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New member Username: Rangerowner27Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2004 | Hey, I was hoping someone might be able to explain to me or give me a link to a sight where i could get very good instructions on installing an amplifier. Im on a tight budget. I have a Legacy 600 watt amp and am going to put two 300 watt subs on it. I am totally clueless on wiring the amp. I dont know a whole lot about cars either which isnt a help. Please help me, it would be grealy appriticated. |
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Unregistered guest | Installing an amp actually pretty easy. First you find a spot where you want the amp and buy an amp install kit which comes with all the necessary wiring(in your case the kit should buy a kit that handles 800watts). Then you disconnect the - wire from the battery. Take the power wire from the kit and attach it to the appropriate terminal on the amp which should be labeled and then take the power amp that you just connected to the amp and attach it to the positive terminal on the batter. the power wire should have a fuse attached to it and the fuse should be within 18 inches of the battery. Also the fuse should be in the engine bay just in case of a fire. Then take a ground wire which should be as big as the power wire in AWG and attach it to a metal screw to the body. For example if there is a bolt nearby to where you will install your amp then loosen the bolt and attach the ground wire to that. The ground wire should go in the GND terminal of the amp and the wire should be 3 feet or less. Finally take the remote wire from the head unit and attach that to the appropriate terminal on the amp. Then your amp is ready for speakers to be attached to it. All you do for that is take speaker wire and connect it to the terminals in the speaker box. Make sure all your connections match with eachother don't mix the (-) with the (+) or you will get phasing issues and bass will not bump.IF you have any questions email me at spdandpwr@yahoo.com or spdandpwr on aim if you want. |
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Unregistered guest | oh i forgot also connect the rca cables from the output on the back of the head unit and connect them to the input on the amp |
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New member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 553 Registered: 12-2003 | 4AWG amp wiring kit $30 www.knukonceptz.com that'll help |
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New member Username: Ukw10Post Number: 39 Registered: 12-2003 | Why does people get Legacy or Pyramid Amps?? They Sucks. DO GET ONE PEOPLE |
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i hate Ukw10 Unregistered guest | they sucks. why does people? learn to read Ukw10. |
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Unregistered guest | Legacy and Pyramid are the worst amps you can buy. If you dont have much money go for power acoustik or boss or Audiobahn but u will spend a lil more money on that |
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New member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 724 Registered: 12-2003 | we hates them, my precious! we hates them! |
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Unregistered guest | hey glass wolf i need to know if a 8oow amp will push 2 500w 12's good and what;s a good brand to buy at a decent price |
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New member Username: Its_bacon12Post Number: 49 Registered: 12-2003 | rofl glasswolf!! lol ok johnson, what kind of 800w amp is it? is the 800w max power or RMS? what impedancle level is it rated at? how many volts input is it rated at? what are the impedance levels of your subs? how many voice coils on each sub? is the 500w max or RMS power on your subs? as you can see, theres alot of factors in determining the kind of amplifier best suited to your needs, find these things out for me or GW and one of us can tell you a good amp to go with them |
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New member Username: Its_bacon12Post Number: 50 Registered: 12-2003 | sorry last post was off topic, johnson, start a new thread somewhere else |
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New member Username: Zen936Post Number: 27 Registered: 01-2004 | Dont forget to ground the wires. All the technical details are there, but there are a number of common practices when it comes to installing amps. Worse case scenario would be that you'd end up blowing the amp, and the car too. Hahaha. |
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New member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 836 Registered: 12-2003 | yes 800W is good.. 400W per sub look at Kicker or MTX. |
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Unregistered guest | glass wolf can u tell me the proper guage of power cable to run with a 1600w amp |
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Silver Member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 993 Registered: 12-2003 | 1600wRMS? 1/0ga. |
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Unregistered guest | hey glass what does 1/o mean i'm new at this |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 1001 Registered: 12-2003 | http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp http://www.the12volt.com/wiring/awg.asp 1/0 AWG is rated for up to 360A of electrical current. sizes, in ascending order for power cable are 8, 4, 2, 1/0 and 0 gauges The stuff is big, but required for anything over 150A or there abouts. 2AWG isn't very common. Usually people go from 4 to 1/0. |
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Anonymous | i have a ford radio head unit and i don't know where an RCA output is so that i can wire my amp. please help! |
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mikewhite Unregistered guest | i am wanting to install my kicker amp, but i have a factory ford head unit and i'm not even seeing any RCA outputs, please help! |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 1015 Registered: 12-2003 | factory head units don't have RCA outputs. the best solution is to get rid of the ford unit and get an aftermarket radio for the car. (ok, that's the second best solution.. after just getting rid of the ford all together. =P) |
