Install amp alpine head unit

Shopping Cart. Continue Shopping. LogoAlpine ;. All Rights Reserved. California Transparency in Supply Chains Act. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1.

All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Turn your vehicle off and pop the hood. Do not put the keys in the ignition; your vehicle cannot be running when you run your power cable and hook up your head unit, amp, and sub.

Press the button or pull the lever in your vehicle to unlatch the hood from the engine. Raise the hood of your vehicle and lock it in place. Doing this indoors will make it easier to stay cool and keep track of things. Use a socket wrench to unscrew the bolt on the terminal by turning your wrench counter clockwise.

The positive terminal usually has a red cover as well. You may need a socket wrench extender to reach the bolt on the terminal. Connect a power cable to the positive terminal of your vehicle battery. Pop the cover and unscrew the bolt on your positive terminal. With the bolt removed, slide the open loop of your power cable over the screw for your positive terminal.

Reattach the bolt with a socket wrench to secure the loop to the battery. It used electricity from the battery to turn the amp on and off. Power cables for vehicle audio systems are usually red. Poke a hole in the rubber next to your firewall to feed the power wire through. Use a small knife to poke a hole right next to the opening where all of the other wires in your vehicle feed into the vehicle. On most vehicles, the wires run to the glove box on the opposite side of the engine.

If the opening is sealed, poke a hole in the firewall with a small knife. It is called a firewall because it is designed to stop a fire if one starts in your engine. On some vehicles, there will be a cover or plastic wring around the opening where your wires run.

If this is the case, either remove the cap or push your wires down a little bit to make room for the power cable. Unwind a wire coat hanger to make your cable feed.

You can do this by hand or use wire cutters to clip the hook and untwist the neck. Loop the end to form a small circle and thread the free end of your power cable through it. Once the power cable is running through the hook, squeeze the hook together so that it closes around the power cord.

If you have a really stiff power cable, you can skip this step and try to thread it through the firewall by hand. Slide your power wire through the firewall with the coat hanger. Use your wire hanger to slide the power cable through the hole that you made. Open your passenger-side door and find the wire from inside. Pull it through and unhook the wire hanger. Install your fuse holder by cutting the wire and mounting it near the engine.

If your audio system came with a fuse holder, clip and expose the power cable 2—12 inches 5. Use wire cutters to cut the cable where you want to install the fuse holder and the strip the plastic coating off of each end with the smaller opening at the end of the wire cutters. Slide each exposed section into the opening of your fuse holder and tighten the slots with an Allen wrench or socket wrench. This will keep the system safe if you ever experience electrical problems with your vehicle.

Our toll-free Tech Support number is printed on your invoice, and is also available under the "My Orders" tab in the "My Account" section of our website. If you did not purchase the unit from Crutchfield, then you may want to contact the manufacturer. Alpine does put a color code chart in the box to identify the functions of its wiring. If you have a Harley, our technical support should have their wire color codes to help our customers install this onto them [ Paul Apr 14, ] Staff.

IT's been 2 long years since I even looked at the back of this. I honestly cannot remember how I did this. What I DO remember is that it was about the easiest install I ever performed as a retrofit in over 50 years. I installed this as a replacement for some bargain basement head unit in my 98 Grand Cherokee.

The only challenge was converting the tail hatch into one that accepted speakers. The audio quality is well worth the hassle. This is a great piece. It is so versatile, it can be configured in a number of ways. Should be no issues. You will want to upgrade the speakers to take advantage of the extra power. Yes it is [ Nicholas Dec 14, ]. I'm sure it could be wired to work with your head unit since it is essentially a 4 x 50 watt amp in a small package.

It has brackets so it can be perfectly mounted to the back of an iLX-W and still have a shallow installation depth. Forgo the brackets and you have a great amp that you can connect to your iWRA or any other car stereo. You just have to find a place to mount it. Considering it's small size, that shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Unsure but if possible will still have to make a custom harness to connect radio to amps [ John Jul 01, ].

