QuestionHello Brian, I dont know much about stereo wiring however I am good with electronics and can do the basics. With a little help from you I would like to know the best solution to this question.
As of right now I have a Sony CDX-GT730UI Headunit with 1 set of Pre Amp Outs for the sub. It also has the 4 standard RCA jacks for the speakers (RR RL FR FL). As of right now I soldiered the 8 wires to the factory harness because I have the stock speakers.
I am looking to upgrade to a set of components in front and coxials in rear. I have picked out Alpine Type S SPR 13S 100w RMS for the components and Alpine Type S 17C coxials 100w RMS. To power these I have selected an Alpine MRP F600 amp with 100w x4 chan. @ 4 ohm.
Also I have an older subwoofer set up from another car it is an Alpine MRP 350M Mono Amp and Orion 10" Enclosed Sub.
Please direct me on how I should wire this correctly to the headunit and power and also to each speaker.
I was thinking two power sources from the batt. for the amps and 1 ground with a amp remote wire thats spliced to both, and I read a previous answer using pre amp inputs on the mono to the pre amp outs on the multi chan. My question here is where do I run the headunit preamp and where should I get power for the speakers, directly from the Amp or wire them into the headunit and supply the Amp to the headunit.
Sorry if this is confusing if you need any more information please let me know I will be purchasing the remaining parts in the future so I can complete this job Correct me if anything is wrong since you are the expert. Thanks
Andrew
AnswerHi Andrew,
Sorry about the delay in answering your question.
Given that your head unit has three sets of pre-amp outputs--front, rear and subwoofer--then the best option by far is to run two sets of RCA cables from the front and rear outputs to the 4-channel amp, and another set from the subwoofer outputs to the mono amplifier. This will give you complete control over the sound from the head unit, allowing you to adjust the fader, balance, and subwoofer volume controls. You're better off connecting the subwoofer amp to the head unit's subwoofer pre-out, rather than to the pre-amp outputs on the 4-channel amp.
The front and rear speakers should be connected directly to the 4-channel amplifier's speaker outputs. Once the amplifier is in place, the speakers should no longer be connected to the head unit's speaker outputs--the only speaker connections should be between the speakers and the amp. The head unit's speaker outputs should be left disconnected, with the ends insulated so they can't cause a short.
You can either run four channels of speaker wire from the amplifier to the head unit location, and connect to the factory speaker wires there, or you can run new wire directly to each speaker. Running new speaker wire to each speaker is usually the better option, but it's not practical in all vehicles; and if the factory speaker wire is fairly large, then running new wire won't make much difference to the sound quality.
Your description of your speakers confused me a bit, because the SPR-13S is Alpine's Type R speaker, not Type S. I'm assuming your rear speakers are the SPR-17C, which is also the Type R. Alpine's Type S speaker wouldn't be rated for 100 watts RMS. If you're using the Type R components, be sure to pay careful attention to the crossover wiring--don't leave it out of the system. The crossover will have a set of input terminals, which will be connected to the amplifier's speaker outputs, and it will have two sets of output terminals--one for the woofer, and one for the tweeter.
Splicing the head unit's remote output to both amplifiers should work fine. You can run a separate power wire to the battery for each amplifier, or you can use a single power wire with a distribution block to split the power to the separate amps. There's no major advantage to one method over another, provided that you use appropriately-sized wire and fuses.
Hope this helps!
Brian
