Hey guys... So I just finished putting in an Alpine CDA-9886 and I love it. What I did was connect all the wires correctly, installed the single DIN adapter, and ran the iPod cable to the armrest where its really stealthy like.

Also, I bought a JL A6450 6 channel amplifier.

Now the question is:
Since I didn't hook up the amp with the head unit, what am I going to have to do to hook that up later. I plan on gettin a small sub in the near future and I want all this wiring and stuff hooked up neat, and professionally.

From what I understand I have to run a power wire from the battery, through the grommet in the firewall, to the amp, to power the amp. Then from there I have to run wires from the headunit to the amp to the speakers. And then 2 wires (positive and negative) to the sub from the amp also. Now, when I hooked up the headunit straight to the speakers I had 2 wires (+,-) to each speaker, a wire for illumination, constant power, switch power and stuff like that. What am I going to have to disconnect and what not?

If you can in your explanation, include info about RCA's and stuff like that, that I don't understand. Act like you're explaining it to someone thats 6...

Thanks speaker/wiring experts

 

this one is easy, i have 3 amps wired up in my car and its easy once you know how.

1) disconnect battery
2) pull your head unit out of its DIN
3) plug your rca's into your left/right channel on the back of the cd player and run these down the opposite side of your car as your power wire (i suggest the passenger side for rca's) all the way to the amp
4) Find your 12+ volt constant on the back of the cd player
5) take your 12+ volt wire (the skinny one in an amp kit, real skinny) and connect it to the 12+ volt constant on the cd player and the 12+ volt constant on the car.
6) run the 12+ volt constant wire for the amp to to the back of the car to the amp and connect it
7) take your negative ground for the amp and find a good spot to connect it in the trunk, (should be a good bolt to the left in the trunk near the tailights. make sure to scrape away any paint on the METAL surface you use. connect the wire to the amp
8) take your power wire with whatever connection you use and unbolt the positive battery bolt.
9) connect the power wire to the battery post/bolt
10) run power wire through the rubber grommit that is located on the driver side to the left of the pedals on the firewall, run the power wire all the way to the trunk to the amp
and connect it.
11) your choice here you can A) run new speaker wire from the amp to the doors and the back deck or B) you can tap into the existing wires behind the head unit that run to your door speakers and tap into the existing wire on the back deck. (B is alot easier)
12) make sure everything is connected on the amp and headunit visually
13) reconnect battery
14) turn on cd player and cross your fingers that you have music

PS: zip ties usually make for a real neat install if you have lots of wire.
i have so many wires in my car i suggest you stick to using all the same color wire for everything. You know like Black for ground, red for power things like that. i unfortunately have a diagram for the wiring in my car. its crazy how much is really in there for all my electronics.

if i leave anything out let me know or add whatever you want

 

what you're going to need to do is run RCA wires (knukonceptz are great) from your head unit to your amp. I'd probably run a 2 channel wire and a 4 channel wire. That's what I did at least. It's more of a pain, but I think it's worth it, especially with your 6 channel amp. you're owners manual of the amp should tell you which channels are for your sub and which channels are for your highs. make sure these wires correspond between the 9886 and the amp. this is due to the 9886's subwoofer control. As for power wire, I'd go with 4awg. this should be plenty with your amp. When I had just my 4 channel amp running, i ran the power wire (8 awg) through the fender, and into the car via the rubber boot at the door jam. It's not hard to do if you have a buddy that can help you pull the door off, and since it sounds like you're planning on running all new speaker wire like i did, you're going to want to take the doors off, trust me. you should be able to get the 4 awg through the same spot, as i did with my buddy's 97 accord.

as for your guess at the wiring, you're pretty spot on. just keep in mind that you're going to need an inline fuse right near your battery, and that you'll need to ground your amp somewhere. also, the wires from your head unit to the amp are RCA's and the wires from the amp to your speakers is actual speaker wire. you should be fine running 16 awg all the way from your amp to the speakers. This will make life a lot easier than my install when I used 12 awg. As for your stock wiring that is hooked to your head unit, you don't have to unhook anything. You're going to be replacing all of that wire with stuff from your amp, and therefore when you unhook the wire from your speakers to hook in the new wire from your amp, that wire basically becomes a dead wire, as the circuit is no longer connected.

that should get you started, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask... good luck...

 

What exactly is an RCA and where do I connect it in the back of the head unit?

I'm confused about the 12volt stuff...

and Don't I need 4 gauge wire ffrom the amp to the speakers?


What is 12 awg... I'm guessin a guage of wire?

Do either of you have pictures of where you hid the wire, from the battery to the amp or from the amp to the speakers... or any pictures? I'm pretty confused, getting a better understanding though.

 

you have 6 RCA channels in the back of your head unit. on my 9884, i think they're on the back right, when looking at the front of the unit. they are 6 red/white connections (3 stacks of 2)...

The 12 volt is a wire that is already in your head unit, and should be blue. what it does is turns your amp off when you turn your head unit off. this keeps from draining your battery.

as for the wire from the amp to the speakers, do NOT use 4 gauge (4 awg). this wire would be absolutely monsterous, and only necessary if you're running like 10000 watts rms... you should be fine using 16 gauge (16 awg) speaker wire.

