Installing an Amplifier & Subwoofer: Geek Squad Autotechs
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- In this segment of Geek Squad Installs, Autotech Agent Alan will show you the tools, parts, and know-how needed to do a common teardown and install of a subwoofer and amplifier in your vehicle.
(Part of our ongoing "Geek Squad Installs" series.)
always disconnect the ground terminal first. I learned it the hard way. i was unscrewing the hot terminal when my wrench hits the metal and sparked. it scared the crap outta me.
A thousand watt amp, and THAT is how you do your ground? With a zip screw, over paint? Glad i do my own installs.
Luis f Haha amateur.
rocbola Besides causing low performance of the subwoofer, that ground could cause a build up of resistance making the amp pull more amps than it was designed for causing it to blow fuses, enter protect mode, and in some cases permanently damage the amplifier. Ground location should always be a solid metal part of the body with the paint removed and with a larger sized bolt or screw to avoid vibrating loose. Modern vehicles use a lot of epoxy, sealant, and tack welds that will not provide a low resistance to ground in some areas but many do provide a factory grounding lug that can be used. They also should have cleaned up the terminal ends of the battery and provided a negative terminal to engine and chassis grounding cable of the same gauge. The amplifier has to ground to the battery through the factory battery cables otherwise.
"A thousand watt amp".......... LMFAO
Yeah fucked up, on paint .. jesus. Sand that shit down at least. I also saw no mention anywhere of disconnecting the battery negative first .. worrying.
Great tutorial. Although the instructions were specific to that car model, it certainly covered the general methods and even good practicing while installing the wires.
The spelling and lack of punctuation throughout this video frightens me - we should "rap" the dash with a blanket.
And you should always, always work back-to-battery. It was only this fifth time I watched over this now that I realise you remove the inline fuse before running the power cable through the car. Well guess what, most amp wiring kits require you to trim the power wire to length BEFORE inserting a fuse. This confusion will lead people to do what you guys have done here with hooking up the battery side first and start running a LIVE wire through the car, which could cause shorts...
Other than that, this is the best instructional video I've seen for this sort of thing, so thank you for being so clear :)
the wire shouldn't be live if the fuse was removed. They attached the wire to the battery so they would have proper length without accidentally pulling the wire through the firewall
Hunterzpunter oh my god... did you not read my comment!?
Jerome Bernard Hunterzpunter is right. you must have watched the video backwards, plus near the beginning he disconnects the ground cable and removes the fuse from the power wire.
and of course leave the subwoofer loose in your trunk so that when you hit a bump or take a sharp turn you damage the crap out of it.
ikr
certified30 I just used velcro to keep mine down
certified30 *when you run over that hooker on the corner and she makes you bust your shit
It should actually be bolted down. That thing could kill someone in an accident.
you must be using one cheap ass subwoofer and box for it to be light enough to slide around so much. l have been in car accidents and my subwoofer didn't bounce around. my subwoofers and box together weigh about 80 pounds, they aren't going to bounce around.
Even if you take the fuse out when you connect the power cable to the battery, connecting the harness behind the stereo will carry electricity. Some alarms and theft deterrent systems are connected to the radio. So they are hot even if the car is off!
he literally didnt connect any harness to the rear of the stereo, nor did he remove a power cable from the battery. connecting the amp power cable sends current to the amp only, the RCA's provide signal for the amp from the stereo
Make sure you zip tie your rca wires to your power cable for a nice clean sound and don't bother removing the paint from where you attach your ground wire. This install should work flawlessly for years to come lmao
I know right. Remember to use star washers for extra grip
That little kicker is cute lol
THANK YOU HEROES!
"Use a blanket to rap the dash"
*queue record scratch, clears throat*
Keagan Ferguson as I'm watching this before I install some shit. Look who I find. 😂
Because of course I have to scroll through the comments on everything I ever open.
