Stereo planning & amp placement

I'm selling my Audi and didn't want to let go of my stereo from it. The problem is it's an old system which brings bulky amps and I'm not sure where they will go. I'm going to do this in stages as the money becomes available.

Gear:
Component speakers: 2 Sets of 6.5 Focal K2. One is K2, the other is K2 Power woofers and the tweeters from a Utopia set. It was originally a Utopia 6.5 I bought but the woofers were damaged from moisture and Focal replaced them with K2 Power woofers.

4-channel amp: Twister F4/380

Sub: Alpine Type-S 10" (not shallow/truck)

Sub amp: JL 500/1

Phase 1 will be the install of the Twister amp and a set of K2 in the front. I'll just purchase a cheaper composite Focal speaker for the rear doors most likely. The front door already has a Focal ISS 690 and I have to wonder what I give up if anything going to a 6.5 woofer of better quality?

Phase 2 is a new head unit & Maestro kit. I really want Car Play but at the same time question this move. Mostly I don't want to lose the backup camera red line.

Final phase is a subwoofer and sub amp install.

Right now I'm mostly concerned with where these big amps would go. Any thoughts?

 

Holy crap that thing is enormous and extremely inefficient.

The backup cam lines are actually built into the camera so they stay there even if you change head units

That subwoofer will fit in most single boxes for our trucks, so you can just go ahead and putt out all the plastic on the back wall and you’ve got quite a lot of room along the back wall to mount your amps

 

I assume you mean the Twister is enormous and inefficient? Both amps are fairly large by todays standards I’d wager. Both were some of the best of their day too. Not sure about inefficiency, don’t know enough to compare this myself. How do you figure it out?

 

https://www.amp-performance.de/en/935-Audio-System-Twister-F4-380.html
That’s how I figured it out. And yeah, 49% — not great.

 

It’s not the end of the world. Just means it needs more power to run

 

personally, i think your install phases are a little convoluted. i definitely understand not doing everything at once, however, doing the speakers/amp before the head unit is going to require re-doing a lot of what was previously done to convert from speaker level input setup to low level rca connector setup. it also means extra wire one way or another that will be wasted later on. personally, the headunit change was enough for me to make everything sound much better for a while-- the oem 'sound shaping' drove me nuts.

i would recommend doing the radio first. it can plug and play, and can run all the speakers with minimal changes.

i would also not suggest doing 1 amp at 2 different install phases. i would recommend streamlining the install procedure a little and run all your cabling for the amps at once. all the same panels need to come off to get all the same wires through, so you're not saving any effort or time having to re-do everything you pulled apart the first and second times to get to it a third time.

i understand re-using the gear, and i don't see anything wrong with what you've got. most are changing to a 6.5" woofer anyways, as there's a lot more variety, and imo, 6.5" tend to sound a little cleaner than 6x9's. there's really little benefit to use anything else!

the sub should be fine, subs under a 5" depth will fit most boxes

yes, the amp is a class a/b, so it's going to run a little hotter. biggest change this makes is that you likely don't want that under your seats, and will need to do a little more work to ensure it's got a very good airflow to stay somewhat cool. you're likely going to end up with a drivers-side t-tunes box, and will need to consume the rear passenger side back seat cubby area with the amps

as far as the reverse camera, the oem head unit does power it, so you need a 6v power adapter to re-power the camera in the new setup. otherwise the harness is plug-n-play

 

Swapping head units requires the Maestro kit to keep everything working correct? I'm not sure what all runs through the stock (non JBL) head unit.

 

to get as much functionality as possible, you'd require at least a steering wheel control kit, as well as a camera input and a 6v camera power adapter kit.

i believe the maestro kit includes both of these, though not entirely sure. i prefer to use metra wiring-- always worked good for me in the past.

i used the following, though important to note that i'm running a single-din aftermarket radio without a reverse camera input, and i relocated the camera feed to the center rear view mirror with a different mirror with a built-in display.

metra 70-1761 radio harness. this is gets power to the new radio, and connects the oem speaker wiring to the radio's speaker outputs.
http://www.metraonline.com/part/70-1761

metra AXBUCH-T36V to break out the camera video signal, the reverse signal, and it includes the 6v camera power adapter--the oem rear camera WILL NOT work on 12 volts:
http://www.metraonline.com/part/AXBUCH-T36V

metra axswc, this is for the steering wheel integration. seems some buttons are missing, or i just need to fiddle with the programming more to get it to further integrate properly. either way, it gets me volume and track changing, which is really all i need anyways:
http://www.metraonline.com/part/AXSWC


as far as what's lost from the factory radio, it's really the center gauge screen integration(i don't believe any aftermarket option re-integrates this option), and the programming screen in the head unit to alter vehicle settings-- lock/unlock functionality, vehicle beep level, auto headlight turn-on sensitivity, etc. my understanding is that many obd2 dongles like the carista app will do the same functions. personally, i just set everything to my liking before yanking the oem head unit.

otherwise the head unit is not an integral part of the truck. i specifically own a tacoma because of this. you can drive around without the head unit installed indefinitely with no alteration or effect to any other vehicle functions.