stock amp questions and answers...also dash kits

[regulator]

OK two part post....
I have a '95 explorer, and I thought I knew everything in the world there was to know about stereo stuff.....but why does everyone think that you have to bypass the stock amp in the explorer? I have a kenwood excelon 815 (great deck and work the money) and I have it running the stock deck? Would it be better if I bypassed it and just used the deck power? The only thing I had to do different was hook up the remote lead into the aftermarket harness that goes back to the amp.

Second-
ALEC was saying that Walmart makes a good dash kit for a 95+...personally I have that kit and it is terrible. You cant use the slot they put to hold stuff becuase it just falls out when you take off, and the thing doesnt want to stay in there anyways...
Does anyone know a good dash kit that doesnt have a storage compartment in it?

 

[leenjen]

bypass the stock amp

the stock amp is very inefficient and produces a lot of distortion. you will get a much cleaner sound from just your excelon HU (good choice).

the kit from wal-mart will work just as well as the others, you just have to install it properly.
you have to bend the metal tabs on the sleeve (on the headunit) up. then your headunit won't budge at all.

 

[leenjen]

oh, i misread your post. you meant stuff falls out of the pocket.
well, there is nothing you can do about that. Metra makes lots of install kits.
on some of my installs, i custom make the dash area around the headunit (carbon fiber, fiberglass). it's not that hard to do, it just takes a few days. but the results are amazing. you could try making your own.

 

[yaw]

A) i'm not sure if my factory amp has been bypassed or not. when i bought my navajo there was an aftermarket tape deck installed, so i assumed that they bypassed the amp when they did that. i just put in my HU and called it good.

B)when just pulling from the battery and the car is off, i can't turn it up very loud without it cutting out at nearly every major bass beat. also, when the car is running and i'm at a stop light i notice the same thing and my battery indicator dips down to the bottom 1/4..

the battery is new. and i'm starting to wonder if it's the factory amp that is the problem? i'm also guessing i need a new alternator, but since i don't have a huge power demand i would think the factory alt. could hanlde the music at a stop light. suggestions?

 

[leenjen]

try getting a capacitor, it provides power during deep bass hits and takes some stress off the alternator.

get a GOOD capacitor, not some cheap 16volt lightning audio or stinger. get at least 20volt with 24volt surge (or higher).

before i got my capacitors i had the same problem, now it's much better.

 

[yaw]

but i have just four speakers and head unit...it shouldn't be pushing that much should it? and what about when the car is off, isn't it drawing directly from the battery?

 

[JTang]

The reason everyone's going to tell you to bypass the amp is for the *chance* of distortion. This is because you're sending a high powered signal to an amp (stock or otherwise) that's expecting a low level signal. Two things can happen: it might be too much for the amp and help shorten its life span and secondly, the chance of distortion. If you buy a high powered head unit, you tend to run into this problem more often even when listening at moderate levels. If you have a low powered head unit, then you may not even notice it at all. I have an Alpine that has a whopping 7 watts RMS that used to be connected to the stock amp and never had a problem.

 

[espnfreak]

i bought an alpine 7863 headunit and i want to put some doors speakers in my car. i dont know if i have an amp but i have an autoset button. i was wondering if that cd headunit would be able to power the 2 pionner 5x7's and 2 infinity door speakers fine?