Quick help putting my system back together

[nquizit]

Hey guys, any help here would be appreciated.

Had some battery issues the other week and we unplugged all the amps to see if it would help. Turns out a bad alternator killed a new battery. Anyway, I just wanted to get some reference as to how to put this back together. It's hard to find information for this setup because there's two amps. everything connected to the head unit and battery was never touched, it's just the ground, and other cables to the amps that were unplugged and taped off.

So some questions would be:

Both of the amps need to be grounded? and can I do both in the same place?

Multiple beige colored wires that go to the channels input in one of the amps, can i put those in any channel or is it specific?

I believe that yellow wire is the turnoff, both amps need turnoffs? it's just chained from one to the other?

There's three rca cable pairs, what could these be from? and where should I put them?

Any help would be appreciated, I went to an audio place and they quoted me $80 to put it together again. I feel that's a bit much just to plug it back up.

It would be awesome if we could get this back together. Thanks for any help at all.

Trying to post images but it's tricky.,

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[nquizit]

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[FML 10+ year member]

Ok. So you have a lot going on here. A bit more info on your setup is needed.

After market speakers ? Any woofers? Any subwoofer? Did you buy the vehicle with it all in there already and you don't know what everything goes to? I would imagine you'd have a better idea which wires came from where.

Ill answer the questions that are general.

Yes, any circuit that requires power must have a ground. Its recommended to ground things separately, but you can get away with 2 things in the same spot. If you're running a big system id advise against it.

Same goes with amp turn on. When i was younger id run 4 things off a single HU turn on, spliced in at multiple places. Again ,you can get by with a couple things but if you wanna do it right, use a relay. Super simple to install and it won't stress the rest of your stuff so badly.

The speaker wires: if you don't know which wires are coming from what speaker, you need to start taking things apart to find out. You don't want to (for example) run wiring for a little 40 watt tweeter into a 500 watt amplifier channel.

Rca's: again, if you don't know, you need to pull out the HU and see which is which. Most commonly you'll need a pair for a subwoofer amplifier, and as many as a pair for each set of channels on a multi channel amplifier. My JL mids amp requires a separate set of RCA's for channels 1 and 2 and another for 3 and 4.

Again, more info on whats in the vehicle would help. Theres lots of good.info on here and on the net.

 

[nquizit]

Thanks for the information, man!

Honestly so far it's been pretty overwhelming since it's not like I started from scratch, I'm trying to replicate the setup that was there before, and like you said, this involves tracing wiring back. Which is something I wanted to avoid but if it will give me a better understanding, so be it.

Yeah we bought it used and all this was in there, it's an aftermaket HU, 12" sub, but i don't think they're aftermarket speakers. It never occurred to me to check.

I have a general idea of what goes where just from memory of taking it apart. All the information I know now is from browsing forums for simple stuff, but this is all kinda complicated to me with the addition of the second amp.

There was one more wire that I think I lost. Don't got a clue where that went. The guy that had it before me i guess did all this himself, so it's a bit makeshift.

But I'll see what I can find out tomorrow, and report back then, thanks again for the help, and whatever future help I'll definitely need.

 

[FML 10+ year member]

Thanks for the information, man!
Honestly so far it's been pretty overwhelming since it's not like I started from scratch, I'm trying to replicate the setup that was there before, and like you said, this involves tracing wiring back. Which is something I wanted to avoid but if it will give me a better understanding, so be it.

Yeah we bought it used and all this was in there, it's an aftermaket HU, 12" sub, but i don't think they're aftermarket speakers. It never occurred to me to check.

I have a general idea of what goes where just from memory of taking it apart. All the information I know now is from browsing forums for simple stuff, but this is all kinda complicated to me with the addition of the second amp.

There was one more wire that I think I lost. Don't got a clue where that went. The guy that had it before me i guess did all this himself, so it's a bit makeshift.

But I'll see what I can find out tomorrow, and report back then, thanks again for the help, and whatever future help I'll definitely need.

