or anyone that knows about audio.

some of you might know that ive been upgrading the system in my car this year. i paid to have some speakers installed then paid to have a sub and amp installed. i think ive reached a point where i will need to buy some parts and just do it myself.

summary
i have the below parts right now
front - 70rms
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/Speakers/A-Series/TS-A1670F
back 30 rms
https://www.kenwood.com/usa/car/speakers/kfc-1665s/

4 channel amp
https://www.nemesisaudio.com/na-1500x4d/
sub is a 10" kicker in a ported box (this might not be the exact one)
https://www.kicker.com/comp-10-inch-subwoofer

car is a 2018 elantra sedan.

i think i need to swap the kenwoods with pioneers. should i be able to connect all 4 speakers and the sub to this 4 channel amp??? it seems the shop ran a left and right RCA from the head unit to the amp then is just using splitters. is that fine or should there at minimum be some sort 3rd channel for bass? the head unit is stock with no rca outputs. they used a converter.

is the above suitable for this install or should i swap out some parts?

i started having trouble last week, the sub would go out or the speakers would or something else. they "fixed" it last night. now theres no right audio, all speakers play the left audio. i am going to go back to have them fix this and to run the power cable on the opposite side. i dont know how that will go so thats why i suspect i will need to cut my loses and get this right on my own.


--------

back story (long read)

i first had all 4 speakers replaced. i put some pioneers in the front and kenwoods in the back. this was recommended by the shop where they were installed.

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/Speakers/A-Series/TS-A1670F

https://www.kenwood.com/usa/car/speakers/kfc-1665s/

i think this was my first misstep. the pioneers are 70 RMS and the Kenwoods are 30 RMS. There was improved sound but no bass. after a couple of weeks i ended up opening my front doors and disconnecting the factory tweeters. this gave me nice sound but a bit underpowered.

after a few more weeks i decided to get a sub and amp/s. i had some recommendations from crutchfield on all the gear, power for the 4 speakers and a mono amp for the sub. i decided to put everything in the cart and hit a couple of shops up to find out how much it would be to install all this and to make sure i ordered everything they needed. i also wanted to give them the chance to sell me their own set up if all in it would be less. another mistake.

i ended up going with another shop and they sold me a 4 channel amplifier and sub. they said the 4 speakers would be powered by 2 channels and the sub by the other 2. there would also be a bass control knob. bet.

amp is a nemesis (who??)
https://www.nemesisaudio.com/na-1500x4d/

sub is a 10" kicker in a ported box (this might not be the exact one)
https://www.kicker.com/comp-10-inch-subwoofer

after they install everything i find out they "couldnt" install the bass knob because it would just turn the volume up and down on the whole system, not just the bass. uh what??? okay whatever, lets see how it sounds and if i even need to adjust the bass. overall it sounded pretty good.

then last week i start having weird sound. some parts of the music would be gone then everything would come back. at some point it wouldnt come back until i turned off the car. sometimes it sounded like the speakers would go out and the sub would keep playing sometimes the other way around. sometimes it seemed like something else.

so i took the car back in last night. we start playing some music, everything sounds okay, we turn it up then the bass drops off. the protect light did not turn on. they take it back around and start looking at the cables. dude tells me its probably the converter and tells me to wait in the front. 10/15 minutes later he tells me its ready. it was an rca cable...ok. test it out and it sounds good.

im still suspicious. i play some bass heavy songs loud on my way home. when i get home i decided to find some speaker test videos on youtube. when i get to ones that test for soundstage i see something is lacking. i play one that tests left and right and there is no right audio. all the speakers play the left audio. ugh.

so i decided ill take it back tomorrow (today) and go in. after a little while i get impatient and decided to check out the amp and try to see whats up. theres one rca that is connected to nothing, just taped up. theres a bunch of splitters so i dont know whats what. i start removing the tape and seeing where everything is connected. trying to see if maybe i can get the right audio working. after swapping a few of the rca's around i decided to try the one that wasnt connected to anything.

yeah thats the right channel. i found a way to get it connected (i didnt know what i was doing) where it seemed to sound mostly right. it just didnt sound as loud as the left and the bass only hit when the left channel was on. i know bass is mono but shouldnt it hit with either?? i dont know this is one area i need to understand. i figure i need to tune the amp and since i dont have tools or know what im doing i better just take it back and let them do it right.

