My god, I've lost all motivation to finish my project. It took all I had to muster up enough strength to rewatch your videos. I'm seriously thankful for your amazingly detailed how to vids.
"The pinout is NOT oriented how you would be looking at the cable, but how it's plugged in..." This is the level of detail I like. Most people would have just glossed over. I bought a 2020 WRX today and I'm ordering the Alpine hardware this evening. I'll be using your videos exclusively to upgrade the crap sound system in the new WRX. Massive thank you for this series of videos.
Yestrday I added to my car audio system KTA-450 and replaced speakers with Alpine series SPG17c2 caxial to the rear side and Hertz Dieci 165.3 2 system on front side. Wiring was done the same way as You did it. Huge difference in sound. Just wanna say that this work takes time to do it as nice as You did it but it's worth of time. Nice tutorial , congrats on Your work!
Excellent video, great job! Very thorough. A few points and a suggestion (click "Read more" to see my entire reply here): * The Metra 70-1761 harness (and equivalents from other harness manufacturers) omits the illumination(-) (minus) lead. That lead is required for the OEM head unit's illumination and dimming to work properly. * To anyone who installs both the Alpine KTP-445U "Power Pack" amp (or an equivalent) plus a powered subwoofer or amp + sub: Feed the sub amp from the HU's outputs, *not* from the KTP-445U's outputs. Yes, you can feed both amps from the HU's outputs. * With the OEM Clarion HU models that Subaru has used in previous years, the HU's rear channel outputs attenuate bass frequencies as you raise the volume. That made the front channels the better choice to feed to a subwoofer. Subaru's OEM accessory subwoofers do that. I suspect that the 2016-up OEM Clarion HU models still have that issue. In the 2008-2014 Impreza, WRX, and STi OEM Clarion HUs, there was a hidden menu option that you could change to disable that characteristic, significantly flattening the EQ. If the base level 2016-2018 OEM Clarion HUs still have that feature, I haven't seen anyone discover the key sequence to access that menu. The other OEM HU models (made by Fujitsu Ten, Kenwood, and Harman) do not have that feature (or at least nobody has found similar secret menus in those). * Suggestion to @OP: The links in your description all point to this same YT video. Where possible, it would be very helpful if you could edit those links to include the timestamp so that they jump to that point in the video. Just append "?t=nnn" where nnn is the number of seconds (e.g,. "View of Connectors Behind HU" at 11:49 is ?t=709).
Best tutorial on RU-vid. I just installed the power pack in my 16 STi. Used the 2 metra brakeout harnesses, wired it up on my desk with this video and just plugged everything in and was done. Thank you.
Attempting to install Alpine’s KTA-FW30. This video is most thorough, comprehensive, detailed & helpful. My HU is aftermarket, a Sony XAV 9500-ES, so I’m looking at: 1) Running speaker wires & tapping into the stock speaker wires. 2) Running the power wire 3) Running the ground wire. 4) Running the trigger wire for “ ON “ & “ OFF “ 5) Running 4 channel RCA’s 6) Securing the amp beneath the hatch subfloor of my 19’ Civic Hatch.
I have a upcoming appointment on January 6th to have the same amp installed on my 2022 Kia K5. They had unit obviously sucks on it, so I know this will give me the sound I want. I'll have a video posted same day.
I've watched of couple of your videos and I'm impressed with how you plan and explain the particular reason for why and how you're doing something. Your videos are well thought out and one can tell that you've put some thought into the subject before you record it. I'm curious as to what you do for a living, only because of your broad knowledge and use of CAD software. I used to have these tech skills but as they say, if you don't use it you lose it. So having said that, my powers of recall have been woken up! Thanks for a great and complete video.
I've been waiting for you to upload this video! Honestly an awesome guide, especially the segment where you went over the pinouts in Photoshop. This will be a huge help for all of us who want to make our stock HUs really wake up. Thanks man and keep up the good work.
Thank you...for 2 days I've been looking for a great video. By far best explaining and description of each step. I have the same as you...dont know about installing, but your walk thru is great...happy holidays
I ended up buying the Kicker speakers and tweeters along with the Alpine 445U that you used in this video. I also bought the breakout kit from ae64.com and followed his instructions to wire it in. I am very impressed with how the car sounds now. It was marginally better after getting the Kicker speakers, but the Kicker + the Alpine, considering how easy it was to install, was definitely worth the money. Thank you very much for making this tutorial along with your reviews. My 2018 WRX sounds like a completely different car now.
I just did this exact install using the ae64 breakout harness. Is it normal to hear a quiet pop sound in the front door speakers when the stereo completely shuts off? When I turn off the stereo and immediately turn it back on I also get the same pop noise. Any ideas?
