Hey guys/girls,

I recently blew my stock woofer in my 08 TL-S so I installed some old equipment I had: 10" MTX sub in a sealed box + MTX amp - the bass is tight/clean and sounds way better than stock. I also have another old amp kicking around Kenwood KAC-628. Would there be any benefit to amping the stock fronts with this? I don't mind how the stock system sounds but if I can get cleaner sound from the fronts with this amp I'd like to install it. If not, I'll just stick with stock for now. I've been reading a lot of posts on here stating line drivers may be required (pre stock amp) and tapping the signal after the stock amp would produce a dirtier sound with hiss.

If I do use the amp I would connect it before the stock amp.

Input sensitivity: .15V - 4.0V (line driver required??)
Rated Power 4ohm = 50W x 2
Rated Power 2ohm = 75W x 2
Bridged Power at 4ohm = 150W x 1
Signal to noise ratio - 100db

Thanks in advance!
Jon

 

bump for some input

 

Don't know about better sound if you don't upgrade the speakers, but given the input specs it should work without line drivers...

 

I haven't done it but I also heard that you would get a hiss on the mids if you used the speaker outputs from the factory amp instead of the preamp signal.

Yes your amp can be installed without line drivers because it has speaker level inputs.

However, the nail in the coffin is that it's rated for 75W per channel at 2 ohms. The factory speakers have a 2 ohm impedance and are probably rated at a maximum of 25 Watts. (If anyone can verify this, I would appreciate it!)

So, if you want to use that amp, you would need speakers too, otherwise you'll likely blow the OE speakers.

Edit: Btw, nice ride yo!!!!

 

control the amp's power to the speakers via the gain knob. for this discussion just basically think of it as a volume knob for the amp. as long as you keep the gain and HU volume in check the speakers will be fine and will probably sound a little better than stock.
if you want to use the preamp signal for cleaner sound you *might* need a line driver. It really depends on the amp and how well it handles low voltage signals. Generally the higher the signal voltage going to the amp the cleaner the sound is. Just don't exceed your amps recommendation. A pretty good line driver that I've used in the past on my TL is the rockford fosgate RF-BLD. It can take a 650mv input and output up to 11v unbalanced.

 

Thanks Gregerst!

The amp I would be using has an input sensitivity: .15V - 4.0V. Do you or anyone else know of any aftermarket harnesses that will interface between the stock HU and stock amp and from the stock amp to the speakers? I'm trying to find the cleanest way to integrate my amp without hacking up the factory harnesses. I believe someone else used an iSimple cable (or something similar) but couldn't find a connector for the other harness.

 

I'm not aware of any direct fit harnesses. An option to consider is solderless wire splice connectors. I've used them in the past. I'd much rather cut and solder though and if you do it right it wouldn't be that hard to put it back to stock.

 

Thanks. I've used those in the past but I think I would need to cut the wires anyway to prevent them from going to the factory amp. Might as well cut and solder like you mentioned. I was just hoping to find some harnesses that could be put inline and cut then removed if needed.

 

You could also run new speaker wire which would eliminate the need to cut as many of the factory wires. Are you planning to amp the front doors and tweeters? Do you have a crossover?

 

Very true! I was hoping to amp the front doors and tweeters. The amp does have a HPF but it's not adjustable. If replacing the amp and using the stock speakers/tweeters isn't going to make a noticeable difference, I'm probably better off leaving things alone. I've heard a couple members mentioning it may improve things.

 

It would sound a little better but honestly with that two channel amp I'm not sure it would be worth the effort. I'd skip trying to amp the factory speakers and just upgrade them with some 2-way components. Mid / tweeter / passive crossover. There's lots of inexpensive choices out there that would work well with the 75w x 2 of your amp and would sound better than the stockies.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/viewc...rder=price_asc

 

Amping the stock speakers makes a very noticeable improvement in sound quality and of course output. I was surprised to say the least. Of course, the amp and speakers should be upgraded but while the stock amp will not push most less efficient aftermarket speakers very well, resulting in less output than stock, doing the amp first will result in nice gains while you're saving up for aftermarket speakers.

The main thing is to be careful with the highpass. I had mine running on a 75w JL amp and I couldn't go any lower than 120hz or they would bottom out. They handled the higher power nicely and were overall more dynamic, detailed, and clear. If you plan to run them hard all the time, even higher, maybe 140hz for the highpass would be a good idea to protect the speakers.

I believe these speakers had around .5mm one way linear excursion verified by the Klippel so as long as you don't burn them up and keep excursion not too far past 1mm total throw they do well. They actually did better in some areas than some of the cheaper aftermarket speakers like my Massive Audio SK-6 junk, $180 junk. If I were still running the MS8 I might try one of the stock speakers in the center channel.

 

Great info! Looks like my amp sets the crossover to 150Hz when using the HPF. I may try to install the amp under the passenger seat so I can reuse my power and ground cables and also have short runs to the factory amp for the inputs and speakers. I'm hesitant to run the power and input/output wires together on the passenger side though as I don't want to introduce interference.

Jon

 

You probably wont have any issue with that short run. But you could always run one of them around the other side next to the center console and then come up under the seat.