A few ?'s about amp mounting and initial setup

[markcz]

I have all of my pieces/parts now except one, but I had a few questions about the new amp. I'm ready to mount everything on my new DIY box... I know it would LOOK better if I mounted the amp directly on top of the carpet like this: But I was thinking of putting some small blocks of MDF under the amp to raise it up a bit (pic tweaked to make blocks more visible): Question #1... Would it be worth it from a 'heat dissipation' point of view to use the slightly less attractive blocks under the amp and maybe get a little air flow? I would also be able to neatly run cables under the amp and over to the trim panel instead of having to run them in front of the box. Just for that reason I think I'm leaning towards using the spacer blocks Question #2... I found this video showing how to set the amp gains with a meter, so I was planning on doing that for the gains, then just adjusting the crossovers by ear. Is there a better way to do the amp setup? All comments & suggestions are welcome

[TheKomoman]

For question 1 most of that answer depends on the amp. If there are grates on the bottom of the Hifonics (I don't know the amp at all) then yeah, you better give it some airspace underneath. But most car amps are designed to be flush mounted to the floor (nature of the beast) so unless you see something obvious on the bottom for cooling I wouldn't be concerned about that.

As far as hiding the wiring goes that depends on where you're putting that box. From the looks of it you're probably going just behind the seats? If that's the case you can probably just bring the wires up just in front of the box by the lip of the hatch area and the wires won't be seen much. You can always grab some clips to route them neatly so you can mount those to the box. Alternatively you could make like a U shaped piece instead of those "feet" so it would be uniform across the amp where it will mostly be seen, then you can tuck wires under the amp from the open side of the U.

Using a meter is probably the best way to get the gains right and crossover really is a personal choice as it's subjective as to what sounds best to you.

[markcz]

I'm at work, so I can't look at the amp right now, but from what I remember there are 4 small vents under the amp, one near each corner, maybe about 1" diameter each. Seeing the vents is what got me thinking about putting feet in there to begin with.

I guess I'll put some thought into making something that looks a tad better. Maybe even just covering the blocks I currently have with carpet.

It will be sitting right behind the seats, and still leaves plenty of room to store the roof.

I downloaded a bunch of test tones to my iPod, and my meter is ready to go

Thanks!

[RyanC6]

That video was cool but what did they have in the speaker wire terminals? Just a jumper? and I assume they had a portable cdplayer with mini-jack to RCA's?

[markcz]

They were using resistors to simulate the speakers and a tone generator to simulate the radio.