Alpine Amp Question

Zoomzilla

Ok, I have a 2004 dodge ram quad cab that came with the infinity sound system. I have decided to ditch the infinity system finally. I bought the 691 for the doors, the 351 for the dash and the 651s for the rear doors. I also bought the Alpine PDX-5 amp. Here is my question, or questions. Since I am running 6 speakers, I have some ohm issues. My speakers are 4 ohms. The rear doors will not be an issue, I will run them on channel 3 and 4, the question is the front doors and the dash. If I run them parallel, I would drop the ohms to 2. Do you think this will be an issue running the fronts in 2 ohms and the rears in 4 ohms? Second question. I don't have a elecric antenna out or anything else I can use for a turn on lead. Where can I hook into for the amp remote lead? I have a PCI bus wire, but I think it goes to more places than just the amp. The stock deck has GPS, so I am not going to get rid of the head unit. I am going to run line converters to the amp, but still need a remote lead.

Thanks for your responses.

exalted512

You can find a remote lead at the cigarette lighter.

You wont have a problem with running the amp at 2 ohms, what will be a problem is youre giving 3.5" speakers and 6x9s the same amount of power, as well as tuning them the same.

I would either, A) keep the dash speakers on the factory amp or
Put the dash speakers and the rear speakers on the rear channel. Your fader will be a little screwey, but do you really mess with it that much that it'll bother you? Thats up to you.
-Cody

Zoomzilla

exalted512 wrote: »

You can find a remote lead at the cigarette lighter.

You wont have a problem with running the amp at 2 ohms, what will be a problem is youre giving 3.5" speakers and 6x9s the same amount of power, as well as tuning them the same.

I would either, A) keep the dash speakers on the factory amp or
Put the dash speakers and the rear speakers on the rear channel. Your fader will be a little screwey, but do you really mess with it that much that it'll bother you? Thats up to you.
-Cody

Thanks for the response. I will have to give it a try and see what sounds better. The rear and the dash does sound like a better idea. I never use the fader anyway, so who cares about that. I leave mine at center and will adjust gain at the amp.

Zoomzilla

Actually, I changed my mind. I am going to just use the factory amp for the dash speakers.

This brings one more question then. When I tap the wires for the line out converter, does it matter if I tap them at the head unit (pre-amp) or post amplifier? The LOC I purchased has gain controls and can handle up to 80W per channel, but it seems that tapping it at the HU would be a lot simpler since all the wires are in one place and I can tap it for all 4 channels. I have never used a line out converter before, but I would assume tapping at the HU will be fine.

exalted512

Nope, you'll have to tag them at the amplifier. Their are no speaker wires behind the radio.
-Cody

Zoomzilla

Cody,

One more question for you since you have been so helpful and knowledgeable. The rear channels are not an issue since the factory amp sends signals to the rears in full range. The front are component though, so if I tap into say the door speakers, I will not be getting the highs. If I tap into the dash speakers, I will not be getting the lows. How would I tap into it for my fronts? A bit confused since I have never used a line out converter before.

Zoomzilla

Cody,

Nevermind. I decided to crap the whole line out converter route. It's not going to work right and will not sound the best anyway. I am going to get an aftermarket head.

Zoomzilla

Update:

NEVER trust schematics. So I downloaded several schematics for my truck's wiring. The first one I had, no go. The second one that I had downloaded a while was partially right. It had the rear signal wire colors correct, but it was completely missing the front signal wires. WTF? So I used process of elimination and mapped out the wires that were left to choose from. 2 Gray/Red? Nope, those are power. White/Violet? Nope that one is for the PCIbus. Black and Black/Green? Nope, those are ground. Several other wires which were illumination and something else. None of them were for the front speakers? So then it hit me. I know the 4 that I located ARE signal wires. Well it must be a common ground system, right? YEP! Why in the world would they not have that in the schematic? So anyway, tapped into the 4 wires that I know are signal wires, grounded the ground wires and voila! Success. I do not have the amp until tomorrow, but I wanted to get the RCA's wired. I could not use the LOC for my vehicle because of the screwy way they did the front, so I figured I would make my own RCA outs. $4 at Radio shack will buy you female solder RCA connectors. Solder some wire to those bad boys, tap into your signal wires, and you have RCA outs. All my RCA's were running at about 5 volts. Pretty good if you ask me since some Aftermarket heads only run at 2 volts.

Installer4life

This truck may have some issue's that will be difficult to overcome. If you are still interested in doing a system in the truck send me a PM and I will see what you have and walk you through it. This is the year where dodge might have switched to a digital amplifier. Let me know, Steve