New stereo components

[Oklahoma]

OK, stereo systems are my weak point when it comes to automotive knowledge. I know how to replace speakers. I can take out factory decks and put them back. But I don't know anything about putting in a new head unit... and it's something I'm considering since I have some extra money and this is a car that I know I will be keeping for a long time. I can put new 3.5" speakers in the front and 6x9's in the rear. That's simple enough. But what is entailed in putting in a CD player such as this http://atlanta.craigslist.org/pts/1293939516.html ? Do I NEED to get an amplifier? Should I? And then, what does that involve? One more thing... I have this subwoofer my uncle gave me years ago that I was running off of DC power in my house. It's a Sparkomatic Bass Cannon. It has 4 wires: red, black, black/grey and black/green. Any ideas on how I tie this bad boy into my wiring? Thanks for any advice/comments/suggestions etc.

[Oklahoma]

Oh, and if anyone has anything I've mentioned that they want to give me a deal on... definitely let me know!

[SilentWing]

You don't need an amplifier, you've got 4 speakers in it and the stereo should drive them by itself. What you need to do is go to stores like Walmart to find a plug that goes into the stock connector in the dash for the radio and has wires that are labeled as to what they hook up to. All you do then is read the manual for the radio and hook up the wires from the radio to the appropriate (matching) wires in the car. As for the Base Cannon, my only assumption can be that the red & black wires are power and ground and the other 2 are signal input. If it's got a 12 volt power supply going to it then it'll just run itself and you won't need an amp for the sub... whether or not the bass cannon can be tied into one of the channels for the radio or if it needs a line out converter is unknown, you'll have to experiment to find out. I would advise against hooking it up to the radio parallel to the speaker as you could drop the resistance way down and blow the radio.

Chances are you'll need a line out converter. This hooks up to two channels like say both rear speakers from the radio and converts it to a lower input that most amps use, and since the bass cannon is an amplified subwoofer it's most likely what you'll need. Also... don't hook the power wire for the sub up to any wires from the dash, it needs to have a seperate feed from a switched source be it from the fuse box, the battery, a switch in the dash you can use to turn it on and off, whatever you'd like just don't pull it from the dash wires they're only 10 amps and you'll likely blow the fuse.

Any questions let me know, this is all coming from my fiance so trust me I will respond it's just whenever he's over that i'll get a chance to.

[Prospeeder]

Dont hack the wiring harness!! Go to walmart and get the adapter kit, wich is simple to wire together, and get the dash kit, wich comes with instructions and works well. Have it in both my cars, cost less than 15 bucks for both.

[SilentWing]

Yeah the dash kit is a must-have, I used it on my ciera and it looks fantastic. I also like the blue/silver wiring they sell. I'll be putting a cardomain page up soon enough (after we paint it, should be by the end of august) and show you guys my speaker-in-door setup in the front.

[Oklahoma]

Thanks for the advice guys; I think I'm gonna go ahead and get the deck and speakers and put them in... the bass cannon I'm not necessarily going to worry about right now. It came with some instructions and an on-off switch that was to be mounted under the dash. I've had these things tooling around my house for years and now I can't find them... probably got thrown away a month ago, lol. So the wiring harness kit and the dash kit are both readily available at Wal-Mart?

[SilentWing]

Yep both have been in every wal-mart I've visited... good luck

[Buick_powa]

I've found that our Stock speakers have a 10 ohm resistance. Most of the aftermarket Headunits are rated 20 watts RMS/chan @ 4 ohms.

[a1veedubber]

I've found that our Stock speakers have a 10 ohm resistance. Most of the aftermarket Headunits are rated 20 watts RMS/chan @ 4 ohms.

Quite true. The factory Delcos have a lot of amplifier clipping & distortion at high volumes so the factory used high-resistance speakers to minimize it. Money spent on inexpensive Sony or Pioneer drop-in replacement speakers is money well-spent! Remember, 20 watts at 4 Ohms is less than 10 watts at 10 ohms!

[Techfizzle]

factory speakers are junk. I dont care who you are.

overtime the paper fades and glue on the surrond weakens, then the sound of the speaker distorts, the stock speaker i had in my crapmaro, i mean camaro, sounded like a tin can.

unless a car is under 5 years old, i have never seen a non-paper speaker.


the best speaker i have used, as far as good sound reproduction, and good range through the lows,mids, and highs are infinity

they are a little pricy though, but worth in my opinion

you make think any ol' headunit is going to sound good as long as you have good speakers, that is false.

diffrent head units have diffrent sounds processing circuits in them.