I couldn't find exactly what I was I looking for.
I want to keep my stock hu(the base one, not the ipod model) because I don't want my xB getting broken into by the neighborhood vandals. I want to upgrade from the stock speakers and throw in 1 10" sub.
Now , the big question is.....what do I need to run all of this off of the stock unit?
I'm sure that this has been gone over so please don't flame me. If there is a link, please post it for me.
Thanks,
Dave

 

you'll need an RCA Jack I believe... anyone want to second? And of course you can buy a 8 or 4 gauage wiring kit off ebay or your local audio outlet. You'll run power from you battery to the sub and then a ground from the sub to a close area on the body. There might be something in the tech section here, but it's 1:30AM here and im sleepy, good luck!

 

I was thinking rca's from the back of the hu but someone told me that there was a special wiring harness that was needed, I'm just kinda confused!(which is, in fact, quite normal for me).

 

Yes you need a converter that taps into the rear speaker wires and creates rca wires for the amp....you can get it at any audio shop, best buy too. Just go in telling them you want to hook an amp to a factory radio that doesnt have RCA's they will kno what ur talkin about (if they kno anything about car audio)

 

Sweet! thanks.

 

Bump for a.m. sub, speaker and amp suggestions!

Keep in mind that I'm married and the wife think that the stock system is fine. It's gonna be a battle to spend anything on this stuff !

 

There are enclosures available that will go in replacement of the rear cargo area in right side of the floor. Maintains use of the spare tire. You could bury the amp under a seat and not be noticeable at all.

Vehicle specific enclosures tend to get a bit pricey though.

As for what equipment to buy, just stick to a reputable brand and don't get caught like a deer in the headlights over the hype some of these BS companies use. There are thousands of reviews on subs and amps. Just do a little research first.

 

great advise gko. Thanks!

 

How about a different take on things since you are a family man. Parts Express sells 6" subs (link below). A pair of those should provide great sound without taking up alot of space. You could build a small box to go under each seat.

As for an amp I think a Planet Audio Big Bang 350.1 will handle your needs. The main reason for suggesting it is the small case size compared to others.


http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...TOKEN=49280810

 

Here is a run down on what you will need to do.

For the front speakers:

Dash- Pust some 4" co-axials in by using the stock tweeter wiring harness by cutting it off of the stock tweeter. The wire colors are correct for polarity.

Doors- Either buy or make some adapter to put a 6.5" co-axial in the doors. The speaker wiring adapter can be bought at most car audio shops and will plug directly in the stock harness.

Rear-Buy or make some adaptors and put some 6.5" co-axials back there using wiring adapter also.

Subwoofer- You have a couple options for subs. Primarily you will need an amp, probably a mono sub amp and you will need an amp hookup kit probably consisting of 8 gauge or larger power and ground wire, a small remote turn-on wire and a pair of RCA cables. You will also need to buy a line level converter (also known as a hi-lo adapter) This takes your speaker level outputs from the stock radio and turns them into RCA level signals that can be used for the amp. This can be bought at Wal Mart for around $10, heck you can probably get everything at Wal Mart. Now for your sub options. 1) You can put a 10" sub in the hatch area 2) You can use the Scosche 10" sub and enclosure or an Audioforms enclosure where the stock storage area on the passenger side in the rear is. 3) You can fit either a single 10", 2-10" or 8's under the front seat(s) 4) There are alot of other more custom and expensive options.

I hope this can help you get going, and feel free to IM me for advice/help.

 

Dude, this REALLY helps! I printed it off so that I could have it for quick reference. A guy at work is giving me a "nearly new" 10 that he took out of his truck because he couldn't handle 2 of them so thats taken care of. I will pm you if I get confused, thanks for the offer of help.
Dave

p.s. chadfo - I had never seen 6" subs.....those are pretty cool!

 

there's someone on here that sells RCA outputs that has a harness that plugs into the stock headunit....he sells them on ebay.

 

That seems like it would be alot easier and alot less confusing for me. It kinda ____es me off that I was a d.j. for alot of years and am having problems figuring this simple stuff out. What is confusing me (I think) is the harness that runs the r.c.a.'s off of the rear speakers.

 

A line level adapter is the tecnical term. It is a transformer/resistance pack that converts the 'high level' speaker output and knocks it down to a low level signal the amplfier can handle. (rca)

You don't have to take out a speaker and redirect the wire to the device. You only need run a wire to the speaker leads (left & right) and 'tap' the speaker wire to get the signal for the convertor. You can tap the speaker wire right behind the head unit, right at the speaker or anywhere in between.

A lot of amps have this feature built in. Alowing you to run speaker leads to it instead of rca's.

It's really no different then hooking up your mixing board to the amp for the PA speakers in your DJ set-up. If you think of it this way... you couldn't take your speaker ouputs from the power amp and run them into another mixing board for a signal right! It would fry the other board. You would have to knock down the voltage to safe level for the board to handle. That's what a line level adapter does.

 

What you really need to do is look for recent posts in this forum from my screen name. I did the entire subwoofer portion of what you are looking to do on my wife's xB. It turned out perfect for what she was looking for. It is subtle and stealth, provides boom when she wants it and easily adjusted on the fly if it becomes too much.

The basics of what you will need are an enclosure (QD-XB-DF from Quarter Wave Designs), 10" subwoofer (Elemental Designs 11Kv.2), Amplifier (Elemental Designs NINe.2), Line Output Converter (Tsunami 4 channel), 8 awg Amp Kit (Elemental Designs/Tsunami) and an Electronic Bass Control (Absolute RSW-250).

Again search my recent posts and you can find tons of detailed information. And with the 4 ch. LOC you can run a subwoofer for your separates as well as one for your sub. I only used two of the 4 channels for my subwoofer. My sub is under the passenger seat, my amp is under the driver's seat and the bass control is mounted in the little cubby on the bottom of the dash next to the drivers door. Completely stealth.

 

The harness that you are referring to is called a Subplug and is sold on Ebay by euro_werks. The webpage for the adapters is http://www.norcalscion.com. His Pro/Show 4 gauge amp wiring kits are very nice also. Anyhow, the Subplug comes in two varieties, called a Subplug 2 and one called a Subplug 4. The Subplug 2 just passes all the factory wiring through the harness but adds a set of RCA jacks for you to run to a sub amp. The Subplug 4 is designed for you to add an amp to power the speakers that connects into the harness. It has two sets of RCA outputs (1 front, 1 rear). I'm running both sets to a 4 channel Alpine amp and then using the pre-outs on the 4 channel amp to send signal to the sub amp. These things are as plug-and-play as it gets and are very nice quality. I'm going to try to take some photos to document it for those with RS 3.0s that want to add to their factory system without having to cut a bunch of wires or modify anything permenantly.

Drel

 

Do both the subplug 2 and subplug 4 allow for the factory speaker wire to pass through in addittion to giving rca outputs?

 

The Subplug 2 passes through the factory amp power while the Subplug 4 requires you supply power via an external amp.

Drel

 

fwiw, rTon20s post is here:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=116358

and here:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=111980