I have a '98 z24 with an Alpine head unit and JL Audio speakers in stock locations. When I installed the new head unit recently I noticed the power and speaker wires are very small and brittle. Everything sounds fine at a reasonable volume, but when I turn things up it begins to sound distorted. The display on the Alpine will dim a little when a it hits a bass note in the same way that headlights dim with a powerful subwoofer setup.
I know the best fix for better sound quality is to install a four channel amp. I would rather not spend the cash right now to do so. I just want to run thicker/better quality wire for the speakers and the same for pwr/acc/ground. This should improve power delivery to the deck and sound quality to the speakers. It will only be as good as the smallest/crappiest wire in the series though.
I would do all the work myself and use quality wiring. I also plan to bypass the in-dash fusebox. I will run appropriate size fused power line to the deck and mount a switch to bypass the ignition switch so I can turn the audio system on and off at will. I will also run a heavy ground and high quality speaker wire 1 size larger than is on the wiring harness behind the deck just for a bit of overkill. It shouldn't take any more than a weekend to install perfectly with a minimal in materials cost.
My questions are:
Will bypassing the fusebox and all other stock wiring cause any other problems for me?
Will the difference be worth the price/time/effort?
ZZZZZZZ
Get thicker wire, the higher the gauge the better (only if the amp is powerful though)...put a power resistor and/or yellow top battery and you should be fine. Also make sure the gain settings are not too high on the amp.
Also check you speakers.
Allow me to give you the correct answer. If you would have read the instructions that came with your alpine deck, they say you probably need to upgrade your constant power wire to a 12 gauge wire. So what I would do is off of your battery run a 12 gauge wire to your deck with an inline fuse of course. Leave the red accessory wire alone, it's low amperage draw.
You're not going to notice a huge difference in the sound to your speakers unless they are amped. At that time I would run new speaker wire.
You don't need a power resistor, or capacitor as most of us would call it.
yeah i agree bigger gauge
Mike: I think you mean the lower the gauge the better. I used to run 0 gauge power and ground wire to a wicked big amplifier and 8 gauge speaker wire to two 12" MTX 7000s. The power wire was bigger than the speaker wire.
higher gauge number = thinner wire
Yep, you got me Lanman. I didn't read the instructions. You are right; a capacitor is entirely unneeded in my case as its a low power system that requires very little amperage. I still like idea of a switch independent of the ignition switch for audio system power. I would like to run a fused 10 gauge line from the battery that branched off to both a fused 12 gauge line for the constant power and a lighter duty fused/switched line to the ACC (red) wire. Am I right to think this setup would accomplish my goal? Would it cause issues with any other systems in the vehicle?
ZZZZZZZ
What is a Big Three Upgrade?
Power/ground/speaker wire maybe?
ZZZZZZZ
^^^^ if you would have read the stickies at the top of the forum first youd know this, or even searched it in which case you would have read the sticky
"I did it because I wanted to see what it would look like. You should be greatful that I even told you that it would look good. If your to dumb to use photoshop and change the color of your own car then you don't need to see it changed. I'm not going to give my work away. I'll sell the pic to you though for $15."-Adam Kalin
^^JBO is about not being that guy
Replaces Battery to ground, engine to ground, and alt to batt.
big three is worth nothing if there is a bottleneck to the deck itself.
^^^ thats true since he isnt installing a system
"I did it because I wanted to see what it would look like. You should be greatful that I even told you that it would look good. If your to dumb to use photoshop and change the color of your own car then you don't need to see it changed. I'm not going to give my work away. I'll sell the pic to you though for $15."-Adam Kalin
^^JBO is about not being that guy
