well most important thing about self installing is YOU BETTER USE A FUSE RIGHT NEXT TO THE BATTERY.... thats the #1 2 3 4 5top things to do with anything extra added to the car.
yes its that important. no one likes a fireball as a car!
and make sure the power wire is large enough for the power draw by that amp or combination of amplifiers you wire it off of.

 

if i cant a amp that has a higher RMS than my subs will that blow them? or can i turn the amp down so it doesnt blow them.

 

okay u said u already have 1 amp connected to your head unit which means its going to be pretty easy. Your fuse is in place already so ignore the last post..... unless u need a bigger fuse.

Things you need: Set of Interconnects, Power wire, Ground wire, Speaker wire, Crimp On terminals, Distribution block.

Tools: Something to crimp with, something to cut and strip wire with

Instructions: basically a lot of the work is done for u already, your just going to have to redo some stuff but the fact that its already done u will be able to see what u need to do. First off your power wire is going to be run down 1 side of ur car, usualy the side the battery is located on. Your going to want that to be at least 4 gage, and prob 0awg, if its anything less u are going to need to redo it because the current will not flow freely enough through the wire to power both amps. let me know what size the wire is.... pretending that its okay, and hoping it is, you are going to need to connect that power wire that is running to a distribution block, from there u are going to use 2 power wires and connect those to each amp. Note: the only fuse u need will be near the battery, however some distribution blocks will have a fuse system built in, those are nice but not needed. anyways your power is taken care of. Note: before u do anything remove the fuse that is currently used for your power cable, this will stop all power current going through that wire and will prevent any possible damage.
Now, on the other side of the car u will have your interconnects or RCAs, you are going to need to add another set to the back of ur head unit (which i hope it is capable of), u want to connect these, obviously, to the subwoofer output, those will go down the same side of the car and plug into the eclipse amp, u can leave the other ones alone.
Now you also have a Remote wire, which sends the signal from your head unit to the amp to turn on, this uses a TINY TINY TINY amount of power and can be ran on the same side as your RCAs unless your RCAs are cheap, whatever side its on, just leave it. its going to be the skinniest wire u have prob, remove that from the amp connected to your 6x9s and you are going to crimp 2 wires onto it and reatach it to both amps. so it should now be split like a "Y". Find a place to ground your new amp, a diffrent location is best... but the same one u used for the other amp could possibly work, better off not taking that chance. and thats about it man. its pretty easy, first time u do it it might not work... but the most important things to remember when installing a new stereo is that nothing will work unless its ground correctly. so make sure u sand down wherever u are going to ground ur amp at so that its METAL on METAL. put the fuse back in and test it.
if u have any questions go ahead and post here and i will answer the questions u have to the best of my ability. good luck, that amp is a great choice.

As far as your amp, you obviously have diffrent **** and what not.
i dont know what ur preout voltage on ur head unit is.... but
Input Sens - Put at about Half
Low Pass- Put it at where u think 80 is
Level (your gain)- DO NOT PUT IT PAST HALF, i say this because most likely your not going to need any more power..... LEVEL will make things louder or more quiet.... but its not a volume ***, i cant stress this enough, this is why 90% of car audio nubs ruin amps or speakers. start with it at half. if it doesnt sound good post here first.

 

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN KILL A SPEAKER OR BLOW A SPEAKER IS OVER POWERING IT. that being said. the Type R subwoofer is capable of handling a 1000 watt rms amp..... this doesnt mean its constantly getting 1000w. but getting an amp with more power, also known as headroom is a good idea, it puts less strain on your amplifier.

 

If overpowering a speaker will kill or blow it, care to explain to me why my subwoofer isn't dead? After all, I am powering my dd1010 (which only handles 300 watts RMS) with my Punch 5002 (which produces more than 500 watts RMS @ 4 ohms) and my subwoofer is still alive and kicking. Would I play 50 Hz 0 dB test tones through it for any extended period of time? NO.

Sending too much continuous RMS power to a speaker will generate heat and cause it to fail. Also, underpowering your speaker and continuously sending a clipped signal to it by overdriving your amplifier will cause it to fail.

Actually, 500 watts RMS would be safer, but the 12" Type R is capable of taking short durations of 1500 watts. One of my friends decided to use a Sundown 3000 on two 12" Type Rs that were given to him just to see if the Type Rs could take it... After about 15 minutes at full tilt, he noticed a funny smell, then his subwoofers stopped playing with the cones frozen into place. He is back to using two dd9510s in a ported box because the 10" dds are LOUDER than the 12" Alpines. Plus, the Digital Designs subwoofers are much better at taking 1500 watts RMS each!

 

Why is your speaker alive when ur using a 500 watt amp? because u arent constantly sending a 500 watt signal.

