Radio Wiring Help

[North Coast Cab]

Ok, though I posess many talents, car stereo wiring is just not my bag.
I have an old Blaupunkt Madison CD127. It was connected to an old Alpine 3153 2-channel amp and powered 4 speakers going through the factory console fader. I cleaned up the interior, removed the fader, and replaced all the speaker wiring. Now I have no way to connect all four speakers. The amp's output is only 2-channel. I'm not looking for concert sound just basic stuff. Can I add a fader back in or do I need to replace the amp with a 4-channel or what other options do I have? I'd prefer to keep the Blau since it has a 3.5mm aux cable for my iPod.

Thanks, John

[makaio]

John,

Here is a simple drawing of how to wire it, that I hastly drew up and scanned:



Here's two links with diagrams to help you out if my drawing doesn't make sense. What you'll want to do is run both the left and right channels of your amp in series. This will allow you to run two speakers off one channel of your amp, without damaging anything ( assuming your speakers are four ohm ).

http://www.installdr.com/TechDocs/999016.pdf

http://www.termpro.com/articles/spkrz.html

[North Coast Cab]

Awesome, thanks. I'm on my way to the garage. I want to have tunes for the 1 1/2 hour trip tomorrow to Mid Ohio for the GT and ALMS races.

John

[makaio]

Since I can't go in person, just wave to me from the crowd when the camera passes by

[bell]

john...don't run the rear speakers off the amp.....just wire them to the rear outputs on the radio, use the amp for only the front doors.
the rear speakers in these cars are "amplified" by the way they reflect of the rear glass (meaning they may be overpowering amplified)
if you do decide to run them off the amp just put the lefts on one channel and the rights on the other, this will show the amp around a 2ohm load which the alpine will handle no problem, if they get wire as the drawing above then the amp will only be powering an 8ohm load and will be half the rated power of the amp.

p.s.....i still have your bearing tool in a box in the garage, hoping to tackle the passenger side soon...lemme know if you need it back whenever

[North Coast Cab]

Bell,
You thoroughly confused me. I got it wire as mentioned above and it worked great. The iPod is functioning and I'm thrilled. I think I'll leave it as is and replace it if it blows up. I have nothing invested in the amp or radio. We can get together some weekend and talk dirt.
No problem on the rear bearing tool. I don;t anticipate using it any time soon.

John

[makaio]

Bell & John, I new it would impose an 8 ohm load that's why I didn't suggest running them paralel. I figured you just wanted to get it running safely (and I didn't have all the specs for the amp and speakers)

Here's a quick example of what Bell was talking about with a 2 ohm load:

[bell]

it's cool matt.....my concern would be if it is a smaller alpine amp (possibly 22w x 2) the half it's rated power will be less than the head unit provides and the speakers will clip easier.

and an explaination for john.......the head unit in your car has a built in amp (the speaker wires coming out of the back) probably about 10 watts per channel realistically. the you have a 2 channel alpine amp.
you can use the radio power for the rear speakers by hooking up the rears dirrectly to the radio, the run the front door speakers off of the alpine amp.
you'll be able to have a little more control over the volume between the front and rear to make it balance out better, the rears will sound louder wired with all 4 speakers on a 2 channel amp, this is because of the acoustics of a 911.

[North Coast Cab]

The fronts do sound much louder. IT a Blaupunkt Madison CD127 and Alpine 3153. You can easily get pdf's, but for some reason I'm having a terrible timeopening pdf's on my computer these days.

John