If theres 2 amps, theres a great possibility that the speakers are aftermarket (good news) . Most people dont go through the trouble of amplifying stock speakers. Some do, but not typically.

If you provided the vehicle type and i didn't see it, Sorry. But that would help too. Ill throw out a guess on what wires you'll see, as a minimum.

Lets say a total of 4 door speakers as a guess. Most likely a couple 6.5's, and a couple tweeters or 6x9. Each will have a pair of speaker wires coming and going to the amp. Thats 8 total.

Minimum of 2 pairs of RCA, one for each amp, maybe 3 pairs with 2 going to the multi channel amplifier.

Amp remote turn on. Usually a blue or blue and white wire x2.

2 power cables for amps, or 1 cable going into a distribution block then split into 2.

2 grounds , one for each amp.

Then finally your speaker wire to the subwoofer. This should be all. Its 4am and im just getting up and making this.post, ill review it and revise if needed when i get to work. But this should be a good General make up of your rats nest.

 

[nquizit]

Thanks again for all the info man! Sorry I haven't replied sooner, got the flu.

I decided to take out the head unit to check to see which rca's are coming from where, and which wire was the turnoff. Just as I thought, the yellow wire is a turnoff. Started off as blue and which but it's cut and turns into a yellow wire. Theres a lot of wires back there that just go no where, is that normal? Probably not. This system is jank.

There's an rca for back/front/ and subwoofer. That's what the three rca's are from. Just like you said the multiple beige wires are the 8 wires coming from the door speakers. Those I can plug into any of the channel inputs or it's specific?

I think that's really the only confusion for me, besides what i think will be the biggest problem that I lost one of the wires...

And I have no idea where it went or what it did. It was something stupid though, like 3, 6 inch long wires tied together.

Otherwise I feel hopeful and confident that we can get this thing back together, at which point I'll be upgraded the HU.

It's a 2002 VW GTI by the way.

 

[FML 10+ year member]

Thanks again for all the info man! Sorry I haven't replied sooner, got the flu.
I decided to take out the head unit to check to see which rca's are coming from where, and which wire was the turnoff. Just as I thought, the yellow wire is a turnoff. Started off as blue and which but it's cut and turns into a yellow wire. Theres a lot of wires back there that just go no where, is that normal? Probably not. This system is jank.

There's an rca for back/front/ and subwoofer. That's what the three rca's are from. Just like you said the multiple beige wires are the 8 wires coming from the door speakers. Those I can plug into any of the channel inputs or it's specific?

I think that's really the only confusion for me, besides what i think will be the biggest problem that I lost one of the wires...

And I have no idea where it went or what it did. It was something stupid though, like 3, 6 inch long wires tied together.

Otherwise I feel hopeful and confident that we can get this thing back together, at which point I'll be upgraded the HU.

It's a 2002 VW GTI by the way.

What kind of amps are you running?

If your 4 channel is lets say a 300 RMS amp, being 75 watts x 4 channels then yes, essentially it won't matter which channels you route your speaker wires to.

In the event the amp has a staggered power output (meaning 2 channels for example may do 100 watts each, and the other 2 50 watts) you'd generally send your mid range speakers to the first two, higher wattage channels. Then the tweets to the lower powered 3rd and 4 channels.

Knowing what kind of speakers are in the vehicle would help a lot too though, that way you know what their power handling capabilities are. You don't want to blast a little 40 watt low end tweeter with 200 watts.

Get what im getting at? Its all about matching the speaker to the amp. Should be pretty straight forward.

And the remote turn on wire can be whatever color, doesn't matter, but if running 2 amps, you'll want to add in another split in the main wire to branch it off for both amps. But if you plan on using remote voltage for anything more than 2 devices in the future, be it some volt meter displays, led's, etc you'll want to use a relay like i mentioned before.

 

[nquizit]

I just replied but dunno if it posted, let me try again.

