Printer Friendly Forum Posts - what order are the sub,amp,and deck?

Just real quick. Stupid question, but just want to confirm. I'm installing a stereo in a Chevy Silverado '07 Extended Cab for the first time.

Can anyone tell me the order Im supposed to hook everything up with? Is everything supposed to connect to the amp, or is only the subwoofer supposed to connect to the amp.

I was thinking it was either like this:
Head Unit->Amp->(Sub)&(Front Speakers)&(Rear Speakers)
https://zenn.tripod.com/jazz/system.gif

Or Like this:
Head Unit->(Front Speakers)&((Amp)->(Subwoofer)&(Rear Speakers)
https://www.nax.com.au/main/GraphicsFAQ/Layout4.PNG

The Deck has: Sub Out (Left and Right), Front Line Out (Left and Right).
The Amp has: Audio In (Left and Right), Speaker Out (Left and Right)

Thanks! Once I get the order setup and figure out how to remove the deck, and how to access the front speakers, I should be good!

Here are the parts I bought:

Parts:

im assuming you just have one amp for the subs and in that case the radio goes first which connects to the amp with the rca for signal and that will them connect to the subs with speaker wires.
your speakers will be running straight from the deck or the factory amp if you have bose in your truck.

the only stupid question is the one not asked, so ask if you aren't sure about something before you blow something up.

as for radio removal look in the instructions for the dash kit and it should tell you how.

the front doors are a little tricky. there should be some screws under a cover behind the door handle, pop the cover off and you will see the screws. there could be more screws but i cant think of where they are so just look hard for any more pop off covers and hidden holes for screws.

the lock tab also has a cover that you need to pop off but once it's off you just slide the tab off.

after that the door pops off with little snaps all around the door and if they are fresh they might be kind of hard to get out just by pulling. i usually use a mini crow bar or a panel popper to do the job because a regular screwdriver will probably eat up your door.

after you get that popped off you still need to be careful not to break the cables off of the back of the door handle. there will two cables on the back of the door handle and you will need some sort of pick or needle nose pliers or even a small flat head. its hard to explain how to get them out but you should be able to figure it out by just looking at how they go in. DONT just start pulling at them because you'll be there all day and you'll probably break something in the process.

-------------

wow, your mini disassembly guide helped me out a lot. I went outside and just tinkered around after reading what you said before work, and it seems like that should work! YES! That was the part I was most worried about. Thanks :)

As for the setup loop, I'm a bit tired from midterms. Did you say that the radio is connected directly to the speakers, and since I have only one amp, The sub should be the only thing connected to the amp, and the amp connects to the deck? Is there a big difference in sound quality?

Thanks

I forgot to mention. The amp is a MRP-M500. Mono Power Amplifier with a channel 1 (left) and channel 2 (right) input in the back.

yes, since your amp is a mono amp you cannot run regular speakers AND a subwoofer on the same 2 channels. you wont be able to filter out the high frequencies out of the sub woofer and vice versa wont be able to filter the bass from the highs, aka your system will sound like doo doo. for now it would be best for you to just run the sub off of the amp you have because the sub needs to have an amp( you cant run a sub off of the deck). run the door speakers straight off of the deck using the harness adapter you bought for now until you can buy another amp for your highs if you decide you need one.

the rca's that came with your amp kit will go from the subwoofer output to the input of your amp. you will also need to run what we call a remote wire, which is just a single wire, that goes from either the red wire or the blue/white at the back of the radio, to the terminal on your amp labeled "remote". these are the only wires that get connected behind the radio. dont plug the rca's into the amp until all other connections are made.

now, as for the power for your amp, the main red power wire that comes with the amp kit needs to go straight to your battery +, with the inline fuse holder 14 inches or less from the battery. and please, please,please, dont run the power wire through the door jamb. try to run it through the firewall into the engine compartment. if you cant find a spot have somebody drill a hole for you that has some experience doing it. i would hate for you to drill through your brake booster or mangle a wire harness by drilling through the wrong spot.

the last part of installing your amp will be the ground. the ground for the amp should be as short as possible so dont be afraid to cut any extra. ground the amp as close as possible. find a good spot and shave all of the paint and primer from the spot, a sander works great but a flat head screw driver will do the trick. BE SURE TO CHECK THAT WHERE YOU ARE DRILLING IS NOT GOING TO HIT THE GAS TANK!!!!! short self-tapping screws are the best and safest to use for a ground. make sure it is tight and use multiple screws if you need to.

