[EmperorJJ1]

So at this point,
-I've replaced the door speakers, running at full range of separate amp
-Added a set of component pods that sit in my back seats, running full range off separate amp
-Added some 6x9 boxes in the trunk, running 50-200hz on separate amp
-Added bass hub in tire well on separate amp
-Added 8 channels of amplification,

I took the signal for all of this "pre-amp" before the door speaker amp in the rear, which feeds into a separate eq before the amps so I can eliminate the static from 1,5-6khz. ground wire is the "latch" bolts.

The gawdawful sound is coming from the dash speakers, so I just bumped up the gain on everything else. All that and hours of tuning and it still sounds worse than the factory Alpine in my jeep. the bass hits harder though.

why wouldn't you replace the dash speakers then? or just remove them since you have presumably co-ax in the doors

 

[Silvertoy]

why wouldn't you replace the dash speakers then? or just remove them since you have presumably co-ax in the doors

Yes, correct, coax in doors, and 2 way in pods. So, I'm not 100% sure but I believe that since those front speakers are split off of the signal that goes to the rear oem door AMP, that the telematics module is pumping sound through those dash speakers accordingtothe diagrams, so I would lose my ability to hear calls. I was 100% going to buy the OEM + speakers for door and dash but they couldn't (wouldn't) tell me if:
1. their door speakers could handle an aftermarket AMP of any size
2. If they would sell me just the dash speakers.

I have yet to see what folks have had success with in regards to the factory HU amplification and aftermarket speakers other than those that did the OEM +.

The factory speakers are 3ohm I believe and I am a little nervous that anything else will give the HU fits. I would also like to replace the rear kick panel speakers and have some 4ohm infinity to match the door and pod speakers. I would like to just put some infinity in the dash too, would make my tuning a lot easier.

 

[RednDead]

Reporting back! I disconnected the subwoofer’s power wire from the battery. The static is mostly gone and the volume can go up slightly more (with bass at -8 on the head unit EQ) to 28 before distortion and cutting out happens. Before I touched my sound system, there was absolutely no static or cutting in and out whatsoever, up to the point of 32.

So yeah, the butt splices I used definitely added some noticeable static. Im gonna try two things. First, Im gonna get rid of those connectors and try a direct, wire to wire splice with electrical tape to cover the ends. This should eliminate the static altogether. If it does not, I will take out the cut RCA cables and try the high side wiring.

Will report back when I have answers

 

[Silvertoy]

Nvm lol still got some static. The new grounding point did get rid of I'd say about half of it but it sounds like the artists I listen to have lisps. Probably just gonna buy an amp because if it isn't the butt splices I used to connect the RCAs to the low side, idk what it is

That's a good way to describe the static, like they are holding on to their S's

 

[Hachi Electronics]

Reporting back! I disconnected the subwoofer’s power wire from the battery. The static is mostly gone and the volume can go up slightly more (with bass at -8 on the head unit EQ) to 28 before distortion and cutting out happens. Before I touched my sound system, there was absolutely no static or cutting in and out whatsoever, up to the point of 32.

So yeah, the butt splices I used definitely added some noticeable static. Im gonna try two things. First, Im gonna get rid of those connectors and try a direct, wire to wire splice with electrical tape to cover the ends. This should eliminate the static altogether. If it does not, I will take out the cut RCA cables and try the high side wiring.

Will report back when I have answers

If just disconnecting the power wire solved your issue, it’s likely an issue with the sub’s integrated amp rather than a problem with your connections. I’m all in favor of removing the butt connectors in favor of a wire to wire splice (as long as that splice includes solder, don’t just tape them together) but i’m not confident this will help.

 

[EmperorJJ1]

if the new connections dont help i would try a ground loop isolator inline on the RCA's to see if that helps. also the RCA's that were included with that sub are probably trash too wouldnt hurt to try a better pair. ive only used the kind like below that are straight forward. ive seen some just now that have wire connections as well but no idea on their performance in comparison

Amazon.com: Install Bay - Ground Loop Isolator Each (IBGLI), Ground Loop Isolator : Automotive

Buy Install Bay - Ground Loop Isolator Each (IBGLI), Ground Loop Isolator: Accessories - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[RednDead]

Update: Got my sound system back to sounding stock. The highs and mids are back to perfect, no lisp or static in the songs, only I didn't have time last night to try tapping into the high level connections so my subwoofer sits idly in my trunk. I'm off work early today so I'll try splicing the high side today.

One question regarding wire gauge for the high side, do I need to use a certain gauge of wire to connect from my subwoofer amp's smaller 22-gauge wire high side wires to the existing high side wires going into the car's amp (which are probably something like 16 or 18 gauge)? I have some new 16 gauge audio cable and I'm not sure if the size difference in gauge will make a difference.

 

[Hachi Electronics]

One question regarding wire gauge for the high side, do I need to use a certain gauge of wire to connect from my subwoofer amp's smaller 22-gauge wire high side wires to the existing high side wires going into the car's amp (which are probably something like 16 or 18 gauge)? I have some new 16 gauge audio cable and I'm not sure if the size difference in gauge will make a difference.

Going bigger won’t hurt.

