Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and my first question is, I don't want to remove my stock CD Deck yet, so I asked some audio technichians here in KC about hooking up the amp and subs to my stock radio, and they said yeah, its possible. But I was just wondering if anyone's done it yet, and if so how did you do it. . .and is it very hard to control the bass and things from the stock radio since you don't have the adjustments like you do on an aftermarket headunit? Thanks.

 

Like you I am a newbie to the forum, but right now I have my amp and subs hooked up to my stock stereo. there are a couple of ways to do it depending on your amp. For starters look at your amp signal inputs, usually it is a set of RCA jacks, but some amps also have another set inputs called speaker level input, which is a set of terminals that looks like the speaker output terminals.

If your amp has these speaker level inputs you will have less work ahead of you. Simply put just splice lines off of the rear speakers, a positive and negative line from each speaker, and hook them up to your amp (+ to +) (- to -) for the left and right channels respectivly. That is your signal input, everything else is a normal amp install you will need your power wire from your battery, a ground to the body of the car, and your remote power wire.

If your amp does not have these speaker level inputs the other option that I am familiar with is the following; a company called peripheral electronics makes a line converter part # PERSVEN2. I think sounddomain.com sells it for like $22. With this converter, follow the sale concept as before, splice into the rear speaker wire and connect to the converter. the converter then puts the signal through output RCA jacks, and wolla you have your signal via RCA cables, and again everything else is just like any other amp install.

I myself am using the first method to save a few bucks, plus when I get the money I will be getting a new amp and installing my kenwood deck from my old car along with the annoying wire harnesses that cost an arm and a leg.

There may be other methods out there, these are the two that I know. If you have questions feel free to ask

 

Thanks for the help!!! I'm actually hooking my amp up today. My amp that I have is the Kenwood 7202 (920 Watts) amp and it have both RCA inputs, and the speaker level input, and by all means I'm gonna use the wiring that came with it and use the speaker level input LOL. I need as much money as I can get right now. But yeah, THANKS FOR THE HELP! My next question though is, will it be hard to adjust the bass? I want a good sound and I hope its not bad since I am using my stock head unit. But we'll see!!!

 

well for starters you wont get the rated power output by using the high level input on your amp you will get much better sound if yo just spend the 15 bucks and buy a pac adapter for you car and the reason that i say this is becasue the high level inputs are made for mids and highs hince the name and the rca or low level inputs are for your subs you low level inputs also have a lower distortion value so you wont damage your subs near as easialy oh well just my .02

 

Alright, well I now have my subs and my amp all in my car with the stock radio still currently in, and I have to say, it sounds pretty good. I did buy the adapter for the RCA cables because DESS03 suggested it, and so did my audio installer, ha. And I really can't argue, it sounds just as good as it did in my other car. Only downfall, I can't really FINE tune it. But I did get all the high pass out of the subs through the controls on my amp, and the bass up through the controls on my amp. And yes, I do listen to a variety of music my self, mainly Rock, alternative, and rap/hip hop, and today while I was driving to work, it wasn't hard at all to use the stock bass control the radio to simply turn it down when I wanted to listen to my rock. Simple and easy. So I'm pretty satisfied with it myself. And it was cheap. $75 for the amp wiring kit, $25 for the adapter, $60 for installation. it all come to around 200 bucks, give or take a few.

Just lettin everyone know how it turned out since there seemed to be some controversy and wide varieties of ways to do it.

And I did listen to that song "Tip Drill" yeah, it rattled my car pretty well.

Thanks for the feedback.

MonteRiderLS

 

wow a local shop wired mine up for 50 bucks including wiring and the pac adapter

 

Im glad to hear that you were able to get things figured out, and after reading what DESS03 wrote about the RCA adapter and what you now have said about your install I think I might have to invest in an adapter myself. The reason I didnt get the adapter before was because the way I saw it, the adapter was a splice of the speaker line and so I figured the signal strength/quality would be the same as if I just spliced the speaker wire directly. Unless the adapter you guys are talking about comes right off the stereo itself, which I have heard can be done to some stock stereos. Could one of you guys let me know exactly how your adapter is hooked up?

 

mine is in my trunk hooked to the rear speakers it has 4 wires coming out of it you just hook on ewire to the positive and negative of each rear speaker and you can zip tie the adpter to the bottom of your rear deck and it makes running cables a snap if you need me too i will get some pictures of it up on here just lemme know

 

No pictures are necessary, the way you described is the way I was planning on doing it. I have a friend of the family that is an installer and he had told me that he knows a guy that can mod the head unit itself to have a set of RCA plugs commin out of the back. Which brand of adapter do you have? My friend has a dealer licence through Peripheral Electronics which sells all sorts of OEM interface harnesses and line out adapters so I am thinking im gonna get their Line Out Adapter. Thanks for the help.

 

mine is a 5to1 pac adapeter tried the 8to1 but the other seemed to give better sound