-------------

wow thanks. i would have ran into the amp power question later on. Sorry if this is long, just wanted to verify some things.

i got the door and deck off earlier today but it got dark, so i stopped. ill finish it tomorrow.

I have pictures of the parts im unsure of. mainly from my amp power kit and something called a stereo replacement interface. i REALLY wish there was someone near me that could do this, but sadly i live in an isolated area. anywho, let me see if i got this right. Correct me if im wrong if you dont mind. You've been a BIG help. And no doubt, your posts are what keeps me sane when im doing all this.

https://crewxp.com/truck/IMG_0068.JPG

^Above is a picture of my amp kit. The blue wire looks like the wire I run to my battery from my amp. I'll most likely have to find the 'firewall' on the truck and drill a small hole, making sure i dont drill through the wrong spot. then hook it up. the clear wire looks like the remote wire? I run that from my deck to amp. The Black Kicker box goes in my hood somewhere, near the battery.

https://crewxp.com/truck/IMG_0069.JPG

^Above is the stereo replacement kit they gave me. Not sure what to do with this. My guess is that if something doesnt git behind the deck, use the connectors to convert it? There looks like a box with a speaker on it as well. weird.

https://crewxp.com/truck/IMG_0076.JPG

^Above is just for reference. Its the back of my deck. Not sure which one is the 'remote' though. Speakers hookup in the 16 pinned one. Sub in the sub out, nothing in the front line out. then hook whatever wires were hooked up in the factory deck into this one.

ok, for your amp kit, the thick blue wire is the power wire that goes straight to the battery, the black "kicker box" is the main fuse holder. this goes onto the main power wire close to where it connects to the battery.

the clear wire is the remote wire, it goes to either the blue wire with a white stripe coming from the back or the radio.

as for the radio plug, it looks like they gave you the plugs for both the new style chevy truck like yours and the older model. the set of wires with the big gray plug on it probably wont be used. the other set of wires should plug into the plugs that you take out of the factory radio. the other side of those wires will plug into the box.

looks like the plug is made for a factory amplified system because instead of having speaker wires it has RCA jacks. those RCA jacks will just plug into the back of the radio.

it would be easier to tell you what to do with that plug if you could take another picture with the wires unwrapped and spread out so i can see what exactly is going on. ive never seen that brand plug before.

-------------

sweet ok. yea, didnt know what to od with that gray plug. thanks, youve been a big help so far. ill work at getting more pictures soon.

Okay. I got everything almost installed. The only thing I have left to do is hookup the receiver, run the RCA cable to the amp, then run the RCA cable from the amp to the two subs.

I have a quick question though. Each sub has a left and right input. So thats four total RCA inputs (2 left and 2 right). The Receiver only has a left out and right out to the sub (Red and white). How do you suggest I hook them up?

is it okay to only use the left of the left subwoofer, and the right of the right sub? Or should I split them all.

well first of all, you dont run RCAs from the amp to the sub. you run speaker wire from the amp to the sub. RCAs only carry a low voltage signal to the amp so it knows what to play. for a sub you should not need to split the RCAs at all. they just go straight on to the RCAs input of the amp.

a question for you, can you tell me what are the subs' ohm load. if you have the box or the owners manual it should be somewhere on those under "dc resistance" or "impedance" and it should say something like 4 ohms or 2 ohms. it will be something chose to those numbers.

if not then it would be nice if you have a digital voltage meter. do you have one?

im asking these questions so i can tell you how to wire your subs to the amp. it shouldn't be complicated its just a good idea to know whats going on.

