I'm in the process of installing an amp and sub in my girlfriends car using the stock stereo. I bought a line output converter from Circuit City but am a little confused as to how to wire it up.

I have the rear speaker wires spliced to the correct wires on the converter, but there are two wires left on the converter. They are stamped "MUTE", but the sticker on the converter calls them "GROUNDS". Should I ground these? Or should I connect them elsewhere?

A signal is currently going thru to the amp, but even with all gains turned up to the max, the bass is hardly loud enough to be heard from inside the car. TIA

Bite the bullet and get a headunit with RCA's. The sound quality will suck with those converters.

Tim

what kind of amps are you using ? do you have a crossover ? what ohm/brand subs, box size ? those convertors usually steal the bass from your system, depending on your amps sensitivity (gains) you might have better luck splicing rca's straight for the inputs...this is where the brand of your amp comes into play...keep the clipping down and you'll be ok...

i was gonna do exactly what ur doing and use the factory stereo but i waited and did it right and got a sony head unit with plenty of rca's to go around and the sound is probably so much better than having to splice into wires.(even though i only have 1 10" JBL GT :) )

Your best bet is to buy a head unit with RCA's, but anyways-what color are the wires? Those don't really steal much gain, but tehy do suck, not too bad for a sub though, because it's a sub, doesn't really need to be clean power/signal going to it. That's why a lot of guys just buy a nice sub, and a crappy amp that puts out like 1,000 watts, but only really pushes like 600, haha.

well, its my girlfriend's 2001 civic, and she's not keen on buying a head unit because she won't be driving this car for long. She's not concerned about clarity, so I suggested trying this converter.

Anyway, here's what we've got so far:

200 watt 2 channel Pioneer amp
450 watt 12" Pioneer sub in a bandpass box (only *** she likes the way it looks)
Monster 8 gauge power and ground cables

Anyway, the converter that I have is pretty chintzy looking, anyone know what those two wires I mentioned before are for??
Otherwise, I'm about to try the nice looking one that Crutchfield sells.

Originally posted by LogicalRetard
but anyways-what color are the wires?

I've got a couple of Profile brand converters I'll sell yah cheap...

Get a price from Crutchfield, cut it in half, and I'll send both for that price...

These converters even have gain controls on em.

They look a little beat up, but I'll stand behind them, cause they came out of a friend's Cherokee that made 154 DB.

Email me at jdmcivic@hotmail.com

LogicalRetard,what the hell do you mean "Subs don't need clean power/signal"? That is the most absurd thing I have heard tonight. "Dirty" power and a dirty signal will cause the famed distortion. Distortion will cause a sub to fry the Spyder, voice coil, and possibly the suround. Dirty sound is only liked by ricer boys that want trunk rattle.
NismoSER, go back top Circuit City and ask the roadshop what is up with your converters. I have a friend that is a head installer there and they must give you new, or fix the problem according to company policy.
Bro bite the bullet and buy your lady a head unit with RCA's. If you want I will sell you an Eclipse ECD 414. It has 2 sets of outputs (RCAs'). It might be old, but I just replaced it with an Eclipse 5303R. I stand by this, and all Eclipses on the market.

Go to a car stereo shop, and ask what a utility amp is, maybe then, will you understand.

I really don't want to start a pissing match about this, but... I know my shit. Most of my friends compete in IASCA & USAC. I have been doing stereos for quite a while now, and I am pretty sure, no 100% sure, I am right about this. Dirty signals, and dirty power will ruin an othewise good system through distortion. If you would like to check yourself on this, go to www.sounddomain.com and tell them what you just said in your post. Until you can show just a bit of LOGICAL thought and, or knowledge, I would just leave topics alone. If you would like to start a pissing match please feel free to do this through PM, or E-Mail, so not everyone has to read BS. Have a great day/night!:)

Those "ground" wires are there for a reason. IF your converters are not adjustable then they suck. But anyways, try grounding those wires (to the chassis) and see if the gains increase. That is why they are there.

And most likely, the installer will laugh at you when you try to tell him that they are defective. He will say he can get it working for you...for some $$$.

Hope this helps.

