Car Audio Help

[matt911]

Car audio confuses me and I'm in need of help.

The car was purchased with the current set-up and I have no way of contacting the previous owner with questions.

Here's what I know about the set-up.

Two amps, seperates up front, 6x9 in rear, no sub

When vacuuming the car the other day I notice two cut speaker cables under the rear carpets. My assumption was that this is where a sub previously lived. I hooked up a sub to one of these wires and it played but it was attempting to put out the high tones a regular speaker would, not just the lows.

My limited previous car audio experience would lead me to believe that the large amp is for the four main speakers and the small one would be for the sub. But the small has four outputs?

Anyway, can you tell from a picture what's going on? Is this set up to accomadate a sub?

Any light that someonee could shine on this would be much appreciated.

Matt

[RANDY P]

Original Soundstream amps. Looks like a D60 and a D200.

Nice amps but fragile. both amps are two channel, so two outputs each.

When you operate the fader, does the sound fade between front and rear speakers - my guess is probably not...

I will be willing to bet that the larger one is running the seperates front and the rears, and at one time there was a pair of 6x9's or something similar behind the seat.

Weird, and you can convert it to a sub output but it involves plumbing a crossover. Easiest way to do it is to buy a new deck with a built in sub crossover and simply plug it in..

[matt911]

Randy,

Thank you for the reply.

You are correct the fader does not work.

The deck is an Eclipse 5340, this is what you suggest I replace?

You think the small amp is basically doing nothing at this point?

When you say the amps are fragile, what might be the symptom of that? Totally dead or?

Sorry for all the questions and I ttruly appreciate the help.

[RANDY P]

Originally posted by matt911
Randy,

Thank you for the reply.

You are correct the fader does not work.

The deck is an Eclipse 5340, this is what you suggest I replace?

You think the small amp is basically doing nothing at this point?

When you say the amps are fragile, what might be the symptom of that? Totally dead or?

Sorry for all the questions and I ttruly appreciate the help.

I would suspect that only one of the amplifiers is physically hooked to the speakers. easiest way to find out, is to simply disconnect the RCA cables going into each amp, one at a time. When you pull the RCA's of the amp that's running all the present speakers, the sound will stop. That amp is what's running everything.

Get a new deck, preferrably an Alpine (reason being is that if you have a power antenna, the Alpine will not raise it if you're listening to CD's) and find one with a DEDICATED SUBWOOFER OUT. Have the sub out plugged into the other amplifier, then take a sub and plug it into the amp that is presently dead - that'll give you sub outputs.

If you're confused, have a pro do it, they shouldn't charge you any extra since there is virtually no real work except physically placing a new sub.

As of the Soundstream product, some of the most musical amplifiers ever built, but easy to burn up if you drive 'em too hard. I used to sell the stuff back in the early 90's. Had the big bad MC300, MC140 and D60 in a car.

Drew enough voltage to burn the alternator if I hit full volume when the car was running, and was enough to break the spot welds holding the roof in place. Musical enough to shame most home systems at the time...

If you don't want 'em, I may be interested. They simply don't make 'em like that anymore.

rjp

[greglepore]

With the system off, disconnect the RCA's to the small amp then fire it back up-if some of the speakers stop playing, they are the ones being powered by it. Don't replug the RCA's with the system on.

What I would do, and the audiophiles will roll their eyes at this, is get a "bazooka tube" type unpowered woofer, and hook it up to the wires behind the seat-or get two little ones. They don't have a crossover, but naturally roll off pretty well, and are VERY efficient. And easily removable.