Adding amp using existing oem speaker wiring

[marc2112 10+ year member]

Man not boy. You're talking to me, not into a mirror.

Thanks for the expected response though.

You're welcome, boy.

 

[ctker]

So anyways… any advice on getting speaker wire through my front door grommets? I’ve taken a peak and they are very tight.

 

[marc2112 10+ year member]

So anyways… any advice on getting speaker wire through my front door grommets? I’ve taken a peak and they are very tight.

You can try some grease to help but if it still too tight you gonna have to do some hacking. In that case, use looms and/or techflex.

 

[huberoy123 10+ year member]

I’ll probably take your advice and start with one amp, I would like to amplify all speakers, but it would be smart to just start with the front setup and see how I like it, and maybe down the line grab another amp for the rear, and after that a DSP. Any advice for getting speaker wire through those factory door grommets?

I’ll probably take your advice and start with one amp, I would like to amplify all speakers, but it would be smart to just start with the front setup and see how I like it, and maybe down the line grab another amp for the rear, and after that a DSP. Any advice for getting speaker wire through those factory door grommets?

As far as the door grommets are concerned, I can only recommend patience and prayer. Mines were a monster to get through. Youtube videos are also helpful.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

So anyways… any advice on getting speaker wire through my front door grommets? I’ve taken a peak and they are very tight.

Silicone grease (I like NAPA Sil-Glyde) is good for rubber and wire insulation. Pull the speaker wires with a stiff solid wire like a coat hanger.

 

[huberoy123 10+ year member]

Sorry if one of my mids worth more than your entire system. Since when hobbies are profitable anyway?

He made a disparaging remark about someone spending $900..... and then comes back, in the heat of the moment, and says that his system cost over $6,000. Help me understand?????

 

[marc2112 10+ year member]

He made a disparaging remark about someone spending $900..... and then comes back, in the heat of the moment, and says that his system cost over $6,000. Help me understand?????

Exactly what I was thinking last night. I was like: "Hey.. wait minute!"

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I’m sure these questions have been answered before, but I can’t manage to find a straight answer, so sorry in advanced if there are any other posts about this.

I have a 2016 Chrysler 200, 9 speakers, 3 front dash 3.5s, 2 front door 6x9s, 2 rear door 3.5s, 2 rear deck 6x9. Recently replaced all my speakers with nice new expensive coaxials, I also just purchased a sweet aftermarket head unit, and I’m looking to throw an amp in to get some more clarity.
Im going to be mounting my new amp to the back of the rear seats with my sub amp, which I previously installed before buying the new head unit, so I have a LOC from the rear deck for signal on that.
3 questions here
1. I’m aware that I can run speaker wire from head unit back to my amp. But how do I go about keeping the factory speaker wiring if even possible? Do I run the post amp wire back to the cut wiring behind the head unit?
2. Is a LOC signal quality from the rear deck as good as a subwoofer out from the head unit? With the new head unit should I run rcas back to my sub amp? I’m not sure if it matters, but I believe my rear deck speakers are full range.
3. I’m not trying to break the bank on an amplifier, but is it possible to amplify this whole setup with a 5-6 channel amp given that my speakers are only 2 sizes and are all the exact same 2 speakers literally, and play on the same ranges. I’m guessing this is unlikely, but I’m honestly just wondering how cars with a lot of speakers get amplified, do I really need to buy a 9 channel amp? I could be wrong, but I’m also under the impression that the more channels the more money.

Again sorry if this stuff has been asked and answered before, really just looking for the knowledge of a professional/enthusiast

Thanks!

