Car Stereos: Amp power line on Panasonic CQ-C1333U, panasonic cq, internal amplifier

Question
Hello Brian,

I am installing a Panasonic CQ-C1333U CD player to replace a burned out Insignia in my '89 Subaru GL. There is no place to connect the amp power line (blue w/white stripe). What should I connect this wire to? I don't want to connect it to anything before talking to someone. The speakers are connected correctly because I labeled all the wires before I disconnected the old CD player (which was is aftermarket as are the speakers and speaker wiring). The old CD player worked with the speakers so I don't think the speakers are the issue. All the stereo functions work just no sound. Thank you for your time.

James

Answer
Hi James,

Sorry for the delay in answering your question.

Unless you're using an external amplifier, or unless your Subaru is equipped with a power antenna, you don't need to connect the blue/white wire to anything at all.  This wire is only used for activating a separate device when the head unit is switched on.  Otherwise, you can just leave it disconnected.

It sounds like your speakers are connected directly to the head unit.  Usually, when the head unit appears to power up and display normally but produces no sound, it means that there's a protective circuit shutting down the internal amplifier.  This is usually caused by a shorted speaker wire--one of the speaker wires is either touching a metal point on the vehicle, or a positive wire is connected directly to a negative wire.  (This can also be caused by a speaker with a defective voice coil).

First, I'd check all the speaker connections at the back of the head unit; make sure you don't have an uninsulated connection or any bare wire showing.  Inspect the speaker wires to see if one is getting pinched by the head unit chassis.  If you don't find any problems, try disconnecting all the speaker wires, then re-connect them one speaker at a time.  If the first speaker works, keep connecting other speakers until you find the one that's shutting down the system.  If the first speaker doesn't work, disconnect it and try another; if no speaker works, then you may have a defective head unit.

Hope this helps!

Brian