I'm trying to hook up a pair of 10" subs into an amp, and the amp to my stock head unit. There are no RCA's so my local car audio guy told me to tie into the speaker wires. I did that no problem, hooked it up to the battery, hooked up the ground and wired the subs mono, and i get no power to amp, and no thump. Where did I go wrong? Any ideas? I'm stumped, and a little bit un informed when it comes to car audio...

 

Did you hook up the "remote" wire for the amplifier? You need a source from the head unit to tell the amplifier when to turn on. You'll probably have to use the "switched" power wire for the head unit (gets 12 volts when the key is turned on). You'd typically use the power antenna wire, but I think that turns off when you play a CD/Tape with the factory head unit. When you say you tapped into the factory speaker wires, do you mean you used a line output convertor (converts speaker wire to RCA's) or does your amplifier use the factory wires as a signal input?

 

ha...ha...ha...I forgot the remote wire...whoops...

I didn't use a line output convertor, I was able to use the factory wires as the signal. Hopefully that will work ok, because it was a dog to get it hooked up. Theres not much room in the head unit cavity.

Thanks MD Mike, when I get my truck back from the mechanics I'll check that out.