installing alpine CD changer in 91 300TE
 

The rear-end part of my 2-part Becker Mexico got corroded, and I had a company install a new Alpine radio up front. They tell me it's impossible to connect the "active base" powered amplifyer whoch drives the front door speakers. They tell me that they cannot connect the same speakers directly to the new radio because of impedence and ground problems. I seem to be stuck with 4 speakers, none of them doing the bass work. Anybody know better? ---mason

On the stock system, I think the inputs which send the bass signal to the rear to be amplified are line level, a function of the Becker stereo. If you have subwoofer outs on your new Alpine, you may be able to connect these to the inputs on the active base amp, with a splice job, which will power the bass woofers in the doors. However, not sure if the ohms are the same. With a new, more powerful stereo why not just add better speakers?

The left and right side speakers share a common ground - one ground per side. When you move to a higher output deck you need to separate these grounds as the higher-wattage decks drive the channels separately. The wires, luckily, are tied together near the center console - remove it and you can find the speaker wires, cut the common ground, add new dedicated grounds, and off you go. This way you get dedicated LF, RF, LR, and RR channels.

Been there, done that -

Brian

Post this in the Car Audio section and you'll probably get a better response. Scott from LaJolla Audio is very knowledgeable.