SPEAKER SIZES:
2nd Gen = 3.5 In Top Of Dash
6x9 In Rear Side Panels

3rd Gen = 4x6 In Top Of Dash
6x9 In Rear Side Panels

4th Gen = 6.5 Front Doors
(Also '98 Up) 6.5 Rear Side Panels

FAQ:
(Q). Will Amp Work On Factory Radio?
(A). Yes, But You Must Purchase A Line Output Converter(any audio shop will carry this item). The Only Reason You Need This Is For The RCA Preouts And The Remote Wire To Connect Head Unit To Amp.

(Q). What's Difference Between Mono, 2-Channel & 4-Channel Amp?
(A). Mono Amps Are Made Specifically For Subwoofers, But Other Speakers Can Be Hooked Up To It (Generally Have One Channel, But Two Subs Can Be Ran Off It). A 2-Channel Has Connections For Two Different Speakers(Subs, Speakers) But Both Don't Have To Be Used. On A 4-Channel, Up To 4 Speakers Can Be Connected(Generally For Your Door Speakers). On All These Amps You Can Connect More Than The 2 or 4, But It Is Highly Not Recommended.

(Q). What Is Meant By 'Bridging' An Amp?
(A). When Bridging An Amp, The Positive Wires Are Twisted Together And The Negative's Are Twisted Together, Then Put Into The Amp Using Both Channels. The Postives Will Go To The Left Power, And The Negatives Will Go To The Right Ground (A Ground And Power Will Be Unused).

(Q). My Head Unit Is Satellite Radio Ready, How Do I Make It Work?
(A). Even If Your Head Unit Is Satellite Ready, You Must Still Purchase A Few Extra Parts... Unless Your Unit Came With The Antenna. What The "Ready" Means Is That Your Unit Has The Special Plugin On It For Satellite Radio To Be Added, But The Extra Parts Will Run About $100, And You Must Also Purchase The Ones That Function With Your Brand Of Head Unit.

(Q). What's Difference Between Peak Power And RMS On My Subs/Amps?
(A). RMS Is The Thing That Makes The Difference In Sound And Power. If You Notice, Brands Like Sony Will Slap A Big Number On Front Of The Product... They Do This To Make The Dumb Think It's Big And So They Purchase. When Getting A System, Match Up Your Amp To Your Subs RMS. RMS Is Constant Power To Your Subs, Which Is Turn Is The Constant Power Your Subs Will Produce. Even If The Peak Power Of The Amp Is Quite A Bit Over What Your Subs Recommend, If The RMS Match Up Good, Then Your Alright. Also Be Aware Of Things Like Following (Kenwood KAC-7202 Amp Example):
150w RMS x 2 @ 4 ohms
230w RMS x 2 @ 2 ohms
The 4 Ohms You'll Notice Is Lower, But That's At A Normal Hook Up With No Bridging. The 2 Ohms Will Push More Power, But That Also Means Ya Need To Bridge Your Amp. Bridging Won't Hurt Your Amp, Unless You Turn The Gain/Level All The Way Up(Really Hard On Your Amp, Any Amp).

(Q). My Head Unit Has More Than One Set Of RCA Preouts, What For?
(A). With Multiple Sets Of RCA Preouts, You Have More Options For What You Want To Connect To Your System. For Example, If You Have Two Sets Of Preouts, You Can Run A 2-Channel Amp For Your Subs, And Also A 4-Channel For Your Door Speakers. If You Want To Run Multiple Amps But Only Have One Set Of RCA Preouts, Ya Need To Buy RCA Y's(can be bought bout anywhere.

(Q). I'm Replacing A Factory Radio With An Aftermarket, What Do I Need To Do?
(A). First, You Will Need A Mounting Kit(dash piece), Wiring Harness, And An Antenna Adaptor. You Will Also Need A Crimper/Wire Stripper, And A Few Connection Tabs. The Installation Is Fairly Simple, If You Buy A New Mounting Kit, The Installations On How To Pull Your Radio Out And How To Assemble The New One Is Instructed Step By Step.