-------------

Thanks soundnsecurity. I appreciate the patience you're taking to help me. Yeah, I was saving the subs for last. It has a red and white connector on the sub. I mistook that for a RCA. If you press the red and white connectors down, it opens up a hole to put the speaker wire in.

So I just need to hook the positive and negative in from the left sub to to the positive and negative out from the amp? And do the same for the right sub? So 2 total wires total go out from each +/- on the amp?

And I ran across a problem too... I have everything hooked up besides the amp and subs. I was testing the speakers and the receiver. If I turn the volume up to 16 (max volume is 50 on receiver), I hear a popping/clicking Sound. If I turn the volume up, I hear the popping and cracking sounds more often. If I turn the receiver bass up, it also comes on more often. I can't figure out why its doing that. I made sure all the receiver cramps to the deck were secure. I'm thinking It's because I left the factory tweeters on (the small speakers along the front side of the car). It seems like the audio signal goes out from the receiver, factory split in the door to the tweeter and also ran to the door speaker. I just clipped the old speakers off, cramped the new speakers to the old wire, and didn't change the tweeter because the new tweeter didn't fit. I HOPE thats why its popping. So I just need to clip off the old tweeters and leave it open? Im thinking about going to a local auto shop and asking if they can tell me why it pops (if they can do it for under 20)

Here's some specs/pics/data/audio:

Amp: Alpine MRP-M500
Per channel output into 4 ohms: <1% THD+N, 14.4V, 300Wx1
Per channel output into 2 ohms: <1% THD+N, 14.4V, 500Wx1
Input Inpedance: RCA IN: 20k ohms | SP IN: 40K ohms
Frequency Response: 20-200Hz

Sub (2): Kicker TC10--C
Normal Impedance: 4ohm
Sensitivity: 93.8dB
Power Handling Watts, Peak: 300 (150) RMS

Receiver: JVC KD-HDR60

Audio (Of Popping from my iPhone):
https://www.crewxp.com/truck/pop.mp3

Pics: (It was too dark outside to get good sub pics, so I took a pic of the box)
Sub Box:
https://www.crewxp.com/truck/IMG_80.JPG
My Receiver Hookup:
https://www.crewxp.com/truck/IMG_77.JPG
Amp Cables:
https://www.crewxp.com/truck/IMG_79.JPG

tell me this, does it say Bose on the covers for your factory tweeters in the pillars?
what do you mean by the new tweeters didn't fit? didn't fit where? is the tweeter separate from the rest of the speaker? exactly which speakers did you buy?

chances are that yeah you need to clip the factory tweeter. you can leave it open but you need to cap the wires. since you are still basically running off of the factory amp's power(assuming you do have a bose system), having the extra tweeter could be throwing off the total ohm load that the amp sees making the amp act funny. but i need more info to be sure.

as for the subs you can just wire those up like you said + to + and - to -.

-------------

No, it didnt say Bose.

For the tweeters, they were Kenwood. By not fitting, I meant the housing that they came in dont fit in the actual hole the side of the car had when I took the old ones off. I can remove the casing from the Kenwood and use the actual tweeter, but I dont have anything to secure it with. It doesnt clamp in the old factory tweeter housing.

Ill try clipping the old tweeters off today.

For the subs, someone told me my setup might actually not work. That the amp is too powerful for the subs. If I hook the subs in parallel, they said that would put a 2 ohm load which would make the amp put out 500w RMS, the subs are only rated 300w total RMS together. So is it okay to still wire it like that? Or should I hook the subs together in series?

thanks as always!

okay, having the car's popping issue looked at by a friend. then when i get it back in a few hours, going to try and hookup the amp and sub. hopefully no issues.

do you think there will be a issue of power difference bc my amp is 500w (or 300w i think in4ohms?), and my subs are 300 (150) RMS?

