Amp/Speaker Question...

[Alienman8]

Just making sure I don't do anything that will damage anything, I am currently in the process of adding an amp (4 channel) and new speakers (in all the doors, meaning 4 new speakers). Now the question: Would it cause a problem if I soldered together the factory speaker wires, and the newly run speaker wires coming from the new amp together thus the speaker would be able to get signal from both(Once everything is finalized, the speaker would not be getting signal from the factory head unit, only the amp) The only reason why I am asking is because... lets say if i wanted to hook my i-pod up while the car is off and listen to it through the amp/test the amp etc. etc. would that pose a problem? Could it damage the factory amp if it is going through the factory wiring and back to the radio? is any damage likely from this?

Edit: just as more info/clarification. The car is a 2007 explorer sport trac, standard head unit. Also when i say factory amp, I am basically talking about the head unit, since I do not believe the explorer sport trac has a separate amp outside of the head unit

If anything is unclear, let me know, I tend to make a big mess of things when I'm trying to get all my thoughts down. Thanks in advance -Kevin

 

[617ricky]

I'm a little unclear on what you mean exactly when you say "get signal from both", but then when it's finalized it will only get power from the amp.. You're saying you wanna solder new speaker wire from the amp directly to the terminal and leave the factory wires too? If you did that, how would it only draw power from the amp when it's finalized? If your amp is good enough, I would just run that by itself by either cutting the factory wires and splicing them with the wires coming from the amp, or better yet get the proper adaptors they sell so you leave the stock connectors, but are able to have a new connection coming from the amp wires..

I'm actually in a similar position right now with my 97 - I'm using an aftermarket deck WITH the stock amp, and it's not ideal, cuz of the excess power.. I can only put the volume up halfway, and you gotta be really on top of the eq levels cuz there's a fine line where it sounds distorted.. I'm in the process of changing all that tho, cuz like I said it's not ideal, and it has the capability of sounding better if done properly.

 

[Alienman8]

Basically, I was doing this installation in steps, the first thing I did was replace the rear door speakers, theres two sets of wires running to them, the factory, and the new ones that go to the amp. Well last night I finally got around to installing the amp for the door speakers, and was testing it out with the car off(radio off, meaning I was using my IPod, and a 3.5 mm to RCA adapter cable running the signal to the amp)And everything was working fine. I finished the install at like 2 in the morning last night, so I cleaned up and didn't bother starting the car or anything. Now this morning I try to move my car out of the garage, car wont start, and after I recharge the battery (we have a trickle charger type device) the radio turns on, but no sound is coming from the speakers, So... Condensed version: Will an amp, pushing 100 watts RMS, damage the factory head unit if the wires are leading back to it, the speakers for the back doors are wired directly to both the amp, and the head unit. Also, I removed the factory head unit earlier today, and it was unusually warm for not doing anything, so I really think I somehow managed to do something to it.

Sorry for it not being clear, Like I said, my thoughts have a tendency to become all messed up when writing on forums for some reason hahaha -Kevin

 

[617ricky]

the amp is 100w rms per channel or total? I can't see what you've done hurting the deck (although I don't have the expertise to be 100% positive).. What it will do tho, is probably put strain on the speakers if they can't handle the power.. You can basically tell by putting the volume up and seeing when distortion becomes noticeable.. If you can only put it up halfway, or you can't put the bass up a little, it's not good.. If it's a decent amp, you're just better off running wires ONLY from that to the speakers IMO, but if you wanna keep it like that and it sounds ok, I don't see it being a big problem..

Why do you want to be able to run it just off the amp with the car off tho - is it something you'd be doing often? With an amp, that will kill the battery pretty quick I'd imagine as you saw lol.. You could still do that if you were running ONLY the amp too, by connecting the ipod to the deck and putting on the accessory power.. Then you could have it hooked up properly just off the amp.. For me, it would come down to the sound quality, and I'd bet it would sound better w/ just the amp, and it wouldn't be a hard install to do it right..

 

[Alienman8]

100 watt rms per speaker, the speakers are handling it fine, no distortion. Anyway, the reason why it is like it is right now is because I am going in steps I do "know" what I am doing/plan on doing, but I've now hit this wall and I'm not sure what to do other than get a new head unit. If everythig went according to plan, I wouldve had a line out converter being used to get signal to send to amp to power speakers... But that's not going to happen if nothing is coming from the speakers. Unless there is an amp in the sport trac outside of the headunit, I might have fried t, or maybe it's something else internal. I'm not entirely sure.

 

[617ricky]

oh so nothing is coming from the speakers at all now? that's exactly what happened to me when I put in a new deck, and it was cuz there was a stock amp i didn't know about.. so what I had to do to get it working, was connect the power/ground wires for the stock amp on the harness, and now i'm basically amplifying the signal coming from my new deck..

 

[techboj]

Let me see if I got you correctly. First you have all the original wiring from the headunit to the speakers -----> Then you have another run of wire from a new to the the door speakers as well ----> Then, once you're finished you said that you were going to disconnect the wiring from the speakers to the headunit and the system will receive power only from the amp

If I understood correctly and you are merely doing this for testing purposes then I see no reason why it should be an issue. However, you have to make sure when everything is finalized that NONE of the factory wires leading from the radio to the deck are connected. As an added safety, the wires at both ends (the ones near the deck and the ones at the speakers) should have no connection. Leaving either end connected could result in a "short" that could damagr either the speakers or the headunit or both

If your factory deck does not have an aux in and you wanted to run your ipod off your amp then that could still be done. It is possible to do some sort of selector switch that could select the signal source between the factory deck and the ipod. So say for example position 1 uses the headunit at the signal source and feeds the amp. Position 2 uses the ipod as the signal source

There are several considerations to take note of. First, depending on how you wired your amp to turn on. If the amp turns on together with the headunit then even if your selector switch is in position 2, the headunit should still be turned on. Second, the way the signal from the factory deck goes to the amp can be either of the two: - full headunit output going to high input side of the amp (if your amp has one) or attenuated headunit output (signal passing through a Line out Converter or a LOC) feeding into the low side of the amp. The high level input of an amp usually uses screw in terminals or a 4-way plug. The low level input of an amp usually uses rca connectors.

So now, if you chose the first option above then having a switching selector will not yield good results. Since the signal from the factory deck is higher than the ipod output then one would be louder than the other. This would mean that the amp gain would be high in order to compensate for the ipod's output. This could result in a lot of distortion when you switch to deck mode

Now back to the "testing" you did last night. How long did you leave the amp running while connected to the ipod? Did you turn off the amp after you were done? Leaving the amp energized for extended durations (even if there is no sound being produced) would place a substantial drain on the battery. In some cases, running a moderately sized amp for just 30 minutes is enough to drop the voltage below car start capacity

If you are going to connect an aftermarket amp to the factory deck, please make sure that you have a way to turn off the amp when not in use. If the deck does not have a remote turn on wire then at the very least have an on-off switch for the amp. If you are using a LOC, some models have a signal sense wire that also turns the amp on.

Good luck on your install !!

 

[Alienman8]

I currently have an Ipod hook up in my car, its from best buy, an Isimple, its pretty good. anyway, the testing 2 night really didn't last long at all it was maybe 10 minutes at most. Regardless of any of this, is there any place that I can take the radio to that could possible test it to see if it works? I'd guess a ford dealership would... but it is a dealership, and would probably cost a lot for doing practically nothing but plugging in a plug and seeing if it plays music. I guess I could do it myself, but it would be a little difficult.
Thank you very much for all the info!