I finally got around to installing my Alpine amp under the driver’s seat. It is powering my rear door 12” subwoofer that lives peacefully with the factory spare, and the front door Kicker KS600 6” speakers, and (currently) factory rears.

The Kenwood KVT-512 7” screen DVD w/ NAV, iPOD, and XM, controls it all from the upper DIN position. I installed a visually cool (lots of pretty lights) Kenwood KGC-9044 graphic EQ in the lower DIN position, but I rejected it as it only had a single set of RCA’s in, and Front/Rear/Sub out each. That created a choke point and limited the mapping, to include crossover controls and subwoofer boost, from the head unit.

One gripe of mine, though, the Kenwood KVT-512 head unit only has two sets of pre-outs, one marked ‘Front, and the other marked ‘Rear/Sub-woofer.’ You have to program whether you want the latter to be ‘Rear,’ or ‘Sub-woofer.’ I inquired to the poor installers that will soon be out of jobs at the local Circuit City, and they said many of the new head units are going to this arrangement. They told me to split the ‘Front’ to power the Front and Rear input into the amp, and use the second dedicated to the Sub-woofer. That’s all and good, but now you lose front to rear volume level control as the one set of RCA’s power both, and worse yet, now the NAV voice commands, which would only cut into the front speakers while the rear continued to play the tunes before amp’ing, now cut off all of the music while the kind lady advises you on turn-by-turn directions. Minor gripe, I agree, but what would it take for these manufacturers to continue to have separate RCA sets for ‘Front,’ ‘Rear,’ and ‘Sub-woofer?’ There are about 3 more sets of RCA’s coming out of the head unit, to include A/V In, Rear Camera, etc. What would it take to have one extra set of RCA’s so you can have full control of the sound.?

It is a good thing that the upper DIN cavity of a VX is large enough to handle all of the cabling required of these new head units and their accessories, though. Between the RCA’s, NAV, XM, and normal harness, the mass behind the head uunit is nearly equal to the mass of the stereo itself. Alright, diatribe over.

Bottom line, the sound is AMAZING. I have never before even had a sub-woofer in any car I have owned. It’s like listening to my home Bose system in the comfort of my VX. I haven’t even done an ounce of sound deadening yet, and everything seems fine. No buzzing anywhere, to include the rear sub. But I do plan to deaden some once I return home; and yes, even though I thought the checkers was a good idea as spacers, I do plan to sand them down and paint them matte black once I return home…