load resistors when replacing stock speakers