(Q). What All Do I Need To Hook Up An Amp?
(A). When Putting In An Amp For The First Time, You Will Need Several Wires, Which Can Usually Be Bought In A Kit From Any Car Audio Shop. You Will Need A Power Wire(from battery to amp), Ground Wire(amp to car frame), Remote Wire, RCA Wires, Speaker Wire.

(Q). What Is A Capacitor And What Is It's Use?
(A). A Capacitor Is Like Another Battery... But Only For Your Amp. If Your Headlights And Interior Lights Dim When Your Subs Hit, Then A Capacitor Would Solve The Problem. A Capacitor Will Help Your Amp Boost, Take Pressure Of Your Battery Supply, Prevent Your Lights From Dimming, And Take Less Pressure Off Your Amp(As Well As Decrease The Chance Of Blowing The Amp From A Power Surge). The Capacitor Splices Into Your Power Wire Between The Amp And Battery.

(Q). What's The Difference Between Co-axial, 2-Way, 3-Way, And 4-Way Speakers?
(A). Your Factory Speakers Are Almost Always Co-axial, But If Your Upgrading Speakers, Then It Is Recommended You Step Up To A 3-Way, Or 4-Way(Unless It's Alpine Or Rockford). With A 3-Way, 4-Way, You Will Get A Better Range Of Sound Because An Extra Small Tweeter(one with 3-way, two with 4-way) Will Be On The Speaker Also. With More Range Of Sound, The Bass Comes Out More Powerful And Cleaner While Also The Treble And The Music Comes Out Cleaner And With Better Quality.

(Q). What's The Significance Of Upgrading Speakers And My Head Unit?
(A). Your Factory Speakers And Equipped For Your Factory Head Unit. Your Factory Speakers Can Only Handle About 15 - 30watts And Your Head Unit Pushes Out Only About 20 - 25watts To Each Speaker. Putting In An Aftermarket Head Unit Will More Than Double The Output To Each Speaker(Usually 45x4 or 50x4), Have More Control Over Your Sound, And It Also Looks Better. Putting In New Speakers(Especially with new head unit), Will Give You An Even Better Quality Of Sound, Everything's Cleaner And Stronger. Aftermarket Speakers Will No Longer Bottom Out, Crackle, Or Fuzz When You Turn Up The Sound. An Aftermarket Head Unit Won't Mess Up Your Factory Speakers, But Putting In All Aftermarket Will Clean The Sound Up A Lot.


(Q). What's Difference Between Single-Voice Coil And Dual-Voice Coil?
(A). Most Typical Subs Are Single Voice Coil, Which Means Is Has One Positive And One Negative Outlet On It. A Dual-Voice Coil Can Be Found On Higher Quality Subs, Or Usually On All High Wattage Subs. A Dual-Voice Coil Has Two Sets Of Positives, And Two Sets Of Negatives. A Single-Voice Coil Is Equipped By Just Running A Postive And Negative From The Amp To The Sub, But With A Dual-Voice Coil, The Sub Has To Commonly Be Ran In A Parallel Or Series Setup. A Dual-Voice Coil Can Handle More Power(more rms), Improves Sub Response, And Gives Greater Sound Range To Your Sub. You Will Be Paying More For A Dual-Voice Coil Sub, And You'll Be Required To Need A Bigger Amp(rms needs to be real close).

(Q). What's The Difference Between Ported And Sealed Subwoofer Boxes?
(A). Some Subwoofers Require A Certain Type Of Box For Optimium Sound, Be Sure To Glance At The Sub Manual First. As For Normal Powered Subs(around 700watts and under), Either Box Can Be Used. With A Ported Box, You Will Get Deeper More Powerful Sounding Bass, But With A Sealed Box You Will Get A Louder Bass Sound. Ported Subs That Are Enclosed(usually in fiber/plexi-glass) Will Give You An Even Better Quality Sound, But Usually Cost A Little More.

