Marine amp help!
radioinahole
Member Posts: 6 ✭
Hello everyone! So I recently had to replace a couple speakers in my '01 captiva 212. I ended up getting kicker speakers with a rockville rxm-s6 6 channel amp. I've never hooked up an amp before, not even in a vehicle lol. It looks fairly easy but I have no idea about the harness with the speaker wires that goes into the back of the deck. The harness has the front and back speaker wires and also what looks to be the power wire to power the stereo deck in that harness. Do I take all of the speaker wires and cut them to plug into the amp and leave the power wire alone or does the amp power the stereo deck? Also on the back of my deck it doesn't look like it has anywhere for the remote wire. Should I splice into the power wire or is there a better way? Also any tips or help on tuning the would really be helpfull as well. Thanks!
Post edited by radioinahole on
Comments
Amp will have 2 different options for speak inputs...a high level input where you use the speaker wires coming from the stereo receiver as the inputs. There are low level inputs which are the RCA plugs on the amp. The receiver will also have RCA outputs that you would connect to the amp ( This is the better of the 2 options ).
You power each device independently, but the amp will have a turn on wire that would hook to the receiver's accessory turn on wire...so when you turn on the stereo receiver the amp will turn on. The amp ideally should use the shortest power run as possible and the power wires aught to be sized correctly...typically 0/2 gauge works for amplifiers.
In all cases the speakers the amp will be powering all connect to the correct speaker screws on the amp.
I'd jump on youtube and search some video's on installing an amp there everywhere.
To add on Skennelly's great explanation... the remote turn on wire out of the radio is usually blue or blue with a white stripe. This will send a signal from the receiver to the amp to turn it on when the receiver turns on.
I agree the easiest and cleanest way to run signal from the receiver to the amp is low level RCA cables. Newer receivers have as many as 3 sets of RCA outputs on the back. Usually there are outputs for front, rear, and subwoofer signal. You plug the RCAs into the amp according to what channel your are going to use for the front, rear, and subwoofer. I also have a 6 channel amp. For example the way wired the speakers on my boat was:
Cabin speakers of the receiver front channel speaker outputs.
Mid Deck Speakers: Channel 1 - Right Speaker, Channel 2 - Left Speaker
Rear Speakers: Channel 3 - Right Speaker, Channel 4 - Left Speaker
Subwoofer: Channels 5 and 6 bridged (positive wire from speaker to positive wire terminal on amp channel 5, negative wire from speaker to negative terminal on amp channel 6
If you don't have a sub and have two other speakers you would just wire channel 5 and 6 like the others above.
All the speakers that you want to run off of the amp will be directly wired to the amp so there will be no speaker wires going to the receiver if you are running them all off of the amp.
Like Skennelly said above, the amp will need a separate power and ground. I would not go over 4 gauge wire make sure that it is fused too. There are amp wiring kits sold and local big box stores as well as online. They usually do not come with a long enough ground wire though as they are made for cars and on a car you can ground to metal on a short run of wire. I usually run the ground to the battery or if you can find a open ground terminal WITH ADEQUATE GAGE WIRE at the dash or at the battery switch, you can do it there.
I just installed a SWEET Wetsounds system on my friends 270 this weekend. That is how I spent my WHOLE Memorial Day. It was worth it though, it sounds great. Good luck with your install!