Thread: recomend me an AMP. stock speakers, no subs.

yeah, correct me if i'm wrong, but i thought all stock headunits come with built in amps. I'm not trying to get LOUD SOUND, but I'm assuming what's going to come out of the onboard sound will not be powerful enough to output to the 4 speakers. I don't see how a small amp will kill the speakers.

you can save money by simply hiding away your stock radio and using its onboard amplifier

how would you go about doing this then WhiteRabbit? no offense, but this looks like more than a simple rewire job and rather "tear apart your headunit, play with the internal electronics and hope you dont kill it" job.

unless you are talking about going a cd-tape adapter or fm modulator route. in that case id also say you are nuts.

*shrug* read his post. heres what I see:

cavalier
laptop source
PSOne 5" screen
Stock stereo
phono to RCA converter.

so, from this, I see a gentleman in his late teens early maybe mid 20's, not alot of money, perhaps a starving college student. his computer isnt a dedicated one and the screen is a small one modified from another purpose. So this guy doesnt have alot of money, is looking for an inexpensive solution to his problem, albeit interested enough in the idea of an in car computer to try removing the radio from the situation entirely.

but its all stock, so there are no fancy speakers to find high end power for, there is nothing that would benefit from droping loads of cash on anything.

finally, from his post I see he is planning to use a computer in his car. thus, i assume his main source of media (key word "main") will be MP3 and divx. Thus, he wouldnt even hear the difference between an FM modulator or a $200 amplifier, anyways!

certainly his stock speakers alone dont warrant such an expensive add-on!

I think about it like a computer itself. I want my computer to play half life faster, do I get that new video card or do I get that new scsi hard drive controller and make the HD faster? well, probbaly the video card would make the game run better, right? its the thing that is MOST likely bottlenecking my computer, right?

so why invest in optical sound cards, fancy software, a Tripp Lite power supply, kimber cable, oversized power wiring, when Im running infinity reference coaxial speakers? makes no sense! I should have just bought that FM modulator!

anyways, why buy an amp if he already has one in his radio? get that tape adapter or FM modulator, and hide the unit away. everytime the car comes on, the radio will come on to its setting, and work just great! his volume control would be from the laptop, and he could use the stock radio volume as a gain control.

makes perfect sense, and is the most economically sensible tihng to do!

as soon as he starts buying fancy speakers and stop playing MP3's, you *might* have an argument that fm modulation isnt the way to go...

nuts? ever drop $500 on a pair of scsi drives to run raid to make half life run faster?

that's an outstanding Idea whiterabbit ! You are correct in all of your assumptions. I'm 21 years old, a starving college student that has a keen knack for modifying electrionics. This is a new project I plan on working on.

I didn't know I would be able to still use my stock radio. If I could that would be outstanding. I didn't even think about using an FM modulator. I talked to the car guys at Circuit City and they told me to get a 500 watt 4 channel infinity amp fo $130+tax/shipping...

Anyway, I guess I would need some kind of relocation kit to hide the stock unit in the trunk huh? That sounds like the most logical way of doing things. I asked the circuit city guys if I would be able to use the internal amp of my stock radio, and they looked at me like I was stupid

Thanks again whiterabbit, you've been an outstanding help!!
-Matt

i myself though would be interested in a low power amp though. contrary to popular belief, not all stock speakers are complete pos. in fact, the speakers in our '96 windstar (atleast the front speakers anyhow) are pretty damned good. crank up the bass and volume on the stock headunit and you pretty much have a decent pair of subwoofers right there (not powerful enough to turn the van into a thump machine though). when i build my carpc i will be removing the stock HU (and possibly the HVAC system if a decent method of integrating HVAC controls into a computer/frontend comes about) because of space constrictions on the dash and will be needing a new amp. doesnt need to be eardrum-blaring loud, just enough to get decent volume out just like the stock HU provides.

dont need a relocation kit at all, if you can stuff the radio in your underdash.

however, if you insist on putting the radio into the trunk, here is what you might do. To make things easier on yourself, you could purchase a wire harness for your cavalier, and find a spare stock harness from a pick and pull. in lieu of this you can always cut your stock harness, but I never never ever do that if I can help it. leaving it stock preserves the value of the vehicle and makes it easy on yourself when you want to change it back. a 100 foot spool of 16 or 18 gauge wire will be enough to make an extension. Should be able to find some of that stuff for dirt. FM mod I would get from david navone. Whats key, is to avoid the FM modulators that transmit. if you find one that physically plugs into your stock radio, you are set. I've even had pretty good luck with a boss audio brand modulator combined with an ipod. since you are going the laptop route, id go with the navone engineering unit. total cost for all this stuff should be around 50-60 bucks at your door.

Figure how much length youll need to make it from the underdash to the trunk. 15 feet is pretty safe, 12 should be adequate, and 18 would ensure you could bolt the radio to your trunk lid if for some reason you wanted to. Anyways, lets figure 15 feet, average distance. cut six 15 foot lengths of your wire spool. label them! youll be thankful later, I promise. now, you can use a clamp if you have access, or wedge them under your desk, whatever. Run them all together and fix one side. pull the wires tight, and wrap some electrical tape around every 8 inches or so. now take one end and butt connector all the wires to your dash kit. youll only need 11 of those wires. power, ground, ACC, and four of your speaker wires. even if your harness comes with extras, you wont need them. Unless your car has factory amplifiers, in which case you will need the last wire for remote. But you wont need power antenna, dimmer, any of the extra stuff.

you can solder if you dont like butt connectors, I'll leave that for personal preference. there wont be a performance difference.

now you can install your extension and the radio will work like its in the dash!





now, you have another alternative, though its a little wierd. it will save you some cash on wiring, however. youve got wiring that travels to the back of your car stock for the rear speakers. you can use that for signal if you want. for the wire harness, you would simply splice together the front and rear speaker wires together, wire for wire. this will connect your rear and front speaker wire lines together. all you owuld do is run a single speaker wire to the trunk, youd only need 15 feet of speaker wire plus output wires. power and ACC would run through your single length of spekaer wire. ground you would ground to the chassis. for output wires, your rear speaker wires would be run directly to the rear speakers. lets say you bolt the radio using back strapping to the underside of your cavaliers rear deck, like a 1980's 6 disc changer. right in the middle, youd be 18 inches away from each rear speaker. Cut four lengths 18 inches long, and tape two pairs together. the rear outputs on the radio go to the rear speakers directly. the front outputs go to the rear speaker wires, which youve disconnected from the rear speakers but are spliced to really power the front speakers.

its a little more complicated, and damages factory plugs more than method one, but its a TON easier to run a single 16 gauge wire from front to back rather than a cluster of six 18 gauge wires.

again, Id put the radio in the underdash if I could manage it, but if you insist on trunk, you could do it that way.