so i try to connect everything the way it was. problem is i didnt take a picture and with all the swapping out i did i completely confused on how it was. i tried every combination i could but it seemed like the bass was too strong and sometimes the highs sounded weird. at some point i found something that seemed to work and went back in.

i then did more googling and youtube to try to understand how the splitters were working. basically it is just that a splitter. since its all left audio it really doesnt matter which channel i connect the splitters too. i swear it was making a difference but maybe it was just in my head.

so now im wondering why did they only use left? was it like this from the beginning or did they disconnect the right channel last night? i think thats what it was, they saw the right channel wasnt working and decided to take a shortcut. they probably didnt want to replace the rca cable for the right channel.

im still trying to understand if this amp can be bridged. how they hooked up the 4 speakers to it. i find a crutchfield video on installing a sub and amp. the first thing dude says is you run the power cable through one side and the rest of the cables through another. hrmm i need to check this.

so this morning i checked and they ran all the cables through the same side. thats probably whats been going on. the power cable is interfering with the rcas, maybe even with the speaker wires from the amp.

im definitely going to call them today and tell them theres no right audio. that i want the power cable to run through the other side. the amp seems to be working well but if theyre having to do this shoddy work because its not meant to be used this way then i need them to get the right parts in there.

i suspect i will need to end up redoing this stuff. i dont know how much of it im keeping. i dont really know how to do this stuff but they obviously refuse to do it right. i feel i could probably tune the amp and maybe even get the bass knob installed but i need to have them move that power cable. i think they probably tuned everything then remembered about the bass knob and were too lazy to tune it up again and run the cable for the bass knob.

im worried that the speakers being different RMS is not good and one of them will blow. so im thinking of getting another pair of pioneers. maybe even having them refund me for the amp and get the ones that crutchfield recommended. i just dont know what i will need to do on the head unit. i dont know if i will be able to keep any of the wiring they did.

Ideally you'd have a 4 Channel amp for your speakers and a separate amp for the subwoofer. Trying to drive everything from the that amp may result in a muddy mess because you're relying on the headunit (factory joint) to handle all the sound staging digitally....which could be hit or miss depending on the head unit.

A lot of modern cars have speed sensing volume that increases or decreases automatically to compensate for road noise...this could also come into play if your amp isn't receiving its signal via the proper output of the head unit.

If it's a factory head unit, they likely just converted the speaker leads to line out which has the flimsy speaker cables as the weak point.....

There's a lot of stuff that could just be wrong here man.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

when they were done they said they didnt have to and that there wasnt enough space to do so.

at this point im just trying to get everything right. i dont think its necessary to run new speaker wire but how they converted from the head unit is definitely suspect.

The key is locating the appropriate splice point. And THAT is driven by where the amp is being installed....

>when they were done they said they didnt have to and that
>there wasnt enough space to do so.
>
>at this point im just trying to get everything right. i dont
>think its necessary to run new speaker wire but how they
>converted from the head unit is definitely suspect.

That's 100% suspect. Because based on the pics I saw on google, that Nemisis amp only has RCA input, not Line-In.
There are only a few ways they could have done that the RIGHT way:

A) Get a vehicle specific harness that plugs into your factory head unit in order to provide true RCA line outputs. Ideally this harness would be a small pre-amp converter type thing.
B) Splice into the speaker lines from behind the head unit in order to intercept the speaker leads coming OUT of the factory radio....THEN route those leads INTO a Pre-Amp box...that also needs to tap into the factory radio power line ... and THEN send RCA outputs from THAT down to your amplifier.

For either of those two options they'd charge you for the piece of equipment that was needed....or you'd have had to supply it to them.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

https://www.amazon.com/Kicker-KISLOC-2-Channel-Speaker-Converter/dp/B00I4EF1BC/ref=asc_df_B00I4EF1BC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309820150211&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3617577748145446712&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1022494&hvtargid=pla-568052270134&psc=1

in my head i dont see how you can get a 6 channel output from the unit into that 2 channel converter and end up connecting a sub.

so yeah i think they will need to do better. i think im definitely going to push for them to ditch the RCAs and swap the amp for one with speaker level inputs. im sure i will need to pay more but i need this to be done right.

= 220 Watts RMS...
that amp can only drive 4x100W RMS @ 4Ohms which & will peak at 200W ...so the clipping was probably a result of that...

