I just got a new amp and I'm trying to get the sucker installed, but I haven't done anything like this before and need some help. My car doesn't have the Mach stereo, but I do have wires that are attaching to the back of both the radio and the CD player that are labeled "AMP". Looking in the dashboard, there looks to be something that both of them are wired into, which I'm assuming is an amp.

Now here's the question...does this equipment have the RCA jacks that I need to hook my new amp into? Is it possible for me to easily remove this amp to get better access to it? If I hook the amp into this, will I still need to run wire to the individual speakers?

Thanks!

 

Ok, now I'm utterly confused....I pulled off the cover for the radio harness and disassembled everything...and I'm not seeing ANYWHERE to hook in my amp. I'm apparently supposed to have two RCA input jacks for the amp...can't find 'em anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

On a typical stock stereo, you do not have the RCA outputs to run to an amp. You can get a line level to rca convertor if you want to add RCA's. What will happen with that is you will have to splice wires off of the rear speaker outputs coming out of the radio, and it will go into a small convertor that has 2 RCA's.

 

I'm not sure if this will help you, but here it is anyways....I have the Mach stereo and I had my amp and 2 subs installed by professionals because I didn't dare mess with it even though i've done installs on older cars, I just didn't want to risk doing something wrong on my new one.
Anyways, my amp only powers my subs (I had no need amp the factory speakers), they hooked the amp up like this: Amp was attatched to the back of the back seat and the subs are in a trunk box. They connected the power/ground/remote wires as usual. For the speaker wires: They spliced into the rear decklid speakers and, using low-pass filters, connected it to the amp's speaker inputs then out to the subs. It sounds great!
I'm guessing there is auxillary amp output behind the dash/cd player because they didn't use any RCA's. But you may want to ask a pro (wich I'm not lol), but I just thought maybe this may help.
Anyone else know more to help him out???

Jason

 

LOL, Scott already posted as I was writing...

 

Nice, thanks Scot! I'm going to do it this way, with the converter, I thnk..

 

Jason,

Thanks for the input...That'll give me some good ideas for when I get the new car, for sure!

 

Yeah I mentioned splicing it into the rear speaker wires coming out of the headunit.. i didnt think about doing it at the rear speakers so that everything is right there together and you dont have to run as much wire.

 

As luck would have it, I ran into a buddy of mine in work that used to install car stereo's ( and still does, as a side business) and we talked about your idea and a couple of other things. We're going to get it installed on Wednesday...Thank God, because this amp has been sitting in my closet since my birthday...over a month ago! lol

 

take pics!