What is an Amplifier Remote Turn-On Wire? 

Installing an amp today, this was the one step I missed 😂

This was the most helpful video I’ve found. Thank you so much. This was extremely detailed for people who aren’t super savvy with car stereos lol

Thank you SO MUCH for your video. After spending 6 hours trying to figure out why I didn't have and sound and after taking my radio back thinking it was a bad unit, I was able to resolve my no sound problem in 2 minutes after watching your video. THANK YOU!

nearly a decade later. this info is still helpful for head units with touch screens and phone-play. thank you

Congrats man! The video went directly to the point, but still managed to be quite detailed. Keep it up.

Excellent video! I bought my wife a Land Rover Freelander which has a factory Harmon Kardon amp under the drivers seat that I didn't even know about. I installed a new head unit and speakers as factory replacements, using the correct (and only) Metra radio wiring adapter and dash kit. Head unit powered on, no sound. There's no mention of this in Crutchfield where I bought my adapters and connectors for this install so I did some internet digging and found out there's a hidden factory amp and it's obviously not powering on now. So thanks to this video and very detailed explanation and a schematic on another site showing the remote turn on pin for the factory amp, I am going to splice an inline fuse between the remote wire coming out of the factory amp plug and the rear 12V lighter adapter that sits at the back of the center console for rear passengers so it turns on when my key is on.

I just hooked up my remote wire to the 12v cigarette plug. Works fine since the plug is only on when the car is on. Just make sure to hook it up the the + terminal(the tip)... The remote wire just tells the amp when to turn on so it doesn't drain the car battery.

Thanks for making this video! I'm using an automotive class D amplifier for non-automotive use, and the instructions with the amp just said: "Connect the REM terminal to the remote control wire from the head unit with 18 AWG wire." Well, I don't have a head unit; I just needed to know what to do with the REM to turn the stupid thing on: tie to 12V? to Ground? to one or the other through a resistor? Thanks to your tutorial, I felt confident in connecting it directly to 12V, and it came up as expected. Thanks again for supplying information the manufacturer didn't see fit to include in the stupid manual!

Great job. Clear and to the point. Very helpful. Thank you.

This is a very good video, thanks! Exactly what I needed

Allen ! Nicely done sir. I learned a lot and it's because of your work many many people like me are learning cool things . Thanks again.

This was extremely helpful

Straight to the point! Very useful!

Thanks for your awesome help! Now i can go back to installing my amp😉

Salut from Vanuatu 🇻🇺. Thank you for this video it was very helpful 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

Answered everything THANK YOU!!

Such a useful video. Thanks Guy.

this helped so much thanks !!!!

Great video, I just wanted to add, Do NOT wire your amplifiers rem to the radios 12v constant( typically the yellow wire )! this will cause your amp to be on when the car is off and drain your battery.

I’ve been looking for this video for about a year and have been holding off paying someone hundred quid for about 2 months to do it myself and save the money. Fully sorted now thanks a lot

finaly a good video that helps me THANKS!

Thank you so much finally found the reason my amp was not turning on <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="200">3:20</a> i had the remote wired to the wrong wire on the radio!

Can you split the remote turn-on wire and feed 2 amps with it? Or run one remote turn-on wire and loop it out to the second amp if it is closeby?

I was struggling to find a remote wire and hooked up to the antenna after watching this video!! Sub's are working!!!! Thank you!!!!

This count be explained better:) thank you! i have that same alpine radio on my car lol

Thanks this video helped me BIG times. X

Thanks bud was looking around for 45 min online until i fell on this and figured it out right away

VERY HELPFUL thanks!

Great VIDEO, what size crimps would i need to use say a posi-lock to tap in to a suitable cable?

Thanks for the video , it really helped me :)

Thank you very much helped me a lot :)

Do you have tutorial for intalling a kill switch to the amp?

Thank you very much soo helpful!!

Thank you this helped me out

Thank you it really help 100%

Hey, I have a quick question. I currently have 1 amp for 2 subwoofers. I want to add another amplifier for the mids and highs I will be getting soon. Will I need to run another remote turn on wire to that amp as well? Do I just split the blue/white wire into two so I have one for each amplifier? Sorry I'm new at this and I want to do it right.

Well explained!!!

Really simple to understand and straightforward video thanks mate. sending likes from Aus

thanks for the info...it makes me clear to understand about remote wire and how to determine the color of the remote wire at the back of the stereo panel...thanks a lot once again...Edgel Tm

Excellent explaination..helped me a lot.😎

Reallyyyyy helpful thank you !🙏🙏

Thanks for the video. Question... Is it possible to use an amps remote turn on wire to power other devices (splice into and wire off of the blue white wire)? I need constant power to a rear camera when the car is on and this remote wire is the only line i have run to the rear or my car.

Okay so I had a question if I have a factory amplifier and I install my aftermarket radio how would I get my factory amplifier to turn on

Great Video. I just stumbled across it. I knew there was a different way to power the amp. Took my car to an audio shop to install my sub. I was told they couldn't find the ignition wire to power the amp on my 2019 X7. Nothing against the shop. They're old-school, as they were struggling with a 20 CTS. I will do the installation once I get the wiring diagram.

hey Allyn thanks for the great video. I have been trying to narrow down the cause of 'no sound' on my Lexus LS 460 mark levinson audio system is it the same principle as this or is there any other thing that I'm missing. Its still not delivering audio. Thanks again.

Awesome thank you for your help!

My Question is. My factory radio already has subs connected to it. So do I run wire from my remote wire to the amp as well?

