A few questions about BA amp replacement and factory BA audio system

[Bama 2SS/RS]

Please excuse my ignorance on these issues, I've searched and read through a bunch of threads and can't find the information I'm looking for. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this.

First off, can someone please break-down for me what and where exactly are the 9 speakers in the factory Boston Acoustics system? I know there are two tweeters by the side mirrors, two woofers in the doors, one center channel on the dash, and 2 6x9's (I think they're 6x9's) in the rear deck. I only count up seven out of that. Is there, or isn't there an actual sub with the BA system? It seems like there's a little bass, but not as much as I'd expect with an actual sub. What are the two missing speakers I haven't accounted for? Surely there wouldn't be TWO subs in the factory BA system, I wouldn't think.

Second, which speakers are powered by the factory amplifier? Are they all driven by the amp, or are some driven only by the head unit?

Third, I'm looking to change out the factory amp using the ******** amp replacement kit/harness set up. It seems like this would plug and play into the factory harness for everything. As I understand, it would cut out the center speaker in the dash (as most everyone says that improves sound quality), and I'm okay with that. But I am also interested in running two 10" subs using the ******** stealth boxes that fit underneath both rear fenders. I don't think I would have any trouble setting up the 10's and hooking them up to the amplifier, but I don't know exactly what is involved with the ******** replacement harness. It kind of ties in to my first question, but is there any type of factory sub that I would need to leave disconnected from the amp with that harness? If I keep all of the factory speakers connected except the center dashboard speaker (assuming there is no factory sub) with the factory harness, and connect my amplifier up using the ******** harness to plug into the factory harness, and also have two subs connected directly from the amplifier, would everything work out alright in that type of setup? I worry about balancing volume levels between the subs off the amplifier and the speakers that are on the factory harness.

Fourth, with that setup, would there be any way to control everything from the stock head unit? As far as I've seen, the stock head unit has something of an equalizer to it, but seems to be pretty basic, and it has controls for balance and fade, but seems to work off of a 4 channel setup (Front, Rear, Left, Right), and doesn't seem to be setup to control a subwoofer channel. Most amplifiers I've dealt with in the past have adjustments on the amplifier to set the levels for a sub, but I just wanted to know if there was any way to set up the factory head unit for a subwoofer channel, also. I will eventually replace the head unit once I see a dash kit I like that will allow me to install a double DIN unit, but for now, I'm concentrating on only adding subs to my trunk and replacing the stock amplifier.

Fifth, I've seen that there's this Metra dash kit, and sometime soon (hopefully) there will be an Alpine dash kit available to allow a double DIN unit to be installed. It looks like both are set up to be plug-n-play with the factory harness for the A/C controls, but is there any way to adjust the vehicle settings with these kits? I don't feel the need to change my door-lock setup on a daily basis or anything, but I am a little bit iffy on replacing that entire portion of my dash with one of these kits if there's no allowance for adjusting that sort of stuff. I don't really like how all of these system adjustments are routed through the radio, and since they are through the radio interface, I would imagine they're not accessible with an aftermarket head unit and the Metra kit.

Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly how this factory BA system is set up. I've done car audio work in the past, but it has always been a situation of ripping the whole factory system out, and building my audio system from scratch. I'm trying to figure out exactly what I need to do, and what to watch out for, to integrate a better amplifier and some subs into the factory system. Sorry again if some of this has been covered in other threads, but I searched and couldn't find what I needed.

Any help is appreciated, guys, thanks again.

[SoTHavok]

As to the 9 speakers the 6x9's in the back are 2-way so they count them each as 2 speakers im guessing, there is no stock sub, i thought the factory bass was pretty good until i blew the speakers haha

Im almost 100% all speakers are driven by the amp, guessing the center speaker isnt?

As too ******** you can message steve, you can find him on many threads, im not sure what he has for replacement amp+10in sub and +1 on the other side of the car

he offers the amp replacement kit that includes a sub, im not sure if you can get the power from the amp to power your other 10...

