D45

Ok thanks.

Now, I have never looked at or bought an amp before.

What brands should I look for?

What features should I look for?

Are those complete amp install kits a good idea to buy?

D45

Ok, I am need to learn about amp installation and wiring.

I am leaning towards mounting the amp under the passenger side front seat.

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For wiring, my understand is this:

Power Wire:
-I need to run a power wire from the amp, to the battery
-What gauge wire is good/decent/best?
-Since I have two batteries, does it matter which battery the power wire goes to?

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Ground Wire:
-The amp needs to be ground, correct?
-What gauge wire is needed for the ground?
-Should the ground be placed within a certain distance of the amp?


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Patch Wires:
-These run from the amp to the receiver, correct?
-How many do I need (4 channel amp, powering 4 speakers)?
-What kind is good/decent/best?

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Do I also need to run all new speaker wire/cable from the amp to each speaker?

05 CTD2500

If you have an auto here's an excellent place to run wires through the firewall (2 15mm nuts on the inside, need a deepwell 15mm if you plan on taking it off to drill it)



For the power wire you should run the biggest the amplifier will accept, the ground wire should be the same gauge wire and not more than about a foot long, great place to ground is the seat belt bolt (make sure to take it out and brush all the paint off of it for a solid connection, yes to do it right you will need to run new speaker wire to all the speakers.

Also, you might consider mounting under the drivers seat instead as theres a jack under the passenger side (if you can still use it) and routing the power wire is short and easy, also there is already a slit in the carpeting to make routing wires to it look professional.

BroncoHound

The power wire needs to run to one or the other battery and have an inline fuse close (no further than 12") to the battery. Look for an ANL fuse block and 150 amp ANL fuse. That should be fine for your application.

The ground needs to be ground to the body of the truck.

You will need to run RCA's from the preouts on the back of the H/U to the amp. You will need two sets of RCA cables, one for the front and one for the rear. You will also need a 16gauge wire for the remote turn-on from the H/U to the amplifier. You will also need speaker wire, but you don't need to completely replace all the existing speaker wire. Your setup isn't pushing anywhere near the power necessary to warrant upgrading the speaker wire.

Tons of information on car audio can be found here: http://www.caraudio.com/forum/

D45

Interesting......never thought of that......So, how would I tap into the stock speaker wire?

If this really an acceptable method, or should I spend the extra $$$ and extra time and run new speaker wire?

torkmnstr

So question bronco, I love rock and metal but like to get the lows in with ahem..a little rap now and then. What sub setup should I run? I want to run the fox box dual set up as well, but maybe the 12's? Thanks for the inmput man!!

BroncoHound

Unless you specified otherwise, this is the same thing any car audio shop would do if you took your truck for them to install. You aren't pushing anywhere near the power to your speakers to warrant a larger gauge speaker wire. If it were me, I would replace all the speaker wire but I tend to overdo things. I have set up moderately powered systems where I have not replaced the factory speaker wire and it is a perfectly acceptable method. Since you aren't ripping your interior apart for an over the top system (at least i haven't seen you mention anything about stripping the interior for the install or adding sound deadener thus far) you will save yourself alot of time by just clipping the speaker wires directly behind the H/U, splicing it into new speaker wire, and routing it to the amplifier bundled with the RCA's and the remote turn-on wire. This way the only thing you will have to do in the doors is remove the old speakers and install the new speakers. All the rest of your wire management will be done from the H/U to the amplifier.

If you primary music is rock and metal, you want a tight, punchy bass. I don't think there is enough room under the rear seats for 12's to have enough airspace for them to really outperform a set of comparable 10's. This is just my opinion. A set of quality 10" woofers is MORE than plenty of bass in the quad cab trucks and the foxbox in the 10" configuration will give you a tight, hard-hitting bass complement while still being versatile enough (due to it being ported) to give you the drawn, long bass notes that rap/hip-hop music thrives on.

D45

Thanks for being patient with all the questions, and being very informative.

SO....what is the best way to find or how do I locate the speaker wires in the harness behind the H/U?

BroncoHound

When you are tapping in your new harness for your new H/U, it will all be labeled. Another way to verify is they are generally the same color code behind the H/U as they are at the speaker. When you replace each speaker, note and record the colors of the + and - wires for each. Then look behind the H/U for corresponding colors.

Another good trick is, as you splice in to each speakers wiring, write the location of that speaker (drivers-front, for example) on a piece of masking tape and stick it on the amplifier end of that piece of speaker wire. That way, when you get all 4 speakers' wiring routed back to the amplifier, there is no confusion as to which goes to what speaker. If you DO happen to get them mixed up, don't worry. Once you get everything hooked up you can just use the Fader and Balance on the H/U to figure out whether or not they are hooked up correctly.

05 CTD2500

here you go (for the base system not infinity)

left rear + gy/lg
left rear - gy/dg
right rear + dg/lg
right rear - dg/gy
left front + dg/yl
left front - dg/lb
right front + gy/yl
right front - gy/lb

D45

I assume these are codes for the color(s) of the wires?

For the stock wiring harness......that is.

When splicing into the factory speaker wires in the wiring harness, can I just simply cut then off of the harness and solder them to the speaker wire going into the amp?

mikmaze

phew, not trying to sound harsh, but you could ruin a bit of electronics by connecting stuff if you do not know what you are doing. on this latest question of connecting wires from factory to amp, the amp has to have "line level inputs" for this to work at all. one of the crudest ways to hook an amp to a system, but can work. you sound like you realy want to enjoy your system, but it seems you need a friend who is local to you to help you along the way, if not get the job done by a pro altogether. take it from someone that has made mistakes by buying cheap equipment, only to find that it does not sound good...... the big brands don't spend all their money on advertising, quite a bit of it ends up in their equipment as better parts, yielding better quality sound. See if you can find a friend of yours that can help you, and wait a little more time and save a it more money to afford good stuff, the first time around.

BroncoHound

I don't know of any quality amplifiers that don't have line level imputs these days. It really ISN'T that daunting a task. Basic mobile audio systems are really straightforward if you just take your time and think slow. I, too, was scared of mobile audio when I didn't know what I was doing.

D45, you would simply clip the speaker wire at the back of the headunit and either solder or use butt connectors to connect the new speaker wire to the speaker wire coming from the speakers. Then route the new speaker wire back to the amplifier. Your H/U is sending the signals to amplifier through the RCAs in an amplified system. The amplifier receives the signals from the H/U through the RCAs and sends them back out to the speakers via speaker wire. If you don't like the idea of speaker wire going from the speakers to the back of the dash only to be connected to new speaker wire and routed back to the amplifier, then pull all the speaker wire and start over. The signal travels through the speaker wire somewhere around 16000ft/sec so the extra length isn't going to cause any kind of delay in the sound. Either way is fine.

redneckwilly

i really like my alpine deck, its easy to use and it looks good. I got JL speakers in the rear doors and Alpines in the front with a kicker amp powering them. I got something from every make i know. It does sound really good though. 19fury69 on here got the kicker components and they sound amazing, definetly worth buying and i am gonna get some soon i think.

D45

I have installed head units and speakers before, just never an amp.

I know I can easily do all of this myself, and I am just try to get all the questions I have out of the way before I start the installation, so everything goes smoothly.