Radio Install DIY add-on
#47
Any decent player can handle the crappy oem speakers on the 2GS. I used the old speakers for a while on several Pioneer and Kenwood 2DINs...and it worked out ok. However when i replaced them with Polk Audio DB's...and wired them through an H/K amplifier...just WOW..what a difference thaat made!
Btw...Alpine headunits can handle 2ohm speakers just fine...i suspect something else is at fault...
Btw...Alpine headunits can handle 2ohm speakers just fine...i suspect something else is at fault...
#49
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But isn't 4 ohms running from an aftermarket headunit still a no-no? I thought minimum 6 ohms.
I have checked and checked my wiring over and over. I am usually really picky about how I wire my stuff. (I am also a PC tech who loves meticulously made wires)
#50
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alpine head units say that can rock 4 ohm but are only 6 ohm stable for extended play if my memory serves me correctly from years gone by
or might be your clipping something and the head unit's going into protect as a safety to keep from damaging the speaker
#54
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I have to stick my "two cents" in here... Let me clarify something, speakers blow due to LACK of power, from distortion, NOT from too much power. The more CLEAN power you have, the less chance that you have of blowing your speakers.
I'm not sure why anyone on here would spend so much time trying to come up with ways to utilize the factory amp anyway....simply by-pass it and use the built-in 'high power' from the head unit. If you really want to do it right, get a new amplifier, preferably one with built-in crossovers to block the bass from the factory interior speakers, and and block the mids/highs from the factory sub. If you want to take it to the next level, then replace all the factory interior speakers, and buy a separate subwoofer and if $ allows, get 2 amps, one for the interior speakers and a separate one for the subs. If you are on a tight budget, get a nice 4 channel amp, bridge half the amp to a sub (4 ohm sub, with a low-pass filter on the amp) and the other half can run all the factory interior speakers with the high-pass filter in 2 ohm stereo. Don't worry about 'blowing' the factory speakers, with a nice amp and a high pass crossover on, you won't blow them, and you'll be surprized at how good they will sound (provided of course that there was nothing wrong with them to begin with.)
I'm not sure why anyone on here would spend so much time trying to come up with ways to utilize the factory amp anyway....simply by-pass it and use the built-in 'high power' from the head unit. If you really want to do it right, get a new amplifier, preferably one with built-in crossovers to block the bass from the factory interior speakers, and and block the mids/highs from the factory sub. If you want to take it to the next level, then replace all the factory interior speakers, and buy a separate subwoofer and if $ allows, get 2 amps, one for the interior speakers and a separate one for the subs. If you are on a tight budget, get a nice 4 channel amp, bridge half the amp to a sub (4 ohm sub, with a low-pass filter on the amp) and the other half can run all the factory interior speakers with the high-pass filter in 2 ohm stereo. Don't worry about 'blowing' the factory speakers, with a nice amp and a high pass crossover on, you won't blow them, and you'll be surprized at how good they will sound (provided of course that there was nothing wrong with them to begin with.)
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#55
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i made a harness today for my girlfriends es300. she has a 2000 lexus es300 and i went to the stereo shop and the guy printed me off the wiring diagram for all the speaker outputs. i wired all them properyly and spliced off the plug from the factory amp. the only wires that were left was the very top plug which i believe is the inputs to the amp? and on one plug there was a thick blue wire and a gray wire and a brown wire (assuming battery positive accesory and ground. i left them alone after i saw where he got power from the little gray wire behind the deck. so i cut the little blue with the yellow stripe wire and the little gray wire behind the plug for the factory head unit and i wired the yellow wire out of the kenwood to the blue one with the yellow stripe and the red accessory wire off the kenwood to the gray one. The cd player would eat and eject cds but wouldnt show the display. and i know for a fact that the cd player works because the whole reason i made this harness to bypass the amp just how you guys have done is because the bs metra harness that plugs into the outputs on the back off the aftermarket deck suck, and they have a horrible ground loop, BUT it did power the cd player just had a horrible whine in the speakers. SO, what are my options here should i just connect the little blue wire with the yellow stripe and they grey wire back to each other on the factory connector on the head unit and just use the metra plug to power the deck and leave my spekers hard wired bypassed? was i supposed to grab the brown grey and blue with yellow stripe from the plug that plugs into the amp to power the deck? what have i done wrong here? and what would be my most simple option to get this thing powered up and playing some music because i have been workin on it for three days and i like to think i half way know what the hell im doin so, im very frustrated its 153 am here in good old ohio and just finished yet another night of work and no music reward at the end. so someone, please please help me. before my gf loses her mind listenin to pandora on her phone in the car just out of the phone speakers...
#57
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This may sound like a dumb question because I have no clue about sound wiring, but if my head unit comes with a preout for subwoofer level control can I wire that straight to the stock subwoofer wiring? Because OP was running the stock subwoofer by tapping into the right rear speaker wiring and connecting it to that....or at least I believe so. Perhaps his head unit did not come with the preout. Thanks for any insight!
#58
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This may sound like a dumb question because I have no clue about sound wiring, but if my head unit comes with a preout for subwoofer level control can I wire that straight to the stock subwoofer wiring? Because OP was running the stock subwoofer by tapping into the right rear speaker wiring and connecting it to that....or at least I believe so. Perhaps his head unit did not come with the preout. Thanks for any insight!
#59
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Ok so after looking into things, the preout on the head unit is an RCA connection and based on the wiring diagram in the manual it has it running into an amplifier for the subwoofer. So I'm thinking that if I splice the RCA line into the stock wires its not going to do anything because the signal is not going to be amplified. Am I correct in thinking this? I wonder if I could somehow utilize the stock amplifier just for the stock subwoofer. Anyone tried this?
If not, maybe I can buy a cheap small amplifier to run the subwoofer. Not sure if its worth it, but worth trying?
Something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882722015
If not, maybe I can buy a cheap small amplifier to run the subwoofer. Not sure if its worth it, but worth trying?
Something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882722015
Last edited by aklanjac28; 12-28-11 at 05:07 PM.
#60
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