Hooking up my car stereo....

[OUAndy1807]

How hard is it to hook up some subs to an aftermarket stereo? I'm going to be driving the wife's old car, and I've got the box/speakers/amp from my old pathfinder that I'd like to hook up, but I'm too cheap to pay for it. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, and I have all the tools I would need. Is the job simple enough for me to figure it out without assistance?

[yermom]

if you know all that sewer line construction crap i'd think you could figure it out

you should just need power to the amp and the speaker inputs

i've done it before, but it's been a while

[slickdawg]

Well, do you know if the head unit has pre-amp outputs for the sub amplifier?

[oumartin]

ah, the good ole' days of hookin' up car stereos.

when did head units start coming out with pre-amp outputs? 1988 89?
I remember my first Kenwood was all high level outputs and that was in 88. but the following year I bought my first car cd player and it had the pre-amp.
Course I still miss not having an equalizer to control!

[slickdawg]

It was actually in 86 and 87. I sold and installed a gazillion of them, particularly Kenwood and Pioneer.

[OUAndy1807]

It's an eclipse head unit, so I'm guessing it has audio outs for the subs. I just got flustered when I started reading about seperate power supply to the amp.

I'll bet I can figure it out.

[OUAndy1807]

when I was in high school, those ridiculous eq's were popular. I might try to find one to hook up in this accord.

[oumartin]

so slickdawg, you remember when Jensen was some top line sheet?
back in like 79-80 they made some high end stuff. now they are like buying kraco.

[oumartin]

good luck finding an eq thats affordable and worth a damn!

[OUAndy1807]

I'll just get an old one. I don't care if it works, I just want it to sit there and look sweet.

[slickdawg]

so slickdawg, you remember when Jensen was some top line sheet?
back in like 79-80 they made some high end stuff. now they are like buying kraco.

God yes, Late 70's, early 80's, Jensen was IT ON A STICK. Jensen and
Crutchfield were everywhere. Funny, you're right, it's now the
Kraco equivalent, or worse!

"I got me some Jensen 6x9's" - a proud friend in 1982 or 83

[oumartin]

is there even a place for it to sit in your accord?
I used to have put my electronic crossover in the dash so I could tweak it.

[oumartin]

the jensen head units were like all metal and heavy as hell. but they were solid.
yep, my old camaro had jensen 6x9s in it when i bought it.
back then it was all about the sizzle!

I'm still old school that way. I take the midrange outta everything and have some high frequency hearing loss.

[slickdawg]

I did considerable self hearing damage in the 80's. But it was all about the
stereo. How can you be a teen working in a stereo shop and not have
the shizzle?

[oumartin]

kids nowadays aint gotta worry about hearing loss.
they just turn up the bass and back everything else out. Plus no music is clean anymore. it sounds like it was produced in the 60's.

[slickdawg]

It's all about the bass today, no doubt. They just gotta have their
boom boom boom.

[oumartin]

this is like going down memory lane.
draggin' the strip.
I always had my wife(gf) sittin' on the console in the denim mini with my fingers on the eq slides with the windows rolled down so all the other guys could hear your system.. oh, the good ole days.

[slickdawg]

Boy, you're dragging me down memory lane with you.

My first EQ/Amp was a Pioneer BP-780. 15 WATTS PER CHANNEL, FOUR CHANNELS! WOOF!!!

[oumartin]

15 watts is plenty to drive those tweets!
I bought some memphis dome tweeters for my last civic and they were 30watt tweeters but man they could sing.

[slickdawg]

I'm still amazed how many people think you have to have megawatts of
power to sound good.

The bigger problem remains underpowering speakers.

"Yeah, I got 300 watt 6x9's"

What choo got driving them?

"My factory stereo"

And you wonder why they burned up?

"But they are 300 watts"


I had that conversation many times over.

[oumartin]

isn't that called clipping?
i'm not that smart.

[oumartin]

http://i10.ebayimg.com/01/i/06/92/26/b9_1.JPG

[slickdawg]

Yes it is!

The underpowering of a speaker is referred to as clipping.

Classic scenario:

Factory radio with 300 watt 6x9's, dude turns it up loud, and the woofers
start cracking, or clipping. It's a distinct, nasty sound.

To get it truly louder, you have to double your power to gain 3DB.

