Standard Aftermarket Car Stereo Head Unit Wire Colors
The easiest way to wire in an aftermarket car stereo is to look at car stereo wiring diagrams for the specific vehicle and head unit. Still, it’s possible to get the job done without any labels, adapters, or diagrams. Unlike OEM head units, which are all over the place in terms of wire colors, most aftermarket manufacturers stick to a standardized coloring scheme.
Although there are exceptions to every rule, most aftermarket car stereos use a standardized coloring scheme for the power, ground, antenna, and speaker wires. Suppose you have the pigtail that came with your aftermarket head unit, and it uses the standard colors. In that case, the wires have the following purposes and colors:
Can Incorrect Speaker Polarity Damage Speakers
Inverted polarity can cause a variety of changes to sound quality, but is it also dangerous for your amplifier and speakers? The answer is no, thankfully.
The voltages being applied to a speaker with inverted polarity are no different from those supplied to a speaker with correct polarity. Your equipment will not be damaged. The worst thing that will happen is that it will not work well acoustically with properly wired speakers. For this reason, its best to stick to the standard, and ensure correct wiring.
Solder Vs Crimp Terminals For Connecting Speaker Wire
While soldering gives a high quality and permanent connection, it takes more time & effort. Its also more hassle as it needs a power source & extension cord especially if youre working in your car.
I recommend using quick-disconnect terminals as they can give an excellent & reliable connection while still being easy to use and removable later. One thing you should know is that speaker wire connection tabs on car or home speakers arent standardized in their sizes. Its extremely important to check before you get started.
One speaker brand & model may use two .187 or .250 tabs for example while others may use both a .250 and a .110. For car speakers, the tabs are most often a .250 or .187 slide tabs and one .110.
Tip:
Shown here are the most common speaker & speaker wire quick disconnect crimp terminal sizes. Of the 4 shown, .110 & .250 are some of the most common for car and home speakers.
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How Many Speakers Can I Connect To My Head Unit
Unfortunately, we have to start off this section with some bad news. We cant really answer this question!
The number of speakers that a head unit can power is different for each head unit. While the vast majority of head units will be able to power just 4 speakers, but some can power more and some, less, so in order for us to give you an answer to this question, we would need to know the model of head unit and the car that you are wanting to install it in.
We know this isnt the answer you are looking for, but its the truth. The only way to know how many speakers you can connect to your head unit is to ask the manufacturer or read the owners manual. As we mentioned before, the vast majority of head units will be able to power four channels so chances are, your head unit is the same, but its always worth double checking.
How many speakers do you have?
Q What Should I Look For When Buying Car Speakers
A. The first, and most important thing, is the size. The best speakers in the world wont do any good if they dont fit, and trying to force something to fit by modifying your vehicle is a big pain. Once youve found the fit, focus on the characteristics of the speaker, including power output, installation requirements, and cost.
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Get Rid/stop Whining Noise In Car Speakers
If you are hearing whining noise in car speakers while listening to some music, you can stop it and get rid of it forever in simple steps. We will guide you thoroughly in troubleshooting the problem.
It is a little difficult task to find the main source of the problem and once you have found it you can solve it in no time. Understand the troubleshooting carefully and the rest will be done quickly.
Whining noise kills all your music experience and it is introduced in the system at some points like poor amplifier grounding, from alternators of car, antenna cable, and some other components.
Also Read:;Connecting Multiple Amplifiers To One Source
Colored Wire Connections For Car Speakers
First, you can take the wire harness from the market or interface to connect the multi-colored wires with the same colored wires of the speakers.
Next, a connection will require connecting bugs or connectors for a strong connection. Otherwise, soldering can also be done to make a permanent strong connection. However, make sure you are making the right connections. This will require a test that we will discuss further.
Focus on making the right connections. Your colored wirings will make this much easier for you. The detailed charts above will help. Once you understand the wire colors from these charts, you will be able to make the perfect connections yourself. Refer to the Car Speakers Wire Colors Chart for your car make.
All the connections must be strong. This means that the colored wires you buy should be of a high quality. Then, once your connections are strong, you can mount the speaker on its place properly. Moreover, if the wire connections are perfect, then your car speaker will also show its high efficiency, performance, and distortion free sound.
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How To Use Speaker Wire With Binding Post Type Banana Plugs
Binding post style banana plugs require you to correctly place wire under the tension screw . Otherwise, its possible for the wire to slip out when pulled.
