car amp

Synlor · Post by **Synlor** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 8:25 pm

just for the new people to the forum: anything to do with hardware/electronics are allowed here.

my brother got a sub and amp today, and we've had a hard time getting everything to work. Mostly the accessory wire and postive 12 volt wire.

first off, i can't find a hole to bring the 12 volt wire to the battery of the car, any ideas? and what is a gromet? i think it is somewhat related to th is, but i'm not sure. if i drill a hole, how will i insulate it?

the accessory wire is supposed to go somewhere on the cd player, but i'm not sure where, anyone know?

thanks everyone

WhtCastle · Post by **WhtCastle** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 10:59 pm

corta2863 wrote:just for the new people to the forum: anything to do with hardware/electronics are allowed here.

my brother got a sub and amp today, and we've had a hard time getting everything to work. Mostly the accessory wire and postive 12 volt wire.

first off, i can't find a hole to bring the 12 volt wire to the battery of the car, any ideas? and what is a gromet? i think it is somewhat related to th is, but i'm not sure. if i drill a hole, how will i insulate it?

the accessory wire is supposed to go somewhere on the cd player, but i'm not sure where, anyone know?

thanks everyone

There should be wiring that goes through the firewall, you should be able to fit the wiring through there.

Also your deck needs to have what is called 'pre-outs' on the back, they should look like RCA jacks.

If you got more car audio questions you know where to find me. What kind of products did he get??

TheDumbAss · Post by **TheDumbAss** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 1:56 am

if i drill a hole, how will i insulate it?

Thats what the gromet is for... its a rubber thing that fills the holes in the firewall. It normally goes around wires or cables running through the firewall. If you look there may already be a hole with a gromet in it that eather doesnt have any wires going through it or maybe one that has a small wire that you can make a bigger hole in for the amp cable too.

the accessory wire is supposed to go somewhere on the cd player

Some stereos now have an accessory lead. If your brothers doesnt then maybe it has a power antenna lead? But power antenna doesnt work for all stereos since some are smart enough to only put the antenna up when actually listening to a radio station.

Third option... find a wire in the dash that is only on when the car is on and splice into it. That way the amp is only drawing power while the car is running.
Fourth option... Older cars have an ACC plug in the fuse box. (mine does) You could run the ACC wire from the amp to that plug... and it would act like the third option. Not sure if newer cars have them or not... my guess is that they would.

Also your deck needs to have what is called 'pre-outs' on the back, they should look like RCA jacks

Actually... that depends on the amp.
Many cheap or old amps take speaker level input. You can get and adaptor that converts speaker level to line level too... but both result in lower quality output from the amp then straigh line level input would.

I'm a bit rusty... but I've got a good deal of car audio experiance too... Hell... my car stereo (just the stereo not the amp/speakers/etc) costed me $525. The problem with that is that its now 5+ years old... so its rather outdated. The sound quality is still there though

.

WhtCastle · Post by **WhtCastle** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 2:03 am

Yea, but I would hope that they wouldn't choose to go cheap on stuff. Then again that is just me getting tired of hearing crappy audio setups :/

TheDumbAss · Post by **TheDumbAss** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 2:49 am

Then again that is just me getting tired of hearing crappy audio setups

I'm with you on that... I have to fight myself from trying to give people tips on how to better tune their system. Last time I did (told a guy with just subs and some over driven tweeters he NEEDED some kind of mids.) the guy took it as an insult and got VERY upset.

And (you'll probibly agree) if properly setup... cheap stuff can sound good. I've seen it done and have done a decent job with cheap stuff myself before with a friends car. Not as good as nice set up with quality equipment but still better then a bad set up with the most expensive equipment you could buy.

Synlor · Post by **Synlor** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 7:09 am

thanks for the help guys, but i think i know what your talking about now for the remote wire. i think i will have to drill a hole, because all the other cables are to big. so where can buy a gromet? would ultimate electronics or best buy have them?

WhtCastle · Post by **WhtCastle** » Tue Sep 17, 2002 6:53 pm

TheDumbAss wrote:
Then again that is just me getting tired of hearing crappy audio setups
I'm with you on that... I have to fight myself from trying to give people tips on how to better tune their system. Last time I did (told a guy with just subs and some over driven tweeters he NEEDED some kind of mids.) the guy took it as an insult and got VERY upset.

And (you'll probibly agree) if properly setup... cheap stuff can sound good. I've seen it done and have done a decent job with cheap stuff myself before with a friends car. Not as good as nice set up with quality equipment but still better then a bad set up with the most expensive equipment you could buy.

You also need to realize that unless they are building a system for competition (Especially if it is a SQ one) as long as the system sounds good to THEM, then they don't need to mess with it. It is thiers, if they are happy with the sound, they shouldn't change it cause someone else doesn't like it. You CAN give advice though as to what you like and tell them to at least check it out.

*edit* You can also tell them what to expect, even though it might not be what they want to hear......

Just like most everything......all just opinion.....

arrowhead · Post by **arrowhead** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 11:16 pm

When I was installing my amp, I bought the gromets at Pep Boys. They were made by a company called Wiz. If you are interested in making the installation a little cooler, you could install a switch (mine is a red LED switch) that would turn the amp on/off. It looks clean. You could mount it on the dash. All you have to do is cut/connect the remote wire to the switch with a ground somewhere, and if the amp is only for the subs, you could turn it off if you see a cop, or whatever. Noise pollution tickets are very expensive. I have been issued two in the past (before the switch) and both were more than 100 bucks. Anyway, gromets at Pep Boys.

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