Yeh lets just cramp the RCA cables behind the amp. this is why i install my own music.. Crimping the rca cables behind the amp like that can damage the cables !
Sahil it can not damage the Rica wires bc he didn't mount the amp that tight to damage the wires he even said it
That would totally damage the rca cable. Doesn't matter what they say. Any amount of pressure would cause an issue. Unless the car never moved or the subs were never turned up. That made me cringe the most.
how can that damage the cables? it's not like that amp is sharp enough to cut them or anything. it's no different then if you were to squeeze the cable with your fingers. it won't harm the cable in anyway.
Well, you do it and let us all know how it goes for you! What do you say? No professional installer would ever do anything in this horrid video.
I just watched this entire video and I never wanted to dropkick a person more so than I want to the narrator right now.
thats some thick ass wire for that little baby amp and sub
Chantz Mcgowan ahahaha that's what she says 😂
Problem Solved. Just have Steve Meade install your system.
You might have some blown windows afterwards..
@@seannallick6678 And blown bank account
Lol yeah, if I was in Cali I would. I used to play Call of Duty on xbox with his son Antheny
Too bad he doesn't do installs for just anyone
Well that was better than I thought it would be.
This video is so well explained i dont know who is disliking it
dude, this really is the best how to video I've seen so far, now I'm pretty confident I can do it myself. thanks
Great video. Thanks. What I don't understand is whether is amplifier is exclusively from powering a subwoofer, or whether an amplifier can and is usually used to add power to all of your car's speakers.
I think an amplifier is used to power the subwoofer only, the radio unit contains the amplifiers for the other speakers.
You are right Arnout, but you can power them separately with another amplifier; you would just have to get better door speakers, considering you wouldn't want a whole lot of power running through the Stock Door Speakers.
montygram yes SIR. but stock speakers can also handle a bit more than you think. I have used what alpine calls a POWER BLOCK and installed it in stock systems.
It's adds an extra 45 watts per channel.
Or you can run a 4 channel amp for 4 of your door speakers and have a seperate mono or 2 channel amp for your sub or go for a 5 channel amp which can handle all 4 of your door speakers and a single channel for your sub/s.
it can do both, you can get a monoblock amp to power a subwoofer or you can get a 2 channel or 4 channel amp to power extra speakers. but the main speakers will run off of the amplifier built into the car stereo.
Who installs the amp behind interior panels? Now you can't easily adjust it if need be
People who want the amp to overheat and shut down.
This was a great video but they should make one for a stock reciver
my stereo and front speakers were installed by best buy and when i gained more knowledge on car audio i decided to upgrade everything and do it myself and quickly noticed what a messy job best buy had done. Lots of broken parts on the door, broken door clips too. The cables on the head unit were hooked up using electrical tape and were all loose. ugh
For a "How to" video, there sure are a lot of experts in the comments lmao. Why are you here??
lol I agree
+Eclipsen Gaming probably because people like you come here and believe anything with the words "How To" in front of it... we are here to make sure people aren't idiots
+Logan Beckstrom "we are here to make sure people aren't idiots"
That's a pathetic argument.
So you all just go to How To videos as a hobby to stop people you'll never see from following the tutorial? Nah you're here cause you don't know what you're doing
Neither do you.
I'd strongly recommend a better ground & stripping the paint at the point of contact.
Also, secure the subwoofer in place so it's not sliding all over the place, puncturing the woofer or worse!
i have a seatbelt around mine lol works like a charm
fyi...easiest place to hook remote is acc/cigarette lighter, it only powers up when car is on & they have fuse adapters where you can tap into & add another fuse to existing fuse, cost 99 cents and makes life alot easier. Another thing, when upgrading front speakers go with components as opposed to the coaxials you used. Factory passive crossovers are just going to cancel out the highs on the coaxials which is why tweets & mids are separated to begin with & even then, the imaging with the high end firing at your leg is horrible. Another thing, your ground spot is horrible, that piece of sheet metal is just tack welded onto another piece of sheet metal & resistance is high. You want to ground to something that goes straight to chasis.
if ur installing an aftermarket deck you have to bring the remote wire to that wiring harness right?
dwizl7213 not all cigarette lighters only power up when the vehicle is turned on. My JK has a constant hot wire that runs to the lighter.
thats false. my old monte carlo had an always on cig lighter. really most of what you say is gross exaggeration to flat out nonsense. have you ever owned a car? i dont think you have?
