Help! Huge car stereo install questions!!!

Hi nbapitbull,
welcome...one question I can answer right away is that prius does not have an standard alternator.. it has two battries, one big one to power the hybrid system and another small one to run car electronics. It already has an inverter that charges the small battery but that system is no way powerfull enough to handel the sort of load you intend to put on it..
in reality prius dosent even have a standard starter motor so it has a smaller battery than most cars.

Other members from the forum will be able to provide rest of the info
you require since i am not much into "high fidelity/high power setup".
six speakers are plenty for me

 

Im running about 2k watts with no problems. Plan to do a ton of sound deadning.... there is 0 from the factory.

 

Are you talking peak power or actual continuous power? There is a HUGE difference. The car can handle 2,000w continuous power without a problem although you will want to replace the oem battery with an Optima yellow top and probably add a large cap just to help reduce the likelihood of popping a fuse.

If you are talking about 3,500w continuous power then you may be out of luck because I don't think the system can supply enough current to feed the amplifiers. I believe the Prius is limited to 100-150amps. I ran 1,900w without an issue but I may have been starving the amps. I've since reduced the power to 900w.

If you are serious and not trolling then I would consider another car if you want to do something that large.

 

Two 10" woofers in the trunk. Overkill, in my opinion.

 

Yeah I don't know that kind of wattage is possible due to the limitations of the inverter setup. If you could somehow get enough battery storage capacity to cushion the amperage spikes then it may be doable. Since most of the time you are not running at max wattage it may work but it could also stress the hybrid system. I don't know who could answer these questions for you. Maybe Patrick or seilerts would know.

The other option is to use less power but more cone area. IMO you really don't need that kind of wattage to make the Prius stupid loud. Just get creative and use four 15s or 6 12s or 8 10s or even more if you don't care about a back seat. I've heard some very loud cars that were using less than 1500w but doubled up on cone area or used well designed bandpass enclosures.

Keep in mind that if you tax the HSD system too hard you will lose mpg. All that energy you are using essentially comes from gasoline.

 

I'm all for overpowering speakers vs. underpowering them. Given the speakers you listed, you should be able to get massive output from 2,000 Watts RMS or less. Do you already have the amplifiers? Is that why you want to use so much power?
Digital amps are a great way to get more output from less current draw.

 

I was talking rms its actually like 1550 tho actually adding. I've had no reason so far to get rid of the Oem battery tho. There's no voltage drop on the battery that I have seen while system is on. Tho I never use it not in ready mode. Im running 3 way active fronts and a 12.

MB860 ?

 

If you are not going crazy with subs then I don't see any need whatsoever to run 3,000w. It is way overkill.

Doing a nice dual speaker setup up front like you mentioned would be more than loud enough. Doing the 6.5"-8" subs in the center transmission hump area would produce very nice kick drum effects up front. A single 10" in the rear could cover the lower frequencies just fine.

If you want the car to truly sound good then sound deaden the hell out of it! That is how you will achieve true clarity and midbass thud that sounds like a bowling ball hitting concrete. This will also allow you to get away with less power since less energy is lost vibrating car panels.

Using tweeters in the triangular window area helps to create a nice center image when combines with some sort of digital time alignment feature. My stage isn't great but I don't care much beyond the center imaging. Here are shots of my "easily reversible tweeter pods":

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...iamond-audio-midranges-installed-finally.html

I don't know much about the inverter or the complete power supply package so I'll let someone else answer that.

 

It's just my opinion, but I have two thoughts: First, good amplifiers and speakers don't require 2,000 watts in order to produce more SPL than your ears can handle, unless you're doing this out of a need to annoy ever person within a block of your car (if that's the case, you don't care about sound quality, you just want to annoy people and you shouldn't do that).

Second, I love Prius, but I don't think it's a good audio platform. My last car was a BMW, and there's a world of difference in construction and cabin quietness. The metal's thin, the plastic panels are rattle-prone, the tires are noisy... It's not the worst car in this respect, but it isn't great, not like my BMW was. With the vibration those speakers of yours would likely create, you'll have a poor experience unless you're going to put serious time into new tires, lots of soundproofing, and lots of panel tightening.

 

Thought I would let others chime in here before I commented, as I learned and applied much of their wisdom to my 2010 install. I run Hertz High Energy speakers and 10" Sub (with JL HD-RLC) off a JL HD900/5 amp with a Kenwood DNX9960 HU and Sirius. All matched, balanced and tuned.

Sound is crystal clear and tight up to 38 on volume before minor noise, though the ears can only handle about 25 volume for short periods while sitting inside the vehicle. You will be hard pressed to find a better sounding system, commuting or parking lot.

All this off a 900W RMS Digital amp. I even removed the Capacitor (thanks F8L).

frodoz Stereo Upgrade | PriusChat

 

the stupidity and ignorance in this thread is phenomenal.

It's insane how much money people throw into car audio with no understanding of what they are doing.

 

New member and first two posts...both negative. Good luck with that.

 

Thank you, sir.