connecting sub woofer

[retromadness123]

Hello guys, just need to pick someone's brain about installing a subwoofer to my classic at the moment it had 2x 6x9 with 315 watt per so I believe they both are like 150 watt each, I have a pioneer pull out cassette and radio player and to be honest I rather keep it in there for the classic look, but, I want to add a subwoofer, the tape player has aux lead connections, now would this tape be power enough to give a good sound through the subwoofer I will be adding larger wire for the power from to battery so just want some ideas, thanks

[Wilk]

You could take the current speaker connection to a 4 channel amp, run the 6x9s from 2 channels and bridge the other 2 to run the sub. Not a perfect set up but it'd work ok

[SmokeEm]

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List how it is currently wired. Do you have an amp? Is it bridgeable? Does it have a crossover?

An old tape player won't have enough power to work a Sub so you would need an active sub with built in amp if you don't have one.

[retromadness123]

I do have a amp and a sub woofer not built in to the subwoofer but a separate amp so all.that i need to connect is the remote wire to the amp via the tape and the aux leads from tape to amp and take a larger amp power cable direct from battery to amp with inline fuse, there is a power wire that someone has added on the tape which goes back to the boot along with the remote wire but the power cable is very small awg, like a speaker wire so was thinking the amp will need a bigger power wire, am I correct, can I connect the 6x9 to the subwoofer wires that go on to the amp or would it be next just leaving the amp and sub separate to the existing connection, also what is the highs watt speakers you can buy as it says 315 watt each which I don't know is good enough, thanks guys lol

[SmokeEm]

Wattage is all curse word. They will always quote Max power which they could take for a split second. What matters is RMS power. A 15w RMS speaker will sound better and louder on a 15w stereo than a 315 one will. Again, for volume, you need to know what dB of sound the speaker will make if you put just 1w through it. Low to mid 90's is a good figure for 6x9's. A subwoofer should be high 90's ideally. We need more info on the amp and its connections. Either way, you will need a good sized power AND earth cable run to the amp. The earth is just as important and should be earthed close to the amp, not to the battery. Post up a PIC of the amp and its connection a/switches etc

[fad]

^this. Ignore anything quoted in watts. You need the T&S specifications of the speakers and the full tech spec of thd amp. Most of what is published is marketing bull. And if anything is quoted as "Peak music power" punch whoever sold it to you square on the bellend.

[retromadness123]

The car is a 82 golf, the sub is 2 x Kenwood 500w peak power, so 1000w cant see a RMS on them and the amp is a Sony XPLOD 500W, 4/3 CHANNEL,hope this helps

[retromadness123]

Sorry that's all that I can find on them lol,

[SmokeEm]

Then it will be fine. Run the 6x9's from the front two channels and bridge the rear to a single channel for the sub. Make sure the rear channel has a crossover or Filter. You want the sub to only see frequencies below 120hz, nothing above. If the front channels have a crossover too, set it to 120hz and above so that they aren't competing with the sub. Make sense?

[retromadness123]

I think so, lol, basically the only speakers in the car are the rear parcel shelf 6x9, so Il try posting some pics up if I can of the amp so hopefully you can explain where everything needs to go thanks

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Assuming you're putting the sub in the boot I'd strongly suggest taking the 6x9s out and fitting speakers in the doors instead to be honest.

[retromadness123]

Sorry to be a pain but what's the reason for removing the 6x9 from parcel shelf and installing some in the front doors, thanks

[retromadness123]

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Dec 16, 2016 20:03:10 GMT retromadness123 said:

Sorry to be a pain but what's the reason for removing the 6x9 from parcel shelf and installing some in the front doors, thanks

Even without the sub in the boot it's best to have speakers - particularly those delivering higher frequencies in front of the people in the car because the sound is more natural - your ears are shaped to ear sounds from in front of you.

Sub location is less important and acceptable in a boot due to convenience in a car because you feel lower frequencies rather than hear them.

However when you combine the two it causes extra problems - assuming that your 6x9s are mounted directly into holes cut into the parcel shelf.

If they are then after you install the sub in the boot the sound waves from the sub will try to escape through the 6x9 speaker cones and cause issues with the sound output - I can't think of the technical term right now - not sure if the 6x9s would become damaged from this.

You could fit the 6x9s in a box on the parcel shelf instead if they're a recent purchase and you don't want to replace them but that requires a bit of work to build a box and still goes against the first reason.

Hope this helps

[SmokeEm]

If you don't mind the soundstage all in the rear, that amp is perfect. Use the high pass switch on to the 6x9's and the low pass switch set to 120 for the sub. Nice thick cabling everywhere is needed.

[SmokeEm]

Ps, whoever wired those blue wires in shouldn't be doing this install....

[retromadness123]

Thanks smokeEm, yh they looked a bit dodgy to me, I picked the box up that's, so am I correct in saying that the one of the wiring should be connected to the other side of the amp where is had the + and - connecting, so not having both wires on that one connecting block.

[retromadness123]

Right I think I know what your saying smokeEm, so each 6x9 had its own channel, ie how the wires are in the picture, but for the subs I could bridge the wires and use it on one channel, so the 6x9's and subs are all running of the amp, do correct me if I'm wrong lol

[theheap]

In my early days of motoring I used a 3.5mm jack plug-aux/rca plugs lead one end plugged into a Walkman and the other end into an amp and had the remote wire on a switch. Proper moody and cained batteries but when you're young and spending money in "better" things......

[quadra]

Dec 18, 2016 0:09:08 GMT retromadness123 said:

Right I think I know what your saying smokeEm, so each 6x9 had its own channel, ie how the wires are in the picture, but for the subs I could bridge the wires and use it on one channel, so the 6x9's and subs are all running of the amp, do correct me if I'm wrong lol

Yes that is correct, but you might need to find out how many ohms the subs are on their own. Normally they would be 4 ohms each, depending on how you 'bridge' them you will end up with either 8 ohms or 2 ohms. Most amps can run subs at 2 ohms but just check first that the amp is capable of running bridged at 2 ohms.