I'm new to the whole car audio thing and have a question. On my head unit it has RCA pre-outs. Do you have to treat pre-out differently or can you just hook them up to the speakers. I'm planning on getting infinity kappas to replace the factory speakers. I'm planning on putting 42.5is up front and 60.5cs in the back and running the tweeter up to the factory location (I have the factory 6 speaker system). Anything I have to be careful of when installing the speakers? Any advice? Cable recommendations? Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

I did my audio a while back but if I do remember correctly, those pre-outs are supposed to be for the amplifier. You'd then connect the speaker wires to the amp. I'm assuming you have an aftermarket hu. If this is the case, don't rely on the onboard amp. get an amp just for the speakers. they sound better and a lot cleaner too. Oh, get the component kappas, they sound great.
For the cables, I'm currently using monster cable, only because a friend of mine got it at a pretty good price at bestbuy.
If you have the time, go to www.ssaudio.com. They are really helpful. http://forums.caraudio.com/vb/ so is this siteGood Luck.
Pat

 

The RCAs are meant to go to an aftermarket amp. Speaker wires go from the aftermarket amp to the speakers. Unless your headunits is a top-of-the-line unit, it should also have an internal amp that has outputs for speakers. The wire harness that you buy to wire up your headunit should have a plug that plugs in after the factory amp; ie, take the factory amp out, and it should also have a second wire harness included that plugs into the factory speaker wire harness.

I'd recommend getting a wire harness and soldering it onto the aftermarket headunit. My friend wanted to save $15 and cut his factory harness off, but after going through a LOT of trouble, spent $20 at a car audio shop and had them reattach a new one. Soldering the harness on isn't very hard. Just match the wire colors, and the wire harness has the wires labelled, too.

I don't know much about the 2nd gen 4Runners, but I'm sure you find a lot of information on everything you asked about using the search feature.

 

Yeah, the pre-outs put out very little power. So they might drive a pair of headphones, but that's about it!

Chris

 

Some are also at a very high impedance, they probably wouldn't even run a mono earpiece.

 

Ok. If I go through the preouts and use an amp I should get one 2 way for the front and one for the back, right? Also how do I figure out what wattage the amp should be? My head unit says its puts out 45Wx4 does that mean 45W for each channel or total? The 42.5i say their peak power handling is 150W and the RMS is 50W. The 60.5cs say their peak power is 270W with and RMS of 90W. I wanna use MTX amps for both the front and the rear. So this is where I need you audiophiles, what amps should I get for the front and rear?

 

go here you need to do some reading

http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm

ill explain briely what the setup is. You pre-out run to the amp which then run the the speakers. You can get a 4 channel amplifier to power all the speakers. Each speaker is on a seperate channel.

When it comes to power there is max power and rms power. Disregard max power its a marketing tool. You are only concerned with with the rms of the amplifier and the speakers they are powering. You want to either underpower or power the speakers to there exact rms rating. NEVER MORE! Impedances must match up as well. 95% of mids, and door speakers are 4 ohms. So when you look at the output on the amplifier you look for the rms at 4 ohms.

Ok why mtx may i add???

ok here are you recommendations

Option 1
Thunder564 4-Channel Amplifier to power all the speakers
4 Ohm Load 45 w x 4

or

Option 2
Thunder282 2-Channel Amplifier for the rear 4 Ohm Load 45 w x 2
Thunder342 2-Channel Amplifier for the front 4 Ohm Load 60 w x 2

mtx gives there ratings at 12.5 volts for rms. You car will give out between 14-14.5 volts normally. thus the amps output will be higher


option 2 will be cheaper but thats up to you. there shouldnt be enough power running through an rca to power anything. oh 45wx4 is 45watt output for each channel so that is not 45 watts total. also that output is MAX. so its more like 23 watts its putting out depending on the secs.

Chris

 

Thanx a lot for the help. I chose MTX because I like the look and I have a friend that has one and I've like the performance of it. If I had more money I'd probably go phoenix gold. I plan on installing the amp(s) in the car area and recessing it into the side wall and make a fiberglass area to mount it on and then putting a plexiglass window over it and tinting the backside so it'll look close to stock. I am also going to put some cold cathodes back there to light the area up and make it visible when I want to. I'll put up pics once I get it all underway. Right now I'm just saving up the cash.

Chris-What amp do you recommend that performs well and looks good? I'm starting to really like the look of the audiobahn amps. How do you like yours?

 

i like audiobahn for subs, i personally wouldnt power a set of components with them. Im not thrilled with the x-over on the amps. But i think there perfect for subs, they push a ton of power for a very good price.


Chris

 

The 45W per channel that the head unit states will not be that coming out of the RCA connections (pre-outs).

You should find some standard speaker outputs for this. Most head units with RCA pre outs will also have at least 4 channels that are normal output.

The preouts only put out a very low output for connection to amps and as said before would be lucky to power a set of headphones.

Normally the standard outputs on these head units are the ones that the fader / balance operates on so with amps you may need a seperate fader / crossover unit.

cheers

 

Hey Chris,
How's the Brahma? I'm currently running JBL BP on a Shiva(1.5cu. ft., enclosed) As of now it's fine, but i'm thinking of getting 2 10s instead. Well, only reason I got the shiva was cuz it's cheaper. thx.
Pat

 

i love it i go one 10 ported to 35hz getting fed 1000 watts. sound really good and ive never heard a ten get this loud before. Chris