E X C E L L E N T, step-by-step tutorial! Great job, practical and professional. Terrific technical touch. Agreed, the Alpine KTP-445U is a nice, compact, portable unit to enhance a vehicle's sound system w/out going to an exaggerated or extreme bass; just a truly improved quality and performance. Much obliged, Mr. B&S. God bless.
Thank you so much man. I just purchased a 2014 Subaru Legacy and really wanted to add an amp and speakers with a stock head unit but wasn't a fan of tapping into the oem wires.
Great vid. I've been thinking about the mini alpine amp but I didn't want to splice the factory harness so I really appreciate the tip on the breakout harness. I ended up ordering the 2 metra harnesses on Amazon and am going to make my own. Saved about $30 from the breakout
Nice video. You’re so clear and concise as well as organized that I’d swear you’re military. I’ve done a complete sound system on my 13 wrx hatch but I would love to do my 18wrx. Will follow your video to a “t”. Parts and all. Thank you.
Very thorough video, well done! I came here specifically to see what you did with the splicing the powerpack into the factory wiring. I had been considering doing it this way, especially because I already have the breakout wiring for the factory sub. Seeing how this looks, and what a pain it must have been to do, I think I'll order a separate breakout kit... saves a big headache, and is re-sellable.
I set the gain about where yours is but I just turned up the gain until I could hear hissing from the speakers then turned it back down a little. It sounds great now.
Nice video. I’m planning to have the power pack and a Kenwood powered subwoofer installed in my car soon. Although I’ve watched your video, I still feel that I’d be better off letting a shop do the install. Still I like understanding the entire process, including setting the gain on the amp.
Hey man, just started watching. At @1:45 you mention running the amp power cable on the same side of the car as the RCAs/remote wire. This will cause interference, that could make your speakers cut out, and cause distortion. I did this very same thing when I ran my wires. Looked it up, and sure enough. I had to re-run the power cable on a separate side of the car as the RCA/remote wires. Good luck, man.
Confused. Is the Alpine not enough? Why add a second amp? Then why not a single more powerful one instead of 2? Thank you for the video. Never mind. You just answered in the video.
why move your amp from your trunk to under seat? perhaps to be closer to the ALPINE KTP-445U power amp pack? I'm installing in my 1998 subaru forrester (inherited from my dad) & and perhaps an under seat install has advantages. after this subaru install, I'll tackle my 2014 mustang.
Great video. I I have been thinking about going this exact path with my system. I don’t really want to lose functionality with the USB and having to move a mic around. So I’m thinking about going your pre head unit set up. Stock HU Kicker door and tweeter upgrade Kicker OEM powered sub My main question for you is what made you go with this Amp over others, and do you think for the everyday person my set up plan (with the Amp) would be good. Love your videos keep up the great detailed work my dude!
I hooked the 12vt and acc wires to the same as the head unit, and did the same with the ground-hooked to the stereo. Is that why my cd player keeps throwing an error 11 on a pioneer?
Wow, that was a great detailed video! Thanks for sharing! Question for you, I have ALPINE HEAD UNIT IWE-W957HD installed in my car with TWO 8inch ALPINE PWE-S8 Subwoofer. So far sounds very good but like you I do not want loud I want great quality sound. Considering i already have a nice setup.. do you think by adding this AMP will it make a big difference?
I thought the whole point of the Alpine is not having to do a regular amp. This looks complicated. I think I'd just start with the Alpine for the speakers and do a powered sub. I have a 2012 Ford Focus SE which has terrible sound. I might get a new head unit, but I might sell the car in the next year so so far speakers are my only upgrade. My other car, a Rav4 has the JBL system, which is plenty loud, and for that system just dampening material for my sub, which Toyota stuck in the rear door. I might move the sub if i can figure out how and where to move it to.
with much respect- about needing more power to your door speakers. would not an amp upgrade be best, like the JL Audio $830 XD1000/5v2: 5 Channel is 100 rms watts x4 continuous or their XD700/5v2: 5 Channel 75w rms x 4 $630 (took a chance & bought mine on ebay for $350). that way you might be done with an amp upgrade for 15 years. Unfortunately, I have never met anyone here in NJ into car & home stereo like me and you, so I have no comparison to my 75 watt rms to the door speaker and no comparison to an amp with more than my 75 watt rms. so why not upgrade your amp now then spend your funds on a separate subwoofer amp, like my kenwood sub amp Kenwood Excelon XR600-1, 600 x1 rms, $230 $170 used on ebay. Your amp at 45 rms is underpowered but you do show a good sound improvement. perhaps your work did bring your system closer to a good 75 rms system. Since I've had my amp for 12 years, perhaps you should do an amp upgrade & it would be best, in the long term. I suspect, you, like me, might keep your car for 15 years, so an upgrade to a 75 w rms amp & separate subwoofer amp is probably in your future. Since I'm older now, all that bending, removing seats, etc is not an easy option for me. I see your $110 ALPINE KTP-445U power pack amplifier is rated 45 w rms. so perhaps your 45 rms amp & your 45 rms alpine is better than an amp upgrade to 75rms, since your at a total 90 rms for just $110. so I see a subwoover amp upgrade in your future. I never knew you could spend only $110 to improve system sound. bravo, much respect.
