1. If you searched, it shouldn't have been a problem finding the info. Browse through my thread if you need to. Then I'll answer your questions.

2. Idk. Other than asking your neighbor (which I'm sure you already did), you may just need to pull one of the subs out and check any serial or model number on the back and/or call Kicker directly.

3. ?? Yes you can an install yourself, just be safe and always disconnect the battery first, read, and I suggest having a garage, though its just a suggestion, helps when it's hot outside or when you want to work on it at 1:00 am in the morning and not have people looking at you thinking you're stealing stuff.



Oh as far as amp, you'd have to figure out what what you have is first.

 

Thanks for replying Riki
I've done quite amount of research these past days after receiving the subs but have only encountered bits and pieces of it. Reason i posted this thread to see if anyone knew where i could find a complete tutorial, basically for a dummy.

I've read through your thread and am not interested in taking out the factory bose sub. I wanna install an aftermarket amp and the kicker subs with the factory HU without taking out the bose sub and amp but just disconnecting it from running.

I also wanted to install xcarlink for ipod usage, i've read that on the 2004 models i'd have to a L716 Modification. I have a friend in school thats grade A with soldering. I have also researched how to take out the HU, so i am a little knowledgeable in that area.

 

The L716 mod is really easy to do. And as long as you're able to take the stock hu out of the car, its just a matter of unscrewing about 10 little screws to open it up and have access to the board.

As far as the stock sub goes, if you have a decent sub in the trunk, it will most likely damage the stock sub from leaving it in place. The the pressure from an aftermarket sub with any significant output will cause the stock sub to act as a terrible passive radiator, possibly causing damage over time. Also removing the stock sub will leave with a 9" hole in the rear deck allowing more bass to escape the trunk into the cabin which is a benefit you will most likely need.

The easiest way to provide a signal for an aftermarket amp would be to use the signal going into the stock sub. As far as power and ground, you'll need to get an amp kit or piece together your own so that the aftermarket amp will have a power wire running from the battery and you'll have to make a ground in the trunk area. For the remote wire of the amp, you can tap the stock Bose power wire or tap one of the cig lighters.

 

Wow thats some really useful information, i'll definitely consider taking out the factory sub. What about the factory amp located under the seat?

And just to get this clear, what are the total materials needed to get the job done?

Also on another note, I'm not really looking for loud sounds, just enough to actually hear the bass.

and did you happen to come across a step 1 to finish tutorial on how to install all of this?

 

I'm sure you could find many many videos on YouTube for how to install an amp. Theres really nothing special about it.

ALWAYS disconnect the negative terminal of your battery first.

1. Run 4 gauge wire (fused) from the + battery to your trunk.

2. Find a smooth flat surface in the trunk near where your amp would be. Sand it to bare metal, secure your ground wire for your amp using a grounding block, or if you're cheap a couple screws

3. Then you do the appropriate things to get your signal and remote.

4. Connect everything. Finished.


You'll need to buy power wire, speaker wire, fuse, fuse holder, and anything else, like splice connectors etc.

If you're looking at better bass than stock but don't need it to be able to make it hard for you to breathe while driving, I'd suggest you read the sticky Bose sub replacement or something like that. You'd just need everything you need right now and a IB capable subwoofer. But itd be the easiest thing to do and you would still have your entire trunk space.

 

Do the amp wire kits come with all these components? Sounds easy as pie honestly, and I'm looking to use the subs given to me. Although i quite don't understand the signal and remote portion of the installation, and how to run the 4 gauge wire to the trunk? does removing the seats give access to the trunk?

Also just speculating but if i was to run a 300-500W amp, would it drain my car battery, leading me to buy a new battery constantly? And what to do with the factory bose amp?

And does any amp installation tutorial on Youtube is accurate to installing it on a mazda6?

 

Any car amp installation (as long as the person isn't a retard) will give you the basic idea of how to do it. If you look at the process, it's exactly the same for basically every car. The only thing specific to the car would be obtaining the signal for the amps.

No running the system on the car will not kill the battery. As long as the car is on, the alternator would be powering the system and recharging the battery. If you left the system on without turning the car on, yes it will die. Same concept as if you left your lights on overnight. My system runs 1650 watts so you won't have a problem with that. If using a lot of power then other things come into play, like improving the stock charging system wires, AGM battery(s), and HO alternator(s).

Yes an amp kit will come with enough power and ground wire and fuse with fuse holder. Another thing I forgot to mention is tools. You'll need a wire cutter (cutter and crimper combo is good), wire stripper, and other basic tools. A good set of Allen wrenches is helpful. I always lose the ones that come with amps and things, the only ones I have left are my Audison tools.

 

Thanks a whole bunch Riki, i'm honestly eager to start this project, and cant wait for another reply on this thread by you. Is there any way i can speak to you through instant message?

 

I don't use any IM service anymore. Just keep posting here. I always check it when I head outside for a cig break. And if you keep it here some other people can post or if someone is searching and finds this thread, it may help them.

