Amp Wiring - Do I Have This Right?

[XanRules]

Hi folks,

I've gone through the old threads and just want to make sure I fundamentally understand the process here as I have never wired an amp up in a car. The amp in question is a Kicker KEY 4-channel amp which I will be putting under one of the seats. The manual is here.

So, I run the power wire from the amp with the fuse in-line under the hood. The manual shows to ground to the battery, which should be grounded to bare metal. Assuming my battery is already grounded to bare metal, I do not need to run another ground wire at this time. Yes?

I then run the power wire into the cabin and route it to the power supply of the amp. I will likely need to use some sort of adapter or find another clever way to connect the 10G power wire to the 14G wire of the wiring harness. I then ground the amp to a bare chassis ground. Still correct so far?

I then tap into the speaker wires in the body, matching the colors on the wiring harness to these colors in this thread. I can get to these either from pulling out the stock head unit as shown in @Fiestig 's post here, or I can hunt around in the B-Pillar for the rears and the footwells for the fronts. Still correct?

If all of the above is correct, my last question is, where do I tap into for the "Remote Turn-On?"

Cheers!

 

[Grsemky]

I installed the line out converter behind the head unit and grabbed the keyed power source, for remote, from the same stereo harness... As far as the power cable, you can use the screw posts on the battery to attach your fuse and send power to the amp.

 

[XanRules]

Howdy!

I am not installing an LOC as this accepts high-level inputs and therefore doesn't require an LOC (per the folks at Crutchfield).

Understood on the power wire, I'm just going to do a step-down butt connector on the 14g wire connected to the amp. My question is what to do with the ground wire connected to the amp - just stick a ring terminal on it and stick it on a bare metal bolt somewhere?

Which wire did you splice into for the remote turn on, like, do you remember which color?

 

[Grsemky]

Howdy!

I am not installing an LOC as this accepts high-level inputs and therefore doesn't require an LOC (per the folks at Crutchfield).

Understood on the power wire, I'm just going to do a step-down butt connector on the 14g wire connected to the amp. My question is what to do with the ground wire connected to the amp - just stick a ring terminal on it and stick it on a bare metal bolt somewhere?

Which wire did you splice into for the remote turn on, like, do you remember which color?

I would run the power cable straight from the battery, the amp draw will heat the 14g wire and lead to more problems, not to mention that harness will be fused at a much lower level... The ground is fine to stick a a ring terminal on, that's what I did...

I highly recommend using a separate loc, the signal will be clearer and you won't have to worry about the digital signal processing our factory systems use!

 

[XanRules]

Sorry, I might not be explaining this correctly. There’s a 14g wire hard-wired into the amp’s wiring harness for power, and it’s like a foot long. I am going to run a 10 gauge wire from the battery to that 14g wire and connect them.

as far as the DSP, I’ve got it turned off via ForScan and this amp has an LOC built in. Both Kicker and the folks at Crutchfield have said it’s unnecessary with this amp. Just trying to figure out which wire to splice into for the remote turn on.

 

[Grsemky]

I think it was black but not positive 🤷🏼‍♂️ I used a multimeter and cycled the ignition to verify it's only active with key on, I can pop the cowl tomorrow and check if you want, but any keyed 12v will suffice, there's quite a few throughout the loom....