ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

There is only one audio shop that I know here in Ann Arbor, MI.
And they want to charge me 400 dollars for installing these three things.

- Alpine CDA-9813 Headunit
- Alpine SPS-1304 5.25 coaxials for the back.
- RF RFP-3410 10" Subwoofer.

Is this supposed to take 5-6 hours of labor?
Is this something I can do by myself?

DJ SprinklesNJO

holy crap, that is alot just to install those three items. time wise is hard to say depending on skills of the shop, amount of workers they have and how many cars they have to do or how busy they are in general.

i say all that stuff is easy to do, but thats if you know how to do it.

i have a question though. so your putting in a new head unit, rear speakers and a sub. but what about ur front speakers and are you using another amp for the sub?

DJ SprinklesNJO

on another note. price for installations may all depend on location too. New york might be higher but if i recall that is alot. you see i didnt have anyone install my stuff bc of cost issue and i love workin on it all myself. i take great pride in installing systems. one day id like to work for a custom install shop.

XxLS400xX

in NY that would run you 300ish.....
you could install the sub and mids yourself. Let them do the deck

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

Damn it...
I bought a wrong sub. So they are not going to install it. However, the estimae still stays at 400 dollars according to them.
I bought a non-free-air sub, which they say won't sound good at all. (even if I add an amp?) By the way, I bought a 10" Rockford Fosgate RFP3410. If someone wanna buy it from me, pm me. I've been told that there's nothing that can go on to the rear without clearing the gas tank. (and I know, after searching through the threads, you can use 3/4" spacer to accomplish the task with certain subs.)

Anyways, they were saying, they have to rewire all the speakers, and do a whole lot of stuff if my system is crossed over. Is my nakamichi system crossed over?? ( i have no idea what they mean by that )

And DJ,
I have 5.25 mb quarts in the front.

XxLS400xX

umm i bleive the nak system highs and mids are hooked up to the deck. just the sub is hooked up to the amp.

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

REALLY? Can someone confirm?
So is that supposed to make things simple or complex?

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

chrono, if they are re-wiring all the speakers as you said, they are doing an amp bypass. you will be running off the head units power, the amp won't even be on. so it doesn't matter what the nak system is, they are completely bypassing it. consider there is no nak system in there at all. nothing from the nak will be used. when they do an amp bypass, they run wires from the radio directly to the speakers just as normal and disconnect the amp so it is not inline anymore. not at all. so there is nothing that has to do with the nak system at all at this point except "give us more money" .

DO NOT let them touch your car if this is what they are saying (what you stated above). you could do this yourself if you wanted to (you know how to take a new piece of wire from the back of the new radio and plug it into a speaker right?) that's all they are doing. complete amp bypass. your paying them to pull the rails up on the side (which just snap in) and drop speaker wire under the carpet. thats all.

as far as the sub goes, using spacers causes the sub to get closer to the glass and takes away valuable space needed to resonate before it hits the glass, as well as keeps the sub from properly resonating below because half of it is above the rear deck. so IMO spacer is a bad idea. find a thinner sub. OZ Audio makes one that should fit and is a excellent world class sub.

your paying 400 bucks for a $50.00 amp bypass and a $50.00 amp install and a $50.00 head unit install. that only totals $150.00 in my book and we do it every day. doesnt matter what car it's in, it's still an amp bypass, and lexus is actually easier than a lot of cars to do it in. people just like saying "nakamichi" and making money from suckers driving lexus's. the crummy quality of installs and the overpricing of simple jobs was my reason for opening my store years ago..... i got tired of seeing it happen.

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

n o, the nak amp is 5 channels. 4 mid outputs and one sub output.

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

I'm in shock....
Didn't know the fancy word "bypass" techinically meant "screw you over"
Man... I don't know what to do. This is the only shop that I know of.
I don't want to touch anything in the dash, as I know I will mess something up.
Should I travel up to Chicago to do this?
I hate myself for not knowing anything about audio electronics...

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

i want to slightly edit what i said, but my post still stands just add this:

if they leave the stock nak amp hooked up for the sub it still is just a single rca input on a converter and is only $15 to 20 bucks more.

just wanted to add that.

007

Unless you use a dash kit, there is now one avail for the 2nd Gen GS for around $40. A custom dash will cost around $200. $35 for the coaxials and $20-$35 for the sub.. headunit install around $40 so at at professional shop you should top out at around $310 max.

The Nakamichi is a 5 Channel amp. If they do bypass your amp and you do not add another your system will not sound as good. The Nak should be giving you around 40 watts per door speaker and around 100 watts for the sub RMS. The aftermarket headunit will only give you around 22-26 RMS per door speaker with nothing for the sub. You don't need to rewire unless you plan to boost power past the factory specs of 40 watts. If you are looking to do things in steps to save cost, i suggest changing the headunit and amp first. The Nak speakers sound good when you have a clear signal going thru them. If you want more it will be easy to add speakers later. You can tap into all the wires for the new amp from the old Nak amp input wires for the all the speakers will plug into the back of it run wires from there to your new amp.