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submaster48 Unregistered guest | i just bought a little 240 watt pyramid amp and when i installed it it wont even turn on iv tryed every thing what should i do im never buying crap like this again |
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submaster48 Unregistered guest | o you can got to circut city and by a converter you just splice it into the 4 wires on your factory unit. the speaker wires on the head unit should have 1 light blue and one dark blue |
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mo Unregistered guest | I just bought two 300w adiobahn dual coil subs and i am hooking them up to a 800w amp. How do i wire the subs for the amp? |
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david boker Unregistered guest | wire the voice coils in either series or parallel, and then hook them to the amp! |
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David Blackburn Unregistered guest | I think i have wired my amp and sub up correctly, i have followed all the instructions, the amp is getting power from the battery, but the sub is not working, i know that there is nothing wrong with the sub itself, but when i switch radio/cd on nothing is happening. Any ideas what the problem is? Any help muchly appreciated! |
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Silver Member Username: HydroPost Number: 132 Registered: 12-2003 | Always Check and make sure the Ground wire from your amp is the same gauge as the power wire going into your amp and make sure Ground wire is Securely bolted to a Screw on the Chassis of your car(Sand down paint if you have to). |
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Anonymous | glass wolf- I have a bridgeble 4 channel amp that puts out 4x70w rms @ 4 ohms or 4x110w rms @ 2 ohms and the amp is only 2 ohm Stereo stable. I'm running two 12in. 4 ohm subs to the amp. what do you think is the best way to wire the subs to the amp to get the best sound? |
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Gold Member Username: GlasswolfPost Number: 1351 Registered: 12-2003 | ideally? get a sub amp for the twelves. otherwise bridge the amp so it's 2 channels, and put one 4 Ohm sub on each bridged channel. that should give 220Wrms to each sub |
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David Blackburn Unregistered guest | thanks for the advice Hydro, the ground wire is the same gauge as the power wire, but i think the problem is with the radio head unit. I tried to plug a normal speaker into the audio out port on the unit and there was nothing, the radio does not seem to be sending any signal to the amp at all. |
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Silver Member Username: HydroPost Number: 137 Registered: 12-2003 | Is your Head Unit under Warranty if so I would take it back if you have power going to your head unit and your speakers are hooked to them and your getting no sound somethings wrong with the head unit. |
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Zman Unregistered guest | I need some advice. I installed an MTX 500W amp but Ican't get it to drive the subs. The first issue is that I hooked up a speaker to the RCA's from the head unit and I get nothing. So I'massuming that there is a problem with it. But, just to test the amp I disconnected the wires from one of the rear speakers which I knew had a signal and hooked it up to the amp and I still didn't get anything coming out of the subs. Is there some way that I can test the amp and head unit to see what's going on? Everything is hooked up exactly as described above. Can anyone offer some advice? |
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Bronze Member Username: TbonePost Number: 64 Registered: 02-2004 | If the rear speakers are working off the headunit, the HU sounds good. Hooking the speaker up to the RCA does nothing, the level of signal carried by the RCA is to low to drive the speaker. Look at your amp, does it have a light or led that comes on when it is powered up? Did you correctly run a remote turn on wire from the HU to the amp, it should be blue on both of them? |
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Anonymous | TBone, Thanks for the response. I wasn't sure about the signal strength off the RCA so that answers that question. Yes, the amp does have a light and it does come on when powered up. I did run the remote blue wire from the HU to the amp. That seems to beworking fine. The amp powers up when the HU is turned on. We have a capacitor but I am bypassing it just to see if I can get anything to work. Well, I say bypassing it but actually I have the power cable from the battery connected to the positive terminal on the cap just so I don't have that cable touching bare metal in the car. I touch a cable from the amp to that terminal to get power. That's when the light comes on. I assumed, and maybe incorrectly, that since I did not have the - terminal of the cap connected to anything that it would have no effect. Since the signal coming through the RCA's is so low, is it not a good idea to hook up the regular rear speaker output to the amp? Also, does the amp require both L & R signal inputs to work? I was only trying one side. Any other thoughts? |
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Bronze Member Username: TboneOK United States Post Number: 78 Registered: Feb-04 | Always use the low level outputs (RCA) instead of the speakers level outputs. The low level outputs are at a lower level for a reason, that way they will be less likely to pick up interference along the way, and are sheilded a lot better. So no, use the RCA's. As for the L & R signal inputs, yes they usually do. I would thy this on the amplifier. Take the positive cable running from the amp and connect it to the positive cable on the amplifier, next ground the amplifier. This will totally bypass the cap. Hook the RCA's up from the rear RCA outputs from the HU. Power it up this way, and see if the light comes on. If it comes on adjust the gain level until you hear sound. If you hear sound, your problem is with how you either wired the cap, or charged the cap. If the amp lights up, and you cannot hear sound when raising the gain levels, you mights have the speakers not hooked up correctly, or the outputs on your amp might be fried. Let me know when you get the system rewired. |
