Congratulations on your new toy!

Make sure to read through the FAQ entries here on the BBS, especially the ones about preparing your MP3 files and tags. There is more than one page of FAQs, make sure to scroll through all of them. Also read the FAQ entries on installation and wiring.

Regarding the battery wire: Actually, the wire going through the firewall should be for your amplifiers. The empeg will probably run fine from your in-dash wiring harness if you're lucky.

The only time you need to bypass the dash power wiring is if you're getting some kind of ground loop problem. I say, do the easy thing first (use the dash harness wires), and if there's trouble, then try the hard thing second (tapping into the amplifier's power feed).

The gauge of the wire that runs to your amp will depend on how much juice you're planning to pump through that amp. There was a recent discussion on the BBS where everyone whipped out their wire-gauge calculations... anyone have that link?

The main fuse, inline on the amp power wire, should be in a weatherproof enclosure in the engine compartment, fairly close to the battery. Its amperage will be determined by the amount of juice your amps are drawing. I am running two amplifiers driving four speakers and a subwoofer for a total potential of about 300 watts rms (I think). The 20-amp fuse in my engine compartment has never blown, even though my subwoofer amp went into protect mode once on a hot summer day. The fuse enclosure had come with a 60-amp fuse, and I deliberately lowered the rating because I want the fuse to blow if anything goes wrong.

While you're wiring the power to the amp, don't forget all the other wires you have to run. In my car, running wires through the floor tunnels is an extremely big hassle, and I don't like the idea of ever having to do it a second time. So make sure you run all the necessary wires the first time:

- Amp power
- Amp remote
- Heavy-gauge ground wire in case you need to troubleshoot a ground loop in the future
- RCA cables (either 2 or 3 sets depending on whether you intend to have a separate subwoofer level control up front somewhere)
- Speaker wires (as many sets as you think you'll need for future expansion).

Finally, make sure to run the power and audio signals down separate sides of the car so that you don't get inductive noise.

Good luck!

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Tony Fabris