OVERPOWERING A SPEAKER IS THE ONLY THING THAT KILLS IT.
- What does it mean to over power? means that u are sending a constant amount of wattage that the speaker is not recommended to handle
- does putting a 1000w amp on a 400 watt speaker mean its overpowered? no, not if ur gains are set correctly

Your post presented no new information - work on your reading comprehension.

 

No, overpowering a speaker is not the only thing that kills it. Manufactures defects, sunlight, age, humidity, rain, heat, car accidents, amplifier failures, and I can go on forever with other things that will cause speakers to fail.... Also, based on the OP's lack of experience, do you really think he should be tackling overpowering his subs for an install that he is doing himself, when he literally knows very little about car audio?

Other than that, I love these broad spectrum "always, never, and only" statements.... They kind of remind me of some of the recommendations that the local custom shops use to separate the customers from their hard earned cash.

Pot - Kettle - Black (cough, cough the post I am responding to)! After all, you keep saying that "OVERPOWERING A SPEAKER IS THE ONLY THING THAT KILLS IT" when I can say with certainty that there are a lot more things that can lead to a speaker's demise than too much RMS power.

I'll make a deal with you in that I will work on my reading and comprehension only if you open your mind to realize that your statements are not the means to an end, like you keep making them out to be.

Don't get me wrong, you do have a lot of knowledge, and there are others here who can benefit from it. Heck, I even agree with you on many occasions, which I find odd itself. The only thing that got me was the blanket statement about overpowering a speaker to be the only thing that will kill it!

ETA: I just remembered how your track record speaks for itself:

I remembered a post a while back where you dogged the budget Phoenix Gold Rsd 6.5" components based on their RMS power handling by saying, and I quote:
Judging a component by its RMS handling without even listening to it... tisk, tisk!

Another thing that seems constant with you is that you advocate overpowering Alpine Type R subwoofers, yet you don't own any yourself:
I guess you know better than Alpine's engineers who rate the 12" Type R's thermal handling @ 500 watts RMS? I hope no one here with limited knowledge takes you up on running a 500 watt RMS subwoofer with a 1,000 watt amplifier. Not everyone knows how to set the gains accordingly to make this feat possible!

 

sighhhhhhh o boy. okay. i dont think ur avg user leaves their subs out in the rain. When an amp causes a speaker to fail....ITS BECAUSE IT CLIPS SENDING A SIGNAL TO THE SPEAKER WHICH IS TOO POWERFULL......

u want to link and quote things. How about i quote the MECA 2nd place finisher....

"OVERPOWERING is the ONLY thing that kills a speaker. You either build up more heat than the voice coil can dissipate or you push the suspension beyond its mechanical limits. The only way to do that is by overpowering. And it doesnt matter if that signal is clipped or clean."

.... your really going to argue with me about what kills a speaker? and then use a car accident as a logical example? thats like saying a car isnt good because it didnt run well without oil. or that this tv sucks because it breaks when u drop it.... come on. we are talking about what kills a speaker when used in a normal listening enviorment? do u think volvo tests their cars saftey by landing a 747 on top of it?

As far as the alpine type Rs go, i kid u not ive prob installed..... close to 300 of them on about 200 diffrent ocasions. Im sure u know that Alpines marketing and reputation is well known..... so when they want to buy a sub for cheap and want it to hit hard.... i dont bring them to a W7 or kicker L7...(which imo is crap)... i say here lets put this in and power it with this 1000 watt amp.

If you yourself have a sub that handles 600WRMS - and u connect a 600WRMS amp to it.. sorry to tell u, but if ur gains arent set to a retarded high level, your subs are UNDERPOWERED. Now if u set ur gains correctly, generaly at half way, 1/2 of 1000W is what..... idk 500WRMS.... and on top of that, in a proper box with the right room for displacement built to the right specs and tuned correctly, u can give a type R 12" a solid 700W.

U dont need to own something to know about it, im sure if u put more thought into that statement u will come up with a few examples.... idk phil jackson - great coach..... phil jackson - not so great player.... phil jackson - makes players great, if u dont understand that... im just sorry.

The OP has enough sense to post and ask questions on a forum.... i doubt hes dumb enough to turn his gains way past the halfway point.

Gunz4me, u give me an example of a set of comps that have won any competition, be it a DB challenge or a sound quality showdown.. hell find me a set of comps that have 80wrms or lower.... that have placed top 5 in a compeition, please. Once again, 2nd place world finals at MECA - Speaker used? Polk SR6500mid(mid bass)5500(mid)and tweater...... go look at the RMS on those.

