How Does Remote Wire Work?

hi all, just wondering how the remote wire works (head unit to amp)? from my knowledge, for a electrical ciruit to happen, you need a positive and negative...but a REM wire only has one...how does it work?

   You are right a positive voltage without a path to ground does nothing.   The remote wire is a positive voltage. The ground wire of your amp provides ground to the power supply and the remote turn on circuit also.

ahhhhh thanks. if i wanted to turn the amp on without my head unit, how would i do it?

connect a piece of wire between the battery terminal and the remote terminal of the amplifier. It'll be on all the time if you do that, or you can connect the remote terminal to any accessory lead in the car, which will then control the amplifier with the key in the ignition.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

What kind/type of relay should you use for a delay if you are connceting directly to the ignition side of the fuse block and bypassing a head unit. Any links would be helful. Thanks

I have a vintage car and am connceting directly from an ipod to an amplifier via minijack to RCA splitter. The head unit installed in my glove box is only there (now) to turn on my amps. I would like to have my glove box space back and turn the amps on with a delay of the ignition. Does this make sense? Thanks for any help on this.

I don't know how this would sound, going straight from a the ipod to an amp, but it just needs any 12v signal to "tell" the amp to turn on. Run it off the accessory wire on your ignition harness, or any accessory that comes on when the car is on. Be sure to fuse it @ 5 amps a few inches from the source, not the amp.

austincustoms I am already doing this and it sounds fine in a 40 yr old convertible. I am sure an EQ would help but the sound imporvement would be washed away by road/wind noise. I understand that all I need to do is to hook it up to the ignition side with a fuse, however i want a delay in the turn on that the radio offers. It seems like the TURN-ON POP DELAY that stevdartlinked me to might be the answer. Thanks for the reply. Max

Those are all fine devices, but unnecessary... Before you turn the ignition on in your car (which will then turn the amp on) just make sure your ipod is turned on, and the cable is plugged in. To reverse the process, simply turn the ignition off BEFORE you remove the iPod or turn it off. You won't have any pops like that, and you don't have to spend any money at all... Even if you did spend $$ on one of those, you'd STILL have to follow the same steps, anyway.

austincustoms wrote: I don't know how this would sound, going straight from a the ipod to an amp,

Why? It's a line-level signal, just like the RCA signal from your (or ANY) head unit... I've done it MANY time, with both home and car amplifiers. It should sound just fine...It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."