DIY: Installing Aftermarket Subs w/ Stock HU ( and Premium Sound System)

[shadedream]

Ok well I got around to setting this up and everything appears to be gold except one thing. The amp only seems to get sound signal when the RCA's are either only half way into the LOC or the amp. As in the inner plug makes contact but the outer sheath does not... Any ideas?

Also its worth noting right now they sound kinda bad, may have to do with the problem or may just be me needing to adjust the amp.

[shadedream]

Originally Posted by shadedream

Ok well I got around to setting this up and everything appears to be gold except one thing. The amp only seems to get sound signal when the RCA's are either only half way into the LOC or the amp. As in the inner plug makes contact but the outer sheath does not... Any ideas?

Also its worth noting right now they sound kinda bad, may have to do with the problem or may just be me needing to adjust the amp.

Oh and I dont know if its worth noting, but the tutorial didnt mention what to do with the grounds on the LOC (I have the exact same one I believe) so I attached one with the positive wires as pictured in the tutorial (wouldnt work without one of the grounds attached to it).

[shadedream]

Ok well I just went the logical rout and used some spare ACC wire and hooked the LOC ground to the amp ground and all seems to be well. Not sure what was the deal before (though the ground to positive speaker wire thing didnt make a lot of sense to me?).

[daowizmm]

propz. will try tomo

[seasario]

The MTX TC6001 amp has the "smart engage" feature in which you can just tap the rear speakers for signal and hook up to your amp directly , no need for a LOC. I didnt even need turn on wire . The amp turns on automaticaly when it senses signal from the speakers. My instal which includes Factory head unit and 6 speakers (including 2 tweeters) , 1 farad Rockford digital capacitor, MTX TC6001 monoblock amp, 2 12" 8000 series MTX subs and iconnect 4 guage wiring has clear highs,good mids and super pounding bass. Its so much more than I expected it to be with not upgrading my HU and speakers yet.

[choklit]

if i only have one sub then do i tap into just one of the rear speakers, or one red wire from one speaker then the black one on the other? tell me if it doesnt make sense

[BigMoney8481]

it doesn't matter how many subs you have it depends on how many amplifiers you have. And even if you have more than one amplifier you hook up one amp to both speakers and then daisy-chain the rest of the amplifiers.

[fabb600]

I tried following the link you used for getting power to the trunk for my 2008 sedan. I see the circle where there is supposed to be a plug. But I don't see an actual removable plug. It's just hard metal as far as I can tell. Are you guys cutting or punching this "plug" out or did you have a simple plastic plug to just pop out of the firewall?

[justininhifi]

Just got an 08 LX coupe yesterday and will be installing my amp and sub this week when i get some new 4 gauge wire.

Thankfully, my amp has high level speaker inputs so i can just tap into the rear speakers. I will also be running my power wire on the driver side fender as saw in a previous DIY.

My only question is about how much feet in power wire is a good length? I don't want to spend too much but then i don't want to be too short. Thanks.

[chrisblaster]

I need to run a wire from the HU to my amp for the remote turn on (??). However how do I do this? Do I have to remove the dash - if so, how do you remove it.

[BigMoney8481]

Tap into the fuse box next to your left foot. You can either jam the wire in underneath the fuse (bootleg) or you can splice into the wire. I think its the purple one with silver stripe. Any wire that is 12V when the key is on and turn off when the key is out is fine.

[vince1128]

just did the install today. so simple its insane how much easier it was then my last car

[justininhifi]

how many feet of power cable did you need?

[amd64bit]

So i have a Kenwood amp with speaker level inputs, my question is..
If I tap the two rear speakers(not the factory sub) for the lvl inputs, does this mean I can still use my factory sub along with the aftermarket one?
Also, would i be correct in saying that if i did the hookup this way, that i would be unable to control the aftermarket subwoofer level? Or would turning down the rear speaker level using the fader option be the only way to control the sub lvl?
If that is the case then my last question would be, if I hooked up the system using an LOC tapped into the factory sub wires, would I be able to contol the aftermarket sub lvl using the factory(Non-Navi)HU subwoofer level control? Please help me in making this decision, I have an alpine type r 12" sub with a 500W RMS Kenwood amp with no wired remote bass level controller just sitting here waiting to be installed, and I need a way to control the volume of the sub at all times.
Id almost rather use the LOC method bc im afraid if i use the other method, that ill have to sacrifice the two rear deck speakers' volume in order to control the sub volume. Im also tempted to just take this stuff in and have it installed by someone, but i dont want them doing it the wrong way either. Anyone's help would be much appreciated!

