240 Sound Upgrade

[SVODAD]

I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE BEST WAY TO INSTALL AN ALPINE CDM7874 IN MY SONS 95 240 SX SE. I'VE READ AND BEEN TOLD REMOVING THE FACTORY AMPS WOULD BE BEST, WHICH I AM LEANING TO BECAUSE THE REAR ONE IS BLOWN.I CAN GET A WIRING ADAPTER THAT USES ALL THE FACTORY WIRES AND AMPS OR ONE THAT PLUGS IN AND JUST GIVES THE POWER WIRES NEEDED FOR THE HEAD UNIT. MY QUESTIONS ARE:1. SHOULD I USE ALL THE FACTORY WIRES AND JUST JUMP OUT THE SPEAKER INPUTS-OUTPUTS AT THE AMPS OR GO THE STAIGHT POWER ROUTE?2.SHOULD I BUY A FACTORY AMP TO REPLACE THE BLOWN ONE AND KEEP THEM IN THE SYSTEM, WHICH I HAVE BEEN TOLD COULD CAUSE THE SYSTEM TO SOUND BAD?3. JUST TO KNOW, WHAT IS THE POWER OUTPUT ON THE FACTORY CLARION AMPS? THANKS FOR ANY AND ALL HELP YOU'LL CAN GIVE BECAUSE ITS BEEN AWHILE SINCE I'VE DONE ANY OF THIS IN DEPTH. KEITH

[Former_240_s14]

Howdy and welcome to NICO.

To answer your question, I would bypass the factory amps and run your speakers straight off the alpine head unit, it would be much clearer and have a less of a chance of messing up. When people use adapter kit for their stock system "when hooking up a aftermarket head unit" what they are doing is taking all power away from the headunit and just sending a signal to the fact. amps. Sometimes these adapters malfunction and send spiked power signals to the amps, and reslut blow the amps. I have had this happen to me and many people I know. I REALLY suggest just running your components off your new head unit.

Hope this helps.....good luck

Rubin

[SVODAD]

JUST A QUICK UPDATE. FOUND THE WIRING ADAPTER AND THE ANTENA ADAPTER AT WALMART OF ALL PLACES, FOR ONLY 15.00 DOLLARS TOGETHER. WIRED IT INTO THE ALPINE AND PLUGGED IT INTO THE HARNESS, BUT BEFORE I APPLIED ANY POWER I BYPASSED THE SPEAKERS AT THE AMPS.THE UNIT SOUNDED GREAT AND IF I ADD AN AMP AND SUBS IN THE TRUNK THE HARNESS HAS THE REMOTE TURN ON FOR THE AMP STILL IN IT WHERE I'LL NEED IT.

[lbrowne]

those caps are giving me a headache!

how hard is it to bypass, i don't have mine tore apart yet but is it simply jumping it all together? take the wire going into the amp and run an extension of it to the new speaker?

[Former_240_s14]

^ ^ ^

The easy way to bypass is to just run new better 14 gague "sp?" speaker wire to all speakers. It will take a lil more time, but it makes a great deal in difference.

[lbrowne]

i would, but i don't have any idea where to start to do that. i know enough to connect the speaker to the wire thats going to the stock speaker...after bypassing the amp of course.

but if you could enlighten me, i would probably look into this.

[SVODAD]

Sorry about the caps wasn't paying attention to it.Now the easy way to jump out the amps is to go to the 240 Q and A pages and there is a good expanation on the wiring harness at the amps. What I did was cut the wires back a couple inches from the connector, leaving the power and remote turn on attatched to the connector, that way they could be spliced back in if ever needed. then it is simple to splice the input wire from the stereo with the output wire from the amp to the speakers. doing it this way keeps all your splices in the trunk and also gives you the remote turn on needed if you add a sub amp, although you'll still need to run a fused power wire from the battery to the trunk. That is where I'm at now, looking for the best route to get the power to the trunk. Anyone got any ideas? Hope this helps, Keith

[scruf1986]

What is the point of getting an aftermarket head unit and then running it through factory amps. The head unit has a better built in amp than any factory amp. Some people think bose sounds good but the head unit is just a cleaner and better way to go. Run the speakers off the head unit and if you want to amp it get an aftermarket amp. Don't use the factory amps they break things including speakers and head units.