Bridge two amps for door speakers and subs

[Nesto1000 10+ year member]

So I currently have my two 12" Kenwood KFCW3013PS hooked up to a 1000w Sony Xplod SON9-XM1652Z amp. Now I want to add another amp, a Pioneer GM-X334. I was wondering if I could bridge the two amps, and use the Pioneer for my door speakers? If so, how? Visuals are the most useful for me if possible.

P.S. I don't know much about this stuff so if what I said doesn't make sense or cannot be done period... sorry...

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[All_Logix 10+ year member]

Well, I am not 100% sure I know exactly what you mean but let me start from the basics...the sony is running the subwoofers, and you want to run the pioneer on the door speakers....here are a few questions I would need answered to give you an answer.

1. Is the Pioneer a 4 channel, if not how many channels is it.

2. How many door speakers are we talking about here...2, 4?

3. Does your headunit have preouts for front and rear outputs?

if you can give me the info on all that I can tell you how to do it, but to answer your question, yes you can use both of the amps

 

[Nesto1000 10+ year member]

1. Yes it is a 4 channel amp

2. 4 Door speakers

3. I am not too sure about that...

I have a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 4.7L QC if that helps....

 

[All_Logix 10+ year member]

OK, so here is what you want to do, pull out your HU and look back there, hopefully it will have three sets of RCA preouts. One of them should already be taken up for the subwoofer. Careful to read what each one is because on some HU they put an input on them that looks the same. Generally they will be labeled, Front(F), Rear® and Subwoofer(SW), if there are only two it will have F and R/SW.

In the case of three outputs run RCA from the HU's F and R outputs to the 4 channel amp. make sure that you use the channels on the amp that match up to the way you have the RCA. For example if you ran the F to channels 1 and 2 then you should hook the front speakers to output channels 1 and 2.

In the case of just F and R/SW, Honestly I would recomend picking up another HU with 3 preouts, but if you cant or dont want to I understand. In this case I guess you can pick up a y adapter, it is a RCA adapter that turns one output into 2. Place a Y adapter on each of the F preouts and then run like mentioned above.

For power, you can always run another power wire from the battery, or if the one you ran for the sub amp is fairly heavy guage, you can pick up a distrobution block and split the wire you already ran near the amps to get power. For the ground on the 4 channel amp, I would try to ground it in the same place as the sub amp, or at least as close as possible. Remote wire, as long as these amps are the only two things using it, just use a crimp and split it near the amps...

I know this is pretty confusing if this is your first time so if you PM me your email adress I will draw up a picture of your options and send it to you

 

[Nesto1000 10+ year member]

Hmmmm... Then I think that I'm screwed because my HU only has one rca output I believe...

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

You can always look up your model # and find that out easy as pie. I believe there's still ways to amp your door speakers even with only one RCA, using a line-out converter or something, not sure. But, chances are the HU is rather low-grade and you could benefit from an upgrade anyways. Which can still be done on a tight budget, assuming you save for a month or 2, and keep an eye out on good used deals.

 

[All_Logix 10+ year member]

I wouldn't recomend using a LOC with your highs...there is just such a drop in the quality... if you want to stick with the HU you have, just run the high inputs to the amp from the front left and front right outputs on the HU wire harness

 

[ColterDC 10+ year member]

If you've only got 1 RCA output on your deck and don't want to buy another deck, just run the speaker level inputs to your amp and it'll be fine. That would be the cheapest route. Luckily your existing power wire is adequate so you can just use a distribution block to power both amps. Then all you'll need to do is run a ground, remote and wire the inputs and speakers.

Honestly though, given what I've read in your posts over the last week, this might be over your head. But if you really want to do it, we can guide you along. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Nesto1000 10+ year member]

Seems simple enough. So just buy the distributor block, take off the power from my current amp (amp1) and run new wire to amp1 and amp2 via the distributor block right? Then run the ground on amp2 similar to how amp1's ground was done. After that I do the remote wire. Can I splice the remote with amp1 and amp2? Also I would need help on how to wire the inputs and speakers.

 

[ColterDC 10+ year member]

Seems simple enough. So just buy the distributor block, take off the power from my current amp (amp1) and run new wire to amp1 and amp2 via the distributor block right? Then run the ground on amp2 similar to how amp1's ground was done.

Yep. Make sure you disconnect your battery before starting.

After that I do the remote wire. Can I splice the remote with amp1 and amp2?

Yep, just get a crimp connector, 1 wire coming in, 2 wires going out to the amps.

Also I would need help on how to wire the inputs and speakers.

You can either get a LOC (Line Out Converter) which will change your speaker wires into RCA outputs and then run those RCA's to your amp. This would be the easiest way.

Or you can use the high input portion of your amp, which will require you to run all 4 channels (postive and negative wires) from your HU to the amp. Then run speaker wires from your amps 4 channel outputs to all the speakers.

Either option works. But either way you're going to be rewiring all of the speaker wires which are currently going to the HU to the amp instead.

 

[Nesto1000 10+ year member]

You can either get a LOC (Line Out Converter) which will change your speaker wires into RCA outputs and then run those RCA's to your amp. This would be the easiest way.

Hmmm... So would I need to buy 4 LOC's or what? NVM

Would this LOC work?

Or you can use the high input portion of your amp, which will require you to run all 4 channels (postive and negative wires) from your HU to the amp. Then run speaker wires from your amps 4 channel outputs to all the speakers.

How would I go about doing it this way?

 

[ColterDC 10+ year member]

Would this LOC work?

Which one? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

As long as it's a 4 channel LOC, yeah it will work. You connect your front and rear speaker lines coming from the deck into the LOC and then run 2 RCA's (1 front and 1 rear) into your amp.

How would I go about doing it this way?

You run 4 speakers wires to your amp's high level input (assuming you have the little plug for the high level input that came with your amp). Then you run 4 speaker wires from your amp to the speakers (you can either run the wires directly to the speakers or back up to the HU where your factory speaker wires are currently connected to your HU).

The other option I forgot to mention is that since your deck has 1 set of RCA outputs, which I assume are for the rear and they're currently running to your sub amp. You can split that RCA line and use that input to run your rear speakers, and then you only have to do the above options for your front speakers.