I stopped in at a car audio place today and asked about how I could hook a sub to my stock stero. My reasons for wanting to keep it stock looking are; I like the stock look and any single w/a pocket or double din is gonna look outta place. I'm also not looking to spend a ton. I already have a 10" pioneer and wanna put it to use.

The sales guy agreed and said they do work w/a stock head unit all the time.
He recomended something called a line converter or an inline converter.
It spices into you speakers and looks like a small box that allows you to run a RCA hook ups to a sub. They are also relatively cheap as he had two units a $30 one and a larger $100 one.

Does anyone know what I am talking about or knows where I can find one? I didn't grab one today but I know I can go back if need be.

 

I have seen some where it splits off of your stock radio harness

 

I ran one for 5 years in my truck. No complaints, great sound quality

I wouldn't hesitate getting one

 

I know it splits off the harness. Just not sure how close.

Justin, do you remember where you got yours or even the proper name?

 

I believe its called an in line converter but yeah my buddy has it in his car and has no complaints. Its just a different way to get the sounds out.

 

I'll hit up radio shack or big box electronics and seeing if they can help. If not, that place I went to is local for Detroit and isn't that far over the border.

 

I have one on my girlfriends car for her system. I have it hooked up in the truck. It converts the signal from your speaker wires into a RCA signal. Works great and she got to keep her stock head unit.

 

I got it from a local audio shop, I forgot how much it was

 

Did you hit up the CarTunes?
I've heard of line converters before, Neat little devices.

 

Yea up in roseville

 

there are amplifiers you can hook up with speakerwire and not rca...

 

Links, prices and experiences?

I would think that speaker wire is too small of a gauge to hook up something like an amp.

 

My amp used the line out convertor to hook up the RCA's on the amp.

 

Ok The speaker wire splice simply sends a signal to the amplifier which means it does not power the amp. The sound quality is not as good as it would be with a pre-amp output from a nice head unit however they do work just fine. You will want a remote gain(volume) control for your amplifier as with a line level converter you can not control sub level from the radio. Hope this helps.

 

My amp came with it's own volume control which was super handy.

The power was set up just like any other amp would be.

Sure the sound quality wasn't optimal, but for what I spent it was nice.

 

 

poor link

 

I'm glad it works. Sure makes the job easier.

 

Ok so just so I am certain about this I would be hooking up the converter then the amp then the sub? Are there converters that I can just hook the sun to that have a built in amp?

 

Linky no worky!

 

The inline convertor goes from the RCA's of the amp the speaker wires of the headunit. An audio shop or someone smarter than me can tell you what specific wires they are

 

I have to tap into the pos and neg of both sides. I bought one and it cost me $45. One thing I'm not sure about is. Would I mount it under the dash so that the distance between the converter and the HU is short or could I mount it on the box w/ the amp and tap into my speakers back there?

 

I mounted mine right behind the headunit

 

See, that's a good idea but if you sell the truck. If you remove it, the wiring could look messy back there. Whereas if you tap into the rear speakers at the rear you can replace the speakers and it looks more clean.

 

I'm never selling my truck so it didn't cross my mind