Some banana plugs may have a side hole in addition to a center hole through the main screw. You can use either one, but I prefer not to use the side hole unless my wire is very large.
Loosen the set screw or threaded body as provided. For side opening use, dont remove it fully. If youre inserting wire through the center hole you can remove it if you like. Tighten firmly and tug the wire slightly to be sure its secure.
Stereo And Amplifier Minimum Impedance Ratings
All amplifiers of any type where its a car stereo amplifier, home stereo receiver, home theater amplifier, and so on, have a minimum Ohms rating. Its important that you pay attention and dont exceed the minimum speaker impedance rating.
This is because as the impedance is lowered, the electrical current increases and the;stereo has to do more work. This increases the amount of stress and heat it has to handle.
If your stereo is labeled by the manufacturer as being 8 ohm speaker compatible or similar, that means connecting lower impedance speakers can cause excessive heat and possible damage very quickly.
For example, connecting a 4 ohm speaker to an amplifier that is labeled as working with 8 ohm speakers would mean it would have to produce double the electrical current to the speaker!
Image of the rear of a home stereo receiver/amplifier. The recommended speaker impedance ratings are usually listed above the speaker wire posts. A home stereo, for example, may often list 6-16 ohms as being ok for use.
Also, attempting to wire two 8 ohm speakers in parallel to an 8 ohm stereo would have the same effect.
Ive seen many attempts by people who had friends who claimed they could boost the power or get more power by some claimed trick, but it doesnt work. They ended up with a burned-out amplifier.
An amplifier can only handle so much heat and stress before it fails, so be sure to observe these rules. Be sure you wire speakers to meet the minimum Ohm rating you need.
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Test The Speakers After Attaching With The Car Head Unit
The last and very important step in wiring your speaker is to test your speakers. You can test the speakers by turning the audio head unit on and playing some music on it. Play the music loud to check the efficiency of the head unit of your car.
The head unit can work fine with the present structure of wiring. Whereas,the proposed structure does not put heavy load on the head unit. It will only draw a little amount of power from the other speakers. So, you will not have to upgrade the head unit of your car.
If you have any questions, just post in the comment, I keep adding answers to these questions in my daily blog.
How To Install A New Pair Of Car Speakers
Jason Unrau
Stock car speakers arent always the highest quality available. When you bought your car, you may have chosen a model that didnt have the upgraded sound system, or maybe the sound from your car speakers is just not up to par with your expectations. There are many reasons why you may want to replace or enhance your cars speakers, including:
- The sound quality is poor.
- The speakers arent loud enough.
- Youve blown the factory-equipped speakers.
- You want to amplify your cars sound system.
Whatever your reason, you can always replace your car speakers or add more speakers to the sound system.
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Why Install A Car Amplifier Diy
As earlier mentioned, you stand to gain much when you install a car amp by yourself instead of hiring a professional. First, you gain amp installation experience and learn through the hurdles. This way, you will help your colleagues when they want some good and loud music in their car. Secondly, you will save money. This is unlike when you hire a mechanic to fix it for you. The only money you spend is on the cost of the requirements. On the other hand, DIY helps you to become familiar with your car. You might note other problems in the car and fix them or call a mechanic before they escalate to bigger ones. However, if you are not comfortable with the installation process or are generally inexperienced with DIY installations caution must be advised and it is recommended to consult the help of a professional.
How To Connect Speaker Wire To A Receiver Or Amplifier With Banana Plugs
Even though they require a bit more work than just using bare wire, banana plugs offer extra convenience once theyre in place. For example, you can quickly add or remove your surround speakers any time since they simply plug or unplug.
Note that banana plugs come in 2 main types: those with a side-mounted set screw and those with a top tension screw and either a top-located hole and/or side hole.
Side hole types are basically a binding post style.
Here are the steps for connecting to a receiver with banana plugs:
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Do You Know How Many Speakers Can You Connect To A Head Unit Safely
The factory sound system and the head unit that come with every car that you purchase do a good job of providing the ability to listen to music from the get-go. For most people, the stock speakers and head unit are more than enough. They simply want a couple of speakers to listen to their favorite Elvis records and they cant tell much difference between good audio and bad audio.
You, however, are different. The fact that you are a reader of our website tells us that you love your music and you want to make your car audio sound as good as it possibly can. Bravo!
