| For the car audio gurus (which I am not), here is my current setup. Alpine Head CDE-9845 Head Unit (replacing, see below). Nakamichi PA-304 Amplifier for front and rear speakers.
MB Quart speakers in the front doors
Unknown speakers in the rear Nakamichi PA-400m for rear subwoofers
2x Nakamichi SP-80 in custom enclosures in the hatch The front and rear L and R channels were combined with Y cables from the RCA Pre-amps off of the back of the head unit. The RCA's then connected to the middle two RCA connections on the PA-304. One RCA for the Front "R" connection, and one for the Rear "L" connection. Again, I'm not an audio expert but that was obviously not optimal. In addition to this, the harness connections to the head unit had multiple exposed wires that were likely shorting. Power connections to the head unit were attached properly (albeit poorly), but the harness speaker connections were cut and never properly insulated. The reason that I started digging into all of this is that I believe my PA-400m amp is failing. The rear subwoofers would "pop" every 10 seconds or so and cause the head unit to go into protect mode. The volume of all the speakers would be nearly muted for a second or two and then kick back on. After disconnecting this amp everything else works properly. I now have one set of RCA pre-amps going to the Front input on the PA-304, and the other set going to the rear, bypassing the subs for the time being. The main point of my post - I am replacing the head unit with a more modern Pioneer DEH-X6900BT. This model has six pre-amp outputs, eliminating the funky combining of channels and streamlining my overall setup. To replace my failing amp, I found someone that has the following components still new in the box: 2x Nakamichi SP-1010 subwoofers
1x Nakamichi PA-400m Mono Amp
1x Nakamichi PA-350 4 Channel Amp The price seems to be right for the components and I can maintain my old school setup. I can also upgrade the 8" subs that I currently have to 10". After selling my used components, it would likely be a wash in terms of cost to upgrade. Alternatively, I can move to a more modern setup but would honestly have no idea where to start. Any guidance or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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