(Q). What Are Component Speakers/Setups?
(A). Component Speakers Consist Of Aftermarket Speakers And Tweeters... Which Give The Vehicle A Better Range And Quality Of Sound. Most Commonly, Component Setups Can Be Found With 5.25 And 6.5 Speakers, But Nearly All Sizes Have Had Component Setups Made(takes a little time to find). Using Components Is Like Adding An Extra Two Small Speakers To Your Stereo, Which Can Be Placed About Anywhere(most commonly above or around the doors). Component Packages Usually Have A Much Higer Price Than Normal Aftermarket Speakers, But The Sound Quality Is Superior.

(Q). I Have A Stock BOSE System, What Needs To Be Done?
(A). Since You Have A Stock BOSE System, You Will Have To Rewire Your Vehicle, Meaning Running New Speaker Wire From The Speakers Straight To The Head Unit. The BOSE System Consists Of Amps On Each Speaker, So If You Attempt To Put In New Speakers Or An Aftermarket Head Unit, They Will Not Work. You Still Have The Ability To Add An Amplifer, But Will Need A Line Output Converter For RCA's. Rewiring Your Vehicle Will Run Around $100 At An Audio Shop, Or A Few Hours And Just Some Speaker Wire If You Do It Yourself. Here Is The Wiring Diagram For The Camaro's(believe to work on 3rd gen & up):
Constant 12V+ - Orange
Switched 12V+ - Yellow
Ground - Black
Illumination - Gray
Dimmer - Brown
Antenna Trigger - Pink
Antenna Right - Rear
Front Speakers 6 1/2" Doors
Left Front (+) - Tan
Left Front (-) - Gray
Right Front (+) - Light Green
Right Front (-) - Dark Green
Rear Speakers 6 1/2" Side Panels
Left Rear (+) - Brown
Left Rear (-) - Yellow
Right Rear (+) - Dark Blue
Right Rear (-) - Light Blue

(Q). Why Do Different Speakers Have Different Sensitivity... What Does This Mean?
(A). Sensitivity Is Simply The Speakers Ability To Convert Power Into Sound. The Lower The Sensitivity, The Less Power That Is Needed For The Speakers To Put Out Sound. If You Look Closely And Compare Speakers, You'll Notice Brands Such As Sony Have Higher Sensitivity Than Say... Alpine. This Is One Reason Brands Suchs As Alpine, Kicker, etc., Have Better Quality Sound(and also more expensive) Than Other Lower Brands... Because Less Power Is Needed To Get Sound Out To The Listener.

 

Hmmm... So Good I Think This Should Become A Sticky/Article. Brilliant!

 

Your bridging info is slightly wrong in the bridging section and in the RMS section..
Also, some other items are incorrect or vaguely described.

 

Typo?

also, "capacitor is like another battery". UNTRUE. That is one of the most overrated things in caraudio. Biggest waste of money imo

 

Please get rid of the caps every word though. Makes it as difficult to read as if it were all in caps.

 

Incorrect. Get A MECP Certification Booklet And Read Up On Your Information. Capacitor Acts As An Extra Power Source For Your Amplifer, Taking Stress Off Your Battery...

 

Good information, but I don't know how anyone can type the first letter of every word in caps. Maybe you should add some more information on the Bose systems, such as the size of the "sub" in the back.

 

Thanks for at least making an effort to educate

 

Most of the info is incorrect, lacking. Like on caps, boxes, sensitivity, etc.

Capacitors are not useless... people are just not knowing what they are made to be used for.

Your alternator provides all the current for your vehicle (14.4 volts). Though it can only provide a certain amount of continuous current for your vehicle (car audio stereos do not draw a continuous amount of current).

A cap is not a battery. A battery charges to a specific set voltage, and it tires to maintain that set voltage. A battery also has a slow transient response… and deep cycle batteries have a slower transient response due to their thicker plates.

Now a cap charges to whatever voltage the system is at, it’s voltage actually drops when it discharges. Though unlike a battery, caps are lightning fast… pretty much instantaneous. The problem is a cap discharges it’s current for only a fraction of a second.

Now what happens when your alternators current is exceeded say from a transient peak (like a drum) from your stereo? Your voltage will drop, the alternator can no longer charge the battery and will keep dropping until it reaches 12 volts (the level/voltage of the battery). The battery will provide the current that the alternator could not. Though a battery is slow at giving up current, so there will be a split second gap between when the alternators current is exceeded and when the battery will provide current.

