JBL wiring

[Valandil]

Hi guys,

Been thinking of doing this for a while and might actually get round to it now. I've upgraded all of my speakers (almost) and got the nicomod for my headunit in my HDI coupe SE, but now I want to change the amp because I want to swap the stock tweeters because they're shite. I've got crossovers and tweeters that I can use with my door speakers, but because the stock amp has internal crossovers I need to get rid of that first. The stock dash tweeters handle a fair amount of mids that are lost when you swap them for a normal tweeter.

So thats the backstory. I'm hoping (but not convinced) that I'll be able to fit an aftermarket amp and match the weird-level output (somewhere between line and speaker level as I understand it) from the headunit using the gain. Incidentally, don't suppose anyone knows what the output voltage of the headunit is do they? Or how I could reduce the voltage if necessary?

There's two connectors that plug into the amp. The white one is 8 sets of 2 wires so that must be the speaker outputs, and so the black one must be from the headunit.

JBL connector

I'm assuming the green/yellow wire on the right must be power because it's thicker than the other cables! And the amp is earthed through it's chassis I assume?

The 2 x 4 block in the middle must be the inputs, I'm assuming it works in columns and the first two are +ve and -ve for one input, the second two are +ve and -ve for a second input etc?

But there's two cables left, the white one on the left and the yellow one on the right next to the green/yellow cable, it's a bit hidden in this photo. I know one of them must be the remote line for the amp to turn on, but which one? And what the hell is the other one? I can't think of anything it could be!

I don't want to cut the wires so I can change it back to stock later if I want to. These connectors are the female ends so I was planning on just pushing flat blade type electrical connectors into the slots unless anyone has a better idea?

Sorry for the essay, hope some of you out there have some ideas!

[steve_earwig]

I'm assuming the green/yellow wire...

You're doing it wrong, Pug don't do colour codes, the wires are labelled with printed codes instead:





The white connector does indeed appear to be the speaker outputs:

16V BA
01 - 8420 : front LH tweeter + control
02 - 8422 : front RH tweeter + control
03 - 8410 : Left-hand front loudspeaker + command
04 - 8430 : Right-hand front loudspeaker + command
05 - 8424 : Left-hand rear tweeter + command
06 - 8426 : Right-hand rear tweeter + command
07 - 8450 : Left-hand rear loudspeaker + command
08 - 8470 : Right-hand rear loudspeaker + command
09 - 8421 : front LH tweeter - control
10 - 8423 : front RH tweeter - control
11 - 8411 : Left-hand front loudspeaker - command
12 - 8431 : Right-hand front loudspeaker - command
13 - 8425 : Left-hand rear tweeter - command
14 - 8427 : Right-hand rear tweeter - command
15 - 8451 : Left-hand rear loudspeaker - command
16 - 8435 : Ampli - right-hand front output command (huh? that might be a mistake)

16V NR
01 - Fuse 7 in the 28-position passenger fuse panel
02 -
03 - 8453 : Ampli - left-hand rear output command
04 - 8473 : Ampli - right-hand rear output command
05 - 8415 : Ampli - left-hand front output command
06 - 8435 : Ampli - right-hand front output command
07 - 8454 : Ampli + switch command
08 - MC46 : body earth point number 46 (near the windscreen?)
09 -
10 -
11 - 8452 : Ampli + left-hand rear output command
12 - 8472 : Ampli + right-hand rear output command
13 - 8414 : Ampli + left-hand front output command
14 - 8434 : Ampli + right-hand front output command
15 -
16 -

And by "output", I guess it means input

I wouldn't assume the positions to be correct but the wire codes *should be* accurate. I'd still check with a meter to be sure.

I can't help you with levels, maybe there's something on the jbl website (http://uk.jbl.com/jbl-product-support-uk/jbl.html)? Also, I can't imagine nobody ever did this before, did you have a search on the coupé club?

[Valandil]

Some good stuff there, cheers! I'm confused though because if No 1 is +ve and No 8 is -ve why are they different thicknesses? Am I missing something? Obviously on the new amp there is a ground and +ve terminal so by the looks of it these are the two wires to connect to those, but like I said I'm not sure because I would have expected them to be the same thickness

Yea I thought someone must have tried it before but I can't find anything about it anywhere. I asked Nico, the guy that does the headunit mods, about it a while back but he was unsure as well!

[OllieNZ]

If your using an aftermarket, amp wire pos straight to the battery and ground straight to chassis there should be a third wire going to the amp that is remote on. Depending on how you want to set it up you can connect to remote to ignition pos so it turns on when you turn the key on or to pwr antenna so it comes on when you switch the head unit on.
Hope this makes sense. Personally I'd never take power for an amp off the stock wiring.

[Valandil]

Yea I was planning on running a new wire if it works, but just for testing it I was gonna take the shortcut! But then grounding it to the chassis should be just as easy so might see how that works. Still confused as to the different thicknesses though, and can't think of a reason it would have 2 earth's (chassis and the wire)

[OllieNZ]

I've been messing with the hu in my 307 and the wiring is a minefield. I have the same in my car with the earth being thicker but it has 3 12v in lines for various stuff so this makes sense. I'm not sure what you mean by 2 earths?

[Valandil]

Oh right, well in mine it looks like the positive is thicker so the opposite to yours! From the wiring info that was posted anyway. So I was wondering whether it was possibly earthed through both the chassis and the wire (hence the two) but I can't think of a reason for it!