AMp hook up

[jammer111]

Just a quick question.. Was hoping someone could help me out and tell me if its possible to hook up my amp and subs to my new car.. I have a 2003 honda accord coupe. I have a stock head unit still in the accord and was hoping i didnt have to replace it.. Is there anyway to do that?

[InstallTech]

Yep. You'll need to get a line level converter. It converts the speaker level outputs of your stock unit to an rca level output for your amp. They ususally run about 30 bucks or so (for a good one), and hook up to the positive and negative speaker leads of a right and left speaker with RCA ports that you can run from the converter to the amp. Unless your stock system is BOSE, there shouldn't be any issues.

[jammer111]

sounds easy enough.. do you know if this is a product i can just get at best buy or radio shack.. the set up seems pretty standard though. just connecting wires, positive and negs, right

[InstallTech]

Yeah, you can get that at Best Buy. Usually, there'll be 2 pairs of wires, on gray set, and one white set. The gray go to the right speaker, the white to the left. On each set, there'll be a black stripe on one of the wires. That'll be the one you hook up to the neg. side of the speaker wire. Getting those hooked up right *is* important, because if they're hooked up backwards, the subs/speakers won't sound right ( they'll play, and it won't do any damage, but they'll be out of phase and won't sound right).

[jammer111]

Thanks again.. suprisingly this is all new to me.. even though ive hooked up several subs and amps in cars. ive done it all with A/V cables. or in this case, A/A cables. Last question is.. will i lose power or quality at all? should i get a capacitor or something of that sort? thanks again

[InstallTech]

You shouldn't need a capacitor unless you notice a power draw on your alternator while the car is running and the system is thumpin ( i.e. the dashlights/headlights start blinking to the beat). There may be a slight audio signal degredation, but not enough to be noticable. It won't sound "dirty" or anything like that. It's still a fairly clean sound.

[jammer111]

thanks for the help.. i greatly appreciate it.. i should be able to set this up soon

[jammer111]

ok. so i finally got the inout line converter. and there are 3 sets of wires. i was told the gray is the ground, and there are two other colors. Also, how can i tell which one of the wires attached to the head unit are the rear speaker.. i have yet to pull of the head unit because it looks like a beast. However when i do i am well aware of what i will find. however i have no idea how to tell which colors are front and rear, and actually how to even get the unit out. if these questions are not to difficult i would greatly appreciate any help i can get .. Thank you

[jammer111]

sorry.. i lied.. i was told the brown was the ground, and there is also a gray and a white.. one with a black stripe

[InstallTech]

You should be able to access the rear speaker wires at the rear speakers. They'll be easier to get to than the ones behind the radio. The brown wire on the converter is for ground, but usually not used unless there ends up being noise in the system after install. The ones with the black stripes are the neg connections to the speaker leads comming from the speakers. The left rear will be blue with a white stripe for the positive and blue/black for negative or on some models it's blue positive and pink negative. The right rear will be pink for positive and blue/yellow for negative or on some models light green for positive and purple for negative.