Amp to stock HU non-JBL Access Cab 2011

Ok I didn't want to start a new thread but after hours of searching and researching without finding what I want I guess I'll have to.

2011 Access Cab, non-JBL. 6 disc in dash changer, xm radio. Awful front door speakers, crap ceiling rear's and weak rear sub. The sound is so bad they should be embarrassed.

I want to keep the stock non-JBL HU but all the speakers need to be replaced and I'll need 2 amps, one for the new speakers and one for the new sub. I'm leaving the ceiling satellite's for filler, I guess.

Questions:
I'm assuming I'll need a line converter (?), how do I hook it up to the stock HU? Will it come with fairly straight forward instructions?

I'm assuming the stock HU doesn't have RCA's out, how will I wire my new amps into the stock HU/line converter?

Thanks in advance

 

If you want to run 2 external amps, you might as well replace your head unit. If you want to run two amps, you'll have to splice in 2 line output converters. This means you will have to run one of the converters for your sub and one of the converters for the rest of your speakers. If you do this, you lose control of front/rear fader. For all the money you will be spending on LOC's, you might as well get an inexpensive aftermarket headunit that has at least 2 RCA outs. Your sound will not only be cleaner, it will eliminate having to hack up factory wiring.

Another option would be to ditch the factory sub and only add in 1 amp with an aftermarket sub. You would be surprised at how different a system will sound with clean filtered bass. In this case, you would set your headunit eq to 0 on bass and turn your gain up on the amp. This way your door speakers arent trying to compensate for the lack of bass.

 

The reason I was wanting to keep the stock head unit was to keep the inside looking as stock as possible but this is some solid logic.

Maybe I'll try your advice on an aftermarket sub first and go from there.

The reason I was thinking about adding an amp for the speakers too was because i can talk over the stereo when the volume's maxed.

I really don't want to but signs are pointing to dumping all of it and starting from scratch.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

 

A lot of amps take speaker level inputs but you wouldn't necessarily need a line output converter to add an amp. Although that's easiest with just adding one amp for a sub or something. I definitely agree with swapping out the stock HU. Makes a world of difference with even stock speakers. I just have an aftermarket HU and an 8" JL sub and it sounds good enough for me.

 

Yes I bet the extra vew watts of power from an aftermarket HU would help prevent the stock speakers from clipping.

 

A lot of newer amps have high level inputs which basically allows you to splice into a set of speaker wires to get the signal it needs and converts it internally. With this type of amp, you dont need a line output converter. What you do is get a set of RCA's and cut one end of the connectors off. You splice one set into the left speaker and one set into the right speaker. You then plug the RCA ends into the amp.

I did this with my 2003 M3 and it worked great. I used a newer JL Audio amp, but as I said before, a lot of newer amps have this built in. Going this route eliminates having to get the LOC or processor as the person above posted.

 

question about this. i understand everything you are saying about using a set of rca to the speakers. my question is that, if you get a 4-ch amp, would you run a one pair of rca to each speaker, making it 4 rca's for 4 speakers or would you run one set to the front( splitting right and left) and the same for the rear?

 

You could get a wiring harness that way you would only have to hack into about 5 wires instead of the 8 you will need to make the RCA plugs for the amp, I just installed new JL amp and doesn't care where the signal comes from as long as you tune it with a 1kHz wave and AC voltmeter.

 

what harness are we speaking of. i am a little lost here lol

 

Nevermind about harness, I'm thinking ass backwards, but the harness is a metra part that would interface between the old wiring and the new wiring of a new head unit, using the existing it won't work for this project.