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Amp Wiring

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Hi All

Thinking of putting an amp in the cabby, I have the remote wire, power cable, earth and RCA wired. However as I am looking to wire the front speakers too, how do I go about doing this?

Shall i remove the Front left and Front Right speaker wire into the ISO and connect this to the wires runnings from the Amp? Rather than going from the door cards which I am unsure how to get into…..

Also what terminals would I require if the former gets the thumbs up?

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Amp Wiring

When adding an amp to your setup I assume this is for driving the front speakers with the amp rather than with your radio. Obviously this will give you better soundquality and ability to play louder so its a reasonable thing to do.
The only speakers you mention is the front ones, and if you want to play these from the amp rather than the radio simply cut or unplug the speaker cables from the iso behind the radio and feed those to the speaker outputs from the amp instead. Isolate wires if cut. This will work and most people go from here and happy days.

If it was me however I would a: buy proper speakers that are possible to hide away in the doorcard eg a combo set. And b: run new proper speaker wire from your amp to the speakers and not bother with the original wires. Its a bit more work but when adding additional boom you have to upgrade your cables as well. This goes for rca which should be tripple isolated, power cable with fuse and earth cable which should always be of greater dimension than the power cable and as short as possible with proper ground point. Adding a capacitor will make power to the amp more stable and give better overall soundquality and performance.
Regarding connection from speaker cable to speaker I would recommend soldering them on for the best connection.

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Moped911 said

When adding an amp to your setup I assume this is for driving the front speakers with the amp rather than with your radio. Obviously this will give you better soundquality and ability to play louder so its a reasonable thing to do.
The only speakers you mention is the front ones, and if you want to play these from the amp rather than the radio simply cut or unplug the speaker cables from the iso behind the radio and feed those to the speaker outputs from the amp instead. Isolate wires if cut. This will work and most people go from here and happy days.

If it was me however I would a: buy proper speakers that are possible to hide away in the doorcard eg a combo set. And b: run new proper speaker wire from your amp to the speakers and not bother with the original wires. Its a bit more work but when adding additional boom you have to upgrade your cables as well. This goes for rca which should be tripple isolated, power cable with fuse and earth cable which should always be of greater dimension than the power cable and as short as possible with proper ground point. Adding a capacitor will make power to the amp more stable and give better overall soundquality and performance.
Regarding connection from speaker cable to speaker I would recommend soldering them on for the best connection.


Hey, Thank You for the reply. So sorry for the late reply.

What wires would I need to run it from the amp to the speakers? And how can I access the the speakers???? (Poke the wire through???)

Also does this mean I should have a wire from the amp directly to the speakers????

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Amp Wiring

Your car radio is a radio and amp at the same time, it gets a sound signal from the tuner or aux input for example and this signal is then amplified by the car radio’s built-in amplifier and sent to the speakers via the speaker wires.
When adding an amplifier, we’re bypassing the car radio’s built-in amp because we want to play the speakers with the external amp because it is more powerfull and therefore can deliver more power to the speakers.
What you have to do in order to make this work, is transfer the sound signal from the car radio to the external amp and then from the external amp to the speakers. From the radio to the amp you’ll need an rca cable and from the amp to the speakers you’ll need to run new speaker wires.
Please dont poke holes in your car remove the speakers by unscrewing the screws holding them in place and remove the standard speaker wire and mount your new wires instead.
I believe theres good guides available regarding this subject or you could get a local shop install the amp for you. Theres still things to consider such as routing the new cables and what cables not to bring to close to each other etc..

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Amp Wiring

optimusdub said

Moped911 said

When adding an amp to your setup I assume this is for driving the front speakers with the amp rather than with your radio. Obviously this will give you better soundquality and ability to play louder so its a reasonable thing to do.
The only speakers you mention is the front ones, and if you want to play these from the amp rather than the radio simply cut or unplug the speaker cables from the iso behind the radio and feed those to the speaker outputs from the amp instead. Isolate wires if cut. This will work and most people go from here and happy days.

If it was me however I would a: buy proper speakers that are possible to hide away in the doorcard eg a combo set. And b: run new proper speaker wire from your amp to the speakers and not bother with the original wires. Its a bit more work but when adding additional boom you have to upgrade your cables as well. This goes for rca which should be tripple isolated, power cable with fuse and earth cable which should always be of greater dimension than the power cable and as short as possible with proper ground point. Adding a capacitor will make power to the amp more stable and give better overall soundquality and performance.
Regarding connection from speaker cable to speaker I would recommend soldering them on for the best connection.


Hey, Thank You for the reply. So sorry for the late reply.

What wires would I need to run it from the amp to the speakers? And how can I access the the speakers???? (Poke the wire through???)

Also does this mean I should have a wire from the amp directly to the speakers????