Speaker efficiency is another important thing - the decibel rating
of the speaker with 1 watt of power. A speaker that provides
98DB of sound with 1 watt is rather efficient.

[oumartin]

now i'm gonna have to go have some stuff installed on the new civic.
THANKS ALOT :D

[OUAndy1807]

so I got the dash apart and it definitely has rca's out, sooooooo:
1) I have to get some speaker wire back to the trunk from these audio lines.
2) I have to hook up power to the amp, which means get the power from the battery back to the amp, routing it through the power antenna wiring so that it shuts off with the car, all the while keeping it away from the speaker wire to avoid interference and making sure to ground it at the point of installation.

[oumartin]

the key is running 18 gauge wire from the battery through your car to the amp in the trunk! :D

[Sooner_Bob]

The power antenna line? There should be a remote power line that you can patch into that is only powered when the car is cranked on.

I've installed many a stereo and this thread brought back tons of memories.

I had a Kenwood Cassette head unit with changer controls and thought I was in high cotton. Man, that seems just like yesterday but it has been almost 20 years.

[oumartin]

u haven't actually hooked up a car stereo until you catch your vehicle on fire.

[SoonerInKCMO]

ah, the good ole' days of hookin' up car stereos.

when did head units start coming out with pre-amp outputs? 1988 89?
I remember my first Kenwood was all high level outputs and that was in 88. but the following year I bought my first car cd player and it had the pre-amp.
Course I still miss not having an equalizer to control!

The flat-face 'Pines that Skeeter sold outta the back of his Delta 88 for $100 back in '86 had pre-amp outputs.

[slickdawg]

so I got the dash apart and it definitely has rca's out, sooooooo:
1) I have to get some speaker wire back to the trunk from these audio lines.
2) I have to hook up power to the amp, which means get the power from the battery back to the amp, routing it through the power antenna wiring so that it shuts off with the car, all the while keeping it away from the speaker wire to avoid interference and making sure to ground it at the point of installation.

A wire straight from the battery to the amp, 14 or 16 guage.
Run TWO wires and ground the am straight to the battery to help
eliminate ground loop noise.

You'll have to have RCA cables to go from the preamp outs to the AMP

and a wire from the power antenna wire back to the amp - this signals the
amp to turn on when the head unit is on.

[GottaHavePride]

Sadly I have the reverse situation. I needed to upgrade from a factory GM casette deck (1990 Caddy) to a CD player. Sad thing is the dash slot was 1.5 DIN. We did a lot of looking and wound up dropping in a nice big Alpine. Sadly, the car still has its factory speakers.

[oumartin]

14 or 16 gauge seems kinda small. you are the stereo guy though. I told him 18 gauge to be funny cuz I caught my ranger on fire for using to small of gauge and it melted into the carpet and wham.. a small fire.

[GottaHavePride]

I think I'm using 12 gauge on the speakers in my house. Probably overkill, but that's how I roll.

[oumartin]

how many of us stripped all the cables be it speaker or power cables with your teeth insteed of spending 5 dollars on the proper tool?

[slickdawg]

how many of us stripped all the cables be it speaker or power cables with your teeth insteed of spending 5 dollars on the proper tool?

I still do it today.

My dentist is really going to love me one day.

[OUAndy1807]

Sadly I have the reverse situation. I needed to upgrade from a factory GM casette deck (1990 Caddy) to a CD player. Sad thing is the dash slot was 1.5 DIN. We did a lot of looking and wound up dropping in a nice big Alpine. Sadly, the car still has its factory speakers.
don't you gain more by upgrading the head unit (more power) and using factory speakers than vice versa?

Also, if I get some badass 6x9's and 5.25's, will the eclipse 54400 that I have be enough to power them or should I hook up the smaller amp that I have to the 6x9's?

[oumartin]

depends on what the head unit is rated for. I for one would hook up a nice little amp to some sweet two-ways

[GottaHavePride]

don't you gain more by upgrading the head unit (more power) and using factory speakers than vice versa?

Also, if I get some badass 6x9's and 5.25's, will the eclipse 54400 that I have be enough to power them or should I hook up the smaller amp that I have to the 6x9's?

Beats the heck out of me. Probably the head unit makes a bigger difference, but I'd love some speakers with more punch and a clearer response. I just don't have the money. And honestly, at this point I'd rather wait until I land a job and just upgrade the whole car.