stock factory amp - bypass?

[DJ FADE 10+ year member]

i have a dodge dakota that had the infinity stereo upgrade. ive upgraded my front component speakers to cdt audio 6.5s and ive upgraded my headunit to an eclipse av8132. the rear speakers are the factory infinity's. my question is: should i bypass the factory amplifier? i didnt realize it was even in there when i hooked up my new headunit, but its there. so what are the positives and negatives of running new wires to the speakers? also, im having what some has said is a ground loop (alternator whine) - would this be caused by having the speakers dually amplified? any help would be great. thanks!

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[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

pros and cons to running new speaker wire....

well i guess the cons would be the pain of running the wire, and the fact that if you end up running the lines next to a power cable for an amp (if your doing and aftermarket amp) you get the infamous ground loop. other than that there are no real downers to this job. oh yeah and phase inversion is bad for mains too.

pros would be you get to run higher quality wiring than the factory crap. I would deffinetly not use any stock stuff, if youve already put in aftermarket things. the stock items where ment to sound good and compliment each other, not to be used with other/ newer items.

the ground loop problem you have going on may be there since you do have two different amps going (which both have seperate grounds - causing the loop). it could also be because some where along the line the speaker wires are now running next to the power lines for the deck, or for an aftermarket amp.

peace,

John

 

[DJ FADE 10+ year member]

what ohm load do the factory speakers run at? im worried that they run at 1 ohm or something (as ive heard), and if i take out the factory amp and hook up the factory speakers that theyll fry my headunit/amp. any input?

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

definately don't dually amp them. it'll sound terrible. i have a grand cherokee with the infinity system and i ran an amp threw the factory harness and it didn't sound good. i took that amp out and have my comps running on the factory amp and i have to say, they sound pretty good.

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

Just bypass the fronts on the factory amp, leave the rears hooked up to the amp and disconnect the head unit from the rears. So at the end youll have all the power from the head unit powering the fronts and the stock amp powering the rears.... or you could spend 200 and get a cheap 4 ch amp and rewire the whole system.