Car audio experts

[Matic]

Hey all, need a bit of help from anyone that does car audio installs and/or car audio heads.

In the past I have had the luxury of having extra $ to basically buy subs and amps from car audio places and just having the dealer add whatever cable, etc I needed. I have a kid on the way and im paying for a wedding/rings, money isn't tight, but this go round I want to use the internet and the gonga deals that can be had so I can still upgrade my sound, but still have money left for the more important things (baby, and not making my fiance too upset).

When I traded my old vehicle in for my camaro, I was able to take out my subs and unscrew the amp of its mount (but lost all cables). So basically what I have to this point are:

two 12' Arc Audio subs in a sealed box
Powerbass 1000.1D Mono block amp

I want to keep the head unit. Im basically not impressed w the kits to this point and a kit on top of a head unit will be pricey. Ill upgrade that at a later date.

I'm not a car audio expert by any means hence this thread. My plan is to piece together something nice and take it all to an installer here that does good work. Ive seen some nice (or at least I think) components on Amazon for dirt cheap.

What size are the door speakers? What size are the rear speakers? Would components up front and some good quality 6x9 (or whatever size fits) be fine for the rear w a 4 channel amp powering them. What is the minimum wattage I should have pushing these 4? would a 4x400 watt amp be fine?

I also plan to have the previously installed mono block and subs hooked up. With the amp powering my speakers, plus the amp powering the subs, will I need a capacitor or anything else to help?

Now obviously I will need the RCA(?) cables. What length will I need to run from the back to the deck? And I remember reading somewhere that I need a wiring harness kit from a retailer on here (forget the thread I saw it in), will I need just one kit, or two to run these amps to the factory head unit?

And in the past, ive bought amplifier kits, should I stick w those for the ground wire and the power(?) wire? What gauge wire should I be using? And what length should all this be (battery is in the trunk, correct?)

As you can see, im a noob w all this so any help would be greatly appreciated. I really am trying to pinch my pennies w all this even though I know it requires some money. Basically if I could get input to what all exactly I need that would be awesome.

Lastly, dynamat or other sound dampening. How much of that will I need/any alternate brands that are cheaper? And a good place to find it?

[DraggnFrameGMC]

There are a couple of ways to hook up amps to a factory head unit. You can buy signal processors which are definentley gonna be better sound wise. Some do get kind of expensive. The Audison Bit 1 and JBL MS8 are both kickass, but they run in the $500+ range. A cheaper one I use alot that has 6 channel output, is the Memphis 6ix, it runs around $200. Now if you want to go real cheap, you can get a Pac SNI-35, for your sub amp, and a Pac SOEM-4, for your 4 channel amp. They'll run around $70 for both. Granted, sound quality isnt the best out of these compared to a processor, but they will get the job done. For speakers, you'll need some 6.5" components up front and for the rear you'll be fine with a good pair of 6x9. Alot of people run components in the rear also, but those are usually for the big audio nuts. If youre big into sound quality, like some of us are, go ahead and get components for the rear as well. For a 4ch amp to run them, its gonna depend on what brand of speakers you go with because they all have diferent power ratings. A 4x100 is usually good enough, but you might be able to get away with a 4x75. Just pick out some speakers first and then check the specs for power handling and then decide what amp youll need to power them. For wiring, you'll need a 4gauge power kit, 2 distribution blocks. Make sure the wiring kit comes with a fuse block. Try not to cheap out on the wiring kit. Just because it says 4gauge on the box doesnt mean all the wire is th same. You hold up a Stinger 4gauge piece of wire next to a Walmart 4gauge piece of wire and you'll see what i'm talking about. Lots of extra strands of wire on the Stinger and alot of extra rubber coating on the cheap brand, - wire strands. For RCA's it all depends on where you plan on mounting your interfaces. Most wiring kits you can get with and without RCA's. If you plan on putting your interfaces close to the amps, buy a wiring kit without RCA's and purchase the RCA's separately so they are the correct length. If you plan on putting your interfaces right behind the factory radio, most power kits come with a 17' RCA(2 channel), you''ll just have to buy an extra pair of 17' RCA(4channel) for the mids amp. My opinion on capacitors is forget about'em. If youre gonna spend $100+ dollars on a cap, i'd just skip it and upgrade your factory battery. I rarely ever sell caps, we just go straight into bigger, better batteries. Dyanamt is good stuff, but I think its hugely over priced because it's got Chip Foose's face all over it. I've been using alot of Fatmat's Megamat lately. Its thicker and heavier than Dynamat Extreme and it seems to work just as well, but its way cheaper. You can get a 50 sq ft kit for around $120 which would be enough to do your trunk, doors and back deck. People forget how much sound deadeners help. It doesnt just get rid of rattle, it strengthens the area panels for less flex, makes road noise way less, so its more comfortable inside the cabin and usually you'll gain about 3-5db more on bass because youre not loosing air pressure. Truly worth the $$$ you spend on it. Hopefully this helps and give you a few ideas.

[Matic]

Awesome. Thank you for your help