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Basically my question is, when running 2 front speakers only (it's a wagon), what do you do with the surplus wires from the head unit for the rear speakers (at the moment I just have the rear speaker wires covered and turned the fader full up to the front speakers).

In the past, I was told that you should always join the front/rear positive channels together (same with negative) etc. Something about burning out the internal amps??? Do you get more power output by joining them, or do you stuff up the head unit?

I know this didn't seem to hurt head units a decade ago, but the latest units have some different "protection" which doesn't like the dodgy configuration I described.

The manual that comes with the unit should tell you but if not then I'd run down to Jaycar and buy yourself a couple of 8ohm resistors and solder them onto the rear output wires and continue to have the fader setting all the way to the front.

One manual I have is for a Kenwood unit (died with the "protection" message)... the one I just bought is a Gearflag. Both manuals just assume you have 4 speakers... which I guess is fair enough, since that would normally be my preference... with a decent 12 inch sub woofer.

I'll give the 8 ohm resistor thing a go, at least that should guarantee I won't damage anything.

I love what some people have been doing with the L-Series wagon installations, but unfortunately I need the real estate for my bike and surfboard.

Cheers,
Dave

Also just thinking about it.. my L.Series touring wagon has speakers in the passenger rear doors it might pay you to fit a pair of speakers in there?

just leave it, tape them up and fade it to the front as you have it.

DO NOT join the fronts and rears together, this is the same as bridging an external amp, the deck isnt able to be bridged and youll probably do more harm than good i reckon.

alex

Alex wrote:just leave it, tape them up and fade it to the front as you have it.

alex

Bang on the money
this gets my vote too this is the way all mine hve been done and my brumby has been working like that with the same speakers and head unit for the last 8 years!

Id suggest rewiring the front speakers from the headunit to the doors

My L series factory wiring had a common negative and would make the headunit overheat.

Find the speaker wires in the kick panel (i think its either a green or a pink plug) and run some figure 8 cable from there back to the headunit

I've noticed a couple of people say there are common negatives in the L-Series, but mine definitely has independant wires run... not sure why though, because the speakers I replaced looked pretty original (I think they were 25 watt clarion dual cones, but I only glanced at them as they sailed gracefully into the bin).

"Bridged" was the term I have been searching for, thanks for that! Once you do a search on the right terminology, there's tons of explanations on why you don't want to draw more power from the head unit. Ideally, I want to use the two rear speaker wires to an amp and 12 inch sub woofer... that would sort everything out nicely.