I haven't messed with car stereos in over 10 years ...so my memory is a little foggy on how the math works .

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

So it should be able to handle those speakers. But like you, it's been over a decade since I installed an amp

With everything being integrated these days finding a line level signal from the factory head unit (or even doing a speaker level conversion to line level) can be funky. That said, this shop sounds like they did some janky wiring work.

and that 5th dedicated channel for the sub.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

return that amp if you can....
One reason I just stopped bothering with stereos and newer cars is that they fcked the game up with the way the headunits are now the brains of of the car...Audio, Alarm, HVAC, etc. all rely on circuitry within the factory head units. You pretty much have to disconnect all the speakers from the head unit, figure out a way to recoup the speaker leads and direct them INTO your amplifier via Line-In inputs and hope and prey that the signal is strong enough for your amp to process. So many new cars have auxillary amplifiers tucked away somewhere else that you don't even know about because the head units aren't delivering the juice to get the speakers thumping...

To do this RIGHT you, or your shop, needs to know a few things:
-Where to get the sound signal from the head unit in order to feed it into the new amplifier.
-Determine if the head unit is sending basic F/R & L/R channels OR if it's more complex system of Front/Rear/Left/Right/High/Low/High/Low ... That's because most cars ship with min. 6 speaker systems now adays I assume....

You'll THEN need to have an amp that can accept Line-Level inputs...NOT RCA inputs. RCA Inputs are for head units that have a Pre-Amp output...if you don't have that...then you need to buy a PreAmp on your own to connect & convert those line-level outputs from the head unit to....

THEN...you'll want an amp that matches the number of channels you're trying to drive (ie 4-channel, 6 channel) They used to have single amps that could handle and separate the bass output for subwoofers and still drive your mids & highs.... not sure if something like that is still on the market or not.

It just gets real deep my dude...
I feel like a GOOD shop would know all this stuff because it's pretty basic level Car Stereo 101.... I'm really worried that your shop doesn't appear to have the chops



"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

yes, everything youre saying makes sense lol

based on the info i found on hyundai forums this model does not have an external factory amp. they should be able to tap into the speaker connections to send the signal to the amp and back to the speakers. at least thats how i understand it.

i was definitely trying to get an amp with speaker level inputs but the shop kept insisting on using LOC, even if the amp had speaker level inputs. they said it would sound better. doesnt make sense.

unfortunately the other shops seemed to be worse. this shop has two owners. the one i was dealing with definitely seemed to not know much. the other guy knew stuff but was still backing up the other guy and looking for ways to justify what he wanted to do.

i just did a chat with crutchfield. i wish i had just ordered their recommended parts and found someone to install them or figure out the install on my own. the guy was really helpful, not even trying to sell me anything lol. he was trying to understand what the shop did. he thinks they did the single line out converter, which definitely seems like it. so i wouldnt have the fade from front to rear which whatever. he did recommend a 6 channel loc...$200. he thinks theres probably a faulty connection. i would imagine its the right channel theyre not using anymore.

in theory im in the return window for everything but will they just connect everything back how it was?? would i trust they connected everything okay?? i think im going to try to talk to the other owner and have him be upfront with me and whats going on and what needs to be done. if im not confident in their solution i might just push to get a refund. maybe keep the sub but im definitely concerned about everything else and think i might need to get it all swapped out.

>yes, everything youre saying makes sense lol
>
>based on the info i found on hyundai forums this model does
>not have an external factory amp. they should be able to tap
>into the speaker connections to send the signal to the amp and
>back to the speakers. at least thats how i understand it.
>
>i was definitely trying to get an amp with speaker level
>inputs but the shop kept insisting on using LOC, even if the
>amp had speaker level inputs. they said it would sound better.
>doesnt make sense.

LOC gives "cleaner" sound....but that's typically assuming it's directly FROM the head unit because it'd likely be soldered connection internally. When you start adding it down line then you're at the mercy of the quality of the speaker wires you're tapping into. So with that said...LOC is only good if your head unit has them...but if not, you're better off getting an amp that has line-level inputs IMO.

