help with amp Options

[pepsiman]

Hey can you all tell me how i can hook up this amp? It was given to me and I was considering trying to use it but i cannot figure out the connections...It is a kenwood KAC-721. On the back of it it has power in/speakers. Then it has two rca inputs and some other kind of connection that has input above it...i would post a pic but i cant figure that out...i have been looking and it seems most other amps have screw connections for the speaker outs idk please help...

[jameslemanski]

Hey can you all tell me how i can hook up this amp? It was given to me and I was considering trying to use it but i cannot figure out the connections...It is a kenwood KAC-721. On the back of it it has power in/speakers. Then it has two rca inputs and some other kind of connection that has input above it...i would post a pic but i cant figure that out...i have been looking and it seems most other amps have screw connections for the speaker outs idk please help...

I BELIEVE that the 721's about 45 watts RMS so its not gonna be great for a sub... the best thing you can do with it is to power your front door speakers but only if they're aftermarket ones (DO NOT AMP THE STOCK ONES - they're only 15w and will last about 10 seconds amp'd!!!)

Anyway, what you wanna do is buy a cable kit, this will comprise of:

- 1x RCA cable (same ones as hifi's use, phonos)
- 2 x speaker cables
- 1 x remote
- 1 x ground cable
- 1 x power cable (with built in fuse)

From here, BASICALLY what you do is find somewhere to install your amp (the boot is the traditional place but there are others!). Then you want to run speaker wires between your amp and your speakers. If you run these down the sides of your car, under the carpet. (to do this wire it from the speakers foward, under the boot carpet, under the back seats at the sides, unclip your foot guard under the doors to access the main carpet wire runs and run it through here, and then under the dash. Now comes the tricky part, poke it through the door rubbers and into your doors, and finally connect it to your speakers! you'll need the door cards off to do this and the speakers out.)

to do this wire it from the speakers foward. Start by taking the door cards off, and take the speaker out. Now comes the tricky part, poke it through the door rubbers and into your car (the best way to do this is with a custom made coat hanger!) and then under the dash. Now unclip your foot guard under the doors to access the main carpet wire runs and run it through here, under the back seats at the sides, under the boot carpet into your amp

WHILE your doing this, run the phono/RCA cable and the remote cable in the same way, but run from to the back of your head unit, and plug the RCA cable in to the pre out. Connect the remote to the ISO loom on your head unit - itll be the blue cable with the white stripe. run them on the underside of your dash and under the ide carpets.

Next, find a good earthing point in the boot. I found that the bolt that holds the back seats in this works perfectly as long as its clean. Connect one end of the ground wire to this and the other to the amp.

The final thing to do is to run the power lead. You need to do this in a simlar way to the speaker cables but when you get to the front of the car you need to get it throgh the firewall (the solid bit between your dash and the engine!). I tapped into a hole that was already there, which is the ideal situation. Get someone who knows what their doing to help you with this!!! Connect this wire directly to the battery and the amp and finally plug in the fuse!

This all sounds fairly daunting but its really not that hard. Google it if i've made no sense!!

This post has been edited by jameslemanski: Feb 4, 2007 - 4:13 PM

[Stu37363]

Hey can you all tell me how i can hook up this amp? It was given to me and I was considering trying to use it but i cannot figure out the connections...It is a kenwood KAC-721. On the back of it it has power in/speakers. Then it has two rca inputs and some other kind of connection that has input above it...i would post a pic but i cant figure that out...i have been looking and it seems most other amps have screw connections for the speaker outs idk please help...

http://i23.ebayimg.com/03/i/08/f8/ce/fb_1.JPG

found this if it helps, looks like it needs some kind of wiring harness.

This post has been edited by Stu37363: Feb 4, 2007 - 4:19 PM

[pepsiman]

thnks for the reply i knew the amp probably wasnt very powerful but i didnt know it was that low. It says its a stereo amplifier on it so doesnt that mean its a dual channel one? Could i brigde the two channels to get something decent? (I think that's what its called) i was considering only getting one sub so that would give me something to try out and maybe get something bigger later on...I still have a question the socket that has power in/speaker wrote on above it it looks like i need a plug to go in there i read something about a molex type connector but i searched it and came up with no exact results. But what i read was that a cable plugs into the power in/speaker hole after the power and speakers connections have been made to the connection...idk if that made sense but this is the site i got that from:http://www.caraudiohelp.com/car_audio_amplifiers/car_audio_amplifiers.htm#car_amplifier_types

under connections talks about molex connectors but im still not all clear on it



yep the back of my amp looks similair to that one thanks for putting that up

[jameslemanski]

If it looks like the one Stu posted then you'll probably be hard pushed to get a suitable connecter (unless you already have one???). If you do manage to get one my best guess is that you will have to join the speaker cables, remote and power cables up to that... and if thats the case then its probably only 45w PMPO as even 45w rms will take a slighly thicker cable than that!!!

I very much doubt itll be bridgeable... but 45w RMS stereo would be ok for a low powered pair of 6x9s or something! If your wanting to use a sub your MUCH better off getting a more powerfull amp!

Oh and that round shaped odd socket is an old DIN connection! kinda shows the age of the amp

This post has been edited by jameslemanski: Feb 4, 2007 - 4:35 PM

[pepsiman]

lol ok i think ill just give up on this amp and save up for a new one it doesnt sound like it would be worth tearin the inside of my car apart to run the wires right now until i get some better stuff...i havent even got a sub yet so ill just save up for a amp too...thanks for all the help now i wont waste my time on this amp

I havent posted on very many forums before so i have another question thats halfway related to this one should i make a new topic or just ask on this one? Anyways i dont need something that shakes peoples windows and rattle the car real bad so would a 10 or 12 inch blue pioneer from walmart and a amp to match be enough im tryin to do this fairly cheaply and i have been researching this a while but i would just like some input