ST4NG

Well lately I recieved a nice alpine shaker amplifer and sub. I went to install it and discovered the shaker 500 does not have the rca outputs for a sub. So I was searching around for a solution and found speaker wire to RCA cables, line level converters, etc. But I didn't want to spend the money.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but no one has actually explained how to hook up speaker wire to an rca cable. I've only heard that it can be done, but never any details. So here they are if anyone is interested, simplified for those of you us may not have the technical knowhow. This is taken based on a 2006 mustang, I am not sure if the wiring has changed at any point.

You will need an RCA cable that you can splice into. The center of the RCA jack is positive and the outside is negative. I installed my amp and sub in the trunk tapping into the rear speakers, i'm sure it will work tapping into the front speakers as well. I have not expierimented with hooking the sub up to the stock amps, or running the audio feed from the amp input. You will also need all the neccessary wires for the amp installation, i'm assuming that if your doing this that is already taken care of.

Step One: Always disconnect the negative terminal on the battery by using a wrench to losen the bolt then wedging the negative terminal off of the battery. (Dependent on how old/how many miles are on your car, it might be harder if it has never been disconnected.)

Step Two: Select a location for your amp and sub. Place them in that general location.

Step Three: It's always scary cutting wires in your nice new car, but if you look up at the rear speakers from the trunk, you will see 2 wires coming out from the wiring harness. Remove the wiring harness and splice those two wires. You may have to peel back the tape. The right side has a red wire (positive) and a red wire that almost looks black (negative), and the left side has a yellow wire (negative) and a green wire. (positive) If you accidently cut the wires, its no big deal, as I did purposely. You'll just have to make sure to cap it, solder it, or tape it well when were done hooking everything up.

Step Four: Take your RCA cable and cut it in half. You will only need one half. Splice the wire end of the RCA cable exposing the two wires inside, one will be insulated and the other will be bare. Go ahead and also splice the insulated wire, but make sure to leave some of the insulation at the bottom so you can tell which wire is which.

Step Five: This part can get tricky. Your going to need to connect the RCA cable you just spliced to the speaker wires you should have already spliced in step three. The wire that is insulated inside the RCA cable is the positive, and the bare wire is the negative. At this time you are also going to need to reconnect the wiring harness (if you cut it off) to the speaker wires. Using your method of choice you can use a cap, tape it by twisting the wires together and wraping it very tightly, or solder it. (Its always best to cover soldered wires with electrical tape.) Once you have all the wires connected along with the wiring harness, plug the wiring harness back into the speaker. You've now created an audio feed from your speaker wires to RCA jacks.

Step Six: Now connect your amp and sub following the directions that should have been included. You can plug the RCA jacks you've just created directly into your subs input.

I did this in my vehicle and it sounds great! There are people out there that kept telling me the sound quality would suck, but this setup has worked very well for me. I was going to only do this temporarily until I got a new head unit, but now i'm considering keeping my stock system.

There are many options out there. I've read on many forums that you should buy a line level converter, I didn't see a point in waisting $15 on something I could do myself with spare cables I had laying around.

Hope this helps! Feedback is appreciated if you would like to add anything.