Exactly HOW BAD is my wiring? I may have cut a few corners....

[ViG 10+ year member]

As always thank you for reading.

Today I turn to you guys to analyze my wiring set up in my 2004 Honda Accord LX.

I took the time to draw out a detailed diagram (I have never drawn so many lines in Photoshop in my life) to show my connections.

First off my problem/issue/question:

My back two speakers are Alpine Type R Speakers. Compared to everyone's hookups on this site they're probably shit, but they ARE one of the most expensive at Best-buy so I went with them (Also the reviews for them were basically 5/5 stars).

At first I was running them off my stock Deck with gives out eh, id say like 35W RMS, and these type R's want at least 100. And to be honest they still sounded pretty **** good.

Now, I installed a 2 channel 200W RMS amp and fed these two speakers the energy. My issue is that they sound like shit. Seriously not much better than when they were running off 35W. I'm fairly certain these babies wouldn't have gotten so many great reviews if they sounded this way fully powered.

Have a gander at my very detailed picture; below it I'll attempt to explain exactly what you are looking at.

What a cluster****, I know. Ok lets go though this. I'm going to bold all of my corner cuts and you guys please let me know if it was one of these which has led to my sounding of shit.

Ok: Alpines stock wire runs to the drivers side along with a crap load of other wiring, I pulled out the right and left wires, cut them, and redirected them to my 200 w amp to power the back speakers I left that tiny, its like 29 gauge wire to accept the 100 w per channel. from this amp I run RCAs to a converter that goes back into speaker wire that tapes back into where I initially made to cut (completing to loop). At this same spot I have my sub amp (400 watt) rca converter speaker wires coming in and they are just tapping into the signal (no cuts, just touching the cord). I was too lazy to run my 12V power cord, ground cord, and little blue....w/e cord (you know what im talking about) all the way to their destinations at the front of the car so what I did instead is just link them up at the other amp. I took each slot on the 400W amp, loosened it, inserted the other corresponding wire (EX: I took the red power cord from the 200w amp and shoved it into the 400W amps slot where the direct cord from the battery comes). It was a huge corner to cut, I know, what are the repercussions?

Last reason for shitty sound: (what I think is the real culprit). I bought the 200 W Amp used off ebay. Looks like its in pretty good condition, but once again the speakers sound like crap now with it. Is there any way to test an amp for something like this?

Thanks for reading my huge wall of text, I hope most of it made sense. If you have any questions about anything please ask because Im really looking forward to hearing from you guys!

-ViG

Click to read more...

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

I think it may be the converter and the way it's ran

 

[ViG 10+ year member]

I think it may be the converter and the way it's ran

Could you please elaborate?

Thanks so far for the reply,

-Vig

 

[*SlappinAzz*]

what a cluster fuck

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

I assume your running a stock HU? Get an aftermarket HU, ditch the LOC, run RCA's from the new HU to your amp, and run NEW speaker wire from your amp to your speakers. I can pretty much guarantee if you did all those your problems would be gone...

 

[Bumpin' Goalie 10+ year member]

I am very weary so I struggled following the "interesting" diagram you made.

However I will go ahead and throw something out that may/may not help.

If the 200w amp (a make/model would help us) is having it's power/ground/remote run via the 400w amp and not it's own dedicated wire. It is possible that it is not able to draw enough power/be properly grounded and thus causing your issue.

It could also be the amp itself (least likely), and the ~30ga speaker wire needs to go. Try something closer to 16ga. That 30ga is VERY SUSPECT as it can not transport the power properly to the speakers. It could possibly overheat and melt/catch fire/etc.

Replace it first, then run power wire through a distribution block to both amps, then properly ground the 200w amp.

Should help. If not, we'll still be here to attempt help.

 

[Bumpin' Goalie 10+ year member]

I assume your running a stock HU? Get an aftermarket HU, ditch the LOC, run RCA's from the new HU to your amp, and run NEW speaker wire from your amp to your speakers. I can pretty much guarantee if you did all those your problems would be gone...

I wouldn't blame the LOC and I think the stock H/U should be last on his list of things to replace.

Though I see where you are coming from.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

I wouldn't blame the LOC and I think the stock H/U should be last on his list of things to replace.
Though I see where you are coming from.

Yeah I just don't really like em, just another component to induce noise to the system.

And I forgot to add to my advice that you really need to fix the power/gnd wires. Daisy chaining the remote wire is fine, but the other two need their own dedicated wires. They don't necessarily have to be run all the way up to the battery, one larger cable and a distribution block would be great.

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

oh lawdy... wtf are those unlabeled circles in the diagram?

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

oh lawdy... wtf are those unlabeled circles in the diagram?

The smaller ones are speakers and the one larger is a sub if I'm not mistaken.

 

[*SlappinAzz*]

The smaller ones are speakers and the one larger is a sub if I'm not mistaken.

i thought they were flying spaceships for decoration

 

[ViG 10+ year member]

Crap I didnt get emails saying people replied! Sweet thanks for all the replies.

Flying saucers indeed. Sorry I should have been more clear. Yeah the front two circles are my small 50 Watt speakers that are off the HU, the back similar ovals are the Alpine type Rs and the huge *** one in the middle is a sub.

The model of my 200W amp is "HOT 06 VISONIK V117SX 400w 2 CHANNEL CAR AMPLIFIER AMP" Hmm, looking at my bid, it says the item was new. What a load of crap, the toggles were basically ***** when I got it.

Ok so its called daisy chaining, haha nice. Um, alright so from what I've read, I need to have my two grounds attach at the same spot right? It reduces noise? So find where the 400W ground is and drill the 200W ground into the same hole, I can do that.

For the red 12V power line, how far up do I want to cut into the 400W line? Half way? And would I need to get a "distribution" block? Or can I just sauder and tape the two wires together?

The first thing I'm going to do is change out that 30G stock wire from my back speakers, It only makes sense to my that 4 little copper strings couldn't handle 100W rms properly.

Thank you to everyone that has replied so far,

-ViG

 

[MONSONwarrior Premium Member]

You aren't gonna solder 4 gauge wiring, atleast I hope you're running 4 gauge. Just the the d-block as close to the amps as possible and running the speaker wire shouldn't be hard.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

you should have a distribution block. if you are daisy chaining everything (daisy chaining the remote wire isnt too big of a deal), then i suspect that you are using smaller wire than needed to put 2 of them into the ground and power. run dedicated grounds and split power with a distro. of some kind. cheap is fine. preferably 4 guage split to 8 guage to the amps. 8 guage grounds for both. at least 16 guage for the speakers and preferably 14 or 12 to the sub.

 

[YoungBloodM50 10+ year member]

DUDE! DON'T TAKE SHORT CUTS!

This thread should be stickied just to show newbs what not to do.

Ditch the stock HU, do what these other guys said to do. Definitely replace the speaker wire, I would even go with 12 gauge personally. In my opinion you should run power wire to each of the amps. You never said what gauge the power wire is, you only said it is 12v. 16 ga can carry 12v for a short distance, but longer distance needs bigger wire.

And yes, that is called daisy chaining when you run 1 wire from power to one location and then another wire from location B to location C. It's usually not a very good idea. Possible but not a good idea, especially if your power wire isn't sufficient. I have a feeling your power wire isn't very good.

I honestly thing you should rip it all out and start new with quality wiring. IMO wiring iis one of the most important things to a decent stereo. Crappy components are 1 thing, but wiring is a whole other thing.