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Hello all,
I drive a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo that originally had the Infinity Gold system in it. Just over a week ago I did a "near" full gut of the system and installed the following items:
Kenwood KDC-BT752HD Receiver
Infinity Reference 1031t Tweeters
Kicker 11DS60 6.5" Coaxials in the front doors
Polk Audio db 651 6.5" Coaxials in the rear doors
Kenwood KAC-9105D 900W Amplifier
2x Kenwood KFC-W3013PS 12" Subs
The only thing that I left stock in the system is the infinity amp under the passenger side rear seat. It has been said to be rated at 180W with 6 channels which I'm figuring is generous and I'm not sure if between the amp and the head unit my speakers are receiving the power they need to shine. I'm also uncomfortable with the fact that I have absolutely no control over this amp as in no gain adjustment, no high pass adjustment, no low pass adjustment, a complete lack of control. It also has built in EQ's that were designed to work specifically with the Infinity Gold speaker system such as pushing only bass to the front doors. All of this added together makes me think that I would be best served to pull it and put in my own amp which I will have control over that will probably serve me better and longer than the stock Infinity Gold amp.
First off, is my thinking correct? Is purchasing a new amplifier for my door speakers something that would benefit me?
Second off, what amplifier would you recommend given my power requirements and vehicle setup?
Third, I believe that the tweeters are powered via the head unit and thus wouldn't need to be connected to this new amplifer correct?
Finally, installing this would be as simple as cutting the factory harness that current connects to the stock infinity amp, off and then stripping those wires and connecting them all with the help of a wiring diagram to the new amplifier terminals, correct?
The amplifier I'm currently looking at is the Sound Storm SSL F4.800. Would this amp work for me?
Thank you for your help!
- Cody
I doubt the factory amp outputs that power.
A 50 watts RMS x 4 amp should work great for you. Any of these are way better quality than the Sound Storm - http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/CompareTo.aspx?compareItems=01|777M4050&compareItems=01|130GM6500F&compareItems=01|500MRPF300&compareItems=01|113KAC8405&compareItems=01|236TN4004&compareItems=01|575R3004&g=347050
Yes, good idea to power the tweeters off the head front speaker wire outputs.
Your Kenwood head has all the EQ, crossover filters, etc. you need.
You should run new speaker, ground, and power wiring. The power and ground to the stock amp is not sufficient and is old. The stock speaker wiring is probably 22-18 gauge and old. You need new 18 gauge speaker wire from the head to the tweeters, quality RCA cables from the head to the amps, new 16 gauge speaker wire from the 4 channel amp to the speakers, new 12 gauge speaker wire from the sub amp to the subs.
Any other issues ?
Got to the thread a bit late.
Ummm - you should definitely remove the OEM amp - you might be fine just doing that and nothing else. You could remove the tweeters or just wire them in parallel with the door woofers, but you would get highs from both.
The SSL amp has a 30A fuse and is probably about 40W RMS per channel. I'm not a fan of the brand. (Actually, it should be about 200W total, and therefore 50Wx4@2-ohms, and maybe not MUCH better than the stock HU).
If you wire up an external amp, I would probably run the tweets off the HU front outputs as GLH said, but you COULD run them off the amp.
New speaker wire is recommended, but not absolutely required, but you will need to cut the output wires from the HU and cap them off to connect it.
Hope This Helps!!!
Anyone else have suggestions?
2002 Ford Focus JVC KD-A815 Sony CDX-GT410u Sony XT-100HD HD Tuner Stock speakers, no amp, no subs
AntwoordWhat should the output voltage read on a multimeter for each channel for proper gain setting?
15.5 VAC for the rear channels if only the Polk coaxials are on them.
Such as speakers unplugged, 1 kHz test tone, HU at about 3/4 volume or max unclipped volume (whichever is higher), etc.
Thanks GLH for your help. I was already planning on running a new power, RCA, and ground cable from the new amp to the battery and to a bolt under my rear seats. The speaker wire when I had it out partially installing the door speakers looked fine visually and sounds fine to me as well. The speakers are loud and clear when turned up to the head units max clipping point. I'm just concerned that I may not be getting "all" of the quality out of them without using a new amp or that I may also be under powering them and potentially contributing to what could be a shorter life for them.
Given that information is it really worth spending the $200+ on a new amp? I'm just trying to make sure that I'm getting everything out of them and not damaging them in the mean time. If I were to purchase a new amp I would want to tuck it under the rear seat where the current infinity amp already is. If I were to stick with the stock speaker wire would I simply cut the wires right before the wiring harness, strip the wires, and then using a wiring diagram to hook them up to the new amplifiers terminals?
Also, what would I do about the tweeters? What I said about them being run off of the head unit was more of a question. If I were to bring a new amp in, are their power wires included in the harness that plugs into the old amp or are they in the harness that plugs into the head unit and thus would be receiving power from the head unit?
Thanks for your help,
You should wire the tweeters up to the front speaker wire outs from the Kenwood head. You will need to run new speaker wire from the new amp ($139) to the 4 coaxial speakers. Your grounds need to be on clean shiny metal. Stock bolts are usually rust resistance coated, as are the bolt holes. If a new amp is worth the money is a question only you can answer. I think you are overthinking the install.
Great thank you both for your help. I have installed everything and everything is working! This is the amplifier as per Crutchfield's recommendation that I have installed:
Sound Ordnance M4075 75W x 4 Amp
The speakers that they are powering are up above in my original post. What should the output voltage read on a multimeter for each channel for proper gain setting? I should mention that at the moment, I AM running the tweeters off of the amp.
Thanks again,
AntwoordI AM running the tweeters off of the amp
You have the tweeters connected to the Kicker coaxials in parallel wiring ?
I have the tweeters tied in with the Kicker coaxials in the front. From the factory harness I just connected the positive and negative wire from each dash tweeter and connected them together with the front door wires. I'm just running the Polk's on the rear channel.
Antwoordconnected the positive and negative wire from each dash tweeter and connected them together with the front door wires
I am going to say they are wired parallel, so since the tweeters are 2 ohm and the Kickers are 4 ohm, the load on the amp is 3 ohms, so makes it kind of 'iffy' on how much power each driver will recieve.
I am somewhat sure the output VAC on the front channels should be around 14.
Alright so 15.5 VAC for the rear channel and 14 VAC for the front channel. I will dial those in! The impact that adding the amp has made on the volume and robustness of my speakers is truly incredible. I was expecting little to no change at all after adding the amp. The only benefit would have been peace of mind but it seems as though the amp truly was worth the money!
Thank you both.
Do you know the correct steps leading up to setting the gains with the DMM ?
Such as subwoofer level maxed on the head unit, all EQ's flat, etc?
Well we are talking about the 4 channel full range speaker amp now sooo ...
Ya, I had all of that covered. Everything is installed and sounding great! Thanks again for the help.