The first is a alpine MRP-F300

Alpine MRP-F300 V-Power Series 4-channel car amplifier — 50 watts RMS x 4 at Crutchfield.com

and a baja H-1000

Profile HA1000 2-channel car amplifier 160 watts RMS x 2 at Crutchfield.com

Apparently those amps **** or something, any suggestions on upgrades? Or would it make any difference?

That wire I lost must have been the split for the turn off. With all this information IM pretty confident that we can get this thing back together!

Hopefully with all this information I can now put this thing back together.

 

[FML 10+ year member]

I just replied but dunno if it posted, let me try again.
The first is a alpine MRP-F300

Alpine MRP-F300 V-Power Series 4-channel car amplifier — 50 watts RMS x 4 at Crutchfield.com

and a baja H-1000

Profile HA1000 2-channel car amplifier 160 watts RMS x 2 at Crutchfield.com

Apparently those amps **** or something, any suggestions on upgrades? Or would it make any difference?

Hopefully with all this information I can now put this thing back together.

Ok. So like i had said, your Alpine 4 channel has an even output of 50 watts into each channel. Therefore you don't need to worry about wiring your speakers into specific channels. Its all the same.

Alpine makes good units and that will do just fine for you.

Have you opened up your doors to see what speakers you're running?

If they are just low to mid end speakers, chances are good 50 watts RMS won't hurt them. Its also not a huge amount either. If you think about it, most HU will do around 30 watts, so its just a tad bit better.

I personally like having a strong front end (my sub stage is massive and i highly dislike overpowering bass if i can't hear any lyrics or the music) . That being said, i buy drivers that take upwards of 300 watts to each 6.5, and anywhere from 100 to 150 to each tweeter. Provides a louder and much more clear front stage that blends much better with the woofers.

Which brings us to the sub and sub amp. What woofer? If you aren't gonna go crazy and run multiple thousands of watts to it, your front stage can be sufficient with what you have.

Also that amp is a lower end one, but like i said, you want to match the speakers to the amp.

If your sub is only 300 RMS and thats what your amp does, and you are happy with it, then you're set.

Its all about what you want. If your speakers sound weak, look into a higher quality set and then the amp to match them, same with the sub.

 

[nquizit]

Alright man today is the day I'm putting this back together. Still have no idea what Im doing and am leaving it up to guess and check. Mostly for the RCA's. And since I Lost some wire.But I'll let you know thanks again man!

 

[nquizit]

WEll going good so far I guess. The only problem im facing is where I'm supposed to put the rcas. The RCA's and speakers are all marked ch1 - 4. only problem is the speaker wire is marked with nothing. I realized this was a problem when trying to figure out which rca goes where. Im also guessing the the Subwoofer rca goes into the second 2 channel baja amp. So my final guess is that the 1-4 channel speaker wires need to be matched up to the 1-4 channel rca's going to the HU. This is all just theory mind you. But let me know if Im wrong and I'll just hook whatever up to whatever!

If I try to randomly find the correct order of rca's-speaker wire then theres a 1/2 chance I'll get the correct rca combo first try, but with 4 different speaker channels I'd have to try all 16 combinations on each of the possible 2 rca combinations. So 32 by my highschool math. Rather than taking apart the doors to find out which speakers go where.

Which brings me to my next point, how am I even supposed to know which speaker is supposed to go to what channel when it's just 8 unmarked cables at point a and point B?

Let me know if you need clarification on any of that mumbo jumbo.

So far I have hooked up:

Door speaker wires (8 wires ch 1-4)

Ground cables (both grounded in the same spot and not on there too well since I guess one of the screws got lost.)

Turn off cable to just the 4 channel amp (Plugged that into the REMOTE spot, that's correct isn't it?)

Think that's it.

It's cool to leave all the plugged in as long as I still have the power cables tapped off right? Or should I just plug the power cables up anyway. Only problem is that I dont have a turn off to the subwoofer amp.

FYI i do know that i sound like an idiot, but whatever gets this thing fixed. And im learning a lot in the process.

Thanks again man!