head unit installation - no car harness
 

Car - 95 monte carlo
deck - audiobahn unit

We could get power to it for a little while but for some reason, I can't get any power to it at all. When we could get power, we couldn't get any sound. What should I do? My car is completely torn apart at the moment. I kept burning the dash light fuse. Any help would be great

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

Don't be a hack, use a harness. If you had power but no sound then you had wires hooked up incorrectly.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

The OEM plugs were gone, so a harness would've been worthless.Anyway, he came over and I handled it.

BTW Josh, I recommend you don't touch anything electrical in the future.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

rofl, hey give him a break... he's a do-er, not a thinker :)

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

I think ppl dont understand what I mean when I say there was no harness. THE CAR HAD NO HARNESS. JUST A BUNCH OF MANGLED WIRES HANGING ALL OVER!

Yeap, Eric handled it. I also came home to a gift from a fellow dsmer explaining exactly what to do with what wires going where. Even I could have done it! Im going to find an OEM harness and use an adapter harness and make it easier for if I sell the car and want my deck out.

Now I just need to figure out how to get proper power to the speakers. I'm assuming I will need an amp. The rear speakers are Alpine type Rs ( 75 W RMS and 150 Max) and the fronts are Rockford powers ( not yet installed). It sounds like complete ass since the rear is getting half of the power to run at RMS. I dont know audio stuff much, but I do have a nack for a good sounding stereo..

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

At Best Buy we sell the OEM side harness for about 19 dollars. We always have them in stock at the Oakdale location.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

I tried burnsville Best buy and they didnt have any in stock. He did say that is unusual because thats something they typically carry.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

So you are telling me you had a no radio in the car when you bought it. If no than it would be useless for you to put the harness back in. That would cost you aroung 40 dollars additional to put back the stock harness and than an adptor harness. Who knows when you sell your car your radio might be out of the style. I say leave it alone until you decide to sell the car. Some one could always hard wire it for them or best just take some masking tape and mark all the wires. :D

Yes you will need an amp. Make sure you buy a good amp and not some cheap Jensen/kraco/rockwood crap. Since you like good sounding music. You will also need a four channel amp. :)

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

there was a deck in there. they taped the wires together with no harness' used.

Im probably getting an alpine 4 channel amp. I was advised to get one of the two certain models he suggested. I dont understand how to match ohms and wire things up correctly. I just hook wires to the amp until I like how it sounds. I understand positive and negative but bridging is a little beyond my understanding. Ohms too, I forgot about all of that shit.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

I can get the stock harness for 10 dollars shipped ;) I will probably label the wires tonight while I put the dash back together and figure out my amp..

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

It should sound decent even with the onboard amp.I think you just need to fuck with the DSP/EQ shit on that deck.What do you mean by "complete ass" anyway? lack of bass? distortion? Try disconnecting one of the rear speakers, and see if that alters the sound quality.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

75 watt RMS each speaker in rear. Think about it... 50 max per channel is not enough!! I can turn it up to max and it isnt even loud and its distorted to hell. Its sucking power and still not hitting its RMS. I fucked with everything there is to fuck with! If you want to help... feel free lol.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

Speaker ratings are ussually higher than they need to be. You could put 30 watts to those speakers and they will still probably sound fine, just wont "bump" as much. Ussually there is a minimum but its much lower than RMS. 50watts to those speakers should be plenty unless your going for SPL or something.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

It depends on what your definition of "ass" is

I had a pair of infinity plate speakers that were 70W RMS with a 45x4 Alpine head unit, and it sounded like ass to me. But it didnt snarl or distort or anything... it just didnt sound like I felt it should.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

You wouldnt really need a amp to the rear speakers unless its a pre-amp output deck, but if you do plan on buy an amp for the rear, just make sure you dont over power them. Ask how many watts RMS the amp is, you might need X-overs. But for your deck, if you just need sound for now, wire the deck to the battery or alternator and put a on/off switch to it (so power is not on all the time). And if your deck is not a pre-amp output, then just buy a roll of speaker wires at best buy and strech it out to the length you need to reach each speakers, thats what i did, it works.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

http://www.hotbuyselectronics.com/audiobahn_a3851.htm

^ Deck, click link - see for yourself

I dont know that head units get much better than what I have. It still sounds like ass period. It will really sound like ass when I hook up the front speakers which are 65 watt RMS. See the numbers dont work out.

75 W RMS x 2 = 150
65 W RMS x 2 = 130

TOTAL = 280

My deck puts out 200 watts MAX power 50 x4. How does anyone figure I dont need any sort of amp... I can have the volume all of the way up and its not even loud. The stock speakers were louder than this setup without an amp. ( This does have better sound quality already though)

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

The car had wires for the deck, just no harness or labels. That portion is complete. I have like front rear and center preouts.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

Oh I thought you were powering the speakers with an external amp. I dont like to use Deck power because I dont think that power rating is comparable to an external amp (of a good brand- Pioneer, Rockford, Xtant...)

Yea Powering it with just the deck power isnt the greatest but it will work, but your are right it might sound like ass with those speakers you have.

Re: head unit installation - no car harness
 

it does, because I have to turn the volume up all of the way. that sorta wrecks the efficiency of the deck =/ With a decent amp I probably wont have to turn it up more than 1/3