Hardwired I-pod setup?

[Swifty1638]

Well, I sold my H/U and amp setup, so now i'm radio-less. I figured I could spend the money in a better area, towards something else. I wanted the ability to use my ipod, but I didn't want to spend the big bucks for that whole radio/wire setup. So, here's an Idea I think may work, but I want to test it with you guys.

Get a small amp. 75-80 watts would be perfect. Run your speaker wire from teh stock harness to the amp. Tape off the other harness you'd normaly use for the radio-power, acc power, etc. Run a power wire, from your battery, to a fuse, then to a switch (to control when the amp is on or not) to the amp finally. Then, ground the amp. Then, get the RCA to male headset connector from a radio shack, and hook that u from the amp to your headset plug-in on the ipod. Turn up the gain/volume on the amp, so you don't overload the volume on the ipod ( I hear that's sometimes an issue). Anyone see anything flaud, or missing here? I wanna know if it'd work, before I go do it, or ruin my expensive Ipod. I'm no wiring expert, so I'm curious.

-A. Swift

[mdost03]

Why don't you just get a radio with a RCA Auxiliary input and get a RCA to Headphone cord and hook that up to your iPod? Seems like it would be easier.

[Swifty1638]

Becauase a)I don't really want a headunit, and b) I don't want to spend all the money required for the radio, the wires, etc. just buying an amp would be easier, as I already have most everything else.

-A. Swift

[asshanson]

I wanted the ability to use my ipod, but I didn't want to spend the big bucks for that whole radio/wire setup.

This is a much cheaper (free) solution if you already have the amp. If not, you can get a cheap deck with RCA input for < $100 on sale online.

But yes, hooking up the amp's speaker outputs to the car's harness speaker inputs should work, using the ipod as a direct input to the amp. There really isn't any way to harm the ipod, because the amp is using the RCA plugs as an input.

That's going to be ugly though, ipod wire going to amp sitting somewhere in center console, big hole there and all. Unless you figure out a way to mount the amp in the double DIN slot... which would be different but kinda cool.

[twack]

I think it was on talk that i talked to some people about this, it works really good, and if you can hide the amp, dosnt leave anything out for people to want to steal.

[Swifty1638]

That's what I was going for. Most of my music is on my ipod, and no longer cds. I don't have anything for the fm setup anymore, since I took out the antenna, and hardware. I don't want a deck, cause that's less to look at and want to steal, and I'd hide my amp behind the glovebox area or center counsole, and the ipod would sit in teh center counsole, out of harm's way.

-A. Swift

[Swifty1638]

What size amp would work better? I don't really know what the wattage, pertaining to an amp really does.

-A. Swift

[A//// Guy]

nm

[twack]

depends on what speakers you have, yould want a 2 or 4 channel probubly 200 watts 400watts maximum if you got really nice speakers. i used a pioneer 220 watt 2 channel and that was great

[asshanson]

200 watts RMS for 2 channel is way overkill if you're going for a simple cheaper setup. Most aftermarket decks have a 4x20 watt amp internal. I had a 2x60 PPI amp that powered all 6 speakers in my bravada (midrange and treble only), i could turn it up enough to hurt. Plus they were bridged down to like 2ohm which doubles the output.

I'd say 100 RMS will be plenty if you aren't looking for a killer setup. Something like this would work great, and it'll be pretty cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ppi-precision-power-pcx-280-2-channel-amplifier-amp_W0QQitemZ250095573535QQcategoryZ4950QQssPageNa meZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem