Has anyone on here had to upgrade their electrical on their car due to stereo/carputer/whatever? I know in my previous vehicles I always ended up getting a larger alternator etc. to help things out, does the 8 have enough juice stock to run an amp or two, some subs etc..? I've seen some pretty elaborate setups on here but don't recall reading about if they did anything under the hood etc. I was thinking about replacing the battery at least, but is that even necessary? Thanks

 

the 8 has a 100amp alternator I doubt u will need more

only thing is running a dedicated ground wire to the trunk for sub setups along with the power
u need one as the ground return is miserable

I do recommend caps for a powerful amp system

definitely get a new battery, Optima Red is good, for audio and video Optima Yellow is better

 

sweet, thanks! I'll probably go with a yellow to match the car :D plus it will give me room to grow should video become part of my setup.

 

I might need a bigger battery. It will die within 15-20 minutes if I leave all my crap on.

 

I had a 280 amp alternator in my previous system and I can guarentee it was required. Caps only help for short bursts, any major current draw and you're done. Of course, I was also pushing 3 Zapco C2K amps (2.0, 6.0, and 9.0; 50@8, 300@4, 2000@2 total watts respectively).

Anyway...this system I'm not planning on upgrading unless I need to...but I probably will, so I'll look into getting an Ohio Generator alternator. On that note, does this car use a pretty standard Ford/Mazda alternator case?

 

something I've never really paid attention to in all my years of car audio tinkering, but at what amount of wattage do you start stressing a 100 amp alternator/stock electrical? 1000 or 100 watts? will even a small amp 40-50 watts? 400-500watts? hmmm..can't believe I've never really figured this out already (doh!)

 

depends on the amp...different amps have different levels of efficiency...some will list their maximum current draw

 

You won't need to upgrade the alternator unless you're going for SPL. An urgrade of a optima yellow or blue top(dont get the red tops because it's no good, just be a waste of money) & a capacitor will do just fine. A typical 1000watts rms amp will drain about 80amps at it's peak so the stock 100amp alternator will handle around a 1000watts rms or so system. Unless you're planning to pump out 1500watts rms & more for SPL then there's no need for the alternator which will cost around $700 for a good one.

 

Let me put 2 things in perspective.
1. Even if you did want to upgrade the alternator, I have been unable, in all my searching, to find an alternator designed as a replacement for the RX-8. Remember, you have to consider, the revs at which the alternator will have to put up with are far above a piston engine revs.

2. I'd be willing to waiger that I have one of the most demanding systems in an RX-8, period and my setup uses the stock alternator, with an Optima Yellow top, and a specialty car audio battery (located in the trunk and connected up with the Optima battery). All the stereo, video, comuter, gaming, ac/dc conversion, lighting, cooler/warmer, etc, are all connected up directly through the audio battery, thus the first draw is to that battery. There are no caps necessary in such a design. Also, consider this, I use JL audio amps, which utilize an internal circuitry to allow them to pump out the same wattage despite the variations in voltage. So even when the car is off, and is running at "12V" or more likely even below "12V" the wattage is still the same....so you put that in perspective to when the car is on, its not gonna put a strain on the alternator.

Just some food for thought!

 

no spl or anything crazy, but we are building mine as a pseudo demo vehicle so it will be something a little more robust than the typical 2 subs and an amp deal. The brand I'm going with will most likely be Soundstream, Phoenix gold is my other option but we have so many cars down here with that already and since I'm getting super cheap labor/equipment and I want to help out our fledgling shop I think soundstream should be fine and a little more unique as there's not a lot of it down here.. I know their older stuff used to be awesome, is the newer stuff pretty good or? Thanks for all the help, i kinda' assumed it would be a little different putting stuff in this car and there's a lot of good info here

 

ummm...that's why they put a pulley on it to reduce the amount that it turns. I really doubt Mazda designed a custom alternator for this car. I'm sure Ohio generator or another alt. manufacturer would be able to fab a high output alternator for us.

What I am worried about, however, is the 8's ability to drive the thing. My 280 amp alt. in my last system would pull the idle on my Z-28 down a bit if I was sitting at a light with my subs pounding ('course 2000 watts'll do that). However, the 8 has so little torque at idle I'd be worred it'd stall.

 

Go with Phoenix Gold if those are your two choices because Soundstreams newer stuff is no good.They got bought out by a low end cheap (power acoustik or something like that) company & are now making cheaper quality products.

 

There's nothing special about a second battery.All it does is let you listen to your audio system when your car engine is off & that about it's only job. It doesn't matter how many batteries you have, the alternator puts out the juice (amperage).

 

bummer, guess they went the way of Lanzar, Orion, etc.. I do like the way the PG stuff looks better than the Soundstream stuff, the spiders all over the place are kinda' tacky for lack of a better word. If I were to go with 3 DVC 10s what amp would you recommend? Can you point me to a place to learn a little more about the PG stuff? (besides their website anyway) Thanks for the help and the heads up

 

I personally dont like the 3 subs setup, 2 good subs should be plenty. If you want to learn a little more about Phoenix Gold just use google, yhaoo, or whatever search engine on Phoenix Gold & read some reviews from people in the industry like magazine reviews or something like that.For amps, I personally like the Titanium series amps from PG because it was their top of the line beofre the Xenon & it was their last line that's USA built quality.Their new Xenon line is built overseas in Korea I believe, the same facility that makes JL amps so their quality is similar but not the same.It's true, if you don't believe me ask some people in the industry or people who has vast knowdledge in the industry or just do some do some research.Here's a statement from www.cardomain.com which is one of their only 3 online authorize dealers statement about PG.

Phoenix Gold at the CarDomain Store

Phoenix Gold is known as a leader in innovation and manufacturing quality control among high-end mobile electronics manufacturers. With one of the most advanced manufacturing facility in the industry, Phoenix Gold offers a complete line of high-performance car audio products and accessories engineered and manufactured by their in-house experts.

 

is it a preference thing with the 3 subs or are there advantages/disadvantages etc? Just wondering as I thought it would be killer to have 3 but if 2 is sufficient and there's no real advantage to 3 then I don't have an issue going with 2. It would save some weight and some $$, plus logistically it would make it alot easier for my installer and I to get creative with other parts of the system like the amp setup/enclosure etc.

 

It is about enclosure volume in this car + the load that will be delivered to the amp. Good bass response is not about the number or size of subs used, it is all about the box and how everything is matched together and used. There are oodles of good subs on the market today. I encourage you to look at the tried and true Eclipse aluminum drivers. www.eclipse-web.com

 

Totally agreed & the RX-8 has a small trunk so a high volume enclosure is hard to fit in the trunk or even harder to get it in. 2 Eclipse aluminum(500rms, double stacked magnet) subs will be plenty of bass so either get the Aluminums or the Titanium Eclipse(750rms, triple stacked magnet) subs if you want more bass. I started with one 12 inch Eclipse Titanium in my car & it hit pretty hard already, also sounded really good. Eclipse would also be one of my top choices for subs, also JL w6 & w7, & Image Dynamics subs.Those subs give you both good sond quality & some good spl.

 

It is a personal prefernce but it's also have something to do with the car that makes me want to only use 2 subs. If it's a bigger car then using 3 or more subs would be considered. When you use 3 dvc subs, you'll get a final load of:
3-2ohm dvc series/parallel= 1.33ohms if you parallel them you'll get=0.33ohms

3-4ohm dvc series/parallel= 2.66ohms if you parallel them you'll get=0.66ohms

I tend to like to give my amps(a/b bridged) a final load of 4ohms because it's less strain on the amp, amp stays cooler & it'll sound better on 4 ohms than 2ohms.Go with 2 subs because it'll be easier to work with & you can be more creative on working with 2 subs than 3 subs plus more room for your amps.

 

If I was going to do this independently w/o reperesenting a shop then Eclipse, heck even Dynaudio would be my first choice. It would probably take me 2-3 years to afford everything though (haha). Eclipse is not one of the lines we will be carrying (at least not in the beginning, who knows what'll happen down the road a bit) so I will not be going with them this time around. I'm excited about the challenge this car presents as my last two vehicles did not have a trunk, I had a hatch and regular cab pickup before. I'll have to rap with my installer to see how we want to represent the shop, 3 subs will probably look more ominous, but we can do something just as impressive with 2 as well. can't wait to start putting all my ideas into wood/fiberglass/whatever we end up with It's been a while since I followed car audio and who makes what etc. so this is a lot of fun getting back into it :D

 

Think about this.... there is nothing more impressive than one entry level sub that leaves people gasping....

 

I could go with one of those old school 30" ones!

 

Anyone have any further comments on the aftermarket alternator? I'm curious if anyone takes pause regarding my statement that it could stall the car at idle under heavy current draw.

Also, the comment regarding RPM. I'm thinking that if anything is needed it'd be higher quality bearings. However I'm hoping that the part number for our alternator (someone know it?) will prove it to be a standard Ford/Mazda part.

 

yup, I'd still be interested in knowing what's out there as well, if anything