For the headunit controlling the sub, it has a bass setting that does affect ur sub but also effects the rest of your bass speakers. You could just place a bass knob if you want to control the sub

Im not good with the double din kits im not looking forward to some1 answering them cuz i plan on getting one in the future

Good luck witb your setup!!

[Bama 2SS/RS]

Originally Posted by SoTHavok

As to the 9 speakers the 6x9's in the back are 2-way so they count them each as 2 speakers im guessing, there is no stock sub, i thought the factory bass was pretty good until i blew the speakers haha

Im almost 100% all speakers are driven by the amp, guessing the center speaker isnt?

As too ******** you can message steve, you can find him on many threads, im not sure what he has for replacement amp+10in sub and +1 on the other side of the car

he offers the amp replacement kit that includes a sub, im not sure if you can get the power from the amp to power your other 10...

For the headunit controlling the sub, it has a bass setting that does affect ur sub but also effects the rest of your bass speakers. You could just place a bass knob if you want to control the sub

Im not good with the double din kits im not looking forward to some1 answering them cuz i plan on getting one in the future

Good luck witb your setup!!

Thanks for that info. I sort of figured there wasn't a factory sub, and I figured they were counting the 6x9's as 2 speakers each, so that answers that.

As far as the amp powering two subs, that shouldn't be a problem. It's all just an issue of what amplifier I get and what outputs it has. I'd expect most amplifiers to have two subwoofer outputs at least, a left and right channel. I would basically hook my left sub to the left channel and my right sub to the right channel subwoofer outputs directly off the amp. The rest of the speakers should be hooked up to the factory wire harness, and I would expect the ******** adapter harness would specify which wire is what speaker channel, and then I can connect those to the appropriate amplifier channel.

Unless I'm wrong, and someone here can correct me, I picture the factory setup as having power and audio signal traveling to the amplifier, and then audio signals coming back from the amplifier to the speakers, all of this contained in the factory harness. I would think for ease of factory installation, it would be set up that way so someone just has to bolt in the amplifier, and then plug the harness into it without even a second thought. If that IS the case, I think the adapter harness would plug into the wire harness, and have the wires to connect up to an aftermarket amplifier, where they normally would be connected with screwed down terminals. Basically, I would hook the amplifier up that way to the stock harness, which would connect it to power, to the head unit, and to the factory speakers all off the main harness. Then I would have my subs connected to the sub outputs of the amplifier.

At least, that's what I'm planning to do.

[CruznSS]

I bought the kicker 750 amp, 2 10" subs and box from Steve at ********. The "T" harness is plug and play. 2 rca leads to the sub amp and remote start wire. Bass knob from amp ran up to right side of steering wheel. Take factory bass setting down to -12. Sounds a lot better to me with little to no major modifications. You can always take bass knob to 0 and listen to factory ba system. I believe they have a different amp now being offered. Give Steve a call, know he can get you in the right direction. Pm me if you need more info.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Bama 2SS/RS]

Originally Posted by CruznSS

Give Steve a call, know he can get you in the right direction. Pm me if you need more info.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Thanks. Might still be a little while before I'm ready to actually start this project (have other projects I've already dumped money into that I need to finish first) but I'm definitely learning what I can and doing my homework, so to speak.

You said to PM you for more info, but I'll go ahead and ask here incase it might help somebody else reading the thread. Your bass knob, is that just basically a volume knob for your subs? Did your amplifier come with that, or was it bought separately? How exactly does it connect in, is there a connection on your amp? Did you have to run a separate wire for the bass knob?

I've never had anything like that in any car audio setup I've used in the past. In the past, I've actually run separate amplifiers for the subs and for the rest of the speakers, and used hi-pass and lo-pass filters to put the highs and mids to the main speaker amplifier and cut out the lows, and put the lows only to the sub amplifier and cut out the highs and the mids. I've run the head-unit output through an equalizer, then sent that through the filters to the separate amplifiers. That way, when you run the bass up on the equalizer, the signal to the sub amp is boosted and the bass picks up in the subs, but is cut out of the rest of the speakers by the hi-pass filter on the other amp.

I think, going through just the single amplifier, I'll have to try to get a bass adjust knob, and do what you mentioned.