IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CAR AUDIO, POST IN Q&A THREAD IN AUDIO SECTION
This Sticky is under construction! So most of the stuff will be disorganized.
This is going to a troubleshoot guide and some good info for Audio Headz outhere, I am not going to do step by step on how to put an amp in your car because there is about 10,000 websites that have the info posted.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Introduction to Car Stereo by Crutchfield
<>Crutchfield website that explains on how it install HU’s, AMP’s, Speakers (easy step by step directions, mostly for newbs
Car Audio Technical Information website
<>Very Good website for understanding CarAudio technically (graphs, calculators, box design’s)
- Amp Installation
Get the following (its cheaper to buy a kit)
<>8-0Ga Red (power cable) 17-20ft
<>8-0Ga Black (ground cable) 4-5ft (its better to have the same Ga for ground cable, some amps overheat when lower gauge cable is used + you wont get the full power of your amp if u cheap out on the wiring).
<>Blue Wire, this is amp turn on wire, it goes to the back of your headunit (you turn on your head unit, the amp turns on too)
<>RCA calbes (stereo cables) going to your sub amp or 4ch amp, there is way to many different once, it all depends on what you are doing. You can spend from $5 to $150 on a set of RCA cables.
<>Fuse block
<>ZipTies
Run +12V and TurnOn wire on one side of the car and RCA wires in the middle or other side of the car. Interference of Magnetic waves from wires that run +12V (Red, Blue) could interfere with RCA wire output (since the voltage in RCA’s is most HU below 2V. Dont believe me get a compas and put it next to a hot (running voltage) wire and the compas needle will move. This will be heard mosly in Tweeters which may actually damage them.
FuseBlock should be less the 12" from the battery, I think we had a kid on APG that didn’t run a fuse at all, and then had to replace most of his carpet, because it shorted and burned the plastic insulation off of the wire through the whole wire. If you are not going to use a fuse please don’t even post in this section.
Do your tweeters klick, when you turn-on/off your stereo, check your grounds that might be the problem.
Mount your subwoofer box, and I mean mount the damn thing, if you crash at 45mph your car will stop but the subwoofer box will still be flying, if it makes it through the back seats you will probably die and very stupid death.
Do not mount ur amplifier on the subbox or inside the subwoofer box (both things are really dumb because they damage your amp and is very helpfull for a thief.