Help!! New Car Owner - Speaker Problems (No Sound)

[GhostmanE]

1st of all I'd just like to say that I just bought my first car !!, a beautiful 1992 Rosewood Brown Acura Legend LS (don't have a digital camera).

Anyway, the previous owner had an aftermarket system (KENWOOD x579 deck,BOSTON f/r speakers,amp,subs) installed,He told me he would keep the deck and the front/rear speakers in the car but was gonna take the amp and sub.

So now I am stuck with NO SOUND at all in the car.Its really hard to enjoy my ride with no music.I until i have some $$$ I would be fine with just music from my speakers without buying a sub & amp.

I know nothing about audio systems but all that's left in the trunk is the rca cables coming from the head unit that's supposed to connect to the amp,& some other wires.Was wondering how exactly do i get the headunit to power my inside speakers? Do I have to splice those RCA cables and connect them somewhere?

I also tried to just connect those 3 unplugged things back into the stock Bose amp (they were just laying there unplugged),which did create just a low hiss in the speakers.

[gtforme00]

It sounds like he bypassed the bose amps entirely and ran the front and rear deck speakers off of the amp that he took. How many RCA connectors are hanging loose? 2? 4? If there are 4 then you probably have Front and Rear Pre-out level signals available. If there are in turn 4 pairs of speaker wire left hanging loose then your problem is solved, get a 4-channel amp and connect it back up to the existing wiring. You will have a bit of a challenge finding which speaker goes to which wire unless they are labeled, but that is nothing that a 1.5V battery can't solve. To find which RCA goes where, you will have to wait until you get the amp.

When you connect the amp, you can just fade the headunit to each speaker, and connect one RCA at a time until you hear sound. Then you will know what RCA goes to what speaker.

The much harder, but potentially less expensive option, is to take out the radio, run some speaker wire to each speaker from the headunit and let the headunit power the speakers.

If I were in your position I would buy a 50Wx4 amp, connect it up and call it a day. It will sound better, and take less time to connect. If you want to really make things nice, get a 50Wx4 + sub amp and put a new sub in there as well.

Regards,
David

[tsmith1315]

GhostmanE:

I also tried to just connect those 3 unplugged things back into the stock Bose amp (they were just laying there unplugged),which did create just a low hiss in the speakers.

First off, great car ghostman! I’d like to have one myself. If you decide to delve deeper into car audio, it’s also a great car for sound.

The Bose amp is designed to work with Bose speakers and the Bose Headunit. It will function with the Kenwood & Bostons, but not well. Connecting it to the Kenwood HU may create noise. The Bostons are 4 ohm, where the Bose amp is expecting ½ ohm to 1 ohm, so output will be reduced. But that *can* be done.

Gt’s suggestions are right on, and more feasible for someone new to car audio.

But, you may not have to run new speaker wires, at least not to all 4 speakers, because of the wiring at the missing amp’s position. You will need to decipher which wires are which. That will not be hard, but will require a methodical approach to reduce frustration.

Do you have a multimeter or test light? And ignoring the RCA’s, what colors are the remaining wires where the amp was (trunk?)

[MartyM]

Hi Ghostman the guys who posted above me have some excellent responses!

From your post I noticed that perhaps you might not be comfortable or ready for the possible headache of dealing with the current lack of sound.

GTforme00's post was on the money-it's a lot less hassle to replace a missing aftermarket amp and get it running again.

But whatever you do, if you aren't comfortable with the work, let someone reputable & experienced deal with the work. I have cleaned up a lot of bad work in my time...dealing with Bose, Ford Premium sound, etc. factory systems is not for beginners and even some unprofessional "pro" installers!