Didn't Ground it right, supposed to strip the paint with metal brush and the screw the ground to the body
So what you're supposed to do when installing an amp is to place it behind unventilated plastic onto thin sheetmetal that will flex and vibrate, you zip-tie speaker wires to high current power wires, you ground an amp to some sheetmetal that still has the factory e-coat, and then you bolt it down on top of wires potentially pinching them and causing extra interference and impedance?
Wow, no wonder Geek Squad is so unpopular in the audio world. Those are some of the things you AREN'T supposed to do.
Lolol thank god you said it
Well it is Geek Squad. I've had horrible dealings with them in the past.
Geek Thquad
Lol
lol
I laughed way to hard at that.
+Kawi450 Mike tyson approves!
+Kawi450 LMFAO
isn't necessary to disconnect the negative wire from the battery ??
Got a blown head gasket now thanks a lot.
Anthony Young lmaoo😂
Idk why but i love this video.
That's what made me start making Audio videos and shit
Bouta install some today wish me luck! :p
Lol 4 years later....... "no update"
@@benzoxxv6367 Installed it beautifully, best sound system i had.. but i dont own that car anymore tho lmao miss it.
this is very thorough. thank you. this is why I shop at best buy. also I used to work there, so I like em.
Did you do this whole install with the battery connected??
No, he pulled the fuse. At least he got that part right.
Local Yard Works hell no
I hope so
What size of power wire was that and what size of speaker wire was that ?
@izzymadd I believe that the blue wire he ran to the radio turns the amp off
HOLY HACK JOB! This is why I install my audio equipment myself. . .
i would have though disconnect the battery first before doing any electrical work...
I agree less chance of blowing something up or hurting yourself.... though that is why they took the fuse out so no current would get through but they still should have disconnected the battery IMO
Nice demonstration..
Nice and clean job 👍🏼
Now that my friends, is not a proper ground connection...
why you no strip grounding area? seems like people who install would tell other people to strip ground spot.
Can you make a video on how to install an aftermarket equalizer
this helped so much!!! (comming from a 16 year old)
Ok so i followed your directions explained on this video..and as i was doing my walk around i noticed a slight golf ball sized dent on my quarter panel....who do i report that to???
DIRTPUNKZ86 Geek Squad... it's their fault for sure ! Cuz they are the ones that told you to do it !
not trying to be a grammar nazi, but 4:48 *rap* should be *wrap* lol
Lol, it's okay to be a grammar nazi. It takes skill.
Maybe its a inner city rap?
So i connect the amp to the stereo and battery and subwoofer to the amp?
l like this video, it reminds me of back in the day when youtube was still cool.
Im quite new to this, would be nice if you could be more specific about that remote cable connection
Very good 😍
Is it really necessary to run the remote/RCA wires down the passenger side, while running the battery wire down the drivers side? Why not just run them all down the same side and save your self some time. Can't you just shield the RCA cable or will the battery wire still cause interference ?
The power wire's frequency will interfere with the rca's frequency nd will cause noise in the subs. I did the rookie mistake nd i had a high pitch niose coming from mine. Yes, it is a little more work, but if ur not gonna do it right, might as well not do it at all.
I lost you at using the blanket to rap the dash...My blanket had a hard time rapping and I needed to consult Kanye West for further instructions
that one got me too. poor dash . lol
thank you so much for the informations
where do you install the RCA cables go if there isn't a spot for them in the radio??
