A lot more wires than I'm used to

[NafemanNathan]

So I've got all this jobby in the boot of my car and the ISO plug for my speakers has been made redundant...



I'm assuming once upon a time an amp and/or sub lived there, but I have no experience with either of these, so it'd be great if someone/somefew could enlighten me as to what the hell they're all needed for

I know 1, 2, 3 & 4 are the speaker cables.

5 & 6 lead to a joiner under the passenger seat...



... And then end up behind the head unit along with 7 & 8 and 9 & 10...



11 & 12 I have no idea where they go yet

13 & 14 I'm assuming are grounds for an amp and a sub, or two of either?

15 and therefore 16 & 17 are connected to the positive of the battery via a fuse.

And 18 was just kicking about in the boot, so

Also under the driver's seat are these two connections...







Could they be relevant?

I know how to revert everything back to standard, but if I can pick up a decent amp for not very much (not necessarily bothered about a sub, unless you can get a decent compact one ???) then I might as well if all the cabling's there... Although what is the actual benefit of an amp?

Also, my current Sony stereo only has a "Right" red and white, and a "Left" red and white port to take either 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10, so not only am I faced with, why didn't the previous owner use matching leads? but what could I possibly connect the 3rd pair to anyway?

Cheers guys. Any help would be most appreciated

[Thebusofwoe]

We'll looks like it had a system of two amps, maybe three. Basically you have nailed it on the head with regards to what they all do. I think the two under the seat would of most probably been for a compact disc changer. That's some serious amp power that was fitted there tho

Edit, 5,6,7,8,9,10 are RCA connector leads. They are what send the information from the stereo to the amp on what to play. Why there is three sets of leads, I am not sure. Years ago I used an RCA splitter to run two amps from one cable outlet

[indigolemon]

I had two runs of phonos in Eve, as I fed FL, FR, RL and RR feeds separate to my amp, which I then ran all the speakers from. I did make sure they were matched and the same length though!

[RattyMcClelland]

1-Speaker wire
2-Speaker wire
3-Speaker wire
4-Speaker wire
5-RCA cable (send the audio signal from the headunit to the amplifier. Pairs are left and right. So you have front l/r, rear l/r and a subwoofer signal pair)
6-RCA cable (work out which rca cable in in which output on the back of the headunit)
7-RCA cable
8-RCA cable
9-RCA cable
10-RCA cable
11-Amp remote cable (when the headunit is on this wires tells the amplifier to turn on)
12-Amp remote cable
13-Amplifier Ground cable (this is attached to the chassis on that middle part to ground the 2 amps that were in it)
14-Amplifier ground cable
15-Power cable (from the battery and into its own dizzy block which ideally should be fused but isnt)
16-Power cable
17-Power cable
18-Spare wire

The black square plug under your seat is a CD changer lead from a Pioneer unit
THe other plug looks like the OEM seat wiring directly under the seat.

[NafemanNathan]

Cheers boys, knew I could rely on you

My headunit isn't the most advanced, it only has RCA connections on the back for "BUS IN" and "AUDIO OUT REAR/SUB". What's "bus in"?

Ratty, there's a fuse on the power lead in the engine bay, or do you mean to isolate after the split?

So... What does one or two or even three amps give you over just a head unit?

[RattyMcClelland]

My headunit isn't the most advanced, it only has RCA connections on the back for "BUS IN" and "AUDIO OUT REAR/SUB". What's "bus in"?
Bus in will be the CD changer input i think. The Audio out will be for the RCA cables and you can run this to a 2 channel amp and connect it to the front speakers The the rear output becomes your front and thats all you need

Ratty, there's a fuse on the power lead in the engine bay, or do you mean to isolate after the split?
Yes i mean after the split but remove this if you only use one amp.

So... What does one or two or even three amps give you over just a head unit?
What does a 4litre V8 give you over a 1ltr 3 cylinder?
Headunit only put out 18wrms at best, FOrget the 50wx4 output altogether. A decent amp can provide more power and more CONTROLLED and undistorted power

[lewd lude lover]

every speaker should have a channel to itself if possible. A head unit is only ever a media player imho. Its kinda like a dvd and tv combo or a washer drier. never as good as having seperates.

Ratty has it with control. Cars are shitty places to try and play music well. the more control you have over your driver cone the better your sound will be. that means lots of clean headroom on the amp so the high transients can stretch out in the dynamic field. More amps and more sound proofing = better sound all round. you got some cables there, use em!

[lewd lude lover]

how much dynamat is in there?

looks like they had a three amp set up. front rear and sub like i had in the red lude.

[wurlycorner]

That 3 pin white plug next to the pioneer P-bus lead is also for the pioneer gear I think. For the DAB plugin unit.

If you're not using the pioneer leads and they're intact, I'd be pleased to take them off your hands as spares for the setup in my Xantia (I keep looking for the DAB unit...)

[K30DPC]

front rear and sub

Or
front tweeter
front midbass
subwoofer

Nafeman
3 sets of rca cables giving you control over all speakers from your HU. Also higher spec HU usualy doesn't give you a chance to use their full capabilities without separate amplifiers. Most of them have built in only 4ch amps for FR, FL, RR, RL speakers, while have RCA outputs with separated frequency range for different type of speakers. Also some people say you can have better sound if you will divide full range signal for tweeter and midbass ranges and amplified them separatelly (using two different type of amps). I never tryied this but sounds logical.

At the end of the day it is very dificult to say what previous owner had there. There is to many different configurations and possibilities.
I'm guesing there was two amps as you have two pairs of ground and live wires. It wasn't very powerfull setup as they're quite thick. Also this isn't any profesional installation (RCA joiner). Try to trace speaker wires and you will know was it "front tweeter + front midbass" or "front + rear" configuration.

At the end ask yourself how much do you expect from your sound system. Then make a decision. Proper wirings cost some money and takes lots of time for installation but still this is only begining of serious expenses if we talking about proper systems