Dude thank you so much 😂🙌🏻

Thanks man you really helped me out

Top man , cleared up a question I had 👍

Great video bro 💪💪

Super helpful. Thank you.

hi I'm having problems installing a new cd player in my audi tt with bose it powers up but no sound any help wud be appreciated

Thank you bro, you helped me a lot!

Hey Al, If i connect the white-blue wire to the blue antenna wire and i don't listen to the radio can i go directly into the antenna 12v? or can i splice into the red ignition switch wire since it is not the constant. being that i dont have a factory amp power wire.

Right on brother.thanks

thanks helps a ton!

I have a 2008 Coupe Nissan 2.5s with the Bose system. So my AMP on wire is the Black/Pink. It doesn't turn on when I wire it to it, but when I give it a troubleshoot it turns on.(I use a test light to see if current is running and it is running current on the ground wire and remote while feeding off of the positive where the battery wire is hooked up to to be able to use the test light stick and it turns on while i have the metal test light stick on the remote) I have tried on others like the ignition and other wires and it turns on but no sound. It only gives sound to the AMP ON wire but it doesn't turn on unless I give it a boost from the fuse testing stick. I need help.

Thank you for a very nice and clarifying video.

hey buddy thanks for the helping video but i dont have Blue and white wire on my car tape i have blue wire which is for auto-antenna written on it please help

great video

are you able to use the speaker positive as remote turn on? ive seen a few guys use it to connect to kicker hideaway amp/sub as the remote in and it work? Im asking as i will be using a Line out converter and want to use the positive speaker wire as the remote turn on for it. Thank you

so 12v from ign is ok but is there a required or too much amps to turn on remote ?

hey I would like to so should I run speaker wires aftermarket amp that I have hooked up to my car to the aftermarket radio

So does the remote (blue white stripe) have to hook to the harness then to your aftermarket amp or just skip the hook to the harness to the amp?

You da best bro that's what I was missing

thank you sir

So if run the remote wire from amp to the blue and white from the harness, what do i do with the blue and white cable on the harness adapter? Do i use some special connector rather than a but cap?

Very good video 👌🏽

I have a stock stereo, can i wire the remote wire in with the yellow power cable of the stereo? Thank you so much.

you guys rock...

If I'm trying to use my Ford Sync system and add an aftermarket amplifier, I can pull the radio out and, using a multi meter, find the wire that is 12 volt (switched) and tie into that? Originally I was going to tap into the speaker wires and use the high level inputs but have decided to use a pre-amp (equalizer) and will use a LOC instead. That requires me to run an antenna wire. I'm not a big fan of running a wire to a fuse in the fuse box.

Thank you very helpful

So do you need to make a connection through the firewall to the battery or can you bridge the rem wire to the 12v connection on the amp? Please help

thank you so much

Hi good video!! question Can i connect two amplifiers and one epicenter to the same remote wire or is too much? So far i have connected two amps only and the lights inside dimm a lot when the base hits.

Thank you

would it be ok to connect the amp turn on wire (from the amp) to the red ignition wire? i ask bc my blue / white wire is shot.

Този приятел много ми помогна, препоръчвам, много кратко и просто обясни защо е контрол кабела за радиото към усилвателя музика !

what do you do if the aftermarket harness has two blue white wires? do you connect them both to the stereo blue white wire?

This video was super useful, although my aftermarket stereo system has not one, but three remote turn on wires!

can you please make a video or give me the link how to hook up a aftermarket amp to after market speakers so the speakers can get power from the new amp and the sound from the deck, im a bit confused! subscribed! thanks a lot

Wow you solved my problem, thanks..

So given this blue white wire is hooked up. If the car stereo is hooked up to accessory power. You turn ignition off and remove key. It turns the stereo off. Does that turn off the amplifier too? Any chance of problems sometimes and that amp stays on? Because Im getting a battery drain somewhere . Im using an aftermarket unit with a harness adaptor hooked up the factory amplifier. EVerything works fine except for that battery drain.

How can I connect my remote wire to a Stock Radio? Is there a blue and white wire, or is that only on after market head units?

So my Golf MK4 needs it's antenna amplified. But I only have a blue/white cable. Could I just try to hook the blue/white one on the an antenna amplifier? Would it keep giving 12v?

I have a double DIN ATOTO 6 and the only blue wire it has is a power antenna that's already hooked up to the harness. Should I wire the remote amp to that?

how many amplifiers/equalizers/crossovers can be run from the single remote wire. if there are many units, is it required to use a relay with the remote and a direct 12v from thr battery?

I have a 2013 dodge dart, do I need to pull out my screen to hook this wire up? or is there another alternative?

Hey good day... I need some help. I have two batteries in my car and a set but I have my three amps grounded to the battery but the base amp keeps shutting down. What do you think might be the problem?

appreciate you brother thanks for explaining

very helpful.. thanks

I have dsp in my 2006 bmw x5 e53 . Will it work with the blue wire to the amp power wire.

Can I connect both - amplifier and power antenna to blue/white wire? I have Sony XAV-AX100.

Thank you!!!!

So if there is no dedicated wire for amp on agtermarket radio or wiring harness ? I can just hook it up to any of my accessorie wires that I originally don't need ?

there is any problem to install directly a 12v switch in remote cable to control the turn on/off the amp manually ??

I have questions i have alpine cde-136bt which wire terminal go to with white /blue or just blue wire ?

Thanks bro..good video..vey explanatory..👍👍👍

I am trying to test my amp and subs on a bench so will not have a car stereo, plan to run my phone to amp via RCA's. Question is, can I run a B+ wire (12Volts) into the amp remote input? My understating is the "blue" wire aka "remote wire" coming out of the vehicle's head unit is just a low current 12V output that uses common vehicle ground.