Alright I am a complete newb when it comes to car audio, but I have recently decided to upgrade my factory system in my rx8 and planning this out in my head I have a few questions. I will be running a monoblock for the sub and a 4-channel for the components. I've read and searched a lot and I am pretty sure I know everything I will need or encounter.

The only part I am really confused with is the wiring harnesses. Why is there two and do I need them both? Where and how are they used. From my understanding there will be speaker wire comming out of the head unit, from there I will run the speaker wires to the trunk. Then I will use a line out converter to change the speaker wires to rca's. Next plug rca's into the amp, from the amp comes speaker wires going to the speakers. Do I have it right?
All help is appreciated.

Ohh yea I don't have the bose system either

 

First and foremost, do you have the Bose system?

 

Opps meant to mention that in the first post...
I do not have the bose system

 

come on people, I plan on doing the install this sunday and I really need to know what the deal is with these harnesses.

 

well i would say you dont have "speaker wire" coming straight from the headunit..

just tap the rear speakers with the line output converter.. dont even touch the headunit. you will need to find a remote turn on from a cigarette lighter source though.

 

Ok so I don't need any harnesses, just tap into the front channel and rear channel wires, run the front channels to the trunk with speaker wire...Makes sense.
Thanks for the help

 

This is what you need to do:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-wiring-4-channel-loc-132087/

 

thanks for the last link, definitely lots of good info, if that shouldn't be stickied than I don't know what should. I guess the last and final question that I haven't seen come up is, Is there a factory output for the subwoofer? All of the wiring diagrams/pics and instructions have only spoken of four channels being ran to amps( f/l, f/r, r/l, r/r). So where is the subwoofer out?

 

no subwoofer output, not for non bose anyway.

the bose amp controls the subwoofer functions as they are built in to the front door speakers with their own amplifiers

 

Since you are going to use a 4 channel amp, run the signals to them first. There should also be an output on the 4 channel amp that will send the signals to another amp, in your case the mono amp for your sub.

Check out this picture in my DIY. You can see the signal wires for the 4 channels going into the amp. Above those is the output that would go to another amp.




Another alternative to this is to use a 5 channel amplifier that will sum the 4 channels signals to use for the 5th subwoofer channel. Later when I added a subwoofer I just did that using an MB Quart PAB5400 amp.

 

yea, no need to send signal to two separate amplifiers when you can just link the amplifiers to each other.

 

Ahh, now it makes since.
I believe I am ready for the install.
Thanks for all the help.

 

Have you thought about how you're going to run output from the 4 ch amp to all of the speakers?

The easiest way is to run speaker wire from the amp back up to behind the stereo.


My suggestion is go with an aftermarket stereo with some decent tuning capabilities instead of an amp. Then you don't have to worry about wiring for the speakers. Plus you get RCA out to run to the subwoofer amp. It keeps things simple without having to worry about buying an LOC. Plus if you want to tune with the stock stereo then you need an EQ... and a crossover...
After you buy all that crap you could have bought yourself the headunit and Metra dash kit.
Plus you'll only be running the RCA and remote turn on wire down the center tunnel.

 

Don't really like the idea of buying a new reciver just because I very much like the look of the stock one and plan on keeping it. Also the amp I am running supplies 100watts rms at 2-ohms to the four component channels and I think aftermarket headunits usually give you around 20-30rms at 2-ohms per channel...maybe 40watts but I don't think I've ever seen more than that. I will say though that I very much like the voice control for ipod on the pioneer AVIC-F700BT. I may sacrifice the stock headunit for this one day down the road...
I can see myself now..."Play artist Rage Against The Machine"
You gotta love that.