ohhsoo

does anyone know the gauge of the speaker wire tht comes stock on a 97 es300 premium sound? i have a kenwood Kenwood KAC-7005PS going to be wired to run at 2 ohms. (50w x 4ch+500w+1) so 50 watts per speaker and 500 to the sub. i was thinking about replacing it with a pioneer TS-SW841D http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...ount/TS-SW841D my friend installed one in an es like mine and he said it fit perfectly and sounded really good. now my question is can i run the amp to the stock speaker wires so i dont have to rewire all the speakers... i know its doable because ive seen it done but my question is

1) are the stock speaker wires good (thick) enough to run 50 watts @ 2 ohms safely?

2) is putting a 250 watt rms 500 peak rated sub safe to run on the 5th channel rated at 500 watts. or will it blow the sub? and if so does anyone have any recommendations on a sub tht will fit in the stock location and be able to handle the 500 watts generated?

Power6

Stock speaker wire seems about 16-18 ga. I can tell you now, most any guide you will find on aftermarket stereos will tell you that is not enough for 50W, but most of those guides are super conservative, I have driven 50w through stock speaker wire and it is just fine. BTW are you sure your door speakers are 2ohm? Stock and most aftermarket speakers are 4ohm.

The 500W through the stock sub wires is probably not a good idea, should run some large speaker wire there. Might try the stock sub until it blows! Any aftermarket sub you replace it with needs to work "free-air" There is a Kicker 2ohm that is specified for free-air use, most subs are made specifically for an enclosure.

ohhsoo

i have to check but i thought if i was splicing into the stock speaker wire behind the deck tht depending on how i decide to wire it if i can turn it into a 2ohm circuit.... so i was thinking run the speaker wire from the amp to the stock speaker wire behind the deck..i might have to use a line output converter i believe as well... the new kicker comp rt series 8 in sub looks like the route im going to go....im just debating on kicker ks, kicker rs, or the polk audio 6500i...ive heard the polks and they sound amazing for what im looking for..ive been a drummer for 9 yrs and i love all kinds of music..they dont have much bass but the mids and highs are amazing and i have the sub for bass...i want my car to sound like a studio basically lol so has anyone heard the kicker ks and rs series to give some input on them...reviews are always good for them but just curious because the rms on the ks is 75w which is good since my amp is only giving 40 or 50 watts depending on if i figure out how to make them 2 ohm.. the rs have a rms of 100 and i dont want them to sound crappy by under powering them. ive heard the polks amped at the store i work at with a 8 in sub and they sounded amazing...really crisp and clean but as far as i know kicker makes better products...sorry for the long post but im putting it all in soon and i can use as much help as possible...

Power6

The stock speakers seem to be 4ohm and any aftermarket component set you put in the doors will be 4ohm for sure. You can't change that, changing resistance requires wiring multiple speakers/voice coils up like subwoofers can be done that way, but for the other speakers it is 4ohm, but I wouldn't worry about that 40 watts of good clean power to the door speakers should be great even on speakers that are rated for much more.

There are many ways you can wire this up, you can bypass the stock amp, if you are going to add an amp and speakers, what I would do is get a harness for the deck (keeping stock deck?) You don't need a line out convertor this way as the deck signal out is pre-amp like aftermarket, the amp is behind the glove box. You could then wire the input to your amp, then wire the door speaker outputs over to the stock amp, cut the speaker wires there and tap in there for your door speakers. For the sub, you'll want to run new speaker wires to the trunk for the sub as the stock wires will not handle 500 watts.

Don't discount good mid-bass from your door speakers, the subwoofer does not reproduce all the drum sounds. If you are a drummer you may like that nice strong snare and kick sound, and a lot of that comes from strong mid-bass so choose your door speakers and set the sub x-over on the amp carefully!

