Few ?’s about stereo & amp in 2003 cavali

I recently purchased a cd player(Legacy LCD97DFX) off eBay for my 2003 Cavalier.  When I went to install, I was told that I would have to run the power wire to a 12 volt source, or buy a $60.00 harness.  I ran the power wire to the dash cigarette light.  This is a constant 12volt source.  So first, is this safe and ok, and wil this drain my battery?  I turn off the head unit every time I get out of the car.  That is my first question.  Here is my next.  I am getting ready to install a 600Watt Power Acoustik amp to my stereo.  When I go to hook up the amop turn on wire(the blue one from the amp) where will I need to connect this?  Do I connect it to the cd player, the harness, or the 12 volt supply?  I have every thing wired but this.  So my questions are:

Is it safe to use my cigarette lighter as my 12 volt power supply for my cd player?

Where do I hook up my amps turn on wire?

And how good is the power acoustik amps?  I do not have the model number, but I do know it is a year or so old and is Platinum Series.  I also bought this on eBay, and got it cheap. 

Thanks in adavnce for any information provided, I honestly really appreciate it.

Nick

As long as the head unit's constant power wire isn't being hooked up to the cigarette lighter, and as long as you always remember to turn off your head unit every time you leave your car, you should be okay.

The amplifier's remote turn on (blue) wire should be hooked up to the blue wire with a white stripe in your head unit's harness.   If your head unit has that wire as well as a solid blue wire, use the one with the white stripe.  If it only has the solid blue wire, use that one.

I have the red power wire from the headunit hooked up to the cigarette lighter power line.  I can turn on the radio even when the key is not in and the car is completely off.  Will this drain my battery even if I turn the heasdunit off?  If so, where would be a better place to  use for power.  Please remember I have a 2003 cavalier, so I have to hook up the headunit to some form of power,  the harness will not power it, unless you buy an expensive adapter.  God only knows why chevy did this this year.

Class II wiring--everyone hates it.  They integrate many of the vehicle computer functions into the radio, and basically all the electronics in the vehicle communicate together via this data protocol.  The factory radio turns on automatically because it receives a data signal telling it to turn on, not a power wire w/12volts on it.  So GM decided to removve that one single switched power wire from the harness, and redesign the radio so that it responds to data turn on signals rather than standard electrical signals.  All just to save a few bucks undoubtedly.

When the stereo is turned off, it still draws a tiny tiny amount of power via the constant power wire that IS present in your harness; the stereo uses this to retain the presets and user settings; however this amount of power is so litle that it would take probably like a year of you not driving/starting the car at all, for the battery to die.

When the stereo IS turned on, however, the unit will use that same constant power wire for its main power, but it will use much more current than it does when it's just retaining the memory/presets.  If it's left turned on--even with the volume turned way down--it would likely kill your battery if u left it like this overnight.

The switched power wire in a stereo will only draw power when you have the stereo turned on.  When you turn it off manually, even though the wire may receive a constant voltage, the unit doesn't draw from this wire and it shouldn't kill your battery.  When the stereo is turned off, I think it still uses slightly more power when both wires have a constant signal, than when you have the one switched and one constant.  Because it sort of has to remain in a "Standby" state so that you can turn it on and off by pressing the buttons.  But still this amount of power is negligible as long as you drive your vehicle at least every few weeks.

Obviously the estimates of "1 year" and "every few weeks" are just educated guesses really, but the point is as long as you drive the vehicle on a regular basis you need not worry about your battery dying.