When customizing your car audio, one of the first things that people look to purchase is a new head unit. They are cool and give your car a high-tech feel. Why wouldnt you want to upgrade your head unit?
The problem comes when its time to wire up your new head unit to your speakers, but you havent got a clue whether or not the head unit that you have purchased is compatible with a number of speakers in your car.
How do you know how many speakers a head unit can power? Is it possible to power more speakers than the head unit user manual said? We created this article to answer these questions and more, so lets jump straight in.
Do I Need To Upgrade My Car Audio Speaker Wire
November 13, 2020 By 1sixty8
If youve browsed any of the online car audio forums or Facebook groups, youve inevitably run across someone asking if you have to upgrade the speaker wire in a vehicle to support a new car audio system. Unlike a sure-fire upgrade like new speakers or adding an amplifier, the answers to the benefits and drawbacks of speaker wire upgrades are far more complicated. Please dont fret; the BestCarAudio.com team is here to lay it out and get to the bottom of things. Lets talk about speaker wire upgrades.
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What Is A Line Out Converter
This RCA adapter for stock radio that converts the high-voltage, speaker-level signal to a preamp-level signal thats acceptable to a power amp. A LOC as they are known, consists of a transformer and a high-voltage resistor, and connects to your amp using a standard RCA patch cable. The transformer of this device should be grounded, with most line output converters coming with a wire for that exact purpose.
LOCs also usually come with an adjustable gain feature, so the output feeding an amp can be tweaked to a certain extent .
How To Connect Speaker Wire To Spring Clip Terminals
Spring clip terminals are one of the simplest and most common types of speaker wire terminals and theyre found nearly everywhere: speaker boxes, amps, stereos, and more.
To them, use the following steps:
Alternatively, to avoid any hassle with bare wire ends you can use a pin connector set instead. These are affordable and attach to the bare ends, providing a solid pin to insert easily. They also are less prone to slip out.
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Choosing An Amp And Speaker
This can be a tricky step. You want to choose a speaker and amp that put out the most power, without blowing each other.What you want is the RMS of both the subwoofer speaker and the amplifier to be as close as possible. The RMS is the amount of power a speaker can continuously have sent to it without going bad. The RMS is also the amount of power the amplifier can continuously put out without over heating.When looking at speakers and amplifiers, do not look at the peak power. A speaker or amp can only be run on the peak power for about a minute before it goes bad or overheats. You want to be running your subwoofers on its RMS rating rather than the peak rating.For best sound, keep the impedance the same too.Lets take the Kenwood KFC-W3011 for example. Its ratings are:-400w RMS
What Is A High
Because factory radios dont have dedicated outputs for amplifiers RCA or preamp outputs, most outboard power amps come with high-level inputs, which enable you to tap into the factory speaker wires for signal flow. These are referred to as high-level inputs because the voltage level is significantly higher than that of a standard preamp output connection.
Regardless, these inputs convert the high-voltage to a version the amplifier can handle. Once connected, the result is clean, well-defined sound, with high-level inputs coming standard on a variety of 2 and 4-channel amps, as well as monoblock amplifiers, which are mostly used for subwoofers.
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Speaker Wire To Rca Adapter
To begin with, it cant be stressed enough just how important an outboard power amplifier is in a mobile audio system. For those who have never experienced car stereo beyond the limits of their vehicles factory setup, the difference is staggering.
From the jaw-dropping dynamic range offered by an amps high-current power to the raw muscle that drives thumping subwoofers in the trunk, amplifiers provide the visceral horsepower required to make music truly come to life.
This is to say nothing about the way a good amp will overcome that annoying road noise in many makes of cars and trucks, which can be especially irritating if the windows of the vehicle are down and the car or truck is at highway speeds.
But what many novices in the car audio world fail to realize is that a vehicles factory radio can in fact be used with an outboard amp it just takes a bit of creativity and knowledge of the necessary accessories to hook it all up.
A good quality car amplifier can help you get the most from your factory system, especially when it comes to bigger vehicles like vans or full-size SUVs, where it can be especially challenging to achieve a clean, powerful sound.
This is where I get into our first solution adapter cable from speaker wires to RCA plug.
If your amp can accept a high level input on the RCAs you can hook the above adapter up to your cars rear speaker wire harness and then plug into your amps RCA cable input, which is probably the easiest way to do it.
