Hey all, I'm currently running an eclipse XA5000 amp which is putting out 50w x 4 + 300w rms for my ID CTX65cs speakers and SA-12 sub in the trunk. I had heard before I bought them that both the speakers and sub could handle much more but I figured they would be fine with less.

While they do sound much better than stock, I'm thinking that they do in fact want a lot more power than I'm giving them. If I were to ditch the 5 channel amp and grab a 4 channel which does 100w x 4 and a monoblock doing 800ish rms would I run into a problem? The music I listen to most (metal) isn't terribly bass heavy so I wouldn't be stressing the amps much but will the stock electrical system handle 1-1.2k rms comfortably or will I need a HO alternator?

 

I would upgrade the big three wiring under the hood. Are your lights dimming with your current setup?

 

Yeah, after reading some more it looks like that's all I'd need. Our stock alternator is 135 amps which should handle way more than I'd ever care to put in the car.

I used to have a very very slight dim in the headlights with the volume maxed on only the hardest bass hits but that was when I was using the stock head unit. I dumped that for a Pioneer Avic D3 and the scosche dash kit this past week and it seems to have gone away after the install.

 

Did the big three this afternoon and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Went from a constant 13.8v at idle to 14.4v now. Dipped to ~13.1v before (with some light dimming) on heavy bass hits and I didn't see it drop below 14.0v (with no dimming at all) after the install. It wasn't very difficult but I'll try and post some pictures of everything tomorrow.

 

Interested to know what are "the big three"?...got any pics?

 

It was raining today so I didn't get to take an pics but it's upgrading three wires under the hood. Battery + to alternator +, battery - to chassis, and engine block to chassis. The stock wiring is ~8-12 gauge and is fine for a stock car, but when you start adding equipment that draws more current (stereos, big inverters, lights, etc) the stock wiring can't keep up. To fix this, you run thicker gauge (I used 0) wire next to the stock wiring to allow more current to flow. It will help get rid of light dimming and voltage drops to an extent.

For reference, I was running ~600w rms on the stock wiring and saw a little dimming on bass hits with the volume turned up 3/4 of the way. Afterwards I'm running 1200w rms and I see none with the volume almost maxed out. Not that I can stand to listen to it at that level.