I did look into some 3 way components, and they are pricey. You can find some cheap ones on eBay for about $300. The god ones are going to run you $600+ though. I did mean Polk, and not Poly.

Once I get everything done I'll post back with my findings.

 

The low level input wires to the amp are twisted pair signal wires from the factory. While they are not shielded like a quality RCA cable, I would think Land Rover and HK or Phillips (SE or HSE truck) would have shielded them if they found it necessary. Then again, they were cutting costs on some more important items, so who knows. The Metra 70-1786 factory amp integration harness uses those twisted pairs as the low level input so there are probably quite a few people using them like that. No noise interference here


Not that I know of... Ill take a look tomorrow at the plug but I doubt they will have anything unless it is a standard euro iso plug like on the back of the radio.

 

I ordered my new head unit last night and should have it in a couple days. I'm going to hook it up the factory speakers first. I want to hear how they sound before I decide if I'm going to replace them or not. If they sound good I might just add a small powered sub under the seat (removing disc changer).

 

There is no such thing as a quality shielded RCA cable.

Half of the signal rides on the outer conductor therefore it is not a grounded shield that encloses both the positive and negative signals. It's just the positive signal being enclosed by the negative and wrapped in plastic.

Electrical interference can enter the wire through that negative outer conductor since there is inherently no grounded third wire connected to the outer shield in an unbalanced wire.

There are quality RCA cables but no RCA's are shielded.

Best practice is to keep RCA wires as short as possible and routed away from electrically noisy areas.

 

Well, learn something new everyday. I figured they were high level speaker outputs like most other cars.

I looked at the Metra harness you quoted. Wouldn't you need the harness on the amp side instead of pluging into the radio? The whole purpose for Mstudt's question was to keep from having to run RCA cables from behind the radio to the amp.

 

For the particular Alpine I stated in the first post I would have to run RCA's for that one. The Alpine KTP-445A wouldn't need RCA's, and it plugs into the back of the aftermarket head unit. The only problem is that it only plugs into Alpine head units, and I'm not an Alpine head unit fan. It the KTP-445A would plug into the back of the Kenwood I just got then that would be the way to go. I have no problems running a couple RCA's about 5' to the amp. The main that I didn't want to do was run speaker wires, a power wire, and ground wire.

I'm going to try out the factory amp before I made any decisions. If it sounds good I'll add a little something for the bass. I don't need a lot of bass, but a little bit would be nice.

 

FYI in my case with a low/mid level stock sound system, meaning no mids in the door, just the two way and the A pillar tweets I noted the following:

Kenwood head unit into stock harness feeding stock amp wired to rear door speakers only...

Added 3 channel JL amp under passenger seat to run sub and front speaks...

Still running all stock speakers except JL 12" sub in box strapped into the D rings in the back...

Stock speakers sound 300% better with new head unit and JL amp. Unless you have unlimited funds, try out the factory speakers before deciding to upgrade.

Of course they will all need replacing eventually being 10+ years old, at least using the existing speakers will buy you some time if you are on a budget or may be OK if you are not an audiophile.

 

http://www.knukonceptz.com/home-theater/rca-cables/krystal-rca-kables/sp/krystal-kable-2-channel-4m-twisted-pair-rca-cable/

Are these not shielded?

I make mine with wire that has 2 twisted pairs with a foil shield around both pairs.

 

You can put all the foil and copper braid in an RCA cable you want but unless it is grounded at one end it is not shielded. In an RCA the there are only two contact points, the pin and the ring. pin = + ring = minus.

If the minus half of the audio signal is on a separate twisted pair wire then connected to the ring that must mean the foil and copper braid are not connected to anything. If they are it would be to the minus wire on the ring, which would make the foil and copper braid into a signal carrying wire and therefore subject to adding interference into the signal.

Only a three connector balanced wire (XLR typically) can truly be shielded as there is one wire and once pin each for + & - AND a third pin connecting the shield/copper braid to a ground point in the circuit.

It is the ground surrounding the signal wires that makes them "shielded" from electrical interference.

That is the difference between Balanced and Unbalanced audio cables.

Unbalanced cables can have a "shield" but if it isn't grounded it doesn't do any shielding.

The wires in the link look nice and aren't too expensive but they are not balanced/shielded. If you wanted to shield them you could run a small spade lug from the copper braid and attach it to the chassis ground of the stereo, as long as you have attached a ground wire from the vehicle to the ground stud on the head unit.

That being said 4 feet of wire should be short enough to be a non issue. The only issue would be the high frequency whine from the vehicle electrical system.

BTW tuners work noticeably better (especially on AM) when you do attach a ground wire to the stud on the head unit.

 

Is this why I see a lot of the high end audio installers split the jacket to get to the shielding and then attaching it to the ground of the amplifier?