When the voltage starts to drop the cap will do what the battery can not... instantaneously discharge the current it has stored (which should be at or around 14.4 volts). The cap will fill in the gap from when the alternators current was exceeded to where the battery starts to discharge it’s current.

Now while a cap can not supply current for very long, it will help cushion the voltage drop from 14.4 volts to 12 volts. This is what they are made to do. This will also HELP with headlight dimming.

Most people buy a cap to stop headlight dimming. This is not what they are made for, but they should help with it (not stop it). If you really want to stop it you could buy two smaller caps and run them inline with your headlights.

So are caps useless? No. I do believe an electrical system without a cap is somewhat lacking. Though I do also believe you should upgrade your electrical system as well (HO alt, upgrade wiring). They do have a purpose, it's just that people are ignorant to what that purpose is... or ignorant to how an electrical system works.

Hopefully that will give alittle better understanding on caps since it is usally a touchy and big subject.

 

good write-up. thanks

 

Also remember that using a line level converter always brings in the chance for line noise. It's an option, but the difference between your average line level converter and even the weakest pre-out on a deck is night at day for sound quality.

A) Not all monoblock amps are for "Subs only". There are many full range monoblocks that do an excellent job running each side of a component set. Advantages of doing this is to completely eliminate channel cross talk, plus you'll notice better dynamics. An average multi-channel amp has one power supply for all channels, so when all channels are driven, you'll get less overall power to each individual channel.

B) On a 2 channel amp, you can use only one channel, but why would you? You could either bridge the amp to get full power out of it, or you'd be better off buying an amp that works better at the impedence you're driving. I.E say you're trying to drive a 2 ohm load. Most 2 channel amps will fail if bridged at 2 ohms. You'd be a much smarter person to buy a monoblock that will operate at 2 ohms within it's limits.

C) On a 4 channel amp, just like any other amp, the sky's the limit for how many speakers you can hook up to it. All you have to be careful of is matching impedence with what the amp can handle. In the world of car audio, lower impedences are typically more harmful to an amp (Unless you have some ultra rare pure class A amps that can drive .5 ohms or lower no problem!). So, if you want to run 8 - 4 ohm drivers per channel on a 4 channel amp, go for it! Just make sure you run them in parallel-parallel so you still get a 2 ohm load, as 99% of 4 channel amps on the market right now can run at 2 ohms per channel (Remember, that's NOT-BRIDGED).

Not always true. On some amps when bridging, you have to use the right channel positive, on other amps it's left channel positive. Make sure you read the manual, or again, most amps have it marked right there. Some amps are also not meant to be run bridged, though that's not usually the case.

Something else you didn't mention was what impedence the amp can handle when bridged. On most multichannel amps, the impedence that you can bridge at is 4 ohms. Again, check your amp's literature. Some amps will handle very low impedences bridged, but then you probobly have a very rare amp. Here's a brief description of why you can't bridge an amp lower that it's rated for and I'll try and make this as simple as possible. In a sense, when you bridge an amp, each channel will be driving half the load. So say you're driving a 4 ohm load, when bridged, each channel will be putting out the same amount of current it would be when playing into a 2 ohm stereo load. Now you've looked in the manual, and you see your amp can play 2 ohm stereo. This doesn't mean it will play 2 ohms bridged, because if you consider what I said just before, since each channel is playing half the load when bridged, it will essentially be putting out the same amount of current as it would when playing 1 ohm stereo. Follow me so far? What happens when an amp doubles it's current output, is there's also a huge increase in the amount of heat generated across the amp's components. Heat = component failure.

 

Actually, what 230w RMS x 2 @ 2 ohms means, is that when you're putting a 2 ohm load on each channel, the amp will theoretically put out 230w RMS. That is quite high I must say. That 2 ohm power rating has absolutely, positively nothing to do with bridging. Now, if this amp was bridgeable,, then it will put out 460w RMS (Theoretically) into a 4 ohm bridged load. I hope this is starting to make sense.

