how do I connect from the pre outs to teh stock amp w/ speaker wire only? Like the pre-outs have RCA ends?

 

stock amp doesnt have preouts (which would be considered rca inputs) so theres nothing u should do with rcas at all. You buy the harness and hook up all the wires correctly (match colors) and make sure to hook up the blue amp turn on to the remote on the aftermarket harness and the amp inside the HU sends signal to the stock amp

 

Cheap and easy solution, cut a short RCA cable in half to give you the 4 RCA ends and attach them to the input wires on the harness that EmperorJJ1 is talking about.

 

I think I am going to go w/ you on this one. This sounds very possible, and I dont believe the only way to do it is the way EmpJJ says. However

1.) there are 2 sets of pre-outs on the new HU (front L + R, and rear L + R) but 4 sets of speakers. How can I be sure that the tweeters/mids/rears get the proper signals?

2.) are the pre-outs not 2.5v? How can I be sure they dont pass voltage out to the amp?

 

I think myself and EmperorJJ1 are pretty much saying the same thing. I just piped up because I could explain thnigs from a different angle. So no fault on him. He probably knows alot more about this stuff than me.

However I do disagree with his last statement, unless I'm reading it wrong. My HU is currently plugged into the stock amp from the RCA preamp outputs on the back of it. with the speaker outputs (from the internal amp) taped off and unused.

the stock amp uses internal crossovers to split the sound to all 7 speakers from the 4 inputs.

I just want to reitterate incase we got lost somewhere that whatever speakers you change out they will not work with the stock amp. If you change the sub, that's fine, it will just need a seperate amp.

 

no, its definately 2 different ways.

He wants me to hook the connections coming out of the HU's harness to the connections that run to the amp. These are powered and part of the 50wx4. If ran that way, I am sending a pre-amped signal to the stock amp, hence overdriving it. He even said this.


You said to run the unpowered pre-outs to the harness by using a spliced RCA cable. This way the stock amp isnt getting overdriven, hence you have no problems to worry about.


This was the exact method my friend had stated

Basically both options will work, but I think Ill go with your method as it seems safer and doesnt scare me shitless.

Thank you both though, as I have learned alot from this thread, and should have little issues getting everything installed

 

both ways are possible but cutting the rcas is the ghetto method.... maybe ive been working for a shop to long but if someone asked me to do that i would say no

oh and if u know what clipping is and sounds like it wont happen regardless of how u have it wired

 

I have

+ and - for every speaker. If I was hooking directly to the head unit there would be a total of 8 connections (2 for each speaker)

If I am using the RCA's then I only have 4 connections. The signal and the ground in each cable. How would I go about attaching the 4 RCA's to the 8 + and -'s on the wiring harness?

 

Yea you guys are making this way too hard for him. And emperor, sorry, Iwould disagree on running stock speakers off the JVC. I have done this with at least ten ss/sc that have the pioneer set up. The fronts, including tweets, and rears will run just find off the head unit, but you are right with regards to the sub, that requires a amplifier. But that is common sense to the average installer. I would hate to think that people are being toldyou have to get four new speakers to get the sound quality that any manufacturer intended, because you have to reuse the factory amp to run the speakers in the car. As far as the "Ghetto" method of using rca's to run the factory deck into and amplifier, Tehre is a significant level difference using line level as opposed to speaker level, I would say in the area of four to five volts. Overdriving a amplifier is simply amplifying a amplified signal. And my friend that sounds liek ****. Using the low level of the JVC from the rca's to run the factory amp is the ideal way to run our pioneer setup. But then again, that would be in a ideal world where we could adjust for this by using gains and crossovers to make things sound correct. Again I cannot emphasize enough to people when they want to integrate todays aftermarket radios into their existing system in their cars, make the installer physically show you what they are doing. Each one has "their" way of doing it, but in the end, is it the way "YOU" want it to sound. Just my thoughts.

 

Great info there, and teh RCA's is the way I am going, but can you answer my question above this?

 

Well the fronts without actually wiring it myself should both be run in parallel with the front rcas, as the impedence chouldnt be a problem, and the rears will be on their own, so you should have three sets of positive and negative per side

Right Tweet + and -
Left Tweet + and -
Right Front + and -
Left front + and -
Right rear + and -
left rear + and -
that should be it, the sub would run off a different amp of course.