All the information is scattered through my thread but there are pages of just talking so it can be hard to find things in my thread since it has a lot of pages.

For running the power wire from the battery, lay on your back or side underneath the steering wheel. You'll see a rubber grommet going through the firewall with a mass of stock wires going through it. Make a small incision in the side of the grommet (don't cut any wires) and slide the power wire from the cabin into the engine bay. You should be able to see it and pull it out once you look behind the battery. If the wire you are using is too flexible, you can use a metal coat hanger to guide it through.

For the signal wire, remove the rear deck cover. You will see a bundle of wires going to the stock subwoofer. Cut the bundle open carefully (don't cut any wires). Your car is the same as mine so you need to look for the brown wire and the black w/ red stripe wire. The brown is positive signal, the other is negative. Buy a RCA to speaker wire adapter or just take a RCA and cut it open. Connect the positive to positive and negative to negative via splicing or cutting and soldering. You will then have the stock signal wires running into a single rca plug. Use a female to two male Y rca adapter on the end and plug the two male ends of the rca into the left and right channels of your amp. The larger blue with red stripe wire is the power for the stock sub, tap it for your remote wire for the amp.

Stock signal wire --> speaker wire to RCA adapter (or a cut RCA with the two wires stripped)---> RCA Y adapter ----> aftermarket amp inputs.

A RCA plug contains both positive and negative wires. The center pin of a RCA holds the positive. The outer metal that encircles the pin is the negative. This is why you would need a y splitter to satisfy the aftermarket amp with a left and right channel for inputs, unless the amp is capable of using a single input (in which case you would not need the y adapter and only plug into one channel, keep the specific amp if it can do this, usually it only says in the manual).

Hope that helps.

Edit: for the remote wire, you can also tap a cig lighter. It will be better if you don't want to mess with the Bose sub wiring. Id suggest using the one inside the compartment/ armrest since its not visible and you'll be taking out your cupholders anyway to remove your hu.

 

Do you have any old pictures from when you installed yours?
and i opened up my sub box and the subwoofer is a Kicker 1993 SK10

Where can i get an RCA adapter? My local radioshack store?

EDIT: Researched and found out its an 4ohm (no idea what this means)
Do you have any suggestion on which amp to buy?

 

wtf? It's almost 20 years old?

Yes you can get the RCA adapter at Radioshack or if you happen to have RCA's, you just need to take one of the plugs, leave enough slack in the wire, and cut the end off to expose the two wires inside.

4 ohm is the resistance of the voice coil in the sub and the value is required when taking into consideration of what amp you need to get. Just to make sure, if you have access to a multimeter, I would test the resistance of both subwoofers to make sure they are 4 ohm.

When you were searching did you happen to see how much power the sub needs? The RMS value (constant normal power rating, watts) and peak value are needed. Any more specs you can find would be helpful. If you can find enough specs, I can model the subwoofer in a program to see how it would perform and give you ideas if you wanted to make a new box, or single box for both drivers.

 

I'd actually just send an email or call Kicker and ask them if they have any information on it then go from there.

 

Yeah its about 20 years old, all i know is that it is brand new, never been used, sitting in a closet. The only thing i found on the net was some guy selling them stating that they were 4 ohm. Other than that these sub is no where to be found on the net. Although i'm planning on keeping the same box because it has integrated subs and i believe an extra motorola speaker also integrated into the box. Trunk space is not my worry at the moment, besides our trunk space is huge...

Also since its in 2 seperate boxes, how do i connect both of them to the amp?

Edit: I actually just tried calling them, they're closed but will definitely give them a call in their working hours.

 

Without knowing the specs, it would be difficult to know how much power they can take , especially considering how old they are. As long as you take them out and inspect them, they should be ok. The problem with old speakers, even if they have never been used, is cone sag and other things. It seems like they have been mostly protected so the main problem would be cone sag and possible disintegration of the cone, surround, and other parts.

I would say contact Kicker and figure out the specs.

If you can't figure out the specs or do, I would say give them low power and don't play them too loud for awhile. They might be fine, but they might just crap out randomly.

Keeping those boxes, the easiest thing to do would be purchase a 4-channel amp and bridge both of the channels to run each sub independently with somewhere around 150-200 watts each. If you used a mono sub amp, you would have to wire them together for a 2 ohm load and you'd have to be careful, get an amp that puts out a low amount of power at 2 ohms, something like 300 watts would be enough.

That's what I would do. Then later, if you buy a decent amp, you can use the 4-channel to run speakers in the car and buy a more powerful sub amp to power new sub(s), of course when you have money later.

 

Also, I'd probably just buy a 4 channel Polk amp from Best Buy, hook it up to verify the subs work, then decide to keep the amp and run the subs or return it and buy a different amp, since they have a 30 day return policy (I've used it many times to try amps, use cash ). And if they don't work, just return the amp.

Also remember, old subs usually don't have a lot of excursion, so if that thing was pounding away with 1" xmax, I'd time it to see how long it lasted before it died.

