I bought some new stereo equipment for my son for Christmas. We will be doing the install in his 94 Z28, but I need some advice. His AIWA MP3 deck decided to quit working and Fry's gave us a new Panasonic DF783U head unit. I bought him a Milhouse for one 12" sub, a 12" HE2 Rockford Subwoofer, a Kicker ZR240 sub amp, and a Kicker IX402 amp for his front speakers (6.5" Infiinty Reference).

1) The head unit has three sets of preouts: Front, Rear, Subwoofer. Should I hook the sub amp to the Sub preouts? Or should I use the rear preouts? If I use the Sub preouts, should I run a short RCA from the sub amp to the second amp, or should I run a long RCA cable from the front preouts to the IX402 amp?

2) The head unit has an antenna power line and a amp turn on line. Should I run just the amp turn on line back to the two amps and wire both to it, or should I run two seperate wires from the amp turn on and the antenna turn on?

Any other advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Glenn

 

One more question. I am going to run a 4 gauge wire for the ZR240 amp and a seperate 8 gauge wire for the IX402 amp. Both power cables will have their own fuse very close to the battery. My question is, should I get an adapter for the side post on the battery, or should I just hook up to the remote positive terminal that is under the plastic cover about 10 inches from the battery on a 94 Camaro?

Thanks,
Glenn

 

1) Definately use the sub preout for the sub amp. I am not sure on the specs for the new amp, but if it is a 4channel, then it should have connections for both front and rear RCAs. If it only has one set, then choose either front or back, it won't matter.

2) All you need for the antenna is the $1.50 adapter that goes from the head unit, to the existing antenna wire. no need for the power antenna wire in these cars, if I understand you correctly. For the turn on lead, I would run it back to one, then from that one to the other, no need to splice it at the front and run two all the way back.

3) I would get a new stuf for the battery (side post right?), then run the 4 gauge to the back. Then get a distribution block and ru nthe 8gauge from that.

Hope this helps...

 

http://www.sounddomain.com/sku/STISTEE4

I would use that one. Then just run four gauge to each amp. Might as well, unless the other amp won't fit four gauge. Good luck

 

Hey, hope this helps:

Hook the sub amp to the sub preout. The sub preout is non-fading. That means if you fade all the way to the front or back you will not lose your sub.

DO NOT take wires out of the sub amp to run to the 4 channel.
If you can, get a 4 channel set or RCA's or 2 2 channel sets. Some amps have reversing outputs, some dont. That means your sub amp's preouts would only pass high frequencies if it has reversing outputs. If it doesnt, then all you will get is bass thru your highs. BAD IDEA.

Run seperate wires for the front, rear, and the subs. Make sure to run them down the opposite side of the car that you run the power down. Dont want to get any engine noise in your speakers!

You can "piggyback" the remote lines (amp turn on). It wont hurt the amps or anything.

If you need any help, send me an e-mail or something and Ill help you out all that I can. Send your phone # if you want me to call ya and try to help out over the phone. I can talk better than I can type!

Hope this helps

 

Thanks for everyone's help. Have a merry Christmas.

Glenn

 

No problem.

Let us know how it goes. Send me an email if you have questions during the install. I am working on mine right now, so it will be fresh in my mind. Good luck...

 

Thanks to everyone for their help. The install took a while (two 6 hour days), but it went very well. I ran two seperate RCA's for the two amps. I also ran 2 amp power wires (each with their own fuse), a 4 gage for the sub amp and an 8 gage for the other amp.

The only glitch I had was that I used the amp turn on signal for one amp and the antenna power signal to turn on the other amp. However, this head unit turns off the antenna whenever you play CD's, so we would lose the sub amp on CD's. Luckily I figured it out very quickly and I piggybacked the two amp turns on wires.

I ran the power wires from the battery back along the passenger side of the car. Wasn't too hard. I mounted both amps on the back wall of the trunk using a 5/8" thick piece of plywood. I put the trunk carpet back in place and mounted the amps on top of the carpet directly to the wood. I ran the front speaker wires, the turn on signal wires, and the two RCA's up the drivers side of the car, then under the back seat carpet to the center console and then under the center console up to the head unit. I had most of the plastic panels and the center console out of the car. Didn't break any panels and the all went back on without a hitch.

The system sounds great! I'm glad I spurlged for the second amp for the front speakers. The systems is now:

Panasonic MP3 Head Unit (with seperate sub preouts)
Front Speakers: Infinity References 6.5"
Subwoofer: Rockford HE2 dual coil 12"
Subwoofer enclosure: Milhouse from Subthump (this is a really nice setup)
Subwoofer Amp: Kicker ZR240 bridged 2 ohm for over 300 watts output
Front Speakers Amp: Kicker IX402 2 channel at 40 watts per channel


Thanks,
Glenn