to me as much as many others.

 

Back to your original problems one thing that many forget is that with a multichannel system it is often very easy to trouble a problem that only exist on a channel or two.

Take a simple stereo system. Most have a common power supply. If the whole thing is dead then that is the first place to look. If one channel is bad compare it to the other one. This is the basics behind the troubleshooting when I was repairing audio equipment as well as televisions. Now days this is much more difficult internal of the components since everything is typically IC based and much of that are SMCs. I even have an article on how to make a test lead out of a mechanical pencil and a needle since standard test leads are often way too large for SMCs. On the other hand you have 4 inputs to a 4 channel amp. You have a couple of ones working and a couple that are not. All you need is one of the working ones to help you figure out what is not working. All too often many don't think about using a known good source and just move it around. This will easily tell you if the problem is a HU unit or the amp. A single channel system is actually much harder to troubleshoot since there is really nothing to compare with that is functional.