Thanks to the advice of hieb40 and onehawaiian, I decided against the Sony amplifier, but I still went to the store to check out the other amps they were selling.

I ended up putting a deposit on an Alpine MRP-F200 for the same price as the Sony, and I can get the unit on Saturday afternoon.

Now I have some questions regarding installing. I have read many install guides, and all recommend adding a ground wire from the battery to the chassis and engine block. My question is, why is this necessary if the battery is already grounded this way from the factory?

 

while i have never heard of adding an amp ground to both chassis "and engine", it does have its merits. Depends on a thousand different variables, but in some cases an added ground to the block could help eliminate noise, or backfire and create it.... you can use a ground directly from the battery to your amp(s) or use a very solid, bare metal ground point on the chassis, as close to the amp(s) as physically possible.

If you plan to upgrade to bigger or more amps, go with 4awg power/ground cable, fused at the battery (within 18") If not upgrading, you can use an 8awg cable. but make sure both power and ground are the same gauge.

 

Thanks, hieb40. The model I have is a 4 channel, I just picked it up today. I was disappointed to read that Alpine will not honour the warranty in Canada if not installed by an "authorized installer." If you ask me, that's just

I'm thinking I will just ground the amp to the chassis somewhere near the trunk (where I'm installing it), and leave the factory battery ground.

One interesting note, though. I remember there was a discussion on openings through the firewall. I had my car in the bright sun today, looking under the hood to determine the easiest route into the cabin. I noticed a white plastic plug on the left side, a little ways below the wiper motor. When I got into the driver's footwell, and pulled back the carpeting, I could see the sun shining through the plastic plug. Couldn't have found an easier place in!

 

Almost forgot, hieb40, I paid CAD $229, plus taxes bringing it to about $262.