I would say if your not comfortable tearing down your interior to access everything, and are uncertain about crossover points and the like, let a shop do it for you...

It's not a particularly difficult job but it's certainly not easy. As RonRizz and Tadpole say you have to take a lot of the interior apart and you have to have a lot of patience (things never fit the way they are supposed to). Judging by your comments in this thread, you'll probably be better off letting a pro do the job. If you have the time (it may take a few days for your first install), it would be a good learning experience.

yea im probably better off getting it installed.. a couple days ehhh not good. i daily my z in the spring/summer so it would have to be a one day project..

hey Ron out of curiosity will that amp allow me to fit in those 4" rear speakers.. because im thinking my interior will be stripped down anyways so it would probably be best to just stick them in there instead of having to do that later on down the road..?

I would recommend just running them off of the head units amp, or picking up a small 2 channel, such as the power pack and dedicate it to those rears.
( Personally, I would run them off the head units rear channels )
Another alternative would be to find a decent 5 channel amp. 2 channels fronts, 2 channels rears, 1 for sub.

Greeting's Mr RonRizz,

I have been following this thread since day one. Your sincere contribution
is appreciated by all including me....:iagree:

-Clifford

Just trying to help....:tup:

ok sounds good. Also ron how good is that hu? i was looking at the 5000nex i believe the one with nav?

If you have the extra coin, Jump on the 5000.

ok it would be nice to afford the 8000nex with the capacitive touch lol but i couldn't afford a grand for a hu

That capacitive screen is worth every penny and I couldn't imagine going back to a resistive screen.

Even still, the 5000 is a hell of a HU and a good recommendation.

oh i bet it is! the interface looks badass and thank you, i think thats what i will go with.

hey ron im curious.. with the things you listed is there say anything else couple bucks more thats worth getting over the stuff you listed. because im thinking if im going to do a full install a minus well get good stuff. (not saying the things you listed isnt.)

If I was going to make improvements to the list, It would be to the component speakers. After all, 90% of what you hear comes from them.

Morel Tempo 6's about $325
Image Dynamics CXS64-v2's about $380
Hertz HSK 165.4's about $425
There are literally hundreds of options............

so your saying hertz would be the best option? i see on this forum alot of people say good things about hertz. now i have a question. if i use the hertz will the amp be able to hold the 2 front and rear components plus the tweeters?

There is no "best option" for everybody. Everybody's ears are different. Any of RonRizz's suggestions should work very well (a Q&D look at reviews on the Web confirms this). To find the "best option" will take some critical listening/comparing on your part.

Edit: Get a good parametric equalizer to get the most out of your speakers. Most speakers only have 2-3 areas where they need some help, so a 3-band is all most people need.

hmmm thats something ill have to look into.. well i do want to thank ron about the hertz suggestion i was listening to some videos of the speakers and wow!!! they sound amazing just from watching some youtube videos!! i was looking at reviews on them and alot of people say nothing but the best about them. so i think i will be going with the hertz components.

Best option??? No, Just throwing a few ideas at you. I use the hertz HSK 165 XL's, and think they sound phenomenal. I have used many, many, many high end components before, and these are by far the best I've had.
If you want the best, perhaps you should look at these.......Focal Utopia Be No.7 6-3/4" 3-way component speaker system at Crutchfield.com

As far as your amp goes, you will be in the same situation as before....running the rears off of the head unit power, and just the components and sub off the amp.

You won't be disappointed in the HSK165's. They sound beautiful.

If you want to run all speakers + a sub without MacGyvering it up you'll need a 5 channel amp...and even that might not be a good use of your amp. I would still sooner run the rear speakers off the deck and give the HSK's as much power as possible. They will take pretty much as much juice as you could reasonably throw at them.

Before I got my 13 z, I had an 08 Altima and planned on dumping damn near $2500 (possibly more) on my system. I am into systems. I had 12" Kickers in it and had them for about 4 years and they are awesome quality. Can't go wrong with Kickers. Speakers, I was planning on getting Kenwood or Pioneer. That's as far as I got because money became a little tight. One thing I learned is you get what you pay for.

damn for 5 grand lol ill stick to the hertz. now ron i would like to ask is it worth spending the extra 100 dollars to get the xls?

yea thats what ron was saying.

First I want to know where your getting them for $525 lol

Honestly, though.. The Xls up the sensitivity, so they will be slightly louder, they play slightly lower hz, and handle about 25 watts more, and the tweeter crosses over at a lower freq.
All that being said, the average listener would never notice all these things, so ..........

