Install questions of new deck and/or speakers

[Brian1]

First I would like to say i do not know much about audio systems. I searched for answers to the following questions and didn't really find a clear answer. Right now I have a completly stock system on my 91 4 door.

I am probably going to buy a Pioneer CD deck 40 watts x4 (DEH1100) It comes with a free basic install at Best Buy or Circuit City. How much extra should I expect to pay for parts and other stuff. (mounting plate, wiring harnesses) Does the stock amp need to be bypassed with a 40 watt deck?

The second part of my question is about speakers. I have some Alpine speakers (only 2) that are round and have a 6.5 inch diameter. They have 50 watts RMS ,150 watts peak and 2 way. Will these work in one of the stock locations if so which door? Secondly, are these good speakers for the deck I am going to get and are they better than the stock speakers? Lastly, is it easy to install the speakers - does it use the stock wiring?

Thanks

(My 100th post!!! )

[Edited by Brian1 on 08-08-2000 at 08:46 PM]

 

[Turner55]

let's see if i can attempt to answer a few of those....when i got my cd receiver all i bought extra was the wiring harness which was like $10-$15...i cant remember...i dont know anything about a stock amp...
the 6 1/2 speakers will fit in the factory speaker slots i think...though i'm not sure if you need some kind of mounting bracket or anything. they should definately be better than the stock speakers...just about any aftermarket speaker you can buy will be better than stock (correct me if i'm wrong)...
i installed 4 new speakers a few days ago and, to me, the hardest part of it was getting the door panels back on after i put the speakers in...luckily i have a two-door so i only had to take off two...i'm not sure what you have.
anyways, all the speakers have two wires going to each one...all the wires are different colors or they have different colored stripes...one of the two is positive and one negative...i went to the audio place here and they told me which color was positive and which was negative for each speaker...i'll give em to you if you need them...but anyway you just use some wire connectors and connect the positive wire from the speaker to the positive stock wire with crimpers and the negative to negative...
hope this helps you out

 

[wabbit]

factory amp bypass-YES

Brian,
Installing any aftermarket in-dash unit will require that you bypass the factory amp on your Explorer.
Have you ever done business with Crutchfield? When I bought my system from them they were excellent in providing all the harnesses and bypasses with great instructions on removing panels and hooking it up. The DEH-1100 is $149 on their website.
The 6 1/2" rounds can be made to fit in the doors but you will have to fab mounting plates for them. I would suggest skipping that ordeal and getting two pairs of 5x7,6x8 speakers for direct bolt-in replacement of the factory speakers. You can find several good ones at http://www.crutchfield.com for $99 or less per pair. Again all connections, instructions are provided.
And, if you are a new customer, and you list me as a referral, you get $25 off of your purchase of $250 or more.
To get this discount, be sure to mention that I referred you. My customer number is 13050050.
Happy shopping!!

 

[Turner55]

factory amp??

uh oh, what factory amp? do all explorers have them or just like the EB's? all i did was get the wiring harness and plug it in to the stock connections and then crimp all the connections to the receiver...what does it do if you dont bypass the factory amp?...cuz i'm pretty sure i didnt

 

[Skippman]

Wabbit is incorrect. You do NOT have to bypass the factory amp, especially if the only thing your installing is a new head unit. However, if you are using the factory amp you must make sure to connect the "remote power" lead to the amp. Some decks dont have remote power leads, if that's the case you'll need to bypass the factory amp (located in the passangers side kick pannel in the storage bay.) and connect the speaker leads to the head unit directly. Otherwise you will get no sound. (signal to the amp, but the amp is getting no power, so no singal FROM the amp.)

As for the speaker mounts, you can fabricate them yourself from 1/4" plywood. Make sure when you connect the speakers you wire positive to positive and negative to negative. If it's not labled on the amp, use this old installers trick. Hook a C-Cell battery up to the speaker. If it's wired right the cone will protrude (stick out). If it's wrong, the speaker will contract (sink in). Any other questions, just ask.

 

[Turner55]

i cant remember if it had a remote power wire or not, but do i need to worry about it if it's working fine now?

 

[Skippman]

Nope, the only side effect of not wiring the remote power lead is the amp would not turn on. If the amp didnt turn on there would be no sound at all. So you must have it wired correctly.

 

[Turner55]

heh, cool...i must have just gotten lucky when i installed it cuz if it didnt work i wouldnt have known what i had done wrong...that was the first time i ever messed with this kind of stuff
aww, kick@$$!! i'm at 3 explorers!

 

[wabbit]

confused but concerned..??

Skip,
I guess if it's working for Turner55 that's proof enough for me...
But, in this mode, isn't he powering his speakers with the factory amp as opposed to utilizing the power output of the new in-dash unit???
Most decent ones put out between 17-25 watts RMS x 4 channels. I don't think the factory amp measures up to that.