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Unregistered guest | HELP!!!!!!!!! I have a pioneer HU with only 2 rca on the back and my amp has 4 rca what do i do. And Do i hook the terminal that says REM to the head unit? and instead of running a wire all the way to mt batterie can i just use the power that goes to the HU? PLZ EMAIL ME @ G_J_GOLG@COX.NET |
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Bronze Member Username: TboneOK United States Post Number: 88 Registered: Feb-04 | use "Y" cables to turn 2 RCA's to four. The remote wire on the amp connects to the remote wire on the headunit. Do not hook the amp power wire to the headunit power wire! instead run a 4 gauge power cable from the battery, with and inline fuse installed, and ground the amp to the chassis of the vehicle. |
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Catdaddy Unregistered guest | I have 3 600Watt kicker 12's and two 700 wattRMS amps. I want to know how if possible can i wire the subs to the amps to get an even power distribution |
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Anonymous | TBone - I rewired everything as you said above. No cap, RCA's hooked up etc. The light on the amp comes on but nothing comes out of the subs. I'm guessing that there is a problem with the amp right? Do you know of any place that I can take it to see what's wrong and/or fix it? |
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Silver Member Username: TboneOK United States Post Number: 108 Registered: Feb-04 | yeah, sounds like the outputs on the amp are fried. Check the phone directory, usually under audio/video repair you can find someone to replace the outputs at a reasonable price. |
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Unregistered guest | i am looking to buy some subs for my car, and i plan on purchasing 3 MTX 6000 10's, i was wondering if the MTX Thunder6304 Amplifier which is a 4 chanell 650 watts. is this gonna be enought to power three 10's |
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Unregistered guest | ok heres the simple way to hook up a amp. you take your 12V wire and hook it up to the positive battery terminal.Dont forget to put in a fuse, you can go to the auto part store and get one for under 5 bucks that you can just splice into and hook it up to the wire. Take the REM(remote) cable and hook it up to the 12V terminal also. Then take the Ground and hook it up to negative terminal. Also you need to hook up a switch to the REM or the 12V wire so you dont run down the battery! |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 16 Registered: Mar-04 | A 4ch amp can only be bridged into 2ch's. You would need to go with 2 speakers but the amp is way too weak for what you want. You need either a powerful 2ch amp or a mono amp. |
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seanryanmarcisin Unregistered guest | i have wired my amp correctly i believe but my subs are not making any sound . . . i have the 12v directly to the positive on the battery...i have the remote wire connected to the auto-antenna wire on myhead unit i have the amp grounded to a clean bolt and i have the rca wires connected but still no sound ?? what have i done wrong and what is this im reading on fuse on the power wire ? because i had to unhook the amp yesterday because it never turned off and caused my battery to die. |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 31 Registered: Mar-04 | First off use the blue remote wire from your head unit. If you use the antenna wire I think it would only turn on when the radio is on. Make sure your cable running to the battery has a fuse near the battery. Your fuse should be rated as the same as your amp unless you get more than one amp. If your amp never turned off then that could have been caused by the antenna wire. |
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seanryanmarcisin Unregistered guest | okay what should i do 2 make it turn off i could hook it to the accesory wire from my head unit would that b a good idea ? and then would that give me the sound i am lacking from my subs |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 34 Registered: Mar-04 | If you use the blue remote wire from your head unit it will turn on and off with the head unit. If you don't have a blue remote wire then you may have to buy a new head unit. I don't know if you are talking about a factory stereo on an aftermarket stereo. I don't know about any factory stereos that don't have remote wires but it could be a different color. You might have to give the harness a really good inspection. If it's an aftermarket stereo then it has to be there somewhere. |
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seanryanmarcisin Unregistered guest | yeah i found that now im just not getting any sound to my subwoofers . . everything is connected the way it should b wat could my problem be ? |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 37 Registered: Mar-04 | Does the light on the amp come on? If not then there must be something loose inside the amp on the other side of the connectors or the amp is bad. I've had a few where the light would come on but the output of the amp was too fried to put out any power. The amps weren't worth fixing anyways. The only other possible problem is maybe the gain is turned all the way down. If that's not it and the amp is fairly new I would take it to a car audio shop and see what they can find. |
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LiLnAstyOne420 Unregistered guest | i know nothing about amps, so this is a really easy question for you guys, my system control wire coming out of the amp looks like it got ripped in half-the amp is recieving no power and the speakers it should power(rears) dont work either...is the wire supposed to run to the back of the head unit? like i said this ones easy but any help would be appreciated |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 39 Registered: Mar-04 | Your right, that is an easy question. And yes that system control (remote) wire needs to be connected to the back of the head unit. This wire tells the amp to turn on when the head unit turns on. This way the amp isn't always on and draining your battery. |
