Factory 6CD receiver, factory sub, aftermarket amp/components/2-ways

[shizzbeatz]

Okay, I did a thorough search on this before I posted and didn't find anything that would directly answer my question.

My goal for my '03 Protege5 is to retain the factory 6-CD changer, the factory spare tire sub, but change the other speakers and use an amplifier to power them.

I have already changed out the components to a set of JBL GTO 606c, but am not yet using the provided crossover. I have a set of 2-way coaxials waiting to be put into the rear doors.

The amplifier I am using is an Alpine MRP-F200, which is sufficient for the speakers I picked out. The amplifier has an input for speaker-level inputs but I don't happen to have the harness for it, so I went and got myself a 4-channel high-to-low adapter (or line out converter?) to hook up RCA cables to the amplifier.

What I want to do is just use the speaker lines from the factory headunit to feed signal to the amplifier and from the amplifier back to the same lines to make life easy. I'm aware that it is best to run new wire like 16 AWG of thickness from the amplifier to the speakers. I have found that it is hard to get wire through the doors and would prefer an easier solution.

From my search in this forum, I found that the spare tire sub uses speaker level inputs (perhaps from the rear channels). I don't know how exactly the speaker level inputs are fed from the receiver, or if they pass through the sub and back to the speakers. If that was the case, then I would conclude that it would be best to run the amplifier in the line AFTER the subwoofer. If this isn't the case, then would it be okay to place the amplified signal directly after the receiver's outputs?

So I've attempted to describe my situation to the best of my ability. Enlightenment on this would be grand.

 

[ELEmental59437]

Best way to do it the way you want it is to get a radio harness and a reverse radio harness. This way you dont have to cut any factory wires, and still get the job done. Check the sticky threads at the top of the audio/electronics pages.

Basically you will connect the power, ground, and accessory wires straight through on both harnesses. Then connect the door speaker wires from the radio-out to the converter you said you have, and run those to the amp. Then the amplified wires that come out of the amp will feed into the other harness, into the stock speaker wires to the doors.

I wouldn't amplify the rear speakers, you would have to mess with the stock sub inputs to make sure you dont blow it. Most people will tell you that the front speakers are the important ones, the rears are ok the way they are.

There are a few threads about this already, I think sirnuke did exacty the same thing you are wanting to do. Good luck, and search some more for those threads, everyone put in a lot of great info.

If you are not going for competition sound (sounds like you arent) then dont worry about wiring the bigger wires into the doors. I did it and honestly I cannot tell the difference, it was just for piece of mind.