As for some pics, I have some... let me go take some more and I'll post them on my cardomain page for you to look at...

 

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2959759

That's my set-up... Feel free to ask any more questions or for more pics... I just took those tonight, and I'd take more if you ask... It was a pain in the ass to do, and I got help, so I'm more than willing to help out anybody else...

 

^good explanation, except that his is a 2.2 cl like mine,so the battery is on the passenger side, so you should run your power cable fom your battery down the passenger side, and the RCA's/ speaker wire down the driver side. Those wires you can tuck underneath the door sills, as shown in blackack's diy https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-cl-diy-faq-74/running-sub-amp-power-wire-through-firewall-492803/ , for my install i removed the carpet in the trunk along with the rear seat, just to make everything as clean and easy as possible, hope this helps, and i'll try to take pics of what my power wire looks like in my engine bay tmrw if i have time. (btw if you don't see RCA connectors on the back of your deck, check if you have any harnesses left over, cuz with my deck it was a seperate harness that plugged in with the RCA's) oh and also you can buy 6 channel RCA's like i did, but the monster ones i bought cost like 70 bucks

 

I know this much for sure.............you don't need to go to the battery for a constant 12v....it is all there....the RED wire is the ignition 12v and the YELLOW wire is the constant 12v you will just have to tap into these to connect your subs...but since you plan to hook it up at a later date make sure that these are blocked off properly after you run them to the trunk........ so that they don't short and blow your fuse......

The best route to go to the trunk is under the center console under the matt and then under the rear seat as the shortest dictance and minimum tucking under the carpet.... right through the center of the car...

 

JFK is right about the shortest distance, and that's where I ran my RCA's. Right now, my power wire runs down underneath the car... It's a pain, but it works great. And Mitch, it's not a good idea to run RCA's and speaker wire or power wire near each other... It's not bad for lower powered systems, but when you get up to some of the bigger stuff, the speaker wire should be separate from the RCA's. My speaker wire runs down the sides of the car (inside) with the RCA's running through the center of the console and then back to the trunk, and my power wire runs across my engine bay and down through a very small gap (not really sure exactly what's there, but it's all good) and is zip tied to the plastic piece that covers the fuel and brake lines underneath the driver's side of the car then enters the trunk through the spare tire well.... it was a pain to run, especially with the 0/1 awg, but it works great...

 

if you cant figure it out with this diagram lemme know but thats it in a nutshell for everything you want to hook up.

 

Hope you're gonna clean up thsoe wires in that trunk in your av

 

yeah i plan on putting together a nice box with an amp rack along the ride side of the sub box... the problem is finding time to build the thing... it'll also have a nice trim ring that goes in front of everything so i can still use part of my trunk... again, problem is finding time to build it...

 

I hear ya on that, I still need to rewire my system again, gonna work on it this weekend since my interior is ripped out again, can't wait to see it finished up though matt

 

u guys should see the clean install im doing for the trunk. although my box is so big i cant move it at all, i still have room for the amp racks and what not. cleaning it up and making it nice so no crazy fiberglass work or anything.

 

i didn't know running RCA's and speaker wire together would be a problem, but obviously the power wire is run down the other side of the car cuz it is a 1/0 guage. But the speaker wire is twisted, and made for noise rejection along with the RCA's. I dunno what your definition of lower powered systems is, cuz currently my speakers are getting 112 W RMS each, and my amp is capable of 1700 W RMS+

 

here's a pic of what i made my power wire and fuse look like under my hood, looks almost factory, wire loom ftw

 

mitch, I didn't mean by any means to insult your system, or anything like that. I was just saying that, as precaution, it's good to run the RCA's and speaker wire separate... Especially when it's pretty easy to run the RCA's through the center console like I did. Given it's not as easy as running them along the side of the car, but it's really not bad... It actually sounds like you have a bigger system than mine... I'm running about 1000 rms between my 2 amps. Hopefully I'll be able to put in a bigger sub amp here sometime since my sub's rated at 600 watts rms, but I've heard about people running 1000+ on it all day...

 

not to brag or anything but im pushing 3500 or so

 

Mine's more of a SQ set-up than a pure SPL set-up... Blind, I saw your videos on cardomain, and that thing is sick... Also, I didn't have to cut a nice big hole in my rear deck...

 

Good god clean that engine bay mitch!!!

 

i was cracking a joke at my own excess i guess. i think i might be a little obsessive compulsive

 

^damn i was hoping no one would notice, but at least the wiring is clean, and matta, i shoulda done what you did when making a system, first by running the rca's through the center, and by also getting two amps instead of one, cuz i wanna get more power going to the subs, but then i would need to either buy another amp or just buy two new ones, now that i know the next system (if i ever have another one) will be a lot better, oh and damn you blind with your twice as much power as me, but i can still make my rearview mirror shake like yours with a sealed box and no ports through the seats or rear deck

 

Same here... i actually got a complaint from one of the neighbors when I was testing the thing out to see why my sub amp was shutting off... He said "it's hard to sleep when all I feel is the bass in my chest..." this guy lives across the street... Mitch, what amp are you running? It sounds pretty comparable to my 450.4 which according to the birthsheet from Rockford, is putting out 92 x 4 at 4 ohms... And yeah, the 2 amp set up is sweet... The only problem is figuring out which amp rack design I wanna go with, as a buddy of mine and I are building the thing tomorrow...