Especially at 60 mph in a small, noisy car. :)

OP: Getting top-of-the-line components (other than speakers) is a waste in a 370Z (and most other cars) nowadays. Even some of the low-end stuff has good-enough-for-a-small-car specs. No matter what you put in a 370, it's not going to be hi-fi. But then, few people actually like true hi-fi - some like a little more treble and many like more bass. Since you can't get hi-fi (and probably don't want it), why spend the extra bucks for something you won't be able (or want) to hear?

Get some mid-line electronics (features will be more important than audio specs) and some good speakers (speakers/placement will make the most difference in any audio system). Equalize to your taste. Enjoy. :driving:

http://www.amazon.com/Hertz-Audio-HS...ertz+hsk+165xl

unless you know of a better website to buy everything from.

lol your probably right. the inside of my z isnt bad at all previous owner dynomatted complete trunk and doors so its not that bad. also south and ron for an equalizer.. is it need? is it worth getting?

so your saying save the extra 90-100 dollars..

I don't think theres $100 worth of difference there for everyday users, IMO... As far as eq is concerned, the 5000nex has a built in 13 band, AND auto eq and time alignment. Plenty of adjustability.

ok sounds good.

also do you know of any good buying sites.. that are good on pricing?

:google:

Always your best bet

what he said.

Another Hertz build? :yum:
Sub'd.

You should tackle the build yourself dude. Take some vacation time and just do it lol. It's fun, and you will learn a lot about your car with it all apart, especially if you have never taken it apart before. Also, just a personal thing, but I like knowing exactly every little thing that has been done to the car, which wire goes where and what it does, etc.
It makes troubleshooting 1000x easier. If you get it done by a shop, then if anything ever goes wrong, or you want to change something out, you are kind of tied to that shop.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

thanks and yeah im the same way.. i wouldn't mind doing it myself.. its just i would have to do alot of researching on basically everything.. which i also dont mind..

The other thing about taking it to a shop, is in my experience they will never take the same time that you would to make everything absolutely perfect. Yes, the wires will be routed sensibly, and hidden but they won't necessarily be immaculately zip tied/techflex wrapped, etc because they probably didn't gut the entire interior to run them.

I remember a buddy of mine went to a shop to install his new Sti stereo, and he had all the components already including 100ft of new speaker wiring. Well they 'used' the new wire - up to the footwells, then cut the factory wiring and soldered the new wire there. The must have thought it was too hard to go into the door grommets :icon14: They also said his tweeters couldn't be used (they were too big to the stock locations) so they didn't install them. Uhhh... it's called a dremel, fiberglass....talent?

Of course there are some amazing shops out there that can and will do beautiful installs and flawless custom work. However - $$$$$$$$$$. You get what you pay for though. (Most of the time, sometimes you get ripped off when you spend a lot of money, but you'll never pay a shop $200 and get beautiful custom work.) If you do opt for a full custom install though, you'll be out your car several days anyways.

You can always post here any questions about removing/reinstalling pieces, you will get more than the help you need to do it :tup:

thank man! i think you have boosted my confidence! and yes i agree.. i am anal about every little thing.... Also the OCD doesnt help..

Have at it ! ! Pics along the way would be cool as well.

All the talk about the Hertz HSK's here makes me ask if anyone has had any experience with their ESK 165.5's? I heard them at my local audio shop and they sounded terrific. They were about $300 and I couldn't hear enough difference between them and the HSK's (... perhaps an indication of either my aging ears or the shop's audio setup) to justify the additional cost.

But I seldom hear mention of them, which is why I'm asking. Once you get to their lower, Energy lineup, is there a drop in quality that makes them a poor choice?

I listened to the ESK's in the store too and liked them also. With the HSK's you are getting an extended frequency response, higher power handling and higher sensitivity. But they have a very similar sound I thought. So if you liked the sound, but wanted to get more SPL out of them, the HSK's would be a logical choice over the ESK. You could also cross them over slightly lower. If SPL wasn't what you are after, I'm sure the ESK would be a great choice.


I didn't look at any reviews for the ESK series, as I decided on the HSK after hearing them. However it's worth looking into, though I doubt you would find any 'quality' issues in the lower series, aside from the weird cases that can happen with any product.
Bottom line, YOU liked what you heard, so it can't be a bad choice for you.