My $40 Kicker amp from Goodwill and sub enclosure I’ve hoarded for years sound fantastic all installed. I bought an amp install kit from Crutchfield. Ran the power wire through the grommet behind the PCM and RCA cables from the head unit on the opposite side. I spent a day troubleshooting no signal from the RCAs to find that there are two “sub on” settings in the head unit, one via the app and another via the physical interface. Stupid.
This totally evened out the system. I bought new 6.5-inch Infinity speakers thinking the old CDT speakers were breaking up, but the Infinitys did the same thing at higher volumes. Perhaps a $200 6.5-inch speaker can’t handle the amplification from the head unit and Monsoon amp. Either way, the Infinitys sounded more lively than the CDTs so they’re staying in.
I mounted the amp to the spare tire mount holes with some rubber hose as insulation, but plan to redo it at some point. Would like to do a board-type mount at the rear between the taillights and get the spare tire back in.
Either way, love the way it sounds. I miss driving with a “system” after many years with two reliable MTX Blue Thunders thumping away in the back of my Caprice and Grand Prixs.