>unfortunately the other shops seemed to be worse. this shop
>has two owners. the one i was dealing with definitely seemed
>to not know much. the other guy knew stuff but was still
>backing up the other guy and looking for ways to justify what
>he wanted to do.
>
>i just did a chat with crutchfield. i wish i had just ordered
>their recommended parts and found someone to install them or
>figure out the install on my own. the guy was really helpful,
>not even trying to sell me anything lol. he was trying to
>understand what the shop did. he thinks they did the single
>line out converter, which definitely seems like it. so i
>wouldnt have the fade from front to rear which whatever. he
>did recommend a 6 channel loc...$200. he thinks theres
>probably a faulty connection. i would imagine its the right
>channel theyre not using anymore.

Crutchfield has NEVER steered me wrong. I was buying stuff from them in the 1990's before the internet was even a thing lol. I'd call them up and talk and always got solid advice. Matter of fact, majority of what I know I learned from them. A 6 Channel is ideal if you have a 6 speaker system...if you have a 4 speaker system you could go with a 5 channel amp.


>in theory im in the return window for everything but will they
>just connect everything back how it was?? would i trust they
>connected everything okay?? i think im going to try to talk to
>the other owner and have him be upfront with me and whats
>going on and what needs to be done. if im not confident in
>their solution i might just push to get a refund. maybe keep
>the sub but im definitely concerned about everything else and
>think i might need to get it all swapped out.

I think you can keep the speakers & the sub. They're fine. The amp and the wiring is the weak point... You just need a new amp... and go ahead and take a Saturday off to DIY. Hell....I wouldn't even go back to that shop and have them put it back like it was, they might screw something up more. Hopefully you can trace everything back and see where they spliced into the system. You'll learn a lot along the way AND be confident that it was done right.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

im going to call them in a bit to ask them why there is no right audio. why arent they using that channel. theyll probably just tell me to take it in.

do you think getting a 5 channel amp is better than a 4 channel and a mono? if i add a mono amp and keep the current one for the speakers how do i power the mono one? do i need to run another power cable from the battery? do i need something between the factory unit and the amps?

i definitely feel more encouraged to do this on my own. i dont know if i need to buy equipment to check for distortion or just do it by ear. i am not looking forward to doing work during this heat and it will only get worse.

i probably threw some money down the drain with their install fees and whatever equipment i dont use.

>im going to call them in a bit to ask them why there is no
>right audio. why arent they using that channel. theyll
>probably just tell me to take it in.
>
>do you think getting a 5 channel amp is better than a 4
>channel and a mono? if i add a mono amp and keep the current
>one for the speakers how do i power the mono one? do i need to
>run another power cable from the battery? do i need something
>between the factory unit and the amps?

I like the idea of taking up as little space as possible personally....Hell...my last aftermarket system I just used a powered subwoofer and called it a day...I actually miss that setup.
I think a 5 channel is the better move because #1 you'll only have to run extra power lead to one device & #2 less wires in general. You'll need a signal wire from the factory unit that tells the amp when to turn on and turn off. Sometimes called a "Remote lead" or something like that. That's what will prevent you from draining your battery while the car isn't running. Used to be that you could bring that from the cigarette lighter, but most cars don't have those anymore...Crutchfield may be able to advise on that though.

>i definitely feel more encouraged to do this on my own. i dont
>know if i need to buy equipment to check for distortion or
>just do it by ear. i am not looking forward to doing work
>during this heat and it will only get worse.

Man, let you're ears do their job on THAT front lol. You'll know if it sounds good or janky. Def. want to beat the heat.

>i probably threw some money down the drain with their install
>fees and whatever equipment i dont use.

Charge it to the game.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

so i tried calling on my way to lunch, no answer. okay maybe theyre all out at lunch time, what ever. i called again on my way back from lunch. no answer. to make things worse i started having the same problems on my way back. since its all running of the left channel all audio basically gives out. i can feel really faint audio. it stayed like that for a while before it came back.

i was going to try to call again when i got back in but shortly after my office mate returned for lunch. shes constantly on the phone so i guess whats the problem right?

im debating asking for a couple of hours PTO and just drive over there. no reason they should be closed. im also tempted to call from another number especially if they dont answer if i call later.

i forgot to mention they scraped up my dash when they did the install and they just shrugged it off. im not one for reviews but i think i need to warn folks.

Man. Take it back to the dealership and let them fix that shit. Try to find a guy who works there and hit him with the sob story.

or just get the factory shit back.

