I've posted this on the suby forum but I figured some of you guys might be more help (considering I posted on nazi-oc).

and some more info someone had asked for.

 

P.S. if anyone has any first hand experience with in-dash nav or other good double din headunits feel free to put input. Im torn between keeping my existing headunit and just getting a GPS unit or doing the in-dash option.

 

I'll let someone else answer most of your questions, because my brain is off somewhere else.

If you have component speakers, which it sounds like you do, the component crossover takes the amplified signal (from the amp obviously) and splits it into the right frequency range for each speaker. So if you have a 3-way component set that has midbass, midrange, and tweeters, the component crossover (one for left, one for right) will have one input that comes from the amp, and three outputs (a midbass, midrange, and a tweeter). The crossover can go just about anywhere you want it to, but it's usually easiest to mount it in close proximity to where the speakers will be mounted. So if you have all of the speakers in the doors, the crossover can be mounted in the door so you can run one speaker wire (from the amp) into the door from the chassis. It's really just a matter of mounting convenience.

Is that what you're asking?

 

Yea that deff helps a bit. The speakers just have the single cone on the 6.5in part and then the tweeter is completely seperate. But from what your saying (which makes sense) it just takes the amplified audio signal (from the amp) and filters it so your not sending lows to the tweets and the opposite.

 

Exactly. If you have two speakers per channel, you have 2-way component speakers so each (left and right) crossover will have one input from the amp and two outputs.

 

I guess the biggest part that I'm lost on is how the Amp works into the system wiring wise. I know what amps do and how they work. But is it merely running all the signals from the headunit back to the amp (assuming it would be mounted in the trunk?) and then running all the wires back out from the back to all the appropriate speakers?

 

In the simplest terms, yes. Aftermarket head units generally have RCA outputs (like your home stereo) that are meant to be run directly to the input of an amp. So signal cables get routed to wherever the amps are mounted, then speaker wire is routed to the speakers. Most of the complexity (and there isn't much) comes from figuring out what you need, what you have, and what you want to do with it all. So that is basically just figuring out what amps to get based on the speakers that you have, and how to supply those amp(s) with signals from the head unit. The rest is just running wires.

 

But if memory serves me the RCA output on the back of the headunit is just stereo (L and R) so wouldnt that make it impossible to control front and rear balance? Sorry I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of it so I dont have to waste money paying some dude to install it.

Also that would make any wiring currently from the headunit to the speakers null right? All of the wiring would go:

Headunit - Amp - Speaker?

 

You can do any wiring you want using an amp, or not. So if you only want an amp on the sub, for example, and you want the rest of the speakers to be connected to the speaker outputs of the head unit (without using an amp for them) that's fine. You have options, which is the nice part of all of this.

Different head units have different quantities of RCA outputs. I think that's where you're getting hung up. Low end head units often have a L and R only, but better models will have 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 (often 4 for front/rear plus an extra for the sub, making 5 total). With seperate RCA outputs comes seperate control for fade, balance, frequency cutoff, etc., which is why there are more than just a single pair of left/right RCAs.

Take a look at the specs of the head units that you're interested in; that will tell you a lot about what's available on the market right now.

 

balls. I was going to try to keep my excisiting headunit (Kenwood x-789). I will have to do some digging see if I can find a picture of the back of the thing so i dont have to rip it back out.

What I was planning on doing is having a small amp for the speakers (separate from the headunit one) and then another amp for the sub. I'm not planning on getting the sub right away though. I want to see how the speakers sound by themselves so I can see how big of a sub I need to get the sound that I want.