Your car radio is a radio and amp at the same time, it gets a sound signal from the tuner or aux input for example and this signal is then amplified by the car radio’s built-in amplifier and sent to the speakers via the speaker wires.
When adding an amplifier, we’re bypassing the car radio’s built-in amp because we want to play the speakers with the external amp because it is more powerfull and therefore can deliver more power to the speakers.
What you have to do in order to make this work, is transfer the sound signal from the car radio to the external amp and then from the external amp to the speakers. From the radio to the amp you’ll need an rca cable and from the amp to the speakers you’ll need to run new speaker wires.
dont poke holes in your car remove the speakers by unscrewing the screws holding them in place and remove the standard speaker wire and mount your new wires instead.
I believe theres good guides available regarding this subject or you could get a local shop install the amp for you. Theres still things to consider such as routing the new cables and what cables not to bring to close to each other etc..

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Moped911 said

optimusdub said

Moped911 said

When adding an amp to your setup I assume this is for driving the front speakers with the amp rather than with your radio. Obviously this will give you better soundquality and ability to play louder so its a reasonable thing to do.
The only speakers you mention is the front ones, and if you want to play these from the amp rather than the radio simply cut or unplug the speaker cables from the iso behind the radio and feed those to the speaker outputs from the amp instead. Isolate wires if cut. This will work and most people go from here and happy days.

If it was me however I would a: buy proper speakers that are possible to hide away in the doorcard eg a combo set. And b: run new proper speaker wire from your amp to the speakers and not bother with the original wires. Its a bit more work but when adding additional boom you have to upgrade your cables as well. This goes for rca which should be tripple isolated, power cable with fuse and earth cable which should always be of greater dimension than the power cable and as short as possible with proper ground point. Adding a capacitor will make power to the amp more stable and give better overall soundquality and performance.
Regarding connection from speaker cable to speaker I would recommend soldering them on for the best connection.


Hey, Thank You for the reply. So sorry for the late reply.

What wires would I need to run it from the amp to the speakers? And how can I access the the speakers???? (Poke the wire through???)

Also does this mean I should have a wire from the amp directly to the speakers????


Your car radio is a radio and amp at the same time, it gets a sound signal from the tuner or aux input for example and this signal is then amplified by the car radio’s built-in amplifier and sent to the speakers via the speaker wires.
When adding an amplifier, we’re bypassing the car radio’s built-in amp because we want to play the speakers with the external amp because it is more powerfull and therefore can deliver more power to the speakers.
What you have to do in order to make this work, is transfer the sound signal from the car radio to the external amp and then from the external amp to the speakers. From the radio to the amp you’ll need an rca cable and from the amp to the speakers you’ll need to run new speaker wires.
dont poke holes in your car remove the speakers by unscrewing the screws holding them in place and remove the standard speaker wire and mount your new wires instead.
I believe theres good guides available regarding this subject or you could get a local shop install the amp for you. Theres still things to consider such as routing the new cables and what cables not to bring to close to each other etc..

Hey Thank you for the very detailed reply. Was very helpful.

I guess I have the question of, how can I access the door grommets to pull wire through them? I would like to run new wires from the amp.

Also, on the actual amp where you "screw in the wires" I don't have the screws. Could I Buy a set?

Finally do you know what wires and how many to run from the amp to the front speakers? What gauge etc

Many thanks

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5a57861277c5e.jpg

So 2 wires connected to the "left" that go to the front left speaker? Same with the right?…

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Well normally I would say you are correct, but my issue is that the AMP shows that the left positive is bridged to the right negative and that to me means a short.

So you only have 2 speakers?  Left and Right fronts?

And do you have a owners manual for the Kenwood? as there should be a how to wire the speakers up….in it.

If you don't have the owners manual then google the kenwood model for owners manual and remove all doubt.

But then again when I upgraded my Radio in my Cabriolet to Blue-Tooth, my head/receiver unit put out about 80 watts…. so I really didn't need an amp to listen to tunes at 90MPH topless.

What do Divorces, Great Coffee, and Car Electrics all have in common?

They all start with GOOD Grounds.

Where are my DIY Links?

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Briano1234 said

Well normally I would say you are correct, but my issue is that the AMP shows that the left positive is bridged to the right negative and that to me means a short.

So you only have 2 speakers?  Left and Right fronts?

And do you have a owners manual for the Kenwood? as there should be a how to wire the speakers up….in it.

If you don't have the owners manual then google the kenwood model for owners manual and remove all doubt.

But then again when I upgraded my Radio in my Cabriolet to Blue-Tooth, my head/receiver unit put out about 80 watts…. so I really didn't need an amp to listen to tunes at 90MPH topless.

I have four speakers in total. But I'd rather just wire the front two ideally.


I'll have a look for the manual. I'm sure I did come across it but was slightly confused.

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Screenshot_20200115-125724.jpg

Apologies for resurrecting this as I have some time to finally solve this.

According to the manual I could connect to two wires to the front speak and connect this to the +- on the right. Similliary with the left.

However if I chose to bridge, does that mean two wires go to the right, and I do a daisy chain from this to the left?

 

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page 7 The Speakers IDEALLY need to have a separate left and right channel, that is the left has a + / - side and the Right side as well as shown in the top diagram.

