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Wire aftermarket subwoofer and amp to stock system

person371

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Joined
December 22, 2007
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City, State
MA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Merc Mountaineer
Recently I wired my aftermarket subwoofer and amplifier to my stock HU and system, and did it so that it worked in conjunction with the stock sub. I have the mach system with the speakers powered by the radio and the sub has its own amp. I started off by peeling off the rear passenger side panel where the stock sub and amp are located. I then unplugged the plug that goes into the stock amp. The sound inputs that go into it are not speaker level inputs but acually low level inputs (the same signal that rca cables use) which is actually a good thing. I took an old set of rca plugs (i used two of them because theres two rca inputs on my amp) and soldered them to a length of speaker wire (the inner wire of the rca cable is positive and the shielding around it is the negative). I then took the speaker wire and tapped (not cutting off) into the wires that carry the signal to the stock amp, in my case it was red/black stripes was positive and the brown/orange is negative. If I want to use my stock sub still I plug this back in, if I dont, I just leave it unplugged. I can now close this panel back up. The power and ground I ran as if I was doing an ordinary amp install. The remote turn on wire I ran to the harness in the back of the radio. The yellow/black wire in there is a 12v switched power wire that works nice for this. I have pics of this if u PM me i can mail them but do not have an image hosting site setup to post them. hope this helps out someone.
 



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why not sign up for photobucket? it's free. you could also download EZThumbnails to do a bulk resizing.
 






Recently I wired my aftermarket subwoofer and amplifier to my stock HU and system, and did it so that it worked in conjunction with the stock sub. I have the mach system with the speakers powered by the radio and the sub has its own amp. I started off by peeling off the rear passenger side panel where the stock sub and amp are located. I then unplugged the plug that goes into the stock amp. The sound inputs that go into it are not speaker level inputs but acually low level inputs (the same signal that rca cables use) which is actually a good thing. I took an old set of rca plugs (i used two of them because theres two rca inputs on my amp) and soldered them to a length of speaker wire (the inner wire of the rca cable is positive and the shielding around it is the negative). I then took the speaker wire and tapped (not cutting off) into the wires that carry the signal to the stock amp, in my case it was red/black stripes was positive and the brown/orange is negative. If I want to use my stock sub still I plug this back in, if I dont, I just leave it unplugged. I can now close this panel back up. The power and ground I ran as if I was doing an ordinary amp install. The remote turn on wire I ran to the harness in the back of the radio. The yellow/black wire in there is a 12v switched power wire that works nice for this. I have pics of this if u PM me i can mail them but do not have an image hosting site setup to post them. hope this helps out someone.
I am trying to do the same in my explorer . can u msg me i need advice
 






Original poster was last on here December 8, 2012...
 












If you click their name it shows info like last time seen, last thread watched, etc.

I’d just buy a line out converter and a real amp and sub. After all that work you will still have a lackluster subwoofer. A little more effort and you could have a real setup.
 






If you click their name it shows info like last time seen, last thread watched, etc.

I’d just buy a line out converter and a real amp and sub. After all that work you will still have a lackluster subwoofer. A little more effort and you could have a real setup.
I bought a 15 in sub and 4500 w amp both diablo i just dont know how to install it since factory radio has no rca output and it has factory amp and sub
 






You would use high level inputs on your amp, or you’d use a line out converter to convert speaker level outputs into an RCA output.

Extremely doubtful the amp does more than 1/4 of that wattage. If it did a true 4500 watts it’d take massive power and ground wires, and would require the “big three” upgrade as well as a larger alternator.
 






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