Also, having the gain turned all the way up on your amp probobly won't do anything bad to the amp. What it will do is destroy whatever is hooked up to it. The gain dial is there to match the output voltage of your deck's pre-outs with the input voltage of the amp. Let's say the amp need 5v of signal to reach full volume resolution, and your deck puts out 2v (At max volume, without clipping). What the gain dial does is add voltage to the input signal. What happens if you add to much voltage to the signal is A) Adding noise and B) introducing signal clipping into the music. Clipping is where the sin wave coming in has the top and bottom parts of the curve clipped off, so you get a square sound wave. This is the #1 cause of speaker failure.

Here's another way to understand how much power an amp will ever possibly put out. As a worst case scenario, assume you will only ever get 12+ VDC at your amp. Now look at the amp's built in fuses (If applicable). Let's say you have an amp that says "1200W" on it, but it only has a single 25 amp fuse. Take 12 and multiply by 25 and you get a value of 300. That's how many watts this amp will ever put out, but that will also probobly an extremely clipped signal. Realistically, you just bought a 200 watt amp.

Sort of. If you have two sets of pre-outs, you have 4 channels of output. You can do whatever you want with them (Run subs, run 4 speakers, or whatever). The only thing to consider is that most decks with 2 sets of pre-outs use those pre-outs for FL/FR/RL/RR output. If you run two channels to a sub amp and the other two to a 4 channel to amp to run all 4 speakers, you will lose your fading control. In F-Body's, this works very poorly as your rear sail panel speakers will be much more prominant than your front ones. You can get by if you turn the gain down on the rear channels, but you'll never have the simple ablility to do it from the deck.

Let's talk about this more indepth. I can't say how many times I've seen someone coming in with an amp hooked up with wire as small as 18 guage. ALWAYS check the fuse rating on the amp (Or amps), add them all up, and that's how much current will potentially be drawn down that power wire. The smallest amp requirement is going to be around 25 amps, and I wouldn't trust anything smaller than even 8 guage to do that properly. I've seen pictures of the damage a small wire drawing huge current can do. For one, the wire will probobly melt before the fuse blows (If it even blows), which means fire and all kinds of fun carnage.

 

Having a cap in your car will most likely not help you with head lights dimming. To find out more, do a search for "The big three". It will work 95% of the time, so long as your alternator is up to the task.

See the above's post for more info, and quite accurate. Although, also remember your charging system has to recharge the cap so there's potentially still a voltage drop somewhere.

What you will notice is that most of the high end co-axial speakers use a simple two way arrangement. The reason is that adding two or more tweeters really doesn't do much for the overall balance of sound. In fact, a lot of three way speakers are actually two way speakers, with a small cosmetic add on that looks like a tweeter. I would never recommend "upgrading" to a 3 or 4 way speaker, because you are usually looking at a very low end speaker. The more money you spend on the less "ways" possible, the better the speaker will be (And this is in reference to co-axials, however I think that since most people skimp on the installation, a 3 way component set will usually sound worse than a 2 way. This is purely install related, and nothing to do with the actual speakers used. Plus it's cheaper.)

Actually, most aftermarket speakers will distory more than your factory ones for the very reason that you just stated - They are engineered to work together. A lot of customers will complain that they lost some bass when upgrading, however it's not the case. For the most part, the level of bass is the same, most times even better. What's happening is that because our ears are tuned for midrange, the more pronounced midrange of a quality aftermarket speaker will create a whole new level of balance. Most factory speakers, being full range drivers, sound very bass heavy with very dull mid and treble. Now if you have a speaker equally efficient at playing lower notes as higher notes, you will perceive them to be playing less bass. It's also true that some speakers suck for bass, and it has nothing to do with power rating.

The only difference, for the most part again, between an SVC and a DVC sub is wiring options. To match the subs to the amp, you must look at what will work better. Say you're using a monoblock amp that can run at 2 ohms and no lower, you would want to come up with a sub combo that will produce a final resting impedence of 2 ohms (You paid for 500w, and dammit you're gonna get it!). Now let's get real tricky, and say you want to run 4 subs. Running 4 single 4 ohm voice coil subs wouldn't be a good option. You'd either be running at 4 ohms (Pretty much halving your amps potential output) or at 1 ohm (Causing potential damage to your amp). Now running 4 dual 4 ohm voice coil subs would work, since now you have the option of running at 2 ohms (Each sub run at either 2 or 8 ohms, and then either run in series-parallel-series or something or other). It's funny you say a single voice coil sub will handle less power than a dual voice coil sub. That's not true either. You should know that most subs are rated with a thermal power rating. In other words, there is the same amount of voice coil surface area between two identical subs save for the fact that one is DVC and one SVC. The thermal rating is how much power you can put through the sub's voicecoil before it melts.