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seanryanmarcisin Unregistered guest | okay i will check my gains and the light comes on but it stays on all the time when i connect the amp to the battery and its draining my battery |
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Bronze Member Username: ThespotlightAmarillo, TX USA Post Number: 40 Registered: Mar-04 | If the light stays on when the (+) input on the amp is hooked to the battery and the (REM) input on the amp is hooked up to the head unit then there can only be 3 possible problems. 1. The (REM) wire is getting power from the power wire because they are ran together. And this could also keep sound from coming out of the speakers if the RCA cables are also ran with them. 2. The wire going into the (REM) input on the amp isn't hooked up to the right wire from the head unit. 3. If the amp isn't fairly new then it has probably been overdriven. The amp can probably be fixed but if it isn't a high-end brand I would just replace it. Make sure that your power wire is ran along one side of the vehicle and your RCA/REM wires are ran on the other side of the vehicle. Do what you can but if you still can't figure it out take it to a car audio shop where they might check it out for free. |
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Unregistered guest | I was wondering if anyone new how to install a kenwood amp to a 2001 ford focus radio i have all the parts i just don't know where they go Thanks |
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Anonymous | I have a problem with background noise when i turn on my dome lights and also when i switch a track. I have the rcas and remote wire separate from the power cable. What could be the problem? |
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Anonymous | Does anyone know if you will lose the HU's power if you install an amp? I have a HU putting out 22wRMS x 4 and I'm planning on installing an amp with 30wRMS x 4. I'm just wondering if it's even worth the trouble if the HU and the amp do not work together. |
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Unregistered guest | im out of money and dont have a box for my two 12 inch mtx subs and mtx 820 watt amp that i just purchased. I was told to build my own. i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on building your own box. Should it have ports and stuff i have no clue so if you know anythning about building your own box please help me. |
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Mr. Obvious Unregistered guest | If you have a NEW question start your own thread. I'm sick of all the noobs thinking that the title is inviting them to ask their questions. This is just my $.02 and if you really want your questions answered, start your own thread. |
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Unregistered guest | mr obvious i dont understand whats stuck up your a$$ i thought that this was so you could get help on amps and stuff. |
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Mr. Obvious Unregistered guest | This whole FORUM is for that purpose. Not just this single thread. Start your own thread and you will never hear from me again. All I see is question after question but very few answers in this thread. The questions at the top of most threads are usually answered quickly so if you have a NEW question give it a NEW thread so that it will be more likely to be answered. I just want this thread to die so I'll no longer get emails that somebody has made ANOTHER respense on this thread. |
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tno4life Unregistered guest | i have installed a 600w profile mono amp with 2 300w subs, all wires are run corretly but there is no power going to the amp... i'm a little lost, help if you can?! |
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BlackHaven Unregistered guest | ok, i got a problem i have a Cuspid amp(cheap) and a Kicker 1x402 and a coustic crossover and i have everything mounted on a sub box and i get a really bad alternator whine or what ever the noise is when the motor is running but when i was just running the Cuspid by it self i didnt have a problem i got the problem when i connected the kicker and the crossover but the noise is coming from the cuspid amp through my 6x9's and when i hook up the rca's for the kicker amp (coming from the crossover) which pushes my sub's the subs just start hitting as hard as possible but when i hook the subs up directly i have no problem and im pretty sure it the Cuspid amp which is making them hit out of control because i tested the crossover and it's not it and i was wondering if andbody could help me with this problem espicially the noise from that get higher when i rev the engine and why do my subs hit out of control because i would hate to tare up my equipment(besides the cheap Cuspid) |
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Unregistered guest | will the amp work if you connect the rem. wire directly to the negative on the battery? |
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Mr. Obvious Unregistered guest | I guess nobody reads the last posts. |
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New member Username: GoatzPost Number: 2 Registered: Apr-04 | to match subs and amp do u just look at the rms power of the amp to match the number X ohms of the subs? and should my wiring be based on peak wattage or rms of amp? |
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Unregistered guest | I have 2 Sony Explode subs and a Legecy 2400w amp, is that a good match. What kind of installation kit do I need? Thanks. |
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Unregistered guest | I have a 700 watt amplifire and i am trying to make it push two fosgate punch xlc speakers but my problem is that when i put the valume up it i have to put it to 35 and my radio only goes up to 40 i have seen radio with amps only have to be raisd up to 20 and already start to bump and mine doesnt sound alright only at 35 but not really hard it dont even sound like i have a 700 watt amp? what could it be? |
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DRE Unregistered guest | cisco u need to make sure that your speaker wire is the right guage. iw ould recommend a 12guage for that connection. also check and see if your gain it properly set. gain isnt the volume of the amp. its like to incresae the voltage to make the amp push harder. |