200 watt 2 channel Pioneer amp
450 watt 12" Pioneer sub in a bandpass box (only *** she likes the way it looks)
Monster 8 gauge power and ground cables

is there a crossover on the amp ? a bandpass box HAS to be specifically designed for the sub you are using, if you really HAVE to do with the plexiglass part of that box, make a new box and put the plexiglass on the back of the box, to show the back of the woofer off...ehhh...i know, girls can be picky...

crossed over properly, in the correct box, will, at the least, make the setup, twice as loud GAH-RONE-TEED...and dont forget to sand down your grounding point for the amp, to a thick metal member of the chassis...
:cool: ===crossover=very important...

Guys, thanks a lot for the help. I'm pretty good with everything else, but the only thing is I've never used this stupid converter thing before.

Blackb13, you've affirmed my suspicions. I'll ground those wires tonight. LogicalRetard, those wires are brown.

The only thing that confused me was the fact that:
1) the wires were brown
2) there are two of them
3) they are labeled twice, differently. The wires are stamped "MUTE", but on the back of the converter are labeled as "GROUNDS".

Yes, the amp has a crossover. Yes, its set to Low Pass Filter. Yes, the gains on both the amp and the converter are adjustable. Yes, they are turned all the way up. Yes, I have a new ground, which I personally drilled into the chassis.

Is this box made specifically for this sub? I don't know, but a premlimary eyeball measurement satisfied the necessary volume needed. I had already hooked this sub/box up in my car to my amp and it sounds fine. It has the typical boomy bandpass sound, but its better than a stock Civic system, right!

Thanks again guys..i'll update later tonight.

I'd turn your gains down to about 3/4, putting them at full causes a lot of distortion and you risk damaging your amp because it'll run hotter and if it doesn't shutdown when it gets hot it'll cook, plus ithat distorition is hard on the speakers. Basically the quick way to setup your amp would be to turn the stereo volume up to the loudest setting she listens to it at and get the stereo's bass and treble adjusted where she typically has it, then go back to the amp and if you have bass and treble knobs on there adjust those as well as the gain, play around with it until you get the sound you like, and chances are the gain will end up at 1/2 to 3/4 when you find the sweet spot. But get your converters wokring first.

Toolapcfan:

i realize all that, but the point I was getting at is that even with everything maxed out, I can barely hear the sub. I attribute that now to the converter not being grounded......but I'll find out for sure later tonight.

just wondering, what is the maximum output for those hi/lo level convertors?

I dunno if this is what you are looking for, but this particular converter can take the signal from speakers rated from 2-30watts. You can get different converters that handle different ratings.

Originally posted by sr20ser
I really don't want to start a pissing match about this, but... I know my shit. Most of my friends compete in IASCA & USAC. I have been doing stereos for quite a while now, and I am pretty sure, no 100% sure, I am right about this. Dirty signals, and dirty power will ruin an othewise good system through distortion. If you would like to check yourself on this, go to www.sounddomain.com and tell them what you just said in your post. Until you can show just a bit of LOGICAL thought and, or knowledge, I would just leave topics alone. If you would like to start a pissing match please feel free to do this through PM, or E-Mail, so not everyone has to read BS. Have a great day/night!:)

I don't want to get in a pissing match, but if you really want....I always end up winning, cause I can always piss farther...Anyways, I've probably been "doing" car stereo's as long as you, and have picked up quite a bit, but you should know that the stuff you send into a sub doesn't have to be all that clean. Power is power, your not gonna interpret Britney Spear's lyrics out of two 12's. Take a look at those Class D amps, made for subs....they're never that clean, compared to a 4channel persay set-up for speakers, but they are high efficiency, to push a big thump. I'm suprised that you haven't heard of the term "utility" amp. Oh well.

As for the sole problem of this post, I too am baffled at why they would have two grounds and both being brown, and both being labled seperately. Can't help you on this one.

I'm glad you guys can piss.

Anyway, I finished hookin up the system today, and it sounds great. For what we have anyway.

I grounded the brown wires...and the only reason I can think of that there would be two is that there is a floating ground for each channel, or they simply wanted the wiring to be thicker. Who knows! Its working! Woooo