I'm not pulling this info out of my rear, i am simply using self experience and others experience to gain knowledge. i love to learn and never stop learning. im not just running my mouth on here, im presenting people with true audiofile information that will hopefully help them become better informed and possibly able to understand car audio a little bit better.

U dont see me on here telling people that they should run their comps off axis and at 16khz with a 3db slope..... im giving people general, and simple things to do to make their speakers sound the best they can with a standard install out of the box.

I listen to speakers all day, i install all day, i read magazines and websites and msg boards all night, its something i love to do, and im good at it. if i say a speaker is crap.... its probably because i have either installed or heard it in person, or several people tell me this.

 

You do realize that not everyone competes, right? I for one spend a lot of time and money on my own setups, and I will NEVER compete! Hell, I rarely show it off to anyone unless they are really close friends of mine. Furthermore, I pride myself in using equipment that goes against current commercial trends, even though I have a Crossfire BMF-1000d somewhere around here.....

Anyhow, nothing chaps my a$$ more than when I get a phone call from one of my friends who tells me that he is planning on going ALL JL Audio in his car because the local custom shop idiots pushed it so hard. In fact, I just helped a friend of mine piece together a system for his 350z that saved him a TON of cash over what he was going to spend at the local custom shops. He ended up going with a Fi Q 10" sub, Alpine SPX Pro components, a Rockford Fosgate 25 to Life Power 1000, and a JL Audio clean sweep to keep his factory HU. He wanted to run some Focal or Rainbow components.... until he saw the price! Regardless, all three local custom shops that sell JL Audio wanted him to go with JL comps, JL Amps, and a 10w3v3 sub. Oddly, no one wanted to touch the factory Bose setup and they were trying to sell him on either the touch screen Alpine or the Pioneer AVIC series!

I am just glad that my buddy likes the Fi Q sub. He went on about how he never heard about some of the brands that I recommended until he spoke with me on the telephone. I pretty much gave him the sky when he said price was no object on the front stage. I recommended Morel, Focal, CDT, Rainbow, and Image Dynamics. Furthermore, he freaked out when I told him that I would BUY the Fi Q from him if he found that a JL Audio 10w3v3 sounded better! I tried to get him to go with the IDMAX 10 because it digs down real deep in a small sealed box, but he said that wasn't the sound he was looking for.

Lastly, I was just poking a little fun at you! I think I have done it a few times already just to keep you on your toes I just wanted to make sure you weren't one of "those" installers! We're still cool, right?

 

of course. i just love that u said that mosture will kill a speaker... thats kinda a duh.

as far as front stage in his 350z, i woulda gone with the rainbows :P, they sound incredible and although they arent well known around here, a lot of people in germany swear by them. i think everything JL is complete crap except for a w7 and the slash series amps.... even the clean sweep is pretty damn good, i may end up getting one for my civic to put my stock raido back in (for the look) unless i go with a navi, stupid new alpines dont have a built in eq, its retarded, they except u to buy the h701 processor which is just plain dumb to use without the 300 dollar controller... and of course the 9884, and the 9886 both can be used with the imprint system... and of corse i got my 9885 about 4 months before those 2 came out..... if u wana talk about a chapped a$$..... there u go. alpine might as well have lubed me up and stuck a type R up my rear. IDMAX is a great sub.

and no no, im not "one of those" installers, i do work with some schmucks that are though....but i mean most people that buy JL stuff hear its good and its the best and all that... so why argue with someone who wants to put overpriced gear in their car when im trying to make some green? The people who have BOSE systems in their car are the type of people u sell JL to, hahaha, but seriously. BOSE is just as well marketed as JL but at least the top of the line JL stuff is good... at least the amps and w7, Bose likes to cut off difficult to produce frequencys that the avg listener doesnt realize is missing, makes it easier for those other common frequencys to sound clearer, Good marketing on their part. Take the boston bass test track and play it on a bose 321 and half the song is missing!
there was a post on a forum a few months back... prob a year now that showed a tour that a few select peopel got to take through the JL factory and it was VERY VERY impressive. its a 100% clean room area and u had to wear a special suit to walk thru the factory, the quality of build in that place is like no other.... so although stuff is overpriced, after reading that article it was a little more understanding.

I swear, idk if uve heard the SR line from polk.... but check that out, its incredible for the price. its purely sound quality though.... so dont except SPL boom

as far as speaker go, i take a very scientific approach when it comes to quality - i went from being a computer tech at 14 for a couple years to installing stereos, so still very systematic. I just cant find the time to finish up my install in my new car, the day i finished my install on my last car i totaled it on the way home from pulling an all nighter with a budy installing it... grrrrr so now ive got my box and amps floating around in my trunk getting disconnected ever other day. ill post some pics of the finished install once im done, one be anything fancy, just clean. later