Since my installer flaked out on me this weekend, I'm going to attempt my own install this week. Shouldn't be too hard, but I need to know how to convert my existing wiring into two sets of RCA's. Since el_duderino said we don't need an LOC, I want to just tap into the existing wiring.

Exactly what wires to we cut/splice?

 

How easy is it to install these?



METRA 70-7551

 

go use twisted pair RCAs. you'll have 2 pairs of wires in there and you can use that.

 

An RCA cable has two conductors, a center (+) and a shield or outer ring (-). Twisted pair RCAs don't do the co-axial foil-shield-around-the-center-conductor thing, they twist a positive and negative together in a spiral. It's done for noise-rejection reasons, but it also makes the two conductors easy as pie to connect to.

And remember to give amthar props : ) I told you it could be done, and he did it.

 

Bought some IXOS twisted pair RCA Y cables from el_duderino. Cable I bought from him was twisted pair RCA with 1 male RCA plug at one end and two female RCA plugs at the other. Cut the male end off, ended up with two cables, each with bare wires at one end and a female RCA jack at the other. You'll probably need a voltmeter to figure out which wire of the twisted pair is + and which is - (the IXOS I received did not have these labeled). There gauge was somewhere between 18 and 22 I think.

Can you FEEL the east coast/west coast love???

 

Ok so where to you connect the bare wire from the cut off male plug to???

 

The Y adapter I am referencing has 6 wires in it total. All 6 wires come out of the single male RCA plug. 3 of these wires twist together and go into one of the female plugs. The other 3 wires twist together and go into the other female plug. The three wires going into either of the female plugs consists of:

1 negative (-) wire
1 positive (+) wire
1 ground

I cut the male end off and threw it away. This left me with the two female RCA "pigtails", each with an RCA female end at one end and three wires at the other end (as mentioned/described above). I cut the ground wire off of each of the female pigtails, leaving me with a female RCA plug at one end, and 2 wires at the other (a positive [+], and a negative [-]).

I purchased two of the Y adapters mentioned above, and did the procedure mentioned above on each one. This left me with 4 female RCA pigtails - one for the front left channel, one for the front right channel, one for the rear left channel, one for the rear right channel. If I could do it again I wouldn't even bother with adapting the rear channels.

I disconnected the negative terminal of the battery (actually I didn't do this, and I blew a fuse, so make sure you do it). I located the input wire pairs (the ones coming from the stock head unit) going into the amp (front left +/-, front right +/-, rear left +/-, rear right +/-), cut them, and connected them to the + and - of the RCA pigtails.

With the wires coming from the HU adapted to female RCA plugs, you can use any standard male-male RCA cables to connect them to the input jacks on your amp.

Hope this makes more sense.

 

Yeah that makes a lot more sense amthar. Thank you VERY MUCH for explaining. I feel more confident now cutting stuff up now. I'll get some Y-adapters this week and attempt this weekend.

So basically you just ditch the ground wires?

 

Yes, the ground wire is not necessary for the setup we're discussing. If you find a Y twisted pair RCA adapter local to you, let me know where you find it. I don't know where you're located, but I've been looking everywhere over here in NC and have yet to be successful. I'd love to find someone local who caries them.

 

Something like these?

 

It's hard to tell, but those wires look pretty tiny. You want something that will give you like an 18 or 22 gauge wire, minimum. 16 would be better.

 

I don't see the need to buy expensive RCA adapters then cut them up. Just use these from RadioShack. You can get either male or female ends.

 

what exactly is that product you posted? it's hard to tell. Are they RCA ends? How do you attach cables to them? Or do they have pigtails hanging off of them?

 

Yes, they are RCA ends. No wires or anything. You can unscrew the plastic parts and soldier the speaker wires to made your own RCA cables. They come in a soldier-less type as well but I opted for soldier ones for my install. Takes about 2-3 minutes to do with some solder and heat shrink tubing. You screw back the ends and you're done.

 

Does the connector quality really make much of a difference? Radio Shack brand compared to the ones I would "cut/splice"?