joetherod

Can somebody please tell me how to run the wires from my head unit harness to the amps in the trunk? I know i have to splice into the respective speakers. But as far as getting a signal to my amp, which wire, or wires do i splicke into. I have the diagram showing which wire is what, and the A harness is pretty much just for the speakers, but the smaller harness, or clip, the B one, says on the diagram about being from front left and right speaker audio, so I am completely thrown off. I have already rean my power wires and grounded the system out, so now i just have to finish off with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and also any suggestions. I have thought about using a Line Out Converter to get a signal, but then I will only be able to use one amp which would be for the subs, I want to be able to use another amp also to run my high's off of.

elduderino

IN looking more clearly at a posted scan of the system wiring, I noticed that my Electrical T-shooting diagram seems to contradict this post: http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...85&postcount=3 I don't know why these disagree.

This post assumes that you are totally bypassing your factory amp.

FIRST, you should unplug your factory amp and confirm that the colors below are in the locations below (I am reading them off of page 150-1 and 150-2 of the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual).


A1, Red/Blue: LF (+)
A8, Yellow: LF (-) (NOT ground! RCA shield!)
A2, Brn/Yellow: Shield ground for LF channel (ground to chassis at amp end)

A4, Blue: RF (+)
A11, Red: RF (-) RCA shield
A5 Brown: Shield ground for RF channel (ground to chassis at amp end)

A3, Blue: LR (+)
A10 Pink: LR (-) RCA shield
A16 Gray/Blue: Shield ground for LR channel (ground to chassis at amp end)

A6, Light Green: Rt R (+)
A13, Purple: Rt R (-) RCA shield
A12 Gray: Shield ground for Rt R channel (ground to chassis at amp end)

Then take two pair of RCA's long enough to get to the trunk*, and cut one end off of each set. Connect the RCA center conductors to the (+) wires. Connect the Shield of the RCA to the (-) wires. Connect the Shield ground wires to chassis ground.

*If you want to install a line driver or two at this point to drive the signal higher on the way to the amps, then use a short set of RCA's to go into the line driver. Use the B9 Yellow/Red for ACC and the B10 White/Blue for Constant. Find a chassis ground.

elduderino

The output from the 4-channel head unit to the 6-channel amp is full-range, and the amp has internal xovers. So if you have a 2-channel amp for front mids and highs, and another amp for your subs, use their built-in xovers, and hook the mid/high amp up to the front outputs of the head unit, the sub amp up to the rear outputs of the head unit, and then you can use your Fader as a bass-amp level control.

elduderino

OH, and no LOC should be needed.

Here are the speaker wires as shown in the ETM:

B3, Green/black: F L Dr door mid (+)
B13, light green: F L Dr door (-)

B2, green yellow: F Rt Pass dr mid (+)
B12, gray/red: F Rt Pass dr mid (-)

B4, blue/orange: Left Driver's tweeter (+)
B14, gray/blue: Left Driver's tweeter (-)

B1, black/red: Right Pass tweeter (+)
B11, pink/black: Right Pass tweeter (-)

B8, pink/blue: Left Rear driver's door (+)
B18 Purple: Left rear driver's door (-)

B7, blue/red: Right rear pass door (+)
B17, blue/orange: Right rear pass door (-)

B6, white: Driver's L by-nine (+)
B16, green: Driver's L by-nine (-)

B5, red: Right Pass by-nine (+)
B15, blue/yellow: Right pass by-nine (-)

If you want to make sure that these are right, use an ohm-meter to measure across them, or "pop" them with a 9-volt battery (with the amp unplugged).

elduderino

Just pulled the car apart today and measured the voltage.

To get to the amp you need to pull the upper storage pocket , then the cupholder/ shifter surround, then the NOT AN ASHTRAY. See the sticky thread at the top of the Audio page for these instructions (read them all).

Also, the amp harnesses have very little slack. Not easy to work with. The head unit signal wires are in the smaller of the two plugs. Unless you are very good at soldering, I think I would probably T-tap into those wires and extend them to someplace I could work more easily (like aft of the shifter).

With the voltage I found, I'd consider using a line driver somewhere (again, aft of the shifter? Or there's room near the amp if you use long wires...). The thing couldn't make 1V peak-to-peak with a 1K sine wave with the volume at 40, so you would probably have to turn your amp input sensitivy up, which is a good way to also hear engine noise.

KiNg TsX

I am replying for joetherod, so I went to PC Richards and bought an after market harness for the speaker wires to extend the larger of the two clips that go to the factory amp since it is very tight in there to splice all of the wires. I then hooked up a line out converter to the smaller of the two factory harnesses. I have not finished running the wires to the back since I am going under the rug and everything, but going by this much, does this setup sound correct? (I had to buy two of those harnesses from PC Richards since it was for a car that only had a 4 speaker system. So i pulled the pins and wires out of the second one to make one of them complete to run all 8 wires.)

elduderino

I am sorry, your post is somewhat confusing to me, but it does not sound correct.

1) If you are removing the factory amp and replacing it with an aftermarket amp, NO LOC IS NEEDED. The wires described above in post number 2 carry the exact same signal as a pair of RCA cables on the back of an aftermarket radio. You just need to attach them to an RCA cable.

