In my Protege, a LX, I have the amp inverted, and under the rear deck, low profile, out of the way, no intrusion into the trunk. On the Nissan, the four amps are located in the trunk, heck they are the trunk!

 

Is this safe? I believe with every amp I have ever seen, the instructions specifically state not to mount them this way, because heat dissipation is so poor. I'm sure that some will work, and that the warning is just a precaution, but how does that amp "breathe"? Fans? Cryogenics?

But seriously - can't this cause overheating?

 

You are right, this can cause problems, dependent upon how efficient the design of the amp is. I would not run a sub amp this way. The issue is that heat rises, and what you will end up doing is cooking the system board of the amp- normally. A lot of the issue is exactly how the output stages are laid out in the design. I am using a JL audio 300/4. It is a very efficient design, and the output stages are mounted on rails on the sides of the amp, with the heat sinks mounted on the sides.
I have no doubt that this is not the best install design, as I am heating up the system board, but the outputs stages are still getting adaquate heat dissapation, and honestly, a car is an extremely harsh enviorment anyway. For the cost of the amp, I anticipate having to replace it within three years anyway.
For the record- there has never been a thermal shutdown, and the excess heat indicator has never come on yet.
The unortihidox install allows me to retain the trunk as usuable without compromise.
You are right by the way. I do not have the Mcintosh amps in the other car mounted this way!

 

I prefer the hatch for my amps. And cooling isn't a problem, I have 2 high velocity fans in there.

 

Nice setup, bigwoofer. Diggin' your 'glass work, and the recessed amps. If I had more hatch space to spare, I'd have built a false floor setup a long time ago....

And W7's ...... yummy! I'm drooling....

 

Didn't feel the need to start a new thread, so I'm just gonna bump this thread up.

My question is: For those who have put their amps under their seat (esp to drive their door speakers), how did you route and conceal the wires/cables? I know you can hide some in the door sills (i've done that with my sub + amp in the trunk) and it works great, no wires can be seen at all. Power lines run down the driver side while the RCAs run down the passenger side.

I'm adding another 4 channel amp to drive my door speakers and it seems that there would be a whole lot more cables/wires to route:

- 2 sets of RCAs for the front and back from the HU to the amp
- 4 pairs of speaker wires that needs to go all the way back to the harness behind the HU
- Power
- Ground (easiest)

And i know we should keep the RCA cables away from the power and speaker wires to reduce noise.

Any suggestions? Thanks