The bottom of page 7 shows a Bridged unit that has a single speaker that is tied either to the Right Positive, and Left negative, or the Left Positive to the Right Negative.

Conversely the speaker grounds are usually isolated from chassis (frame) ground that is the Frame of the car and using the ground that the internal circuits of the Radio or Sub is using, to isolate it from the possible motor boat or Hiss of a differential frame to radio and spurious EMF forces such as HV/Resistor charging and sparking…that can increase or decrease with the RPM of the engine. In the days long ago before discrete circuitry, this was usually accomplished with the additions of Bonding wires, and Filters that you could either additionally install or add to the base Frame to engine Grounds, that along with Resistor Plugs and such…. So the output wires of the speakers are left/right pos and left/right negative as the left neg/pos and right pos/neg are off the final output drivers separate channels so you have a left side and a right side that are separate and different electrically from each other, so you have separate positives and negatives at that point that are highly filtered to prevent signal degradation (truer crisp sound) in relation to each other….

In the days of yesteryear when I was installing Quadraphonic Systems (now most head units are (quadraphonic)) a good test was to run Pink Floyd "Money", and hear the sound go around the speakers……  left front to left rear to right rear to right front..or was it the other way around…..:)

So if you want to be the true audiophile, that everyone assumes that you  want to be, then use separate left from right front and rear circuits to power the speakers.

That is why you see a main ground going in to the radio along with the switched and unswitched power.  From there you see on the output side, right/left and front and rear power speakers, as well as aux outputs for a sub, and powered antenna, as well as possibly illumination wires.

On my 81 Diesel Rabbit (USA SIDE OF POND), my OEM AM/FM SuperHetrodyne Radio (MONO) had left and right front speakers that were 4 OHM on the left and right that were tied in series 4+4=8 ohm,,,, not really but inductively, as speakers are rated in inductance value expressed in ohms. see: How to Measure Speaker Impedance (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Hope this helps.

Last edit: by Briano1234


What do Divorces, Great Coffee, and Car Electrics all have in common?

They all start with GOOD Grounds.

Where are my DIY Links?

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Briano1234 said

page 7 The Speakers IDEALLY need to have a separate left and right channel, that is the left has a + / - side and the Right side as well as shown in the top diagram.

The bottom of page 7 shows a Bridged unit that has a single speaker that is tied either to the Right Positive, and Left negative, or the Left Positive to the Right Negative.

Conversely the speaker grounds are usually isolated from chassis (frame) ground that is the Frame of the car and using the ground that the internal circuits of the Radio or Sub is using, to isolate it from the possible motor boat or Hiss of a differential frame to radio and spurious EMF forces such as HV/Resistor charging and sparking…that can increase or decrease with the RPM of the engine. In the days long ago before discrete circuitry, this was usually accomplished with the additions of Bonding wires, and Filters that you could either additionally install or add to the base Frame to engine Grounds, that along with Resistor Plugs and such…. So the output wires of the speakers are left/right pos and left/right negative as the left neg/pos and right pos/neg are off the final output drivers separate channels so you have a left side and a right side that are separate and different electrically from each other, so you have separate positives and negatives at that point that are highly filtered to prevent signal degradation (truer crisp sound) in relation to each other….

In the days of yesteryear when I was installing Quadraphonic Systems (now most head units are (quadraphonic)) a good test was to run Pink Floyd "Money", and hear the sound go around the speakers……  left front to left rear to right rear to right front..or was it the other way around…..:)

So if you want to be the true audiophile, that everyone assumes that you  want to be, then use separate left from right front and rear circuits to power the speakers.

That is why you see a main ground going in to the radio along with the switched and unswitched power.  From there you see on the output side, right/left and front and rear power speakers, as well as aux outputs for a sub, and powered antenna, as well as possibly illumination wires.

On my 81 Diesel Rabbit (USA SIDE OF POND), my OEM AM/FM SuperHetrodyne Radio (MONO) had left and right front speakers that were 4 OHM on the left and right that were tied in series 4+4=8 ohm,,,, not really but inductively, as speakers are rated in inductance value expressed in ohms. see: How to Measure Speaker Impedance (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the reply. It's become alot clearer. However my next questions is then, what spade do I put on behind the stereo. I'm planning to remove the front right and left speaker wires from the Iso behind.the radio. How can I plug this to the new two wires?

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what is the input to the amp, as in from the headunit to the amp to your speakers?

as for connectors, It all depends on how much current it takes on the input side…..

I have used molex connectors same as you have on the PC's power supply to drive disks, and things as the are unplugable and make installs or removals easier.  You can use insulated male and female connectors…. Input side should be low power per say, but I would direct drive the speakers with no connectors or use insulated male/female speaker . I have always used Heat shrink and non-insulated connectors, and Soldered the wires into them, then heat shrink the connection to insure insulation….


What do Divorces, Great Coffee, and Car Electrics all have in common?

They all start with GOOD Grounds.

Where are my DIY Links?
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