I wonder how I should wire it.

okay. we fixed the sound popping issue. turns out it was a bad adapter that came with the speakers. The factory tweeters his/pop only at real high volumes, so im thinking of just disabling those.

but my problem now is my subs. i tried testing only one sub hooked to the amp, and it seems like it barely comes on. my rear factory speakers produce more bass than than sub. am i screwed because the subs dont match the amp? Or do I just have to hookup both subs for it to work.

crewxp wrote:

okay. we fixed the sound popping issue. turns out it was a bad adapter that came with the speakers. The factory tweeters his/pop only at real high volumes, so im thinking of just disabling those.

but my problem now is my subs. i tried testing only one sub hooked to the amp, and it seems like it barely comes on. my rear factory speakers produce more bass than than sub. am i screwed because the subs dont match the amp? Or do I just have to hookup both subs for it to work.

If you have a multimeter test the resistance of the subs to see if they are blown.

Put your multimeter on the resistance (ohms) setting and see what it reads. Red probe to positive, black probe to negative. If it's a DVC sub, test each coil individually.

-------------
MECP Basic Installation Tech
Certification ID: CEA195600
Pioneer AVIC-X920BT
Polk Audio DXi 6500 - front
Rockford Fosgate Power T1693 - rear
Alpine MRP-F300
Alpine MRP-M500
Alpine SWR-1242D

oh my god! someone pm'd me and helped me fix it! thanks!!

I took the amp ground off the seat bolt and held it to the door latch on the side of the car, and it stayed on! I turned the volume up and I could hear bass!! It was awesome! Turns out it was that after all. All I have to do now is fine a place to ground it. Every bolt and piece of metal inside the car (what i had it hooked up to before), has a white paint coat over it. Im guessing that takes away the grounding. So not sure what to do from there.

And does anyone know anything about this? I dont know how. Not sure if I blew it doing all this, or did it a while back, but my rear left speaker doesnt work. Can I use the front speaker I used to use (factory), and hook it to the back? Or are the rear speakers different than the front?

So all the questions I have left for now (bc im hard to understand sometimes)
1.) So my sub and amp setup is good? Someone had pm'd me it wouldnt work. Heres his PM:
[QUOTE]Ooohhh its kind of a mismatch there. That amp is too much for them subs. You need 2 subs with bout 300w RMS. That amp can either run 500w or 150w to both subs. If you hook them up at 2 ohms this will put out 500w RMS and thats too much for them subs.

If you hook up them subs in parallel that would put a 2 ohm load which would make the amp put out 500w RMS, the subs are only rated 300w total RMS together.

If you hook up them subs in series, it adds resistance or OHMS. Since I am assuming you have single voice coil subs, this would put them at an 8 ohm load which would be about 150w. Only way to work it to put a 4 ohm load is if the subs have dual voice coils at 2 ohms each. Thats what I mean when you shop around for sub equipment you gotta match it close so you can work with it.[/QUOTE]
2.) Any suggestions on how to find a good spot to ground my amp? The amp HAS to go under my front seat, and the ground cable is about 3 ft long.
3.) Can I use my front factory speaker in the back? Do you know anything about that?

Thanks a lot! I imagine Ill run across another problem tomorrow, but hopefully not. I'ld appreciate it if you could help me then too if I do run across something again.

No... The subs are fine. Just make sure the gain is turned way down. While your amp CAN handle sending more power it's not going to hurt it.

It is very standard for a vehicle to have painted metal. Just take some sandpaper or a wire brush and remove the paint. Then use a self-tapping screw and a star washer and secure your ground directly to the bare metal. You can do the same thing on a factory bolt, but it's sometimes more difficult to find a factory bolt that will fit through the ring terminal of your ground wire.

And yes. You can use the factory speaker in the back. It's 6.5 inch speakers all around. I'd tell you to just pony up a little bit of money and go ahead and go get some decent aftermarket speakers for all around, but if money is tight, then yes you can use the factory speakers in the back.

-------------
MECP Basic Installation Tech
Certification ID: CEA195600
Pioneer AVIC-X920BT
Polk Audio DXi 6500 - front
Rockford Fosgate Power T1693 - rear
Alpine MRP-F300
Alpine MRP-M500
Alpine SWR-1242D

to ground the amp you need to lift up the carpet, scrape or sand off the paint in one spot until you get to bare metal, under the truck where you intend to put your ground just to make sure you wont put a screw through a wire harness or fuel line. once you are clear just screw the ground to the spot where you shaved the paint off. make your ground as short as possible cut any extra but leave a little bit of slack so the amp can move if you need it to move.

yeah its possible that your amp might be too much for those subs but if you are careful with how you set the amp and dont just go turning all the knobs up. you might have to settle for a little less bass for now just to keep your subs alive.

-------------

oh and one more thing. you more than likely are using the wrong harness for your radio installation. you dont have any Bose markings on the tweeter covers so that tells me you dont have the factory amplifier.

the harness they gave you installs using RCA's instead of speaker wire which tells me that it is for the amplified system. this could be why you have those popping sounds coming from your speakers. your speakers are being driven straight from the RCA's and not the speaker outputs.

if you have a digital multi meter you really need to test whether or not the RCA jacks in your wire harness are actually just speaker wires. if they are and you keep running your system like it is you will fry your radio.

-------------

thanks!! I struggled with all the problems you mentioned today. BestBuy sold me everything. After reading your post, I drove a couple of hours to the nearest bestbuy and told them. They had in fact sold me the wrong harness. Ugh. The popping issue went away but still popped at high volumes and sounded flat. Turns out I had the speaker converter (little black cable with what feels like a fuse inside) hooked up to my tweeters. But the audio went from the tweeters to the speakers also, so I had to wire the speakers straight to the receiver.

And it fixed it!! So now everything works. I used a drimmel to sand the paint and mounted the grounding cable. All I have to do now is fine tune my audio.

The only thing Im curious about is why my bass isn't 'thumping'. My subs work, as they shake the seats a little. But its not a lot, a lot. Like I'm not wowed by them. I've been in other cars where one 12" seems like it shook my seats more than my two 10"'s do. So tomorrow I'm going to try and figure out how to get a little more bass. I just want to be able to know it can do it, of course I wont leave it like that all the time. Just when I'm showing other people :P

Any suggestions on the bass? I only have 3 knobs on my amp. Gain, EQ, and LP.

again, thanks soundnsecurity. everything youve helped me on has been spot on. It's amazing you knew what my problems were without actually looking at the car.

check the polarity of your subs, one of them could be reversed ( out of phase). if they are out of phase then you would hear an improvement just by unhooking one sub.

without seeing exactly how you have it set it is also possible that you need to turn up the knob that says LP. it should be around half way up maybe even 3/4 depending on what its range is.

it is also possible that you have the bass turned down at the radio.

and what are these "speaker adapters" you speak of? you talking about bass blockers? that's what it sounds like from your description. if that's the case you really dont need them at all because your radio should have a its own high pass filter in the settings menu.

-------------

Okay. I will do that after work today. I have a feeling its just an issue of settings on the amp hopefully. I will post back after I check them.

But I found out that the 'speaker adapter' I was talking about is called a crossover that goes between the tweeters and the radio. I had that hooked up to the actual speaker...stupid. You said it isnt needed, but hopefully its still okay to hook it up to the component (i call it tweeter), as that thing was hard to shove down in its hole.

I noticed one 'tiny' problem today though. When the radio was on, I heard a clicking sound when music was playing coming from the speakers. When I paused the cd, the clicking sound still clicked. I didn't have long to play with it, but I hope its nothing serious.

Other than the clicking problem and bass tuning, thats it! Im glad its all finished and hope I can fix these two quirks soon.