Stereo Amp

In my 96 EB I have the stock JBL system, however one of the channels on the amp is gone. My question is can I but an aftermarket amp and hook it up with the stock wires?

In theory, you can. Are you sure though that the amp is the problem rather than the speaker (each speaker uses one channel of the amp).

I'm not sure what the signal level input is to the stock JBL amps (actually using Harmon-Kardon circuit cards), so you'll probably need to play around with the gain of the aftermarket amp and adapt the stock wiring to RCA jacks for the low-level input of the aftermarket amp. I'd suggest you pick up an amplifier bypass cable by application, then cut it in half and use that for the aftermarket amp. That way you are not cutting into the factory wiring and if you decide to replace the amp with another stock unit, you just unplug the bypass harness.

-Rod

yeah I am pretty sure that it is the amp and not the speaker. I have put in 2 different speakers and all I get out of them is static. so Iw ould think that its a channel on the amp

Okay, seems like either a channel on the amp or the preamp signal from the deck. Do you by chance have access to an oscilloscope that you could use to scope the signal to the amp? It could be a real bummer to go to the hassle of putting in an aftermarket amp if that is not the problem.

-Rod

What if I put in an aftermarket deck in would I still beable to have to he amp hooked up?

Well, if the amp is the problem, then installing an aftermarket deck would not solve the problem if you left the amp installed. Plus, you'd still need to adapt the line level outputs from the new deck to the inputs for the factory amp. However, if you installed an aftermarket deck with speaker-level outputs, and installed the bypass cable to take the amplifier out of the circuit, then you'd have a new deck that bypasses the potentially bad amp. If the speaker still doesn't work, then you get to start tearing into wiring, or run new speaker wires.

-Rod

I asked the same thing..In order to get a new sub to play the stock radio you need to rewire the whole thing. I suggest go to a ford dealership and buy a new sub or wire or whatever you need, and just replace it. Also if you do have a Aftermarket sub or speakers, they will only peak at the allowed wats as the radio will let it. Radio is 25wats, the speakers will only top out at 25wats.

Well, that's not totally true. You could drop in an aftermarket sub into the stock box and use the factory wiring, factory sub amp, factory box. The problem is finding an aftermarket sub that fits the stock location. JL Audio makes/made one that was a drop in and, from what I've read, quite an improvement.

Same goes for the door speakers, you can install aftermarket speakers in place of the stock speakers and, assuming the wiring and amp is not the problem, they will work fine. True, they will only play as loud as the peak power of the amplifier, but that is true for any speaker/amp configuration. However, if the speaker has a high enough sensitivity, it won't take much power to get a fair amount of sound.

Seldom will a speaker sound good at the peak power level anyway, often times, if there is any bass in the track at all, there will be distortion in the speaker. I highly doubt that if you have a 100 Watt amplifier, you can stand to listen to it at anywhere near 100 Watts, unless you have no ear for distortion. If you are playing the speakers with distortion, they won't last long. Distortion occurs when the normally sinusoidal (AC voltage) sound wave "clips." This clipping causes the speaker to see DC voltage which is what kills speakers.

-Rod