I only have experience with the Kicker KS series my SRT-4 had them stock in the Kicker stereo option, they were pretty good and the amp in that deck was like 7 watts! But they say you need to listen to the speakers to know which ones you will like so try to do that if you can.

ohhsoo

i had no clue i had a stock amp..i thought since i dont have a cd changer that i didnt have one...does anyone know the power rating on it? im still debating between the kicker ks65.2 components and the polk dxi6500. ive heard the polks and they sound amazing but i dont want to make the decision without being completley sure im making the right choice. ive looked online and cant find any comparisons between the 2.....since i have a stock amp is there a way to place my new amp in the stock location or unplug it and run the wires tht were going into the stock amp to run into my aftermarket one ...i know it may sound dumb but it might save alot of time...

Power6

Yup they all have stock amps as far as i know, even if no CD changer it is the same. The amp (and rest of the system) is made by Pioneer. The amp is claimed to be 195 watts, I think 30x4 and 60x1 for the sub. We don't know if that is RMS or peak wattage, I am guessing peak though, the base Pioneer amp is very small.



The small size and the vertical mounting of the stock amp will make it hard for you to fit an aftermarket amp in there.



I did try a small Rockford PBR amp I have from a previous car on the system and it would fit where the stock one is with some creativity, it is a 50x4 amp very small. I haven't moved forward with it since the Nakamichi system has been fine for me.



Most amps aren't going to fit and cooling is not great back there, probably best under the passenger's seat.

You could use some of the wires from the stock amp, tap into the speaker wires for sure. You will need to run a dedicated power wire for your amp though. I also think you need the stock amp to remain because power to the deck flows through it in the 97-99 cars, 00-01 are wired a bit different.

ohhsoo

im thinking of leaving the stock amp in and running speaker wire and power wire from the trunk (where the new amp will be) to the stock amp and taping into the speaker wire where the stock amp is to prevent me from rewiring all the speakers....how would i do that though....where would i connect the wires from the new amp to for the speakers to receive the signal from the head unit on what to play but get the power from the new amp...i was thinking of changing out the head unit too but to do it all at once is prob too expensive if i do this will it effect it... if so whats the best way to do this?

Jazzer

Also, if it helps any, I've found that the stock amp also has a built-in crossover as well (2000 es). I'm not sure what the frequency of the crossover is, but it is sending only low frequencies to the stock sub, and rolling off the low frequencies to the door speakers. I wish you were able to change this frequency (I'm sure somebody on here has tried) since I feel it is too low. An example: I patched in my powered Bazooka sub (using the speaker level input) to the stock sub out speaker lines; I was not able to get the desired sound I had in another car with the same sub, mostly because the signal was already filtered to a range below 100Hz (I'm estimating). When I patched in the sub to one of the door speaker lines, I hardly had any low signal because those speakers are already sent the signal without the lower frequencies. The way I rigged it was to attach one line (the sub has two speaker lines in) to a door speaker output and one line to the sub output; it works a lot better as far as what the sub is receiving, but still not what I'd like (some funky phase issues, to be sure). Eventually I'll get an aftermarket HU and not have to deal with it anymore...

ohhsoo

so after doing more research i found out with our cars u get engine noise with the stock head unit...im guessing its going to be more difficult to keep the stock head instead of an aftermarket to get everything to work correctly? someone correct me if im wrong...so please i need these 2 questions answered...

1) is it easier/better to keep the stock head unit or change it out for an aftermarket one?

2) depending on the answer to the above question how do i go about doing so while wiring my kenwood 5 channel to the stock speaker wires by the stock amp to avoid running all new speaker wires since theyre only getting 40 watts...

the sub im familiar with and can handle its trying to integrate everything seamlessly and correctly tht seems to be trickier than i thought it wld have been

Power6

I would say if you are ever going to go aftermarket, do it now. The wiring will be different, so staying stock headunit now, and converting later is more work. Aftermarket headunit makes it easier to wire up.

ohhsoo

so will grounding the radio to the chasis stop engine noise