91 Mustang audio questions, concerns

[Nano]

Greetings,

I'm finally looking to redo some of the audio in my 91 mustang (lx, hatchback), and I was wondering if anyone had any tips for amp placement or setup. Or just equipment in general.

One question I've been curious about is the dash speakers...what would I need to do to get to them?

Other concerns:

the rear speakers are 6x9? yes, no
What are the size of the dash speakers?
Door speakers appear to be 4.5, would my assumption be correct?

Approximately how much power would a decent amp draw, and How would that amp get the power? I know I would have to split it off of something else..but what, is my question.


Sorry if these seem very newbie-ish, but they are, I'm trying to learn as best I can, however. :)

[jbullerjr]

Speaker sizes in your car are...

Dash...3.5"
Door...6.5"
Rear...6"x8" or mor common to find 5"x7"

Lots of places to put your amp/s. If you are going with one that is pretty small, I would put it under the passenger seat, amp rack on the back of the rear seats, etc...

James

[jakesford]

An amp needs a direct connection to your battery with generally a 10 gauge or heavier power cable depending on power draw of the amp. There needs to be a fuse in that cable as close to the battery as possible, the amp gets a turn on signal from the head unit, any aftermarket head unit will have a wire for this function, and if your mustang has the premium sound it will have a amp turn on wire since the factory speakers are driven by an amplifier under the passenger seat. This may also be true for others as well but not sure. Basically as far as power connections you need a power cable that is heavier in guage as you current draw increases, ex. if you have a 800 watt max amplifier you divide 800 watts by the voltage your connecting to, lets say 13.5 volts and that gives you the ammount of amps you'll be drawing... about 60amps. So you would need a power cable and fuse that is heavy enough to support that current plus, you must take in account for the distance that cable will be running, the longer the cable the heavier cable and fuse that will be required... There are amp installation kits available that you choose based on the max output of your amplifier in watts, those kits include the power cable, ground cable, remote turn on wire, various conectors, fuse and holder, and some even have RCA patch cables... you may want to check out crutchfield.com, they used to have tech guides that explain a lot about system installations on their web site, they have a lot of products but they're kind of expensive IMO...
Good luck :)

[Samhain]

Originally posted by jakesford
An amp needs a direct connection to your battery with generally a 10 gauge or heavier power cable depending on power draw of the amp. There needs to be a fuse in that cable as close to the battery as possible, the amp gets a turn on signal from the head unit, any aftermarket head unit will have a wire for this function, and if your mustang has the premium sound it will have a amp turn on wire since the factory speakers are driven by an amplifier under the passenger seat. This may also be true for others as well but not sure. Basically as far as power connections you need a power cable that is heavier in guage as you current draw increases, ex. if you have a 800 watt max amplifier you divide 800 watts by the voltage your connecting to, lets say 13.5 volts and that gives you the ammount of amps you'll be drawing... about 60amps. So you would need a power cable and fuse that is heavy enough to support that current plus, you must take in account for the distance that cable will be running, the longer the cable the heavier cable and fuse that will be required... There are amp installation kits available that you choose based on the max output of your amplifier in watts, those kits include the power cable, ground cable, remote turn on wire, various conectors, fuse and holder, and some even have RCA patch cables... you may want to check out crutchfield.com, they used to have tech guides that explain a lot about system installations on their web site, they have a lot of products but they're kind of expensive IMO...
Good luck :)

Good info Jake.