Great video with very detailed instructions. One thing that is still a little unclear is how exactly you ran power and ground to the Alpine amp. It looks like you just ran the wires into the rockford amp. Is that safe? Does that add any additional load to the rockford amp? Do you have to use a fuse from the rockford amp to the alpine? Did you ground the alpine to the negative terminal of the rockford amp as opposed to the grounding point on the vehicle? I am installing almost the exact same setup, and this seems very convenient, but I just want to make sure it is safe and if there are any other considerations that need to be made when using this wiring configuration.
Hi awesome vid...just bought this power pack. Question..which remote wire do u connect . Not looming to yurn on another amp..so white and blue wire from rca cable side..or white and blue from speaker and power wire side
Awesome informative video! I have an 88 Nissan Z. I bought this amp to first run on a pair of components for front and coaxials for rear. But I purchased a pair of 6.5 subwoofers to use vs the cos. You think this little Alpine is strong enough to use only, (for all 4, 6 with the tweeters) speakers? The deck and comps. are all Alpine, the subs are Pyle PLPW6D 6.5s.
I notice that you didn't replace any of the OEM speaker wire... is there any concern that you should move up to a bigger wire with the higher power? Do you have any idea what gauge the OEM speaker wire is? I'm looking to do a similar install but with a 60 W/channel amp. I have already replaced my speakers and noticed that trying to run new speaker wire in my 2015 WRX is going to be a real pain
trying to learn what gauge oem speaker wire is next to impossible, for me, so far. in my home stereo hobby, thicker gauge speaker wire , like 12 awg & using ofc wire(oxygen free core) similiar to knukonnects or shyhigh wire) is best, with less popping and crackle, less feedback. oem wire looks like 22 or 24 gauge, real thin. in fact, even technical support for Knukonnects refused to tell me what gauge the rca connects were in their $71 amp install kit- he was not a manager. ordinarily, I love Knukonnects wire for the price, but I always like more knowledge vs less info.
I added mine today thanks to your video and your clear explanation about wiring and diagrams thanks a lot! But I am having a little bit of trouble now, speakers sound really good (upgraded kicker speakers) but I get a significant amount of white noise. My alpine gains are set at about maybe 5% capacity? (Barely turned it a little) how can I mute that hiss noise that drives me insane whenever I want to cruise without the music playing. Also, whenever I play a song with bass at volume 35-38 every time the bass comes on the sound turns off and on, sometimes to the point I have to turn off and on the power to reset. Got the lc2i and amp to run the kicker procompC but haven’t installed yet. Thanks for your videos and clear knowledge.
yes, please let us know. I have found no youtube videos addressing white noise which I suspect relates usually to the ground and then perhaps also to the wire quality. lately, since I keep my cars 10 or more years, I try to spend more funds on better wire (Knukonnect, skyhigh) & equipment(JL Audio) , but lack better knowledge for doing a better install. thus these videos are so helpful to me.
Great video, thanks! Could you or someone please point me in the right direction if I’m installing the factory kicker subwoofer and the alpine in-line amp?
Really nice video man, just a quick question, I have a power pack that I am trying to install, and like you I have a sub and an amp already installed, Im wiring both to the stock head unit, my sub amp has a high level input like yours, so the speaker wires are already connected to the sub amp, is it cool if I tap that wire for the alpine power pack too or is there another way to run it?
Great video and thanks for posting. Question for you. I have a 2018 WRX CVT with the same stock 7" head unit. I had the alpine power pack installed (by bestbuy) and found that although the volume increased a lot and there is better sound clarity, the bass is almost non-existent even when ratcheting up the low frequencies all the way, while the highs are... way high sounding. Kept the stock speakers. Do you think this could be an issue with how the amp was installed? Not looking for big bass like from a sub of course, just normal full range. Thanks.
Hi, great video, thanks! I'm installing my KTP Alpine in a Suzuki Swift 1.25 GLS along with a Pioneer AVH-A205BT double don dvd. I wanted to connect both of them to the power cable in the main vehicle harness, but I realized that I can't, because the Suzuki supplies 15Amp. of power through it: The pioneer max. power consumption is 10 Amp. according to the manual (is that possible?) and the Alpine KTP needs 15 Amp. What would you recommend of doing with the power cable of the Alpine in such case? Should I run a separated power cable+15A fuse directly from the cars' battery? And what about the Alpine ground?- I have thought that I could still attach it to the ground of the car harness, along with the Pioneer ground as well. Thanks!