Lovely easy instructions. Thanks for this great video.
Only thing I learned is that I'm not letting anybody else touch the components of my vehicle
Where do you get those nice tools?Specifically the 4 gauge wire grommet tool and the panel pliers?
Fairly clean job but lacks in experience on tuning or grounding with a star washer and you don't need to wire loom everything.
How do you know which wire is the remote wire in the radio? And how do you connect it the right way?
A blue wire with a white strip on it is amplifier turn on. You can connect it by solder and heat shrink, butt connectors, crimp caps, or just some electrical tape
Thanks a lot!
Very helpful thanksyou
The sub most likely move if it's an 8"!
what does inspecting the paint job outside of the car has do with audio upgrade
I know this is two years old but any good place will do this so that if you try to come and say that they did that they have it documented that it was already there.
There called Geek Squad for a reason.
You forgot to detach the negative line from the battery.
So when did he disconnect the negative terminal of the battery before interfering with stuff?
omanstalkah He didn't. I found a few wrong things with this video like a few other people did. I don't buy audio equipment from best buy because its all cheap as shit and over priced as fuck.
There was so much wrong with this video, I would not know where to begin. I am so glad I have never had anything installed by Best Buy.
I would have checked to see if it played before installing the radio back in the dash.
They didnt clean the paint on the ground... :(
+SwishaMane420 or the connection on the battery's loop terminal.
They said in the note to sand it down for a better connection
The only issue i had with this was attaching the power cable before the ground.
why? power wasn't sent to the amp until the very end of the video when he installed the fuse into the fuse holder. so it was a safe install. read a book
If I have a stereo head unit with front, rear, and sub RCA outputs with high-pass and low-pass built in crossovers will the high-pass go to the front and rear while low-pass goes strictly to sub?
where speaker wires came from ? U didnt mention it
thankyou
I plan to add equalizer to my 2012 toyota 4runner Limited. It has a JBL unit. I wonder if it is a component style so i can connect the equalizer in between before signal goes to amplifier.
Q? So does the amp stays on all the time since its power straight from the battery ? Or am I missing something. ... Thanks in advance
The blue wire is the Amp Turn On/Off wire that is powered off the amp turn on wire from the head unit. This functions like a normal on and off switch.
dlfdlc It is called a auxiliary wire.. It is used for a Amp/power antenna.
Nino Gambino Something tells me you've probably figured it out. If not, here's my 2 cents: There is a wire coming from the back of the radio, stereo (head unit) that is blue and is connected to the red wire inside that also comes out of the back of your radio and goes to your ignition. When you connect that blue wire to the power control terminal on the back of your amp(s), when you turn on the car, you turn on your amps too. That way they are not on all the time, like the radio stations and the clock and whatever else that is hooked to the yellow wire inside your radio/stereo (head unit). The red wire is called a switched hot as opposed to the yellow wire hook up which is called constant hot.
Hi which wire have u connected to your radio and in the back panel of the radio, to what wires have you connected the wires from the remote and line in from your amp
I've got a question before i get started with my car, how do you know which one is the remote cable on the back of the head unit? sincere question
It's the blue one
I see a lot of people complain he didn't sand the paint but at least he used star washers to make somewhat of a connection which as he said use the rough side of the washer to cling to the metal. ofc this isn't the best thing to do and you should sand the paint but hey at least the sub worked
So I don't have to mess with any other settings on my amplifier just the "Gain" only.
won't the amp get to hot hidden like that?
