Alpine wiring, overheating, and distortion.

[super_kev 10+ year member]

Well today I just installed an alpine unit (used, from a friend) into a friend's car and the right and left speakers were wired together with just two wires. It was an older '85 Mercedies, and the front two had positive and negaitive wiring sharing between them, instead of seperate left and right channels. I left them the way they were, and put the left and right outputs of the h.u. together, and the same for the rear. The unit was a top end model that had that high power (4x60W I think) amp built in, so there shouldn't have been any problem with enough power. I'm wondering if I should have actually done this, or just used one channel to power both speakers? The fronts were factory (junk), and the rears were 3-way Pioneers.

Second question: My friend just called and said his h.u. was pretty hot, and the cd was hot to the touch after taking it out. Could this be because I wired the outputs together? I know our Suburban CD player gets pretty hot after being used for a while, but since I haven't touched his h.u. yet, I'm not sure what to think.

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When we listened to a CD in the player after installing the system, there was distortion around the 11-12 volume level. It was the high frequency area, but when we switched it to the radio, it was clear and free of distortion. Any ideas here? I'm not sure if the CD player is messed up or what.

Any input would be appreciated. We have no local audio stores around here to get help from, and this was my first install of any car audio stuff. I think I did a pretty good job except for that wiring which I am questioning, and the distortion which is bugging us to no end.

Thanks!!

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[super_kev 10+ year member]

Parallel? Yep, I think so...

1 2 3 4

spk. spk.

| + | +

\ + | +

\ + | +

\ + / +

\ /+

\ / +

\/ +

| +

| +

amp

Like that... and that's bad then. How bad? I'm going to rewire the speakers so each has it's own channel.

Also, with the subs, I wired them the same way to the RF 300x1@2ohm mono block. I wasn't sure how to wire the subs (4 Ohm Kenwoods, 150W ea.) into 2 Ohm since they are in a box that has a divider between the speakers, and each speaker has it's own hookups on the side of the box. I should have hooked up wire 1 (see diagram above) to the amp, and wires 2 and 3 together, and then wire 4 to the amp for a 2 Ohm load, correct? So if wires 2 and 3 go together, can I take a wire and wire it from the outside to the - on sub 1 and then to the + on sub 2? Or should I figure out how to get a wire through that divider in the box?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[adam71 5,000+ posts]

Yep,

Death to a decent head unit. **** shame.

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[super_kev 10+ year member]

Yeah well that's what I was thinking. He has used it less than 30 minutes since I installed it, and I have told him to not use it until we can rewire it.

 

[#1AlpineFan 10+ year member]

another thing with those old mercedes. not sure which years but there is a fader knob in the center console down by the arm rest. if you don't bypass that, it could probably do the same thing to your head unit. at that switch is where all the wires for the 4 speakers come together. you will need to totally disconnect them from the fader and rewire from the fader to the speakers.