You know what I have my amp out of my car I removed it and went all aftermarket, I am going to manufacture a harness tomm morn that will allow you to plug a aftermarket deck into the factory amp. When I am done I will post the diagram and the wire colors used so you can try it at home.

 

how IM kind of confused. I thought our stock amp only had 4 inputs on the harness? Also, I only have 2 sets of pre-outs for the speakers, the third set is for my aftermarket sub. I thought the stock amp converted the front signal to the tweets/mids, and the rear to the rear deck/sub?

I thought I was supose to take the front RCA's and connect them to the left Front speaker and right front speaker on the harness, and then connect the rear L and R RCA's to the rear left and rear right speakers on the harness?

Or am I looking at this wrong?


Im really lost now, I dont see how I am supose to hook each RCA

left front
right front
left rear
right rear

to the harness? Can someone explain this in detail?

what would really help me understand would be like


RCA left front signal cable connects to orange cable w/ white stripe on stock harness.



I undertand stuff like that.

 

I agree with you but really not. Can you install 2 ohm drivers on a 4 ohm stable deck and it work... yes But the heatsink isn't big enough to handle the extra heat and eventually the amp within the deck or entire unit will be gone. Also overdriving the stock amp sounds just fine. If you can listen to FM, XM, sirius radio, MP3s without cringing you wont say it sounds bad. In the end the best thing to do is throw the entire thing out and start all over with a vibration mat as a requirement for inside the doors and trunk lid. Integrating stock and aftermarket is never the best idea and is never the best solution but unless your willing to shell out the money for new equipment it probably does great for most people out there. How many people are happy with the stock 7 speaker setup? Secondly the higher end units do have those functions ur looking for in the "ideal" world. I mainly work with pioneer premier units and some have both SLA and HPF to very much deal with the issues of overdriving the stock speakers and cutting out most of the bass that blows them in the first place. lastly JVC isnt know for either sound quality or reliability so take that as u will

 

OK, well as you can see what time it is, I have finally finished my install. I mean everythings in and working but I still have some cleaning up to do. I also have to put my dash back together lol. All in all though, it was a great learning experience. We got everything in, and everything working the first time arround, cant ask for more! I DO HAVE SOME NOTES AND QUESTIONS THOUGH

NOTES:

1.) Short tips on your RCA's will make your install 500% easier! I went to pep boys and bought a lightling audio rca kit for 9.99. The heads were super small. I used this set to run my rear and front line levels to the amp. Because they where short, I had enough room an didnt need to remove the metal bar!

HOWEVER the RCA tips for my amp was normal sized and did push the HU out too far. Luckily, all I had to do was cut the black plastic part off thats in front of the metal bar. Once I did this the sub RCA's went right above the metal bar, so it fit in and screwed in perfectly, man did this save me **** loads of work. I dremel'd the plastic piece out and man was that a bitch. Theres no room to get the right angle to dremel so like if I had to dremel the metal bar out it would have added on HOURS!

2.) Illumination cable. Most cars have one, but it appears the cobalt doesnt? I cant set my head unit to auto dim like the rest of the inside because I couldnt find the dimming cable. I was looking at the audio pin out thing, and none of those show as a illumination dimmer or anything. I read somewhere that it is part of the GM lan harness, but like I couldnt find any more information, and have no idea what cable to tap if any to fix that. Luckily the JVC unit has a dimmer feature based on time. I set this, so from 8pm-7am its dim, the rest of the time its bright

3.) I didnt get a chance to fully test or anything since it was midnight by the time we got everything setup totally. I mean we had hte head unit in early, but getting the sub wired, and running all the sub and amp cables etc took a while. we played w/ the sound a bit in the garage, but my friends wife and baby were asleep so we were pretty quiet, but I must admit it sounds really good! Theres 2 types of base, boomy, and kicky. I would say with my setup its very kicky w/ a little bit of boom. I like it though I have the gain set to about 75% Which should be about right since its a 500w rms sub, and a 600w rms amp.

