How do you wire aftermarket components into factory components?

[FSUNole17 10+ year member]

I am wanting to put some Kenwood Excelon dualmag components into my 98 tahoe. I am wanting to keep the factory headunit and just use the factory amp, wherever it is. The problem I have run into is that in normal aftermarket systems, there are one set of speaker wires that come from the amplifier putting out a full range signal that is then divided internally by the kenwood crossover (like all crossovers). Then 2 sets of wires (one for the tweet and one for the mid) go to the speakers, nice and clean. On the factory setup, do I have to use the factory crossover as well because the signal is already divided in the factory crossover? It appears like I will have to put in the components using the factory crossover because that is where the signal is amplified, correct? Thanks

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[leonsv 10+ year member]

I am wanting to put some Kenwood Excelon dualmag components into my 98 tahoe. I am wanting to keep the factory headunit and just use the factory amp, wherever it is. The problem I have run into is that in normal aftermarket systems, there are one set of speaker wires that come from the amplifier putting out a full range signal that is then divided internally by the kenwood crossover (like all crossovers). Then 2 sets of wires (one for the tweet and one for the mid) go to the speakers, nice and clean. On the factory setup, do I have to use the factory crossover as well because the signal is already divided in the factory crossover? It appears like I will have to put in the components using the factory crossover because that is where the signal is amplified, correct? Thanks

ok, heres the thing... lower oem speakers like those in the tahoe have far less power than they advertise, i would guess that your amp makes 25 rms x 4 at 4 ohm at most... that is not really enough to attain full potential of your new aftermarket speakers. also, do not use the factory crossover if it has one, it is not optimized for your aftermarket speakers and would most likely sound like crap.

this is what i would do:

buy speakers

buy amp

buy line out converter

--------------------------

connect loc to stock hu

connect loc to amp

connect amp to speakers

----------------------------

this would yield much better results and should be under $500 at most for decent equipment.

good luck

 

[Notwerk 10+ year member]

I'm not familiar with the exact system in that car, so you may have to do a bit of investigating inside the door, but on many cars I've seen, the wire that leads to the tweeter has a simple inline crossover. Follow the wires from their entry point in the door, and find where they fork.

If it's not too far a run, you can snip the full-signal cable and use disconnects from Radioshack to connect the wires to the speakers (or aftermarket crossover placed somewhere safe and weatherproof inside the door). No need for a LOC unless you want to do a full system using a stock head unit.