Can You Connect Car Speakers to Home Amplifier?

Yes, you can connect car speakers to a home amplifier, however, there are a few things that must be put into consideration, the first one is the impedance, car speakers are known to run on lower impedance and you must, therefore, invest in a receiver that can comfortably drive the speakers. The second thing to consider is an enclosure, car speakers are usually bare,  so for them to offer a good performance similar to that of a home theatre system they need cabinet housing.

How to connect your car’s speakers to an amplifier

Car speakers are usually located in three common positions inside your car that is on the rear deck, the dashboard, or at the doors. This type of speaker orientation can present a major challenge on how to successfully get the signal to the speakers without the interference of the door hinges. Remember that you must get the wires to the speaker at the front door and on the dash.

Worry not though because we have a way to help you get the signal to the speakers from the amplifier. You will, therefore, run the speaker wires back to the harness behind your stereo, and the reason for doing this is because all your car speaker connections have been consolidated in this place.

And now that you will be bringing new speakers on board, you will not connect the wires to the car wiring adapter instead you will divert the speaker wires to the external amp, and which means that the speaker wires from the new stereo will not be used. If you, however, intend to use them in the future, you can tape them off, but if you won’t be needing them then you can cut them off.

Important to note is that if you are going to tape them off, then you will have to do that on the individual wires, thus prevent the wires from touching anything else. Remember the initial challenge of running the new speaker wires throughout your car just to get them to connect to the car’s speaker, you can counter this problem by running the amps output wires to the speaker’s wires on the stereo’s adapter harness, and then plug the harness to your car.

This is how it will all work out, the RCA cables will carry the audio signal to the amplifier and then the blue wire that emanates from the stereo will be used to turn on the amp when the stereo has been turned on. Be sure to connect the RCA cables correctly to ensure that the fade and control balance works perfectly fine.

How to connect four car speakers to one amplifier

If you have a four-speaker system in your car then you will have to make up to 8 connections, and which in summary will result in a positive and negative wire for each of the speakers. Essentially what you will do is run the eight-speaker wires from the dashboard to the amplifier. So, as you install the amp, be sure to run the RCA cables and the new speaker wires concurrently.

How to connect a car speaker to an amplifier using the series method

• If your speakers are lower than 8ohms then you can wire them in a series. The information about the ohms of your speakers can be found at the back of the speaker.
• The next step is to unplug your amplifier and speakers to stop the flow of electricity.
• Plug the wire terminal on the end of your speaker to the negative terminal on the right-most speaker. And then plug the opposite end of the wire to the positive terminal of the left-most speaker. To make the process easy, you can use wires with clips and then solder the terminal connectors.
• You will then invest in a harnessed wire that splits into 2 wires on 1 end, and then proceed to plug the wire clips into the positive and negative terminals.
• Your amp comes with a jack, you will, therefore, plug the opposite end of the speaker wire into the matching jack.

Factors to consider before connecting your car’s speakers to your home amplifier

The factors described in this article help to ensure that once the home amplifier has been installed, your car remains in proper working condition. So the very first precaution is to disconnect your car battery’s negative wire.

• The assembly process involves the use of the wires from your car stereo, so for a flawless experience, we recommend that you unwind the wires before installing the amplifier. The next step is to put aside the RCA cables from the power cables to prevent them from interfering with the signal.
• Also, ensure that you use high-quality connectors so that you can end up with a reliable installation and prevent any chances of signal or power loss. And while the described process above does not involve any kind of drilling, you will have to think carefully before drilling or cutting anything because you could easily drill a hole into one of your car’s functional systems such as the fuel tank, the electrical wirings, vacuum pipes or brakes.
• Remember we discussed about ensuring that the speaker wires don’t pass throughout your car just to get to the amp. Well, in case you will be tempted to run the wires throughout your car, ensure that it is not routed under your vehicle, as they will not be protected. Also, you will want to ensure that they do not interfere with the driving of the vehicle. Some of the common places that you might be tempted to route the wires are through the pedals, accelerator or clutch; or even the steering wheel.
• And if by any chance you will have to route the wires through metal, ensure that they are protected with a grommet. Also, the wires should not be routed in the mobile parts of the car, such as in the seat rails, as they might easily get damaged.
• And while we might not have mentioned using a fuse it is imperative that you use one as it will help to protect the battery and the electrical circuit. Taking into consideration how you have installed the amplifier, you will install a fuse holder on the 12V positive (+) power cable at less than 40cm from the battery terminal.
• The most important precaution of all is to ensure that you don’t install the amplifier on the engine compartment of your vehicle. Also be sure to prepare the chassis ground, remove any trace of paint from the metal surface for perfect grounding. Important to note is that the grounding connection must always be short and connected to the metal welded to the body or the chassis of the vehicle.

Conclusion

While an amplifier might not seem like a necessary addition to your car’s stereo system, it helps improve the quality of sounds produced. You might argue that your receiver comes with an in-built amp, which is very true but an external amp has been established to produce more power when compared to the amp built into your receiver. And as a rule of thumb, you should get a two-channel amplifier because it can comfortably power the standard speakers while the dedicated channel can be used with your subwoofer.

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