hooking up front speakers to amplifier

[dj mackee]

i searched about hooking up amplifiers on here and i've decided to hook up my front speakers to a 4 channel amp along with a sub (front speakers on channels 1 and 2 and sub bridged on 3 and 4). my question is how do i hook up the front speakers to the amp? im guessing i disconnect it from the factory speaker wire and run new wire to the amp. just wanted to see if what i plan to do is right.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

Im assuming you have an aftermarket deck?... if so you will need to make sure it has 2 preouts... then Run RCA's to your amp. One for the front speakers and the other for the sub. Then disconnect the factory speaker wire from the speakers/deck and run new speaker wire from the amp to the speakers.

[smufguy]

the way mine works is that it has balance (L or R) control but the fade (F or B) control is not usable. The reason is, the 4channel amp that i have uses the left and right from the RCA output from the headunit and uses only the REAR speaker wires. then the amp has the 8 outputs, 2 for each speaker and they are connected in the negative and positive leads to the speakers. I dont know why my front speakers are not hooked up and why the rear ones are, but again, the RCA is also connected.

MY guess is that the RCA is only active since the guy before me did have subs in his car. here is the pic to let you understand.

Click on the image to enlarge. This pic shows the end of the amp with the speaker oulets (on the left) and the power, headunit ON signal and ground (right).

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/390/10004384sh.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=10004384sh.jpg)

Click on the image to enlarge. This pic shows the end of the amp where the input signal comes in. This side has the input from the RCA just for the left and right, so my guess is that, thats why the balance works, but not the fade.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2268/10004377tc.th.jpg (http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=10004377tc.jpg)

[dj mackee]

damn my hu only has 1 preout. do i really need 2? because i am only using one amp

[smufguy]

damn my hu only has 1 preout. do i really need 2? because i am only using one amp

when they say 1 preout, its actually 2 RCA pins in a pair. So my Kenwood headunit has 1 preout, but two RCA outlets thus u can see the red and the black coming in to the amp.

[87DXHatch]

damn my hu only has 1 preout. do i really need 2? because i am only using one amp
It's going to depend on the capabilities of the amp, or whether or not you want to use some sort of external processing. Generally, if you're running a sub, you want to cut out the sub-bass frequencies (called using a High-pass crossover) from the speakers in the car, allowing them to play louder and cleaner. By the same accord, you want to cut out everything BUT the sub-bass (called using a low-pass crossover) from the sub.

Granted you don't HAVE to do this, but it generally makes for a little better sounding all around system, depending on the equipment you're using. Some amps have these crossovers built into them, allowing you to do what I described above. Others require you to use an external crossover which will do what I described as well, it's just another part. Any decent 4-channel amp will be able to power front speakers and then power subs or a sub at the same time.

smufguy, is that a Sherwood amp??? Yikes...

[smufguy]

yeah dave its a Sherwood amp. came with the car. the only good thing about the soundsystem that the car had, was the Boston Acoustics speakers and now my new Kenwood CD headunit. If bought new, this is an expensive Amp, but would i recommend it for people? nope, not at all. It was free with the car, so why dont i just use it? :D

[88accordalltheway]

get a new head that has two preouts. You dont want to split rcas because the volts in them are already low(probably around 2), and youd be cutting them in half. Dont half ass your car audio, just get a better head unit.

[87DXHatch]

get a new head that has two preouts. You dont want to split rcas because the volts in them are already low(probably around 2), and youd be cutting them in half. Dont half ass your car audio, just get a better head unit.
It totally depends on what amp he has. My 4-channel amp has selectors that can be set to provide all the signal from one or two sets of RCAs, depending on how many you have coming back to it.

Also, along the same lines, as long as you have an amp that has a sufficiently low noise floor, putting less voltage to it won't be a problem, because you can just turn up the gains to match it.

No need to spend extra money if it can be done properly with what he's got.

[smufguy]

get a new head that has two preouts. You dont want to split rcas because the volts in them are already low(probably around 2), and youd be cutting them in half. Dont half ass your car audio, just get a better head unit.

if you knew about electronics, you would remember that when you run something in parallel, the voltage remains the same. The voltage drops in half, if you have two things in series.