I did order the wiring kit and used it as directed overall just made it easier to hook everything up [ william Apr 09, ]. So, whether or not you need a separate power and ground is dependent on your vehicle. You should reach out to one of our advisors for more personalized help! It will work but suggest something a little stronger. This amp works good with speakers that are 25 watts rms rated.

We have not received any answers from other customers on your question. I would recommend reaching out to an Advisor by phone or online chat.

They should be able to help answer your question. As long as you can find somewhere to put the really long wires. If you're currently powering the Kicker speakers with just your head unit, then absolutely this will give better quality sound and response at lower volumes.

As for more bass, there are so many variables that influence this. However, the higher RMS rating of this amp will send more wattage to the speakers before introducing noticable distortion which should allow for you to adjust your bass levels as you see fit.

Keep in mind though, if your speakers have a max RMS rating exceeding 2. I have used amplifiers rated for twice what the speakers are rated for, and because the amp never clips, there are absolutely no problems. As an example, I'm still beating up the same pair of JL 12W1s since only having to replace the surround when it starts dry rotting.

The amp in itself won't give you more bass, but it will enable you to turn the bass level up without running out of power and damaging your speakers. I suggest enabling the loudness setting on your head unit.

The loudness setting emphasizes the bass at lower levels and should improve your sound quality at a lower volume. Hope this helps! The power pack is good option if you are looking for a little more power and it is amazing. You will definitely notice difference in power output. Also your on settings on your stereos EQ play a big part too.

If you are looking for a little more bass in your truck and have room for a powered subwoofer. I would definitely go that route in my opinion a JL Audio single 8in or 10inch is more than enough. I added the unit in a Jeep Wrangler TJ to drive fidelity across the range of low to high volume using an Alpine head unit. I was not looking for added bass. I am pleased that I got better fidelity and low distortion using this unit.

I am using Polk audio speakers. Hope that helps a bit [ Nicholas Dec 30, ]. This unit does not change the tone of the sound coming out of your speakers, it just makes everything louder, if you want more bass in your speakers, you will need to add a subwoofer or change the EQ. However if you are using factory speakers and you start pumping more power to them with this amp, you could blow out the speakers because they are not designed to be blasted with tons of bass.

If you really want better sound, then you should look at putting in new speakers and depending on how power hungry they are, adding an amp and a powered subwoofer to your system. Yep, all of these components are compatible. One of out advisors would love to help you get all the right gear for you install! It is compatible with that headunit. There will be some wire connections that need to be made between the headunit harness and the vehicle integration harness.

Depending on the vehicle, you may also need to run a dedicated power wire to the battery and a ground connection to the chasis. I don't think so. No, this is for "aftermarket" alpine radios not factory decks. I'm not sure I only have it connected to my door speakers, with a powered subwoofer. I don't think so because it is a plug and play type of set up use for the alpine head unit. They can walk you through the settings on the product and see if there may be a fix. If your old Alpine amp is similar to these amp's RMS watts output and has the same number of channels as these do, then I expect the PDR-F50 amp will be able to work in place of it and be able to use the same wiring too.

The power pack is designed to work with alpine stereos, the pdr-f50 should be fine if you have low level outputs RCA. If not, you will probley need a line output converter [ john May 27, ]. We do not ship over seas, Unfortunately. The amp doesn't mount to your receiver physically as in bolt to it. The amp has a fairly long cord that plugs in to your receiver directly. The cord allows you to mount the amp wherever it will fit under the dashboard.

My van had some space above the radio with a stout bracket at the top. The power pack amp was easily secured with a few good quality zip ties cable ties, tie wraps, what ever you prefer to call them.

This amp driving 4 Kicker speakers will cleanly play very loud, much louder than I have ever explored. Stated another way - i have never maxed it out. Very satisfied with my purchase. I do not think so. It comes with an adapter for inputs and power that ties in with other Alpine radios [ Rick B Apr 03, ]. I always recommend JBL.

