Hey everyone, Ok; so I've been searching through the forums looking for some answers but I haven't really found any. Here's my problem i'm having.

I have an aftermarket Kenwood KDC-X995 head unit, I recently replaced the speakers up front with a MB Quart component set, I also added a 4 Channel 1600 Watt amp to power the new 6 1/2 inch kicker subs I have as well as a 10" sub in the very back. I just got done installing the amp to power the subs, the amp works decently, HOWEVER, I am having some massive distortion from the component set up front at higher sound levels. The component set up front is still connected to the factory amp, my questions are as follows:

Is there a gain control on the factory amp or something? It seems like the gain is way to high on it or something! ALSO, would it be wise for me to just to bypass the factory amp all together and run new wires to the new amp I have powering the subs? I would obviously have to add a new set of RCA's and all that junk, I would really just prefer to use the factory amp to power the components in the front but for some reason is sounds like crap now, any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

Upon further review, it seems I am running my units powered channels through the speaker wires to the factory amp, then it is being powered again thus creating the crappy distortion! Soooooo...... umm how do I fix this? there are some threads that say to wire in pre outs, any clarification on that is greatly appreciated!

 

Interesting.. when I wired in my 300 watt sub tube it came with a gain controller/rca converter that I installed at the factory amp input end and ran rca cable to the tube. I had it dialed all the way up and had distortion from the factory system speakers. Reduced the gain at the controller/converter (sub amp has one too) and the distortion cleared.
Not saying it's your issue too, but sounds like the same scenario here


.

The POS wire taps were removed at final install... LOL

 

Check this thread. It had the diagram etc you will need. Basically run a set of wires from the HU front pre out directly to the factory amp. You will probably have to play around with your new amp to get the volume levels to match up between the two sets. The volume level should be much lower than stock depending on how much power is coming out of your new HU preouts. I can turn my alpine to full volume and that is about the edge of where distortion starts coming into play on the fronts.

 

I figured out my problem, When I first got my kenwood I purchased the land rover wiring harness to connect to my factory harness. The land rover ones comes with pre outs for the front and rear, in my infinite wisdom I didn't know what this was for and cut them and wired directly to the speaker wires. I am going to purchase a new land rover harness and just connect them to where they are supposed to be, the front and rear pre outs. Thanks guys.