 

Haha i'll see if a friend of mine can hook up the subs to his car to bypass the whole Polk amp step of yours.

So for now 4 channel amp with 300watts, and what do you mean by bridge the channels?

Also, i recently watched this tutorial on Youtube

a series of 4 videos
Could you tell me how close the setup he has to our cars?
and to be honest your reply about the remote and signal information, I am clueless into what's going on. If you dont mind could you please reexplain it in simple terms? And possibly an explanation of what is Female and male RCA cables?

So sorry Riki for the loads of questions... Thank you so much for helping.

 

Basically the same, but run the power wire on the drivers side where I told you. It's not safe to have an open hole like he has in his setup (its called a firewall for a reason).

With a lot of umms and ahhs, yes that's basically setting up an amp, please don't use shitty equipment like he does though (sub is good though, last gen type r, I know from experience with that sub that the sub box is too small though). The vid comments are funny. Only watched the first vid.

I'll explain the steps again tomorrow when I have time.

Male RCA has a jack that plugs into a Female RCA....... You've never heard those terms?

What Is the Difference Between Male & Female Connectors? | eHow.com


Lol

http://www.ehow.com/how_5305710_bridge-channel-amp.html

 

What about his RCA cables and Remote cable, I do what you said right? use the stock signal wires? so i dont have to open up the head unit? Just connect those wires to the amp with the adapter?

And no i haven't heard of those terms, i've always been a computer junkie.
And if you could explain it again that would be great.
I'll keep on researching for the rest of night

Time for Mayweather vs Cotto.

 

He has an aftermarket hu. The stock head unit does not have preouts to plug RCA's into. By using the stock wires that lead to the Bose sub, its basically the same thing except no direct plug in so you cut the wires to connect them.

For the Remote, use a wire tap to the positive wire of a cig lighter and run the new wire to the aftermarket amp.

Male and female terms are used to describe any type of connection for anything, not just audio. In the link I provided it explains this, the male end goes inside the female end to form a connection.

 

Look at this y adapter-

Dynex™ - RCA Y-Adapter - DX-AD102

Look at the ends. It has one male plug and two female plugs. Get the idea? Male into female.

 

Look at the ends. It has one male plug and two female plugs. Get the idea? Male into female.

I'm sorry but I am just not getting this. Do you have additional male/female pictures or diagrams that might help me understand?



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Haha Wim you cracked me up.
And yes Riki i understand

to get access to the cig lighter do i need to remove the cup holders and shifter panel?
The positive wire of the cig lighter is the male end right? and will i still have use of the cig lighter after wire tapping it? and what type of wire do you use?

 

Lol Wim. I'm surprised you didn't reply sooner.

Cig lighter is a 12v accessory (turns on when you turn your car on and off when off). It's for the remote wire. You only need to take the cup holders out and you'll be able to see the wires. You can use any 16-18 gauge wire. Just one wire coming from the positive wire in the cig lighter to act as a remote for the amp (turn on and off).

 

Wim makes me feel like a total dumass haha.

Riki do you happen to know which wire is the cig lighter wire? and which is the positive? although i'm thinking that the negative is a ground wire place somewhere else. (learning)

Note: Hopefully were helping all the other people like me out there that are clueless.

 

Wim makes me feel like a total dumass haha.

That's what he's here for




I'll take a look at the wire later. For some reason I think it's pink/purplish.

 

Alright thanks Riki,

So for the Remote, i tap into the cig lighter by cutting the wire and splicing it using a 16-18 gauge wire. Then running it to the trunk and connecting it to the aftermarket amp. (k i got it)

Could you please re explain the Signal portion of it again, simpler for a dummy? lol

EDIT: Will be at work tomorrow, feel free to post any additional information i may need, thanks Mazda6club community.

 

Gonna explain this slightly differently to see if another set of words helps make it easier.

Hooking an amplifier up consists of 2 basic parts every time. Each of these two parts has 2 sections.

1 Power: you need juice from the car to make your amplifier work just like a lamp needs to be plugged in to get light.

1a Constant Power: the heavy duty cables running from the car battery up front to the amp and from the amp to a ground. This is where the amp gets the juice to move the speakers

1b Switched Power: the little power wire you hook up to pretty much anything in the car that turns on and off with the key. Just an electrical nudge to wake up the amp when the rest of your car comes alive.

2 Signal: simply the musical/noise information getting from the radio to the speakers.

2a Line Level Signal: this is the really low powered signal that your radio/headunit sends to the amplifier. This uses your RCA cables and has all the music/sound in it, but not with enough power to move your speakers - goes radio to amp. The wires are generally small. The larger size of the cables is mostly from the shielding and insulation for the delicate signal.

2b Speaker Level Signal: the amp takes the line level signal and makes it more powerful (amplifies it? ) so that the music/sound information can push your speakers around. These also have a lot of power and will need heavier cables as well so bigger speaker cables are generally good here.

Keep in mind power and on/off and signal in/out and you will be able to hook up pretty much any amplifier in any car.

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