Referencing the original post.. CTKER, you dont need to make it complicated for yourself. My recommendation would be to install the new head unit and see how it sounds. I would recommend also doing a little sound treatment in the doors and rear deck to help improve midbass response. Then look at amplification if you feel it is warranted or even needed. I noticed there is a location for a sub as well.
Do you have the premium sound system from the factory in the vehicle?
You can purchase a dsp amplifier to power all the drivers but the wiring could be complicated depending on your skill level. You will see some people giving more extreme advice and that is because the ways of us push it as far as it can go in this hobby, but that is not necessary for everyone.
I would most likely start with amplifying the front speakers first. You will need to check when using an loc if the rear speakers have a full range signal going to them. (I believe they do after doing a little searching) If not you will need to find a pair of speakers in the vehicle and use that to connect to the LOC.
I think the factory amp in that car is located in the front of the car behind the glove box/and or at firewall that location; like the Dodge Dart. If I were to amplify all the channels I would want to find a harness I can use and connect an adapter kit form the harness going to the amp so I could connect to it directly. Finding a 12v acc/remote source without any surgery.
JBL makes a pretty good dsp amp that is 8 channels you can buy new and reconditioned on ebay for around 300 bux. I own two myself. The software is pretty easy to use and is pretty straightforward. I will go make some popcorn and put my headphones on and hunt down some links to parts and any tutorials I can find if you want to go that route.

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

Ok. Let me update with a couple questions after rereading the thread which has rapidly devolved into a shitshow. these questions are me making sure because I felt the answers were unclear.
1. You have the dash speaker and door speakers wired on the same channel. The same with rear doors and rear deck speakers?
2. You have a sub installed and playing and it's connected to the factory amplifier?
3. You downloaded the uconnect upgrade software, But have a new headunit you would like to install?

I would like to help if I can but need to better establish a baseline we can use to go forward. I'm willing to do a couple hours of research to help you sort it out. This is the fun part of the hobby for me, Perhaps you could take some time to take any pictures you feel would be relevant that might help light the way.
Also a budget in earnest and what you really want out of the system now and possibly in the future.

KeV

 

[ctker]

Ok. Let me update with a couple questions after rereading the thread which has rapidly devolved into a shitshow. these questions are me making sure because I felt the answers were unclear.
1. You have the dash speaker and door speakers wired on the same channel. The same with rear doors and rear deck speakers?
2. You have a sub installed and playing and it's connected to the factory amplifier?
3. You downloaded the uconnect upgrade software, But have a new headunit you would like to install?

I would like to help if I can but need to better establish a baseline we can use to go forward. I'm willing to do a couple hours of research to help you sort it out. This is the fun part of the hobby for me, Perhaps you could take some time to take any pictures you feel would be relevant that might help light the way.
Also a budget in earnest and what you really want out of the system now and possibly in the future.

KeV

Thank you KeV, this is much appreciated! To answer your questions;
1. Yes rear door speakers are wired into the rear deck speakers, and the center dash speaker is wired to one of the 3.5s already in the front dash, Just for now, I only did this because i wanted to see if the head unit could handle it. And i plan on running these all on an amp ASAP.
2. I’m quite confident that I don’t have a OEM amp, my car came with the base Boston 6 speaker setup, 2 3.5s (front dash), 4 6x9s (front doors , rear deck)
I must be confusing people, but I retrofit 3 more speakers into this 6 speaker system, I added 3 3.5s, 2 in the rear doors, along with 1 in the center of the dash(these are what I’m talking about it question 1)
And for the sub I did install a nice 1000 watt 2 sub enclosure, running off a 1200 watt mono block amp.
3. Negative, there are 3 different head units that you can get in the 200, all depends on the package, mine came with a 5 inch mini display(this is called uconnect 5.0 head unit) but I purchased the bigger touchscreen from the top package a while ago(this one’s called uconnect 8.4) but after doing alot of research on amplifying my speakers I just went and picked up a nice aftermarket head unit, partially so I don’t complicate things more, but also mostly for the Apple CarPlay.

I was not aware you could get an 8 channel amp for as low as $300, let alone with a DSP built in, this is absolutely amazing news! Thanks for letting me know, I will totally look into this.

I could definitely post some pictures on here, I just don’t know what you want to see

As for the budget, I’m really just trying to keep the amp somewhere around the $300 range right now (spent a lot of my budget on the speakers haha) I don’t mind a complicated install, there is nothing I can’t do. And if I mess up, I will learn and fix my mistakes. My only real question I have now, is what wattage should i be looking for with my speaker amp? My 3.5s are rated at 75watts, 150watt peak , and my 6x9s are 150watt, 300 peak
Thanks Kev!!