Can’t be riding around with no sounds in a new whip.

what do you mean? have them fix the dashboard or the wiring?

the place picked up when i call again. they played dumb, i dont know why it would do that. bring it back. i definitely want to leave early today to give them their last chance at fixing this.

i dont know what the dealership would do. first time i have a new car.

but if you can get it fixed by that shop do it.

i went back to the shop yesterday. he was telling me it was probably a bad rca and that theres was no right channel because thats how they fixed it the first night. i told him thats not really a fix. he said he would replace the RCA and only charge me for the actual cable.

i was not happy about that. i told him to make sure they checked the connections to make sure there was nothing loose or make sure the LOC wasnt bad. he said those LOCs are the best, never fail.

so once they got to working on it he came back and said the LOC was bad. he would replace it at no charge and no need for new RCAs. alright. i told him i want to make sure there is stereo sound. he also asked if i wanted the bass knob installed, they could test if it actually works and theyll install it free of charge so i said sure. i had brought it along incase i decided to swap out the amp.

after a looooong while he tells me i had a choice. keep the thumping bass but no stereo sound or have stereo sound and lose some bass. unless i get another LOC then i can have stereo sound and keep the thumping bass. so i asked to hear it with stereo sound then compare with the thumping bass.

to be honest the bass sounded good with stereo sound. then he switched to the thumping bass and it was definitely at another level.

if i wanted the LOC i would have to pay for it and the RCAs but they wouldnt charge an install fee. i decided to go with it just to have more flexibility. the price wasnt horrible.

so they installed it and installed the bass knob which does turn down only the bass. to be honest it doesnt sound as good as before. it was so late last night that i couldnt tell if it was any different. i needed to test it on my own. there is stereo sound but overall it sounds muddy now and the bass is not hitting as hard.

when i went back to test the stereo vs thumping option i asked the guy installing it how he would connect the second LOC. as far as i understood they were going to connect wires from the head unit that right now were not connected to anything else. so the first LOC was only running from the output of one left and right channel. i dont know if thats right or not. so in theory i have more output from the head unit going to the amp. i would expect a fuller sound right?

right now i have the following doubts

can this amp be bridged? i dont have the user manual and i dont know if i will be able to get it. i tried reaching out to the manufacturer but no response yet. what happens if you try to bridge an amp that is not bridgeable? do you just not get double the power output?

im thinking of getting a higher quality line out converter like the one crutchfield recommended and installing it myself.

im also thinking of getting a mono amp and run the speakers off the existing amp. i dont know if that means adding another LOC and set of RCAs or if i can split the rear RCAs.

i want to understand what signals the head unit outputs and make sure they are feeding where they need to.

i might connect the factory twitters and see how that sounds.

basically i want to figure out how much of these parts are worth keeping and what to get additionally.

before i do that though....

is the amp tuned correctly? i took a look at it and the settings look funky to me but without the manual i dont know if what im seeing is what i think it is.

the way the amp inputs are is ch1 and ch 2 are on the left and ch 3 & 4 are on the right. to the right of ch 1 & 2 is a bass boost, gain, lp/hp filter and x-over, then another set of those to the right before the inputs of ch 3 & 4.

i figure the ones closer to ch 1 & 2 are for the speakers, the others are for the sub.

this is where im confused.

the speaker channels have the bass boost set to 12dB. it has 12dB 0 6dB positions and the switch is sitting in the 12dB position. that doesnt seem right. the gain looks to be a bit past the halfway mark. those controls are wack because its just a line on a circle you dont know which end of the line indicates where its set but i think it makes sense that its the one pointing a bit past the halfway mark because the other end points to below the min. the HP filter is set the x-over is either 75% of the way between 50Hz and 250Hz or right above 50Hz. it would make sense for it to be right around the 50Hz right? from what i have seen it should be in the 80Hz range.

the bass channels have the bass boost set to 12dB, it was set to 6dB before yesterday. I checked and took a pic of it yesterday before going to the shop. the gain is set to around 40% or almost at max. I cant tell. im guessing if i try to turn it it would stop relatively quickly if it is set to almost max. the LP filter is on and x-over is set to like 45% or at 250Hz. this doesnt make sense. from what i understand they should both be set to 80Hz.

i have a feeling i can get it sounding much better by adjusting these settings.

imprinted beneath the two poles that are the bridgeable poles. There'd also be an impedance rating.
When I googled your amp yesterday I couldn't find any clear photos of the poles to see, nor could I find any specs on it.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

its kind of hard to get a good view of the area where the markings would be but from what i can see there are no markings saying it is bridgeable. i took a picture of the area and it would of shown there.

