redinteg23

Hi All- I searched through the forums for this, but really couldn't find anything of substance. I have a 03 TL, and want to add more bass. I am going to do either one or two 12"s depending on recommendations- they are Cerwin Vega's, and they sound pretty good..I talked to Best Buy and they said that I have to buy a high/low converter because you can't tap into the speaker wire to convert to RCA. Now I am neither the car or audio specialist so I assumed he was right. I called this other place and he said that no matter what, (with hi/lo or not) it wouldn't sound right...something to do with the ohms ratings or something. Now I've seen many people on this site that are totally satisfied with the Bose stereo, AND added an amp/speakers. So, in essence, I am calling B.S. on this other guy. I understand how a regular speaker setup works, like in an Integra. You run the RCA's to the amp, hook up the ground and power, feed the speaker wire to the 12"s, and you should be good to go. Can someone please explain to me in simple terms exactly what I need have/say to the installers so I can (1) not sound like an idiot and (2) get what I want without getting screwed $1K.

rickneuropa

The best place to get the signal for your sub is at the factory amp. You use the signal coming from the headunit, to the Factory amp that is for the Sub. For the sub, you want the Red w/blue for the + side, and the White w/Green for the - side. You also don't need a line level adapter here, because it's already a low level signal, just splice in your RCA amp cables and your ready to go. In other words, clip off one end of an RCA cable that , say, comes with an amp installation kit, (you only need one, so separate the stereo RCA cable to just use one side) and splice the cable into the signal coming into the factory amp. The other end will then be plugged into your Amp to drive the Subs.

The ohm rating has to do with the existing speakers, and it would be a concern if you were replacing speakers, or using a different amp to drive the existing Sub, but since your not doing either....the ohm ratings don't matter, as your matching your new sub with the new amp. So yes, the 2nd guy either didn't understand what your trying to do, or he's BSin, or he doesn't know what he's talking about.