That's what I was thinking too. However, for no bigger than the amp was, (the sub too), it's not like their gonna be railing on it or anything. After all, it did go in a mini van :)
he also said that the amp he bought runs cool so it doesn't need the air flow like different class amps would.
he said it was a class D amp and those are the most efficient amps you can buy at almost 100% efficiency so because of this they run fairly cool. but l love how he mentioned that it runs cooler than a class A or B amp. it's funny because neither of those amp classes are used in car audio, class A amps sound amazing but they are incredibly inefficient and get really really hot because their efficiency is under 50% and after about 30 minutes of use this heat causes electrical resistance which makes the sound quality tank and this is why you never really see class A amps anymore. especially in car audio, class A amps where never ever used in car audio which is why it's funny that he mentioned that. and class B amps are pretty efficient, not as efficient as a class D but still. problem with these amps is they don't sound that great which is why they aren't used anymore. l think the guy was talking about a class A/B amplifier which combines the class A sound quality with the class B efficiency and makes an all around better amplifier. and class A/B is probably the most common amp class you'll find out there in departments.
Had you guys do it now my remote turn on doesn't work have to jump my amp just to listen to it -.-
What happened to the other end of the blue radio wire you cut?
how much do u guys charge for a install
I wouldn't let Geek Squad take my dog outside to pee.
I was watching on another video that you have to disconnect the negative side of the battery so it won't shock you or anything, I'm confused
Jaron Burgess I think that is done to prevent creating a short circuit in the vehicle while waving around bare wires. The current in a battery is harmless to humans as far as I know.
hey dude i tried installing my subs and amp today, and i got everything like you have it, power, ground,remote, subs etc, but when i connect the rca's to the amp, he green light starts flashig red and green, and when it turns green for like 2 sec the subs work than they stop working when the red one come on, what would be the problem to mine?
how much can it cost for that type of installation on from geek squad, any idea?
starts at $119 for labor, then add in amp wiring kit and whatever else they may need
shouldnt you disconnect the battery first?
Since there is no power going to the Amp during installation, then there is no need.
what about if wanna install another extra speakers to my car, from where i need to conecct the new speakers,,,,and how to know what king of speakers i need to install, its depends the amps, or other considerations.
Not getting power to my amp. Think I have to run a wire to fuse box just don't know what wire to hook it to on the stereo end. Any help is appreciated
i recently had my factory amp and speakers replaced in my 2003 Santa Fe and it doesn't even sound as good as before, any idea what it could be ?
Just a quick question. I'm installing my on sub. and amp and wondering if the rca cabels just goes right to the subwoofer ?
Your RCAs run from you radio to your amp.
ok, thanks
Thanks for showing everyone how easy it is to steal a radio out of a ford edge lol.
And why you going to put the amp on top the RCA cables
Ima just go to best buy and smoke a blunt while they do all labor work.
What did you do with original speaker wires, I've got them going from rear stereo to amp, but left un plugged, so brown speaker wire plug on harness not on. Then got 4 rca to amp from stereo. Got remote connected to amp, ground and power why does my stereo have sub socket as no wire running there. But if turn amp off on stereo no sound. Yet sub socket empty back stereo
What is the name or brand of the speaker wires using. positive n negative wire
macteesac All speaker wire. One side is usually marked in some way so it is easily hooked up correctly.
Hello! Is it possible to splice into the remote turn on wire on my head unit wiring harness if it is already being used for something else? I had previously soldered the remote turn on wire on my after market wiring harness to the antenna wire that came with my factory wiring harness, but I would like to additionally solder the remote turn on wire that came with my amp wiring kit to the remote turn on wire on my after market wiring harness (even though it is already soldered to my antenna wire). I was unsure if splicing into a wire that is already in use for something else in order to add an additional wire (which would be the remote turn on wire from my amp kit) would put me at a risk for a short, or if the wire would not supply a strong enough signal to turn my amp on & off since it would have to be spliced into my remote turn on wire that is already soldered to the antenna wire. Thanks in advance!
what is the remote wire for and is it optional?
The remote wire is a live wire that makes your amp turn off and on when you turb the key.
What if it doesn't have a subwoofer hole?
+Max Richards Use a sharpie to mark where you have to drill and drill one. Shouldnt be too difficult im suspecting im going to have to do that as well
How much would an install like this cost?