 

[RednDead]

Hello. I am back for my final update. I completely eliminated the static in my speakers, it’s not present at all even when my speakers are at 32 which is the absolute highest I’ll turn them up to (head unit EQ: bass 0 treble 4 and mid 4).

What it looked like when it had static: RCA cables with one end of each R and L connector cut off that were hooked up from the subwoofer’s low end connections to the cars’ amp low side cables, using CRIMP CONNECTORS. This is important because those were what was giving me so much static. Sub ground/negative was hooked up to the strut bolt.

What it looked like after I fixed it: I repaired the low end connections at the car’s amp, yes, with solder, electrical tape’d the exposed copper to fix the low end connections. Scrapped the RCA cable. Used 16 gauge audio cable, included with the Rockville 8 inch trunk subwoofer’s wiring kit, to connect the sub’s high side connections (R+/-, L+/-) to the car amp’s high end wiring. Spliced and insulated with electrical tape. Moved the sub’s negative/ground cable to a seat mounting bolt as the Audio God removedonut suggested.

There was technically nothing wrong with reusing the low end cables, but they were mangled enough from my fuckery that I left them alone and used the high end connections.

For anyone needing help,

Low level (RCA)
FL (+/-): Itgrn pin A3/yellow pin A9
FR (+/-): white pin A4/Itblu pin A10

High level:
FL (+/-): Itgrn pin A1/blue pin A5
FR (+/-): brown pin A2/purple pin A6

@removedonut Thank you so so much for your instruction. Truly doing the Lord’s work.

 

[Parsimony]

Just the two front door speakers. Front 3.5s, front tweeters, and rear 3.5s are all just run off deck power.

If the signal going into the factory is a full range signal, is it identical to the signal from the deck going into the front 3.5s and tweeters?

What I'm wanting to do is capture the left and right signal before it goes into the factory amp with something like a T harness or maybe just splicing and running that into a 5 channel amp. (The 5 channel amp can is capable of summing the L&R channels and outputting a mono sub signal.) I would then use the amp to run a passive subwoofer in the trunk and then run components in the front to replace the factory speakers. The signal from the deck going into the 3.5s and tweeters would no longer be used. Is this possible or would I lose any functionality like phone calls or chimes or warning bells that are run out of the deck speaker outputs?

In another words, is the signal to the factory amp identical to the signal that is output by the deck to the 3.5s and tweeter? If so, should I be good to go with a 5 channel amp unless I'm missing something else?

 

[Hachi Electronics]

If the signal going into the factory is a full range signal, is it identical to the signal from the deck going into the front 3.5s and tweeters?

Yes, they’re the exact same circuit.

 

[hades281]

Thread bump to share a bit from my recent installation. You can't see it, but the ground wire is fastened using the amplifier nut on the backside (closest to the exterior of the car), and the ground wire is zip tie bundled with all of the rest of the wires. The remote controller (for gain, LPF, phase etc) for now is just running thru the backseat to the front while I play with the settings. Long term, I will probably bundle that and just store it in the trunk.

 

[Doubleketchup75]

If you’re using low level, you can simply cut one end off your RCA cables, strip back the insulation, and splice the wires directly into the low level inputs at the factory amplifier. It will generally be fairly obvious what color wire inside the RCA is positive/negative.

Hey I cut the ends of my RCA cable to splice into the wiring harness, but there’s 3 wires inside instead of 2. I’m pretty sure the red/white ones are the positive and I’m guessing the other insulated ones are negative but what are the third uninsulated ones? Should I connect them to anything, or just tape them off? Or would it be better to use 16 gauge wire for the connections? The amp only has RCA plug-ins for right/left as far as I can tell

 

[EmperorJJ1]

the uninsulated wire is there as a shield. (the 2 technologies that are used to prevent noise in car audio is twisted pair or shielded.... cheapest options would have neither) you would have to research what if anything to connect the shield to but if i remember correctly you ideally want to connect the HU end but not the amp end? who knows im probably spewing nonsense. If research pulls up nothing then just dont connect at all.

The whole point of them is to prevent noise and honestly an inch and a half or what not isnt going to really matter or do anything one way or the other IMO.

 

[Hachi Electronics]

Correct, uninsulated wire is a shield and doesn’t need to be connected to anything. If you were to connect it to something, you could ground one end of it, but it’s not necessary.

 

[Domonicb0114]

Tapping input signal (GR86 premium/BRZ limited):

If you’re using the speed wire I recommended, slice it open and pull out the appropriate length of 2 wire pairs. White and gray are the standard colors for FL/FR so i’ll be using those sets.

We’ll be accessing everything at the factory amplifier. There is a foam piece that is in the way held in by 3 visible push pins. Pop those up with your pry tool and flip the foam piece out of the way so you can access the wiring harness. Unplug the harnesses, and using your razor blade cut back the factory wire dressing a few inches.
View attachment 6330
There are 2 options for getting signal back here: high level or low level. If you’re not sure, use low level. High level will generally require you to solder your speaker wires to the high level input harness, and most people reading this probably don’t own a soldering iron. If you’re using low level, you can simply cut one end off your RCA cables, strip back the insulation, and splice the wires directly into the low level inputs at the factory amplifier. It will generally be fairly obvious what color wire inside the RCA is positive/negative. Alternatively, you can buy 2 female RCA pigtails on amazon for fairly cheap and just splice those in.
Amp turn-on is also found here, it is the dark green wire in the middle of the harness. You can splice the 18ga blue wire in your power kit into there.