 

[Turner55]

yeah mine's 45x4...but i only need to turn it up to 7 on the volume level for it to get nice and loud and i had to turn the factory head unit to halfway before it would get that loud...i dunno

 

[Skippman]

Ok, firstly Turner what power the head unit says it will do is it MAX PEAK output, not the RMS or Readily Maintained Signal. The RMS is the average output the head unit produces. As for weather or not the factory amp is any better than a new head unit, it's determined by alot of things. Ohms and Watts really. Is it a 40 Watt load delivered at 8 ohms, or is it a 20 Watt load delivered at 2 ohms. The later would produce a louder sound. I hope, Turner, that you bought a head unit with pre-amp outs for later use. For now, Good Job Mate!

 

[Brian1]

Thanks for all your replies. I will leave the install of the head unit to a pro. So I should expect to pay $10 - $20 extra for parts? Later on I might tackle installing the speakers. Would replacing the front ones be a better fit than the rear speakers?

 

[wabbit]

front and rear are same mount-up...

The front does have more limited back clearance from the window path. But with most speakers and retaining the factory spacer bracket the speaker magnet will clear the window path. If your gonna do only one set, I'd do the fronts to up the sound quality.
To reiterate, if you want to utilize the power of your aftermarket in-dash unit, you must bypass the factory amp.
If not, you can use line signal out of your in-dash and power your speakers with the factory amp. I don't know what the power output of the factory amp is but whether measured in peak or RMS, I don't believe it is comparable to most decent in-dash units.
Also, when you speak of power output of an amp, it is ALL ABOUT WATTS RMS. This holds true for factory amps, gonzo mega amps, and in-dash units. Impedance (Ohms) is a property of the speaker(load). For any given speaker set, a higher supplied RMS wattage signal will perform better.

 

[Turner55]

i dont think i'm running mine under the factory amp because of how much i had to turn up the volume in my factory unit...once again, i only have to turn it up to 7 for it to get really loud and on the factory i had to turn it up more than halfway to get it loud...suppose i am using the factory amp...would i only have to turn it up to 3 or 4 for it to be really loud? i dont think so...somehow i must have bypassed it or something...by the way, where exactly is it and how do you bypass it?

i just checked and it has 22 watts RMS

[Edited by Turner55 on 08-09-2000 at 07:37 PM]

 

[wabbit]

OK, try this...

If you put in your own in-dash, you know how easy it is to slide it back out enough to look at how it's connected.
Use your In-dash manual to verify--
A. your in-dash receiver SPEAKER outputs are connected to the "harness" that sends line signal back to the factory amp.
OR... B. your in-dash receiver LINE outputs are connected to the "harness" that sends line signal back to the factory amp.
If it is "A." you need to bypass the factory amp for best sound quality.
In a nutshell, bypassing the factory amp converts the connection wires behind the in-dash from line signal to speaker wires.

 

[Turner55]

probably a stupid question but what are the line outputs?
and where's the factory amp?

 

[wabbit]

good question... you should learn this...

OK..
Line outputs are not meant to drive(power) speakers. They are a low voltage audio signal that goes into a seperate amp which supplies the power to the speakers.
Most line outs are the RCA type connectors on the back of the in-dash unit.
Most harness adapters, like you said you used, connect the SPEAKER OUTPUTS of the in-dash unit to the car's stereo wiring system. This would be fine if those wires went straight to the speakers in the doors. BUT... in your Explorer, they do not. They go to a factory amp which is located behind the passenger side rear panel.
If you don't wanna get a amp bypass harness or track down a wiring diagram, etc., another way around this is to just run seperate speaker wires from your in-dash unit (speaker outs) directly to the speakers.

 

[Turner55]

so where do you by the amp bypass harness if you dont want to rewire all the way from the head unit to the speakers? i really dont want to take all those freakin panels off

 

[wabbit]

Turner,
Let's not forget you said earlier that you are happy with the way your stereo sounds as it sits. But, if you are compelled to get the most of your system, do take the time to get this hooked up right.
It's one panel to get to the amp. Just get all the screws out before you start pullin' and pryin'. Your in-dash may slide out without removing any plates, etc.
The bypass harness should be available at BestBuy, CCity, and I'm sure Crutchfield has them. (they add it for free with a in-dash purchase).
As it sits now, I'm assuming your in-dash is feeding speaker out power to the factory amp line signal in.
I am suprised this works, and if it does I'm sure it is very loud but not too good (aka- BAD) sound quality. At least try it both ways so you can go with what you think sounds best.

Warren

 

[brianb9]

Power in RMS

Just a note for those interested RMS is root mean squared and is how the power of the amplifier is measured. Also almost any after market unit will sound better if the stock amp is bypassed ( as Wabbit said earlier) as it is of marginal quality comparitively. I've had several units with and without separate amps and all blew away the stock system.

Hope this helps.

Brian