Installing a new amplifier

[Delboy]

Hello All,
I have a 99 C230K with stock stereo and speakers. (Not Bose afaik)
I just bought a 4 channel amp, a Sony XM4060GTX.

My question is this...

I want to install the amp in the trunk, and don't fancy removing the head unit to rewire. Could I just take the wires going to the rear speakers, put them in the amp, and take the output to the rears? Then maybe bridge the other two outputs for a sub?

Or should I make the extra effort and just take wires from the head unit to the rear, and re-wire all the speakers, front and rear, with no sub?

Thanks for any advice...

[pnsji]

do you want to use the amp to:
1. power all the current stock speakers
or
2. power the rear speakers and the subwoofer?

if your amp support high level input, then you could just feed it in. Ohterwise, you need to buy high-low converter.

[Delboy]

That depends on which would produce the better sound, I really don't mind the stock for mid range and treble, the bass however reverberates in the enclosures and sounds pretty bad, I thought running a better amp might help that out.
But if I need to get a separate sub, then I will do that too.

My main concern was about how the HU would handle rear speakers being amped, and front speakers using the built in amp, would that cause problems?

[pnsji]

Originally posted by Delboy
That depends on which would produce the better sound, I really don't mind the stock for mid range and treble, the bass however reverberates in the enclosures and sounds pretty bad, I thought running a better amp might help that out.
But if I need to get a separate sub, then I will do that too.
The stock speakers are just not good. If you want to have a better quality sound, you might want to consider replacing the speakers. Changing the amp without changing the speaker, you have a risk that you could blow the speakers because your Sony amp will produce more power than the OEM amp.

If you want better bass, then adding a subwoofer to your system is not a bad idea. You could use your Sony amp to power 1-2 subwoofer depending on your setup.


Originally posted by Delboy
My main concern was about how the HU would handle rear speakers being amped, and front speakers using the built in amp, would that cause problems?
That will not be a problem. Again, you need to check if your amp support high level input. As long as you adjust the gain correctly, this is not a porblem. The HU is giving signal to your Sony amp and OEM amp at the same time. It's up to each amp on how much they want to amplify the signal to the speakers.

[Delboy]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go with just amplifying the rear speakers, maybe replace them with something beefier, and put in a sub somewhere. Seems like the easiest way to do the install, considering all the wires are already back there.
Plus, I usually have the fader biased to the rear anyway, don't like being too close to the sound source.
The amp does take high level inputs, so it should not be a problem. Besides, I could always re-wire it all later if I don't like the sound.
thanks again.

[pnsji]

Things to consider:
1. People usually like to hear the sound from the rear, because it is farther, then hide the imperfection of the speakers. If you turn up those oem speaker in the front, when it starts distorting, you will not like it.
2. In any kind of sound quality system, you would try to "reproduce" the sound as realistic as you would hear it in "live" mode. So imagine you going to a concert, the band is in front of you. The sound is always coming from the front, including the bass. This is one of the hard part in setting the system because the subwoofer is usually in the trunk and you want to trick your ear to say that the bass coming from the front to achive this "front staging" effect.

[VIP_MBZ]

I thought the stock speakers were junk, but I actually used them for a while powered by my MCC404 before the Focals came in, and they sound pretty good when powered correctly -- as in they'd satisfy 75% of consumers.

I applied a HPF (w/~ 12dB slope) at about 100 Hz, and that got rid of distortion at even very high volumes.

The sound is crisp at detailed without being harsh, with a solid 100w per channel.

Granted, the amp way outclasses the stock speakers, but it's nice to know that with good clean power, they can sound pretty decent. This is a good indication that the speakers are just way underpowered from the factory.

-Ray

[Delboy]

Well I finally completed that. I realised that I would need to remove the HU anyway, to run the blue ON/OFF wire. So in the end, I just decided to amplify all the speakers from the new amp.

Not a particularly easy job, running 9 wires from the HU down the driver side 'plastic wire tunnel' to the trunk; plenty of snaking involved there.

Even tried to install the amp under the passenger seat at one point, but there really not that much room under there, and the Sony unit is a fair sized amp. Then I found that the speakers in the rear shelf actually fire into the trunk for bass, was not expecting that.

Many hours later, I got it all working and it does sound so much better than stock, at all volume levels. I'm hearing stuff on my cd's that I simply could not before.

Still need to fine tune the amp, and may try Ray's recommendation for the HPF.

Thank you to everyone for your advice.

[swank]

You probably could have saved yourself a huge amount of stress and time by just purchasing a factory amp bypass harness from www.autotoys.com - Check them out, awesome products

I just purchased one for my 95 AMG and im researching to see how to set it up best.

[VIP_MBZ]

Originally posted by swank
You probably could have saved yourself a huge amount of stress and time by just purchasing a factory amp bypass harness from www.autotoys.com - Check them out, awesome products

I just purchased one for my 95 AMG and im researching to see how to set it up best.

That only applies to cars equipped with the Bose system. Base audio vehicles don't have an external amplifier.

-Ray