Question about Pioneer amplifier

[Insanejughead]

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about putting an amp in my car for the rear two speakers to have more "oomph" without putting my headunit through too much strain and to clear up my overall sound.

I was given an amp a year ago or so and I know almost nothing about it, but from what I've read on various sites (Crutchfield and several others), installing an amp isn't hard and I understand mostly all of it.


But... My amp, a Pioneer GM-4200, has a plug with three wires coming out of it. I have no clue what two of them are for. Finding manuals for it is easy, but all the places I've found want me to pay for them.

I'm going to guess that the blue wire is the wire that everyone talks about hooking up to the blue wire from the headunit, but what I don't understand (and want to understand so that I don't mess anything up) is what the hell are the red and yellow wires for???

Thanks in advance.


Also, how do you test an amp to make sure it'll work? I don't want to install it and then find out it's toast.

 

[yyc_tbird_sc]

First, never assume that a wire is used for something based on it's color. Different manufacturers use different colors for some many different things it's not funny. Blue just happens to be what is commonly used as an amp turn on lead. These wires could be anything from remote volume control or even a speaker level input.

Most pioneer amps that I've worked with, have a smaller terminal right next to the power terminals for the amp turn on. It should be marked what it is. I looked through pioneers' website and couldn't find that part number on it. This must be a fairly old amplifier. What does the other side of the amplifier look like? It should have terminals for the speakers and inputs, maybe even a single terminal for the turn on lead.

The amplifier that you've shown on the pictures looks like it's seen some better days. That's a good amount of rust around the fan, which means it's seen some good moisture. Testing it would be a good thing before you go cutting wires. To test it you will need a power source, an audio source, and a set of speakers. Hook it up and see what happens.

How are you hooking this up? What kind of head unit do you have? Have you ever installed something like this before? Make sure that the power cable you're going to use is sized correctly for the load that will be placed on it, is properly fused (as close to the battery as possible), and is protected from harm where it is run inside the vehicle (ie grommets when passing through any metal).

 

[Insanejughead]

Thank you for the quick response!!!

Alright... Here goes.
I've never dealt with this kind of thing. The closest I've come to is just installing speakers and checking the phase.


Offhand, I know that my head unit is a Jensen HD5112.

My speakers are all Pioneers. The front are 6" and the rears are 6x8"

I have leftover parts from the previous owner. My thunderbird had an amp installed in it, but that was removed before I bought the car. The wires were not. So, once I got it, I ripped out all the #2 wire, rca cables, and fuses that were previously wired for the amp. That was two years ago... Now that I've learned more, I'm wanting to put an amp back in it.

Here are a few more pictures of the amp.

Opposite end:

Front right corner:

If you need better pics, just let me know.

 

[strvger]

looks like it has seen a fair amount of water in it's day. probably sitting in water or on wet carpeting probably. be very careful when hooking it up for testing. actually, if you have the money, i'd just trash that one and get a new one. either way, good luck.

 

[Insanejughead]

If it has been subject to skinny dipping, then it's been a year or more. I've had this thing on the upper shelf in a storage unit since I got it.


Needless to say I just recently remembered that I had it... I don't blame you for thinking it won't work, but I'm determined to figure out how to properly check it first (those three damn wires...)

 

[baxtej44]

those wires are most likely for say an external sound processor, a wired remote, or a turn on....

they aren't your source of power since that has it's own inputs. they aren't the ground (thank goodness because they are too small a gauge wire anyway), they aren't RCA's, they aren't speaker outputs...


hook it up without those hooked up to anything and see if it works.

 

[shane96ranger]

those wires are most likely for say an external sound processor, a wired remote, or a turn on....

they aren't your source of power since that has it's own inputs. they aren't the ground (thank goodness because they are too small a gauge wire anyway), they aren't RCA's, they aren't speaker outputs...


hook it up without those hooked up to anything and see if it works.

I agree. I doubt you need any of those. When you test it for power function, I wouldn't have anything hooked to it but power. Don't have the speakers hooked to it.

EDIT, I don't see "remote" written on your power block. Does it say it anywhere else on one of the lugs?

 

[Insanejughead]

Nope, it doesn't have a damn thing else written on the rest of it. The opposite end is all explained, but that three wire plug is not labeled at all.


You see why I'm a bit baffled? Hahaha.

 

[shane96ranger]

Nope, it doesn't have a damn thing else written on the rest of it. The opposite end is all explained, but that three wire plug is not labeled at all.