 

Hoping no one would notice? LOL I almost threw up when I saw that engine bay.

Looks like you're on a good path though, I'd def add another amp, I already have all my wiring ready for my highs amp, and new highs, just gotta put the amp in there. Just clean that EB, I can eat off mine and I haven't cleaned it in almost 2 years

 

How much have you driven in the last 2 years? just giving you crap, even though your car absolutely owns mine. What kind of highs you running, and what amp? I have Polk/Momo components front and rear with the Rockford 450.4 and they sound great. I'm just interested to find out what everyone else is running...

 

Just broke 1000 miles for the last 2 years

 

shit, I've put 1000 on mine in the last 3 weeks...

 

part of my system too are polk/momo components. i have 4 total running off a soundstream 260.4 for the real good SQ at lower volume when im not trying to be loud and annoying and for the rest its all Emminence and Bullet Tweeters powered by a Hifonics 440.4 my bass is four 12" cvr's powered by an old school mmats 2200.1 almost forgot my center channel is 2 infinity kappa tweeters powered off the HU with 3 optimas total

 

yeah, you definitely have more stuff, and therefore, more wires and everything else that goes along with that... I'd love to hear it sometime, but you're in florida and i'm in ohio... unless there was some huge meet or something, i don't think it's going to happen...

A 260.4? What kind of RMS does that feed those polks? Mine are getting 98 from a Rockford 450.4 and it seems like they could take more if I had it... either way I bet they sound great...

 

his bay isnt as bad as mine..


damn smarch weather

 

Sooooooooooo clean it?

 

yea unfortunately i have a wiring diagram to my car that is pretty big. cant see any of it except in the trunk. the soundstream 260.4 is underated at 260 watts rms at 4 ohm so im guessing around 350 rms or so. could be more could be less, the hifonics 440 is alot louder but then its underrated also. soundstream sounds better though. only .02 thd

 

I'm running a Rockford Fosgate Power 1000 "25 to life" 5-channel amp.
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ..._id=101755&loc
it's a pretty good amp but i shoulda got diff subs to run it at one ohm on the sub channel.

 

it always helps to preplan everything like that. like how many speakers where at what ohms so you know which amp will match. i always spend the most on the amp

 

ya i spent a lot on the amp, but then i started buying everything else after that, and i couldn't just have crappy components, with a good amp, so i ended up spending at least twice as much as i intended to. and i did match the amp and subs up, but only to run the amp on the sub channel at two ohms, cuz i didn't want to give the amp too much stress and cause it to heat up a lot by running it at one ohm. But it runs like a champ right now, so i'm thinking of getting some different subs...possibly.

 

good luck with whatever you do finally decide to do with it all. i always try to listen to the components i plan on buying. i had an enfuriating power problem that would reappear every few weeks for the past 3 months, finally figured it out. the mmats battery has about 1 in. of wiggle room in the trunk and its enough to mess with the ground coming from the mmats amp. took so long to figure out because every time i stopped the battery slid back and it worked fine again i feel like an arse for not being able to figure it out earlier. scared me to think my very rare amp had a problem.

 

So i spent around 15 hours today working on the amp rack for my trunk... Turns out I have a completely dumb ass friend who cant design anything that will fit... First off, he put together a piece that was about to fall apart... When he left, my dad and I rigged it up so that it would be really freaking strong... Well, unfortunately, since the trunk was completely gutted, we didn't check for fitment... And when it finally came time to put everything back together, it didn't fit... Not only that, but according to this kid, he ran every wire in my car, and my front right speaker wires are short and barely go into the amp rack box... So I get to spend tomorrow searching for more wire somewhere along the right side of my car, and trying to find some more wood to put this stupid amp rack together with... I guess the lesson to be learned is "if you want something done right, do it yourself..."

 

This is why I don't let anyone work on my car anymore, half assed FTL

 

^^ x2 ive let a few people over the years handle my cars, mainly just audio stuff i wasnt capable of years back. ive always helped anyone working on my car, to me its like a free lesson, plus i usually pay less for helping also. i also understand that NOBODY cares about my car like i do. nobody cares if it gets scratched, banged, stolen, busted. unless its a tranny or something very difficult that i know i cant do, i will always do it myself. i wanna see a pic of the amp rack when your done. mine is very simple, mainly just beauty plates to cover the wiring/batteries/wood things like that.

 

I let people work on my brakes, cuz I don't wanna do that myself, that's the only work I won't do myself, that and tires. If my CL ever has to go to the shop for anything, even a state inspection, I always take my CF hood off as well, cuz no mechanic is trusted to touch that hood.