Hey everyone. This is my first time to install a car audio system and while I feel I have learned a lot in the past 2-3 weeks of doing research I still have a few unanswered questions. Would anyone care to help me out by answering a few of them?

First, this is my setup that I have in mind. I might move around the amps and whatnot but this is the basic wiring idea I have in mind. (Yes I know I rule at paint)

1) Does everything seem to be in order?



2) Does Pre-amp wire and speaker level wire mean the same thing? I'm not sure if they are the same or if speaker wire after the amp is strictly "speaker level" wire.

3) Would I need to mess with the pins on the back on my head unit at all? That stuff intimidates me. Right now I'm just hoping to unhook the wires that are going to the stock front and rear speakers and extend them with regular speaker wire and run those to the amps. Then from the amps, run them back up to the door/trunk.

4) Do I need to have some big bad gold plated $100 each RCA cables to run the 3 inches from my LOC to my amps or will a cheap $10 RCA cable be comparable?

Setup=

Front : Infinity Reference 6810cs 6x8

Rear : Alpine SPR-69C

Subs : Blaupunkt ThW1000 x2 (10" shallow mount subs)

Amp 1 (Front and Rear speakers) : Boss Mr 250.4 1000w

Amp 2 (Subs) : Sony Xplod 1000w XM-2165GTX

LOC: AudioControl LC6

Capacitor: Massive Audio 2 Farad Cap

And I have the base non-bose system.

Thanks in advance.

 

i can't see your drawing very well.. paint colors don't save well as a JPG, but as for #2 - pre amp would be the term for the wires after the LOC and before the amp. but speaker level is the line after the HU (non bose) and before the LOC (that would normally go to the speakers, (ie speaker level)

no you don't need to mess with the wires on the back of the radio - although i do find it weird that you are up to setting up that complex of a system, but a couple of wires in a harness scares you..

and no you don't need the 300 dollar wires (in my opinion) but don't get the super el chepo's that have been sitting around in your attic that used to go on your VCR...

 

1)Your diagram is a mess. Colors or not, its just too small and cluttered for me to decipher it.
2)

Speaker level inputs (often called high level inputs) basically do the same job as a line output converter (LOC), just without all the adjustability. Regular ol' speaker leads into the amp.

RCA (often called low level inputs) are pretty obvious. The barrel shaped connection in the picture. Most any aftermarket headunit has this type of output and is the preferred connection. 8 owner's are not so lucky. We must use a LOC to get RCAs or just use the high level inputs. You only need one or the other. RCAs or speaker inputs. "Pre-Amp" could mean either IMO.

3) No. You don't even have to slide the headunit out. Everything you need you can steal right from the bose amp.

4)No. The single best improvement feature you can get with RCAs is twisted pair construction. This does a better job of resisting induced noises than all the gold plating in the world..... ok maybe not THAT much lol but you get the idea. The free RCAs that came with your DVD player are junk, but try them out. Its a short 3' run. If you dont have any noise problems with the El Cheapos, then great! If you do, spend $20 and get something a little nicer.

 

he doesn't have a bose system. he said he is going to steal the signal from the wires before they go into the speakers.

and most people that use speaker level inputs on an amp say it sounds like garbage, you can usually get better quality if you have a separate (and decent quality) LOC

 

Well yea no bose system but I did order an AudioControl LC6 LOC.

Sorry about the pic. The colors got saturated and distorted when I converted it to JPG.

Something I forgot to add though, on the amps there is [Ground, Power, Remote].

What is remote for? I remember reading somewhere that you have to have a wire going from you HU to your amp so the amp will know when to "turn on". Does "remote" have something to do with that?

 

They are one in the same. Its just a switched 12V signal. Most people on here just use any ol' ign. +12 signal. Tap into the rear aux power plug in the center console. Green wire if memory serves me right.