Take an RCA cable of the correct length. Cut the ends off of one end. Strip it back. The center conductor goes to the (+) wires in Post #2, and the foil shield goes to the (-) wires in Post #2. The ground wires just go to ground. Then run the RCA cable to your amp location.

2) Extending the wires sounds like a good idea. If you are changing wire terminals around, you must be sure to keep everything straight or you could blow up the factory head unit. Extend the speaker wires in Post #4 above to your amp location.

KiNg TsX

okay, let me try again. so wat i did was i bought a harness from pc richards for the 'A ' wires as they are noted in the above diagram. this is just so i would have an easier time splicing them, and running the speaker wires to the amp. and as for the "B" wires, which i assume these are the wires that i get my audio signal from, i spliced into them with a 4 channel line out converter. is this a little more clear? I prefer to use the LOC than to splice the RCA Monster cables that I have if possible.

elduderino

OK, I now think I understand, thanks.

1) YOU DO NOT NEED AN LOC. An LOC is intended to handle input signals of several volts and knock them down in voltage so that they are around 1V and can go into an amp. The TSX head unit makes less than one volt at full blast, and is already the correct voltage to go into an amp (maybe even a little low!). Do the math. I understand that it's easier to connect it physically, but unfortunately that doesn't make it right - you will probably have low volume problems with an LOC. If you are unable to make the connections directly to the RCA's physically, you may want to extend them 12" so you have more room to work outside the center console. Feel free to try it - shouldn't hurt anything, but LOC's also sometimes reduce your bass response, and somehow I suspect you don't want that.

If you don't want to cut your expensive cables, find a 3' long, cheap female-to-female stereo RCA cable and chop them in to, and splice them into the car.

2) Make absolutely certain which wires in the "B" connector go to which wires in the harness you bought, referring to post #4 above. DO NOT ASSUME THAT THE COLORS PRINTED ON THE HARNESS BAG ARE CORRECT.

KiNg TsX

Thank you very very much, as for the harness that i bought, i dont go by the colors, some of the colors actually match each other in the harness since i had to combine two of them to make one full one, but i strictly went by the diagram for labeling the wires. Now, back to the "B" harness , which wires do i actually actually splice into, so i splice into everyone that says audio.... such and such, if i do, than that is 8 total. i know this might all sound confusing, but this whole "B" harness is just throwing me way off because of the way that it is labeled on the diagram. Sorry for being a pain in the ass, lol.

elduderino

My bad - I got A and B backward. Shit.

My A wires in Post #2 are the signal wires from the head unit to the amp. These are the ones you would connect RCA's to.

The B wires are the actual wires from the amp to the speakers.

1) Decide which speakers you are going to hook up.
2) Find those wires, both (+) and (-), in the B list on post #4.
3) Connect speaker wire to those wires and extend them to the trunk.

If you are doing coaxials in the F doors, just run the F door speaker wires. If you are doing separate mids and tweets, Run the tweets and the F doors.

If you end up struggling a whole lot with this part, you may want to go to an installer and ask them to handle it for you - not worth messing up the car over. Good luck.

KiNg TsX

Alright wow, I got it now. So one single RCA goes to the front two, and then the other RCA goes to the Rear two. Now as for connecting the RCA to the wires in the harness, i understand that the center conductor goes to the + wires, and the metal shielding goes to the - wires. When you say to ground the other wires to the chasis at amp end, do i actually connect these wires to a seperate wire and ground them out where i drilled the hole for my amp's ground? And what are the positives of having a line driver, is it so that my volume will be louder at a lower level?

elduderino

One PAIR of RCA's goes to the front two, and another pair of RCA's goes to the rear two - you end up with 4 RCA connectors if you use both Front and Rear. You don't actually HAVE to use both F and R - you might just use the Fronts, I don't know what your setup is.

The gray, Gray/blue, Brown, and brown/yellow in A should all connect to any ground - the black wire in either connector should be fine.

All those 4 shield grounds do is shunt any noise they pick up to ground. No need to worry about running those grounds back to the amp.

The line driver lets you turn the input sensitivity down on the amps, making engine noise less likely to be audible, too.

KiNg TsX

When you say the black wire in either connector, you mean either one of the harnesses' right?

elduderino

Either one of the factory blue plugs, A or B. The PC Richards harnesses, I dunno what colors would be where.

KiNg TsX

Alright, thank you very much for your answers, you have been a great help, and i think should pretty much have it from here on. As far as the line drivers go, do you have any suggestions on which one to buy, or where to get it. And what is the price range on them?

elduderino

I've seen them online for $8 for a really cheapo one, to $150 for a 6-channel PG or Audio Control.

Here's a used 2-channel one on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...705085604&rd=1

http://www.infinitecaraudio.com/cgi-...atalogno=TLD66

KiNg TsX

should i use 2 line drives, one for my amp for the highs, and one for my amp for the subs, or just use one for the highs?

elduderino

Either use none or use two (or a multi-channel).

KiNg TsX

i will see how it sounds without them because if i need themi can always add them in the trunk,its not like it would be a big deal to add them in.

jsharper

It would probably be better to add them up near the head end so they aren't just amplifying the noise that the long cable run picks up on its way to the trunk.

elduderino

It's actually better to put them as far forward as possible.

jiggaman

without line drivers my tweeters were making this terrible crackling sound because the amp was clipping.

elduderino

Was your input gain adjustment up all the way?