So I just installed the kicker door speakers and I’m NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL with the bass. Honestly, the factory speakers had better sounding lows! Is this amp worth all that work (you amazingly showed!)? Or would I get similar lows from the $500 kicker sub?
Just got one off eBay. I’ll get the connected harness and go for it. Thanks! Great and detailed video. One question, during the gain tuning, after you lower the volume of the HU until it doesn’t distorce anymore and start working on the gain, how do you leave the volume of the HU? Still really high just before clipping? Or lower it at the minimum and work on the gain? In other words how is the volume set as you tune the gain? Thank you.
Boost & Shutter thanks! One more thing. I’m about to order the harness, what’s the make and model of the OEM HU? I have the sam on my 18 WRX but I’m at work now.
So I have pioneer 2660 HU and wanted to install the KTA- 450 but later on I want to add a amp and sub. Would it be a good idea to do a fuse tap like you did for the camera to power the 4 channel power pack to put it behind the stereo and adding an amp and sub later under the seat? Honestly just don’t wanna run a bunch of wires
Would all of these connections be "T" connections so that the amp is essentially working in conjunction with the factory amp(just head unit I believe)? Assuming you are connecting directly to the head unit power and such.
That perfectly makes sense now, just out of curiosity, I have read that some people have issues with a hum or buzz with this amp. Have you noticed that at all?
Thank you so much for this video. It helped me a lot. I have installed the same amp and wasn't aware of the switching requirement between RCA and Speakers, I based my installation on the Crutchfield guy video, and he explained the option of trimming the REA's for direct connection to the speakers’ wires but nothing about switching the configuration (RCA to Speakers). I almost damaged the apm, then I found your video… I still have one issue not solved. As per the Crutchfield guy video, I do not need to connect the blue wire on OEM head units. I doesn’t work for me. My amp stays ON after turning off the car switch. Do you have any idea about that. Do I need to connect the blue wire to a switched hot wire? Thanks..
Late but yup you got it! Switched hot Your head unit is not putting out the required voltage to trigger it on that’s why it isn’t working so yes hooking up to a switches 12v will fix that
Nice helpful video.... Pioneer has an equivalent amp GM-D1004... any reason you went Alpine? Does it make “pop” sound when turning ON or OFF? I have a Forester 2017 with 6 Kicker speaker upgrade and Pioneer 4200NEX... I am considering adding one of these amps...
I had a 2013 f150 and I'm about to do the same setup as this one everything from the Rockford fosgate amp to the audiocontrol LC2I and this alpine amp. My question is this amp comes with 2 pairs of RCA the Rockford fosgate come with one RCA output and the LC2I got a main output can I used does RCA to hook up the alpine amp or with it better just to cut them and run the wire to the radio
I really hope you reply, but I have one question. Since I have to run my power to the battery, do I have to add another fuse to the cable coming from the battery to the power pack or is the fuse the power pack has in the cable enough?
@@akqjtn one more thing, I dont necessarily need to use a 8gauge wire for power right? I can use something about the same as the yellow one with the fuse on the amp?
@@akqjtn Ok sorry I'm just trying to figure this out before I buy so it this giving me more power like any other amp or is it just giving me the same amount as my radio is pushing already ?
@@akqjtn thanks good to know right now I have factory speakers and planning to buy some either jbl's or kicker 6x9s but didn't want to buy a amp and run wires I want to keep it simple with just 6x9's so sounds like this will be just what I need thanks boss you are appreciated
Hey, I installed an amp in the same location as you. Did you ever have any grounding issues or problems with noise? I grounded mine exactly where you did and I'm having alot of problems with noise and popping of the speakers. The noise doesn't follow engine rpm. I'm running out of ideas and was hoping you could provide some more info on how everything worked out for you.
I have an alpine 5-channel PDR-V75. It is pushing 2 6.5" alpine coaxials, and 2 6.5 alpine components with the tweeters up in the dash. Also pushing a 12" alpine type r. I'm not sure of the model numbers. I know the amp matched their power requirements perfectly. I also spent a good while tuning the amp, my gains are just barely above nominal. I've even tried chocking them back to see if it'd fix anything. I have speaker level inputs running into the amp. At one point I disconnected speaker level inputs, plugged in an aux to rca adapter and used my phone to play music. It worked great and all of the noise was gone. Then all of a sudden the noise came back but worse. I screwed the amp down to a board under the carpet just like you did. I'm wondering if any of the screws went through and is touching sheet metal and causing a ground loop. It's driving me insane. Figured I'd check with you to see if you had any issues with that ground because I grounded it just like you did.