Actually, with a ported box, you'll usually lose some of your low end extension in favor of more efficiency in the upper bass regions (50-60hz). Most SPL cars are tuned for a higher frequency, something that matches up with the resonant frequency of the vehicle it's in. They sound "deeper" because you're moving a greater volume of air, however if you RTA'd the car, you'd find a drop off in the lower octaves compared to sealed. A sealed box is usually more linear and is obviously more damped. That's why people say it will sound tighter than a ported box. This is almost always true, but then that depends on what box you're using with which subs.

A ported box will always be louder than a sealed box. I don't know what you mean by getting a "louder bass sound".

I have no idea what you're talking about with ported boxes that are enclosed in fiberglass or plexi-glass. If you're talking about a bandpass box, they usually sound horrible. Extremely peaky frequency response, meaning whatever frequency the box is tuned for will play very very loud, but other frequencies are played non-linearly. It can work if you've put a lot of effort into matching the FR curve of said enclosure with the rest of your system, but most people don't and it will sound quite assy.

Something else to keep in mind, is that when looking at box specs for a sub, the recommended boxes from manufacturers are a great place to start, but not the be-all end-all of boxes. Typically, the manufacturer will recommend a slightly smaller box. This is because with more air volume behind a sub, the less power you need to reach full excursion. And because most people these days like to blast their subs well beyond their limits, a manufacturer recommends a box that even if customers do that, the manufacturer won't be warrantying so many drivers. In most cases however, a sub will sound quite good in the box that the manufacturer recommends.

 

A component set won't always have a higher quality of sound. This simply isn't the case. Let's say you have the option of either buying a 300$ component set, or a 300$ co-axial set. I will go as far as to say that 9 times out of 10, the 300$ coaxial set will sound better. Here's why. A lot of the cost for a component set is placed in the crossover. The crossover splits the signal between the tweeter and the midrange. Believe it or not, the crossover makes up about 30% of the overall sound. Altering cap and coil values will make a huge impact on the overall presentation of the sound. Sometimes you'll find the mid has a peak at a certain frequency. What the manufacturer can do is place a filter there to keep that peak at bay. All of this engineering costs a lot of money. This is money that isn't spent on the tweeter or the mid. Usually a co-axial will use a much simpler crossover, which still does an adequate job. However, using a much higher quality mid and tweeter, even in a co-axial setup, will yield a better quality of sound than the lower end component set.

What you gain with going component is soundstage realism. Because higher frequencies are localized, having a tweeter down by your feet and pointed at your ankle does little to make it sound like someone is playing the guitar in front of your car. Placing the tweeters up higher on the dash, the door panel, or even in a kick panel, but aimed towards your ears, will produce that effect. In fact, most often it is recommended to place the tweeters as far away from your ear and as close as possible to the mid to give you a long signal path.

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You've got things mixed up. A higher sensitivity will mean less power is required to produce more output. Is this a good thing? Not necessarily. Generally speaking, a high sensitivity speaker will have better dynamics than a low sensitivity speaker, but this isn't rule of thumb. The only way to really tell which speaker is better than the other is to listen to them. Power ratings, sensitivity, DVC or SVC, none of that really matters when you listen to them. They are all specs given by manufacturers so you have something to compare one speaker vs. another on paper. There are a few specs that matter (Say when shopping for subs, check out the TS parameters for excursion), but even then, that won't tell you which sub will get louder without distortion, because you can't tell without listening.

I'd say instead of making this thread a sticky, delete it and provide some links to say Elite Car Audio forums or something.

 

this wiring diagram(color chart) just saved my *** THANK YOU!