QUESTIONS:

1.) The only real problem i have is that when I change the source on my headunit it seems to pop in the speakers. the pop is in the speakers from the stock amp. Like I dont understand what I could have done to cause a pop. Is that a drawback of using the stock amp with the line level outputs from the back of the JVC? also, I did run both the remote for my stock amp and my new aftermarket one off the same remote cable. Thats OK right? It shouldnt cause any issues?

I used an add a fuse to run the power and I saw #15 was unused, and I use a voltage meter to determine if it was switched or not. It was, so I used hte add a fuse from there, and I was good to go.

I ran the RCA's and remote wire down the passengers side, it took a bit to get it to come out into the trunk but all in all it went pretty smoothly.

Its kinda kool how my HU will still work when I take the key out of the ignition just like the old HU did. Only after I open my door will it shut off. I guess I will need to be careful not to run off hte battery alone too much.

LIGHTS DIMMING, even after adding this amp, I didnt really notice any. Now I will need to do more testing, but I mean, w/ the car off, and just running from the battery we played the music and had the sub hitting pretty hard, and nothing really seemed to dim. I guess this is good news, cuase I was worried I would need to upgrade my battery and or get a cap, and right now it looks like I am in the clear!

I took pictures. I am spending the night at my friends house so I cant upload the pictures till I get home, but sometime tomorrow I should be able to put them up. I think I will do a how to guide on how do this, as with all the pictures I took I can, and it will go over the RCA method. Also, on cobaltss com they had a really good guide that helped me quite a bit!

LOOKING FOR ADVICE ON THE POP ISSUE CAUSE I WILL TRY TO FIX IT IN THE MORN BEFORE REATTACHING ALL MY DASH PIECES

 

Bumpy

 

You know we really should have a wiring guide built like this. This is what was used to install my friends system in his 6.



If anything it shows our weakness as a community


Heres how I did my install



I used electric tape and taped each cable together, then I used heat wrap to bind everything in place.



I used this location on my fuse box located next to the radio. # 15. Its switched, and was unused.



This picture shows the black plastic piece that is before the "metal bar from hell" This is what I had to remove to get my HU in.



This is after the black part is removed. Most people seem to have to dremel out the metal bar. I cries for anyone who had to go through that. I could barely dremel out the plastic theres so little room there. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU GET SHORT TIPPED RCA's, otherwise, your going to need to remove the metal bar

Completed install pics

 

Ahhh!!!
The metal bar from hell

 

I'm glad I didnt have to do battle with that monster!

 

Ugh...yeah you are. When I put my double din in it was hell!!!! lol

But hows its sound man?!?! Cause it looks good and im glad you finally got it all done!!

 

It sounds surprisingly welll. To be honest, I think adding the aftermarket HU actually increased the sound quality of my regular speakers. Highs sound great, and when I up the mids through the HU, I hear things Ive never heard before. That is until the sub starts to do its magic. OMG, I love base. Its not as boomy as I thought it would be, but this sub kicks hard. Its like having a kid in your back seat that kicks you in the back as hard as he can every few seconds lol.

I have the gain set to 0.5, base boost to 0, and LP filter set to 120.

I mean it already hits hard, is there any reason to use the base boost on the amp itself?

 

Nice nice...lol trust me I definatly know what you mean by the sub hitting hard lolI think you heard the old 12" I had haha. And I've always turned the boost on my amps but you don't need to if you don't want...

 

slightly bump the gain and turn down the crossover... test it at reasonably volume and if u hear distortion then turn the gain back down... but 125 is a bit high for a sub

 

Got it, I wasnt sure what was too low. I set the HU to 120 too, so I guess I will change them both to 80 and see how that goes.

my sub is 500RMS and the amp 600RMS i assume .5 is 1/2 the rated power? so its getting 300 rms? So its safe to move it up say to .75-.80 which would be 450-500?

 

Yeah I have my headunit on 80 and my sub is in the 80-90 range. My amp isn't marked real well for some reason but it is around the 80 range.

 

Lowered it to 80/80, and put the gain 1 notch above .5. Also moved base boost to +6 DB.

Man what a diff, definately sounds better. Can hear base in songs I was missing before