[BigMoney8481]

"If I tap the two rear speakers(not the factory sub) for the lvl inputs, does this mean I can still use my factory sub along with the aftermarket one?"
-you could but it is not recommended. The two woofers being different diameters will have different excursions when playing some of the same frequencies. This will lead to distortion.

"Also, would i be correct in saying that if i did the hookup this way, that i would be unable to control the aftermarket subwoofer level? Or would turning down the rear speaker level using the fader option be the only way to control the sub lvl?"
-changing signal to rear speakers would change the volume of the subwoofer.

"if I hooked up the system using an LOC tapped into the factory sub wires, would I be able to contol the aftermarket sub lvl using the factory(Non-Navi)HU subwoofer level control?"
-yes. for this method the subwoofer control would change the volume of the subwoofer... not the rear speakers.

btw... excellent subwoofer choice. I have a single 10" dual 4-ohm in a sealed box and it bumps. the highs still pierce through the bass and it blends really well with the factory mid ranges.

[amd64bit]

Thanks a lot BigMoney, you answered everything I needed to know. I will definatly stick with the LOC method so I can control that bad boy. Yes I was considering the 10" at first, but I figured if were to eventually get a better amp for it, that the 12" would be able to handle the extra power a little better than the ten. I had a tough time deciding btwn the ten and the twelve. Thnx again for the help. Will post up results after install.

[BigMoney8481]

actually... the LOC is not required if you have speaker level inputs... you can just connect the stock subwoofers positive to the two positive speaker level inputs and then the subwoofers negative to the two speaker level negatives. you will still be able to control your sufwoofer through the stock subwoofer input and you will not have to buy the LOC.

[justininhifi]

Just to go off what bigmoney said.

Most amps these days do have speaker level inputs; you also dont have to worry about installing a remote wire to turn the amp on, in most amps. This is my first car where I wont be installing an aftermarket cd player so i am glad that the amp I bought about a year ago has speaker level inputs.

Not too sure how good the quality will be compared to the RCA jacks though..

[amd64bit]

Originally Posted by justininhifi

Just to go off what bigmoney said.

Most amps these days do have speaker level inputs; you also dont have to worry about installing a remote wire to turn the amp on, in most amps. This is my first car where I wont be installing an aftermarket cd player so i am glad that the amp I bought about a year ago has speaker level inputs.

Not too sure how good the quality will be compared to the RCA jacks though..

So what your saying is that if i use spkr lvl inputs, that the amp uses its auto on/off feature by sensing the signal through spkr lvl inputs instead of using an acc wire?

Also I have some questions about what the amplifier manual says. It says here under SPEAKER LEVEL INPUT TERMINALS: "The genuine-accessory car stereo shall have a maximum power output of no more than 40 W". What does that mean? Is it saying that the wires i connect to the spkr lvl inputs should not be pumping more than 40 w of power? If so wouldnt that mean that hooking it to the factory sub wires would cause a problem? Im not sure exactly how much power is actually going to the sub from the factory amp but i would imagine it would be more than 40 W.
Another thing im confused about is what it says under Rated Power Output. It says:
(4 Ohm) (20hz-200hz, .5% THD).......300W x 1

(2 Ohm) (100hz, .8% THD)...............500W x 1

Now I purchased this sub amp combo under the impression that I would be able to run the sub at 2 Ohms with 500W rms power. But from reading this it seems like its saying that if i do run it at 2ohms that it wont be able to play sounds lower than 100hz. Am i correct in saying that? If so then damn... I have the Alpine SWR-1242D 12" , and the Kenwood KAC-8103D amp. The alpine is a dvc 4 ohm sub so that means i can only either run it at 2ohm or 8ohms right? So if i cant run it at 2 ohms bc of the minimal frequency lvl, what kind of power will it recieve running at 8ohms? I was looking for a setup with the least amount of resistance. Did I screw up getting this sub amp combo? Will the amp be able to power this thing at 8ohms? Sry for all the questions, but I didnt notice this problem till just now. Please Help!

[justininhifi]

Originally Posted by amd64bit

So what your saying is that if i use spkr lvl inputs, that the amp uses its auto on/off feature by sensing the signal through spkr lvl inputs instead of using an acc wire?

That is correct. Although some amps still need a remote wire to turn on. The Sony that I have automatically comes on when it gets a signal from the speaker inputs.

I'm no speaker install expert but I think running it at 2 ohms is still your best bet. I read some reviews online and most people are running 2 ohms.