 

[just call me KeV 10+ year member]

I'm curious how you have the speakers wired and what the final ohm load is on all the drivers. You mentioned they don't work/sound as they should and the factory head unit isn't giving you the output that you need/want.
Do you have a multimeter?
I believe you mentioned in a previous post that you were handy in the wiring department. Could you show how you wired everything and what the resistance in ohms for the speakers. You can draw from the left and right to wire the center but I haven't seen that done in a while.
Did you wire a resistor inline and did you tap into left positive right negative for your center?
You mentioned it is only wired to one speaker so it will have a different resistance than the other side. This will create different output levels which can does explain the imbalance you are hearing.
You've added speakers to the existing factory positions (for the premium system from factory) left empty as an upgrade.
Where is the aftermarket sub amplifier drawing it's remote voltage from. It's from an LOC you have mentioned?
Could you tell us the make and model of the aftermarket head unit which at this moment is not installed? and; Do you need any trim bezel, harness adapters, steering wheel controls to go with it?
We can help you source all the odd bits for the Head unit install pretty easy.
We can also talk about wattage a little bit down the road but I want to make sure everything with the head unit is squared away before we get into anything extra. I can tell you now that 50 watts per channel will most likely be enough for what you want for the moment.
I'm glad you have the motivation and drive to dig into the hobby.

Give us the speaker models that you are using.
Give us the model head unit you are using and what you have at this point to install it and we'll get you started.

 

[Old_Slapper]

I’m sure these questions have been answered before, but I can’t manage to find a straight answer, so sorry in advanced if there are any other posts about this.

I have a 2016 Chrysler 200, 9 speakers, 3 front dash 3.5s, 2 front door 6x9s, 2 rear door 3.5s, 2 rear deck 6x9. Recently replaced all my speakers with nice new expensive coaxials, I also just purchased a sweet aftermarket head unit, and I’m looking to throw an amp in to get some more clarity.
Im going to be mounting my new amp to the back of the rear seats with my sub amp, which I previously installed before buying the new head unit, so I have a LOC from the rear deck for signal on that.
3 questions here
1. I’m aware that I can run speaker wire from head unit back to my amp. But how do I go about keeping the factory speaker wiring if even possible? Do I run the post amp wire back to the cut wiring behind the head unit?
2. Is a LOC signal quality from the rear deck as good as a subwoofer out from the head unit? With the new head unit should I run rcas back to my sub amp? I’m not sure if it matters, but I believe my rear deck speakers are full range.
3. I’m not trying to break the bank on an amplifier, but is it possible to amplify this whole setup with a 5-6 channel amp given that my speakers are only 2 sizes and are all the exact same 2 speakers literally, and play on the same ranges. I’m guessing this is unlikely, but I’m honestly just wondering how cars with a lot of speakers get amplified, do I really need to buy a 9 channel amp? I could be wrong, but I’m also under the impression that the more channels the more money.

Again sorry if this stuff has been asked and answered before, really just looking for the knowledge of a professional/enthusiast

Thanks!

1. You can run speakers from the aftermarket amp to the factory amp. From there, you can tap into the factory speaker wires that go to the speakers.

2. Always go off the RCA outputs of an aftermarket radio. The LOC's have a tendency to filter out some tones.

3. Your 3.5" speakers will handle less power and a higher frequency than the 6x9s. You can use a 4 channel and run the 3.5" speakers on the front channel, and the 6x9's on the rear. The only down fall is, fading will not that usable. With a 5ch amp, you can add a sub. Ideally, going with an 8ch or 2-4ch amps will be ideal. Then, a mono block for the subs.

Check out these amps. They are good quality at a really good price.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V2SXWJX/?tag=caraudiocom-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V2R9XL6/?tag=caraudiocom-20

 

[Old_Slapper]

So anyways… any advice on getting speaker wire through my front door grommets? I’ve taken a peak and they are very tight.

Most of the cars have Molex plugs in the doors. You are not able to run wires unless you find empty pin holes and drill them out. using the factory wires, from the factory amp, will work for your application. I'm guessing your 3.5" speakers handle no more than 50 watts RMS, and your 6x9s are no more than 150 watts RMS. To have a cleaner sound, I would swap out the 6x9s for a pair of 6.5" speakers. Doors are too small of an enclosure to get the full benefit of what a 6x9 can produce.