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I have bought an Alpine MRV F400 V12 amp off fleabay and really dont know how to go about connecting it to my door speakers. I assume I must disconnect the speakers ISO plug from the back of the HU (Alpine CDA-9856R) and hook up to this? I cant be ahrsed with running wires through the door jam holes or should I? What gauge speaker wire, power cable etc do I need. im running standard speakers at the back (touring) and ive bought 2 morel pulse 6 speakers for the front doors. can that lot handle the alpine amp? http://i18.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/a9/05/4c6d_1.JPG
also ..what on earth do i do with the 2 crossover boxes? duh!!
i have literally been searching the web for hours and can find no reference to how one connects an aftermarket amp to door speakers via the detached ISO plug. seems to me all 8 connections are there in one handy place. do i really have to run a pair of wires into each door?
skip the stock wiring....completely. To be honest, It's gonna be easier if you run your own wires throughout. You'll also have a good upgrade path.
Mount the amp either under a seat or in the trunk. Mount the crossover boxes next to the amp. Power and ground you should be using 8 gauge wire. Power to the battery should be fused as per your amp's manual. Ground should be made as short as possible to a CLEAN (bare metal) screw. You may have to make your own ground point.
Are you using a stock head unit? If so, you will probably need to convert the signal at some stage to RCA so your amp can be useful. (Line driver?) If not, you're going to need to run RCA cables from your HU to the amp. Once you've got signal from your head unit to the amp, work on speakers.
Run speaker wire (12/14/16 gauge, your pick, I'd go with 12 personally to allow an upgrade path) from the amp to the crossovers. Then mount your speakers and run speaker wire to the amp. Again, spend the money on good wiring so you don't have to rip it out later if you decide you want something better.
The stock speaker wiring that runs through the door jamb is connected with a large black multi pin plug. It's going to be very awkward to run wires around this plug isn't it? How did you do it? Would it not be easier to use the existing wiring downstream of the Alpine HU ISO connector? Is there a plug on the market for this purpose? Do you think the sound will suffer too much if I do that? If I do it this way, where would the crossovers be placed...presumably in the doors to separate tweeter from mid? or would i just not use them?
ive done this diagram to explain what im on about...
The last diagram will work as long as you dont have a factory amplifier. If you have an amp, you can do the same thing at the amplifier. As long as you arent running a bucketload of power, you can use the stock wiring. D3ity is right, if you are going to keep the car for a long time, I would bypass the stock wiring and just run new. That way you know what you are working with, but the stock wiring is ok in most newer cars if your not comfortable in doing that.
One question, is your Alpine HU using the remote turn on lead (blue w/ white stripe) for anything in your current setup? I am just wondering if you have an amp in there and may not know it. You definitely dont want to run your new amp into the input side of your stock amp.
The crossover position is correct in your second diagram as well.
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Yes I will be using the remote turn on wire to run the amp which is (99% sure) the only one. Where would it be if I had one (E46 Touring) ?
I'm currently running a sub with built-in amp off one of the three pairs of RCA outs on the HU. There are three in total so another pair will run the new amp. I'll use a branch off the remote wire to the sub/amp for both -- does that seem ok?
The crossover position is correct in your second diagram as well.
As far as wiring goes, yes, the crossover position is correct. However I would put the crossovers NEXT TO THE AMP. The reason for this is that it will make it much easier to work on/upgrade your system later. I learned this from my first component speaker install. Nothing is more painful than trying to adjust or replace a crossover that you squirreled away behind a door panel or under a seat.
yes i can see youre right but would not then be able to utilize the bmw harness of course
if i knew how to get wires around, through or across the door jamb id have no hesitation in running new wires throughout
im wanting it all to end up like this.. infinity bassamp already bought for more oomph in the back while hoping the morel pulse 6s will do the job in the front
16ga wire for the speakers and 8 for power and ground sound right?
im wanting it all to end up like this.. infinity bassamp already bought for more oomph in the back while hoping the morel pulse 6s will do the job in the front
16ga wire for the speakers and 8 for power and ground sound right?
16-12 gauge speaker wire will work just fine. With that amp, 8 ga. power and ground will work fine. If you think you might eventually run more power, its not much more to go to 6-4 gauge.
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-There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary, and those who do not. -There's no place like 127.0.0.1
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