You see why I'm a bit baffled? Hahaha.

The way it looks to me is you have 2 lugs for 12 volts and 2 lugs for ground. Like previously mentioned, a blue wire is pretty much industry standard anymore for the remote turn on.

 

[Insanejughead]

I'll see what I can rig up to try it without mounting it and see what happens.

I'll post back when I have tried it.

 

[Insanejughead]

GREAT NEWS! I found a manual for this thing.

Someone uploaded it online just about a week ago and I found it. After reading through it, I found out that the blue wire is the remote turn on, the red/black is accessory switched power, and the yellow/black won't be used (it's for the DIN part of the amp, nothing else).

Today (Christmas) I'm going to be tearing open the UPS box that my new radio came in and plan out how to install this amp.

I have another question though... Should I wire this amp up to power all four of my speakers, or just the two 6x8"s under the rear deck of the Thunderbird?

My speaker setup is this:
Doors - 6 1/2" Pioneers 220w max each
Rear deck - 6x8" Pioneers 240w max each

The amp puts out 120w continuous per channel.

I don't want my music to be booming, I just want it to be cleaner than what the head unit can produce at the higher volumes. Also, I'm thinking that the rear speakers need to get the full power of the amp since they are so far behind the driver's seat and they're under that cardboard/carpet deck.

Once I find the right size subwoofer that I'm looking for, I plan on wiring up the sub and speakers in a three way - two channel way (it's outlined VERY clearly in the manual)

Anyways, any thoughts on this would be great!

 

[baxtej44]

GREAT NEWS! I found a manual for this thing.

Someone uploaded it online just about a week ago and I found it. After reading through it, I found out that the blue wire is the remote turn on, the red/black is accessory switched power, and the yellow/black won't be used (it's for the DIN part of the amp, nothing else).

Today (Christmas) I'm going to be tearing open the UPS box that my new radio came in and plan out how to install this amp.

I have another question though... Should I wire this amp up to power all four of my speakers, or just the two 6x8"s under the rear deck of the Thunderbird?

My speaker setup is this:
Doors - 6 1/2" Pioneers 220w max each
Rear deck - 6x8" Pioneers 240w max each

The amp puts out 120w continuous per channel.

I don't want my music to be booming, I just want it to be cleaner than what the head unit can produce at the higher volumes. Also, I'm thinking that the rear speakers need to get the full power of the amp since they are so far behind the driver's seat and they're under that cardboard/carpet deck.

Once I find the right size subwoofer that I'm looking for, I plan on wiring up the sub and speakers in a three way - two channel way (it's outlined VERY clearly in the manual)

Anyways, any thoughts on this would be great!

u need to look at rms ratings for the speakers and the amp, not max power ratings.

if the rms ratings match up (meaning close to the rms, and yes it can be approx 0-30 watts over but i wouldn't go much over that) then by all means hook them up, it will (should) sound better.


congrats on moving forward with your project

 

[Insanejughead]

The nominal power of the speakers are:

35w for the 6 1/2"
40w for the 6x8"


So what is that pretty much telling me? That I can easily over power the speakers? Or just that they're really sensitive and can easily handle the 60w that each one would be continually getting?


(I need another amp, since this headunit comes with front and rear/subwoofer rca outputs...)

 

[baxtej44]

i'd be hesitant to feed the 6 1/2's only because it's almost double

obviously i'd be less hesitant about the 6x8's, but it still may be an issue.

but you don't have to turn the gain up all the way... start with the gain low and the head unit at full listening volume. put on some loud music too (you know how some songs just aren't too loud? try to pick your loudest song)

and then slowly start turning up the gain until you hear a good noise w/out distortion.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Actually if its a 4 channel amp then the RMS output its offering on the label will be consideably less. A 600 watt amp with 4 channel capabilities will run about 130 watts per channel. You can run 120 watts to those speakers but the continuous reference is what you can run it at to kee it from overheating. THe speakers will see excessive wear at 120 w. however if you keep your radio turned down then you wont be pushing 120w to the speakers. (the more you turn it up the more power your pushing, so instead of running at ex. level 9 like you normally would you only run it at lvl 2or3.) If you run front outs or rear outs rca plugs tehn the amp needs to only push standard speakers if you want to run subs then you need to use the sub out feature of the head unit and have a different amp for your reg speakers.