Questioni have a 96 mustang. head unit is kenwood kdc-mp225, stock door speakers(front), stock 6x9's(rear), aftermarket 2-channel amp and 2 subs. the deal is if i have all the speakers plugged in, i cant hear the subs because the 6x9's are so loud. i have them unplugged right now so the door speakers and subs are the only ones running. can i splice the rear speaker wires into the front speaker wires at the head unit? so the door and 6x9's run off the same channel and the subs solo? safe or not? or is there another way to seperate the 6x9's volume from the subs? sorry for the ramble.... and thanks in advance!
AnswerHi Jason,
I'm assuming your Mustang doesn't have the stock "Mach 460" audio system. Either way, though, your rear speakers should be 6x8", not 6x9". Usually there's a factory amplifier in these vehicles; depending on how the deck was installed, your factory speakers might be connected to the stock amp, or directly to the head unit.
If the stock amp is still part of the system, then you might be able to get away with combining the front and rear speaker wires to the front outputs at the head unit. You can do this because the speakers aren't connected directly to the head unit; they'd still be driven by the four channels of the stock amp, but both front and rear would get the audio signal from the deck's front speaker outputs. This shouldn't cause a problem for the head unit, because the amplifier's input impedance is high enough that you can combine the front and rear without dropping the load impedance too low for the deck's own amplifier. In this way, you can adjust the sub's relative volume by using the fader control; fade to the rear to make the sub louder, and to the front to make the front/rear speakers louder. You won't have any way to adjust the relative volume between the front and rear speakers, though.
On the other hand, if the stock speakers are connected directly to the head unit, bypassing the stock amp, then you can't combine the front and rear speakers on the head unit's front outputs. This would endanger the head unit amplifier by reducing the load impedance. However, you could try switching the front and rear outputs, so that the rear speakers are connected to the front outputs, and vice versa. In this way, if you adjust the fader to the rear, it would actually reduce the volume to the rear speakers, while keeping the volume up on the front speakers and sub. You might get better results this way than with the current setup, where the rear speaker and subwoofer volumes are effectively tied together (because the RCA outputs feeding the amp are designated "rear" outputs).
Hope this helps!
Brian