i took off the bass boost from the speaker channels before i drove home. it sounded pretty good.

then before i drove back....i messed up lol. i turned off the bass boost on the sub channels and also adjusted the crossovers visually to be around 80? somewhere in that range. pretty much all bass was gone.

when i got to work i turned the bass boost on to 6dB and it sounded much better but not as good as before i messed with it. i was already late so i didnt bother trying 12dB. i should have fiddled with only the bass boost before messing with the cross overs. i did take a picture of the amp before messing with it so i should be able to get it back where it was but more so i think i need to spend more time tuning it. i will probably do that tonight.

im guessing the amp is not bridgeable and thats why they were using the bass boost. if it is not bridgeable then i definitely need a different amp. or keep this one and add the mono amp. can i just use a splitter on the RCAs to get the signal to the mono amp?

its a 2 channel and it says max power bridged. its the only one on their website that mentions bridged.

https://www.nemesisaudio.com/na-2500x2/

i would guess mine is not.

found someone that sold one and they posted a picture of the specs in the box and it does say max power bridgeable

https://offerup.com/item/detail/611612514/

4 door speakers + the sub? Or am I reading this wrong? If I'm not, that's not gonna work well...

First problem: not enough output. Each channel goes to a speaker. If you run the sub, it has to split power with a set of speakers (likely the rears). It can likely be done, but the results are less than ideal and could stress the amp. From your description, if they are running 4 speakers on 2 channels and the sub on the other two, it's not going to sound great without some serious tuning.

Second problem: Weird inputs. You'll need each speaker level input from the head unit to the amp, and then from the amp to the speaker. Ideally, you run line level (from the RCA cable) from the head unit to the amp, and then speaker wire from the amp to the speakers. Factory head units being integrated like they are now, you end up with some frequencies being shuffled between the speakers (they may have the sound set for more of the mids and highs to be sent to the front speakers, and more bass to the rear). If you're splitting the front outupt from the head unit to all 4 speakers running on 2 powered channels...yeah, not ideal

You may end up having to choose to lose a set of speakers (front or rear) and running the amp that way (2 front speakers to the front output of the amp, bridged rear channels for the sub) or keep the 4 channel for the speakers and get a separate amp for the sub (or a powered amp). When I had my setup I had a 5 channel (4+1) amp to run my component speakers in the door and the 10" sub in the trunk. It definitely knocked.

Whatever you choose to do, I wouldn't go back to that shop...

in theory it would be 6 speakers as there are separate factory tweeters but i have those disconnected.

current set up is 2 sets of RCAs running from the head unit. the front RCA is for all 4 speakers the rear is for the SUB. from the amp there is one set of speaker wires per channel, a positive and negative for channel 1 and pos neg for ch 2. the rear speakers are definitely outputting sound so i dont know if they left those directly connected to the head unit or spliced together the front and rear speakers behind the head unit from the wires coming from the amp. then theres a speaker wire from the negative ch 4 and one from the pos ch 3 going to the sub.

i spent some time trying to tune it yesterday. they had the sub gain maxed out. i turned it a bit down. without bass boost it sounds like there is no sub. with 6dB it sounds like an okay sub. with 12dB it knocks. i thought i had tuned it pretty well. i adjusted the cross overs and everything seemed to sound good. this morning i put the rear seat back up and on my drive to work there was a lot of rattle.

i might be able to get this sounding pretty good as is but i am not comfortable with the set up. im definitely thinking of ordering some parts and installing on my own. probably going mono amp for the sub, keeping the current amp for the speakers and looking at my options for interfacing from the head unit to the amps.

supposedly i can return the amp and get $170 back but i wont be surprised if they lower the refund amount if i actually try to do it.

this is what crutchfield had originally recommended. im tempted to just get both of these and ditch the amp.

for the speakers
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTP445U/Alpine-KTP-445U-Power-Pack.html

mono amp
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRVM500/Alpine-MRV-M500.html

even if i only get $150 for the amp from that shop i think its fine. i dont want to let them touch my car anymore so i think i would call them to see what they need to refund me the amp. best case would be they only need the amp itself, maybe the bass knob. if they tell me they need to uninstall it then ill probably just look to sell it on craigslist. im running out of time and im going to be out of town until next wednesday so i need to figure out what to do soon.