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| By: ttocs on Sat, 4 Oct 03:02:24 -0500
| | People often ask if they can keep their factory head unit and still add an amp and subs. quick and easy answer is yes. It can be done fairly easily, and may not even need additional accesories. The sound quality will not be as good as if you replaced the factory unit with a good aftermarket radio with RCA jacks, but will often sound better then the stock system.
RCA's use an unamplified signal that has not yet had much noise introduced. This allows the signal to be carried to a better amp, and makes for a cleaner output. While not sounding as good, keeping the factory head unit will often net a economical way to get better sound from the system in the end. There are a few exceptions that I will go over at the end.
You will want to start by looking for an amp that accepts RCA inputs, as well as speaker level or high level inputs. Most amps will have a high level input on th side, but some do not. A high level input will allow you to tap into the signal from stock deck output, and hook directly into the amp. This is the easiest way, but will often give the worst sound quality of the options I give you. If you think that you will be upgrading the factory radio later, invest in a Line Out Converter(approx $10-20), and a good pair of rca cables(another $5-20). This will allow you to tap into the signal at the back of the radio, and convert the signal to a low level or RCA output. By doing this you will help to reject some of the noise that would be picked up between the stock radio and stock speaker. This will also allow for an easy hook up if and when you do replace the factory radio. LOC's are not big and can often be hidden behind the radio.
All the power wires no the amp will be ran the same with the exception of the remote turn on wire. +12v constant will still go to the battery(properly fused with 12" of the battery!), and the ground will still go to the chassis. You can hook the remote turn on to the +12v ignition wire behind the radio, or the equivilent fuse in the fuse box. I would not recomend hooking it up to the pwr ant wire on the stock deck as it often goes off when the radio is off, or cd is playing.
As I said, most cars have no issues with any of this, but cars with "PREMIUM SOUND" systems often do not mesh well with aftermarket equipment. Fords JBL or chrystlers infinity (And bose in darn near anything!) are often cause issues. Sometimes you can easily bypass this system(Ford), sometimes you have little choice but to rip it all out and start fresh(Bose). I can walk you through the scenarios for most makes and models, but certainly do not have the time or patience to give every one. Hit me up on the forum and I will be happy to help you further....
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