Here are pins and wire colors:

Low level:
FL (+/-): ltgrn pin A3/yellow pin A9
FR (+/-): white pin A4/ltblu pin A10

High level:
FL (+/-): ltgrn pin A1/blue pin A5
FR (+/-): brown pin A2/purple pin A6

Pins are counted right to left.
The positives are all on the top row directly above their corresponding negative wire so verifying pins is easy.


When making your connections, use a military splice. This is the technique every (good) professional installer uses. I highly advise against using T-taps or any other hackjob wiring connector.

Start by stripping back a small section of insulation.
View attachment 6331
Use your hook tool to poke a hole through the center of the strands.
View attachment 6332
Strip the end off the wire you’re splicing in, and twist the strands so they stay together nicely.
View attachment 6333
Wire go in hole.
View attachment 6334
Wrap the wire around, then pinch the connection point to close the hole you poked.
View attachment 6335
Apply electrical tape. Less is more here, you don’t need more than about a centimeter of tape.
View attachment 6336
Once you’ve made all your connections, reapply factory wire dressing. Subaru just uses electrical tape, so this is easy.
View attachment 6337

Hey I know this is a while out from when this was posted but before seeing this post I had an LOC connected. Saw this post and am now trying to take that out and connect my amp the way you're setting it up here and now my amp just kicks into protection mode. If I disconnect the RCA plug ins on the amp it gets out of protection mode and is powered on but no signal for the subs to work. Not sure if I did anything wrong or what but it's not working. With the LOC they worked but it would be really unpredictable with certain songs. The bad would hit really hard on one song then feel like I don't have any subs in at all with other songs. So I figured having the LOC was the problem after seeing this post but now I'm starting to regret that decision. At first I thought it was a bad remote connection but I even set it up how I had it before with a wire going to my fuse box on one of the fuses. Still same thing. Any idea what could be set up wrong or what I could do?

 

[TNcaveman]

Hey I know this is a while out from when this was posted but before seeing this post I had an LOC connected. Saw this post and am now trying to take that out and connect my amp the way you're setting it up here and now my amp just kicks into protection mode. If I disconnect the RCA plug ins on the amp it gets out of protection mode and is powered on but no signal for the subs to work. Not sure if I did anything wrong or what but it's not working. With the LOC they worked but it would be really unpredictable with certain songs. The bad would hit really hard on one song then feel like I don't have any subs in at all with other songs. So I figured having the LOC was the problem after seeing this post but now I'm starting to regret that decision. At first I thought it was a bad remote connection but I even set it up how I had it before with a wire going to my fuse box on one of the fuses. Still same thing. Any idea what could be set up wrong or what I could do?

I got rid of my sub. The radio's signal is too janked. Like you said, one song trying to turn it down. Next song, nothing. I replaced that with 6.5 inch speaker in the rear and a 75 x 4 ch amp. I use the front signal to power the front and rear. I need to do a new write up.

Anyone want to buy my JBL sub? I'll include the Styrofoam cut to fit around it

Steve

 

[Hachi Electronics]

Hey I know this is a while out from when this was posted but before seeing this post I had an LOC connected. Saw this post and am now trying to take that out and connect my amp the way you're setting it up here and now my amp just kicks into protection mode. If I disconnect the RCA plug ins on the amp it gets out of protection mode and is powered on but no signal for the subs to work. Not sure if I did anything wrong or what but it's not working. With the LOC they worked but it would be really unpredictable with certain songs. The bad would hit really hard on one song then feel like I don't have any subs in at all with other songs. So I figured having the LOC was the problem after seeing this post but now I'm starting to regret that decision. At first I thought it was a bad remote connection but I even set it up how I had it before with a wire going to my fuse box on one of the fuses. Still same thing. Any idea what could be set up wrong or what I could do?

Pic of the wiring where the RCAs are connected? Sounds like your positive and negative could be shorting together.

 

[Ritter]

I got rid of my sub. The radio's signal is too janked. Like you said, one song trying to turn it down. Next song, nothing. I replaced that with 6.5 inch speaker in the rear and a 75 x 4 ch amp. I use the front signal to power the front and rear. I need to do a new write up.

Anyone want to buy my JBL sub? I'll include the Styrofoam cut to fit around it

Steve

I've noticed this, too. Wonder what's going on? Some songs have way too much bass and other, similar songs have no bass.

 

[JLippold]

I got rid of my sub. The radio's signal is too janked. Like you said, one song trying to turn it down. Next song, nothing. I replaced that with 6.5 inch speaker in the rear and a 75 x 4 ch amp. I use the front signal to power the front and rear. I need to do a new write up.

Anyone want to buy my JBL sub? I'll include the Styrofoam cut to fit around it

Steve

Is it the basshub stadium? The passive spare tire sub? If so, how much?