I've used them in all my cars , My home theater and stereo music setups. Can't go wrong with JBL. I bought this Alpine head unit as a replacement for a failed OEM unit and connected it to the speakers that came with the car. Coukd not be happier with the Alpine unit. As for the speakers, first find out what size your factory speakers are or what size speakers you can fit in your application, then buy the highest quality in that size that your budget allows.

Not exactly sure what plug and play means for an amp. You do not have to run power or ground if that's what you mean. If you have an alpine head unit then it's pretty easy. The wiring harness that would plug into the back of the receiver plugs into the amp and there is an additional harness out of the amp that plugs into the receiver.

I believe all that worked ok. The wiring bundles are pretty big and a little difficult to hide if you have a tight location. Connect one wiring harness directly to your Alpine head unit and the other wiring harness directly to your cars speaker system. Both wiring harnesses are included and no additional wiring is required. There is no set up or adjustments necessary after installation.

Couldnt say for certain but I would expect so. I had a similar unit and it coupled right to the alpine harness, with an out that matched the older interface with the vehicle wiring. About a 30min job mounted for me [ seth Sep 24, ]. A small package that does a great job and yes it fits, add a couple subs and an amp for them and you'll be smoking [ MARTY R May 03, ].

I'm not sure what your asking. I bought an alpine deck with 2 preamp outputs along with this power pack. It does connect how you explained. Deck to power pack to wiring harness of vehicle. The kit through Crutchfield gives you a wiring harness which I believe is for the deck to the power pack been awhile If you are planning on hooking up an amp it cannot run through the power pack.

It has to run through a preamp output. If this doesn't answer your question please ask me again. I'm willing to help out in anyway I can. Maybe word the question a little different. I still have my sub hooked up to them. Amp is separate for front and rear doors [ cliff Jan 12, ]. No, you don't eliminate wire harness from deck. The Alpine amp powerpack connect directly to the Alpine radio and the Alpine radio harness connect to output side of powerpack , then the radio harness to vehicle for remote ,speakers ,etc.

Buy it and plug it in to the alpine deck. Nothing else to buy. If purchasing alpine deck with power pack it will come with wire harness to plug into alpine deck. No wires to splice. It was truly plug and play.

Jan 04, ]. Yes, you could use it like that. There shouldn't be any problems. I use it with my CDE which is very similar and it works great. I was told by alpine that as long as the unit is and newer and has a black power harness, that the power pack works.

I have the CDE , which is very similar and it works great. The information I received on the Power Pack says it works with most Alpine receivers after with a black power harness. Hope this helps. Hey James, I'm not sure about the I had one of those a long time ago and it was my favorite head unit. I now have a newer unit and I don't know if the plugs are exactly the same or not.

I'm almost tempted to say it will but eh. They do offer a U, but you would have to wire it up. I wish I could help you more but I haven't seen a in a long time.

That radio was built after so yes, it should work. No, This amplifier will only work with Alpine head units. Alpine does make U I believe that will work with stock head units and other after market head units as well. It has the same amount of power and is the same small size. I hope this answer will help you. I have never went wrong with Alpine products. Yes it works fine. Goog question I'm not really sure, you could contact costumer service they should be able to help you.

I believe so. Should be, it connects in line from the head unit toward your speakers , using the same connectors. I recommend it if you want good sounding loud music without installing an amp.

I installed this in my 97 Buick, I used all the factory wiring, upgrading to Rockford Fosgate speakers. I just used all the wires that came with the amp, I had no problems with distortion, even when my kid played his music loud.

What model headunit are you using? I have looked at that amp you are using as well and watched several vids on its hookup. Some of the best have been by 5 Star car Audio on you tube. Joined: Oct 2, Member: Messages: GerTaco92 likes this. The e-brake bypass is a must!

I put in a Kenwood in my truck and added a 4 channel amp and powered sub and just wired the ground under the center console ground spot. I followed what taco tunes did with their setup. They have a ton of videos on how they ground their under the seat amps. Bluebaron7 , Feb 5,