I've got the Haynes ICE manual. Unless your making your own sub boxes/shelves or planning a monster dual-battery/uprated alternator set-up, the manual is useless. I planned a £950 system, but ditched it until i get a car worth putting it in. As for speaker choice, not a bad system you've got planned, but be advised that your Cinq will literally shake, rattle and roll. (My pair of 6by9s rattle the rear glass) And of course, from a safety point of view, run anything more than 1 high-end amp and your headlights are gonna dim as you drive along. (Tried a pioneer V12 and a basic amp together for a sub and 6by9 set-up in an Astra and the headlights were almost non-existant) Without meaning to write a novel here, remember you've got to buy speaker wire and amp leads, can tear through £50 easy depending on what you want. Hope this helps a little

<blockquote id="quote"> face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">run anything more than 1 high-end amp and your headlights are gonna dim as you drive along. (Tried a pioneer V12 and a basic amp together for a sub and 6by9 set-up in an Astra and the headlights were almost non-existant)<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> Sounds like you need a new alternator and/or battery!Especially if the engine was running when the lights were dimming!

With a decent battery and alternator and running two amps you should be ok, just dont run them all day with the engine off! 3 amps means your pretty serious and should be looking at uprating the alternator to a bigger one (try a van or something) and getting a decent battery or two.

Cinquecento Sporting -- not broom yellow

Brother-in-laws 'Astra, even when driving along, you can notice lights dimming when really cranking it up. The V12 amp is a monster, 900w, and as far as i know, car companies work out how much the basic car can use up power-wise, and fit an alternator to cover just that. So adding anything beyond that is gonna cause probs. A vectra alternator bolts straight on, providing almost double power, so a simple 2 battery job looks on the cards.

Who says this is a Fiat forum

I think standard Cinq sportings are about 55amp rated. Dont know how much margin there is for other stuff, probably not much!

Cinquecento Sporting -- not broom yellow

Normal Cinq alternators are 55 amp but if you can find one , I believe the alternator from the Cinqs with aircon are rated at 85 amps.The standard altenator is barely up to the job on a modest ice install.
And I must say that sticking a cap in my system made a quite noticable improvement.Bass volume and quality became much more consistent and it also eliminated the "disco headlights"

Being an awkward bugger , I refuse to beg to differ - I´m just plain differing

mmmm...85 amps...margin! Might a lookie at the scrappie at the weekend!

Wouldnt bother with caps, there not really regarded as doing much for your system, just a bit of a fashion item. Dont mean to pi$$ on your chips.

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Wanted: Car with no rattles

85 amps seems reasonable, but i wouldn't sniff at another battery in the boot

Wouldnt mind an Optima yellowtop under the bonnet and one in the boot....apparantly with a decent battery and a decent alternator your interior light gets so bright you could get a tan!

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Wanted: Car with no rattles

I´m in no way claiming to be an expert on these things , but as with all things audio , the proof of the pudding is in the lughole ( er, you know what I mean ) and with my cap , my lugholes noticed a marked improvement .I think if you had a half decent alternator then a cap would be unnessecary .To my way of understanding , on a marginally powered system it also takes some strain off of the battery.
But as it works for me , I´m keeping it[^] Looks good too ( or at least it will if I ever get around to a proper install).

And the chance to find some decent chips round here would be a fine thing

proof of the pudding is definitly in the lugholes. Glad it sounds better for you.[

When you think a decent cap can cost £100 and a decent secondary battery cost £170 and compare them against each other, the battery will win hands down, it will more than make up for this cost difference, even £70 more,

Its all personal prefernce though, at the end of the day. Caps do, admittidly look kinda cool in an install, but I personally would rather save up a bit more and get another battery or a new alternator (the aforementioned 85 amp one!)

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Wanted: Car with no rattles

Another plus point for a cap is they take up a lot less room than a second battery.

And in a Cinq that is very important!!!

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Wanted: Car with no rattles

Thing with power caps is, they hold a charge for when the system needs it, then steals more power from your battery to re-charge itself for the next time its needed. So its just a smaller, more convienent battery. Only thing is, if the power in the cap is low and you turn your engine off, then that cap is gonna suck on your battery and drain it until the cap is full again. I just don't trust them Gimmie a yellow-top anyday.