Weird Stereo Wiring

[chrisjunkie]

Hi All,

So after getting my new awesome 98 BH5 Legacy (without a headunit) I decided that music is quite nice once the sound of the engine gets a bit boring HAHA

Anyway, I wired everything up properly (have done it many times before on other cars) and found that sound was only coming out of the rear speakers. After giving the car a damn good clean I found a similar connector as the headunit loom connector under the drivers seat. I then found wiring to the front speakers and wiring from the headunit (rear wires)

Sounds complicated but now my car's speakers are all running off the rear headunit outputs meaning I cannot fade to the front or rear.

Where have the front cables disappeared to? I really want to find out as I want to run the speakers off an amp instead of the headunit as it is not really powerful enough.

Also, How can I get the factory sub working? Is it on this same connector?

Here are the two connectors under drivers seat (and my jumper wiring to get the front speakers to work):

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[wrx_lou]

if your going to amp them, its probably best that you run new wire through anyway. and be very careful of how much you turn the amp up.

[Joker]

I would assume they were the connectors for the OEM factory mac Amp - IIRC there is a how to in the ICE section

start here :

replacing mcintosh head unit

[click the words its a link]

[Guest boostin]

 JoKer said:

I would assume they were the connectors for the OEM factory mac Amp - IIRC there is a how to in the ICE section

start here :

replacing mcintosh head unit

[click the words its a link]

Yep, thats what they are.

[chrisjunkie]

Cool well how do I get from the head unit to the plug under the seat?

I know I can use RCA cables (obviously) but is there an OEM way to do it or was it always that the rear speakers were powered off head unit and front and sub were powered off amp?

[avgeek]

The subwoofer is on that connector; its the white and purple wires on the end. You will need an amp for it though; you can tap power (up to 20A/240W) for this directly off the red and black pairs on that connector unless the previous owner has butchered the wiring.

All of the other speakers are on that connector too and need to be manually wired back to the stereo bay if you install an after market headunit.

The fat black cable is the original link from the headunit to the amp. The McIntosh system has no amp in the headunit at all; all the work is done by the amp under the seat and the speakers are only wired to there. The audio input to the amp is balanced (aka differential) and about 4V RMS from memory. You can hack the amp to run off the preamp outputs from most after market head units but that won't work in your case as it has been ripped out.

I'd recommend this post for more details.

[Guest Fastfour]

Avgeek - you arent an auto sparky by chance?

[Scoobydoo]

Yer follow my instructions and you'll be away laughing

[avgeek]

 Fastfour said:

Avgeek - you arent an auto sparky by chance?

No, I'm just an electronics hobbyist and spent way too much time studying the wiring and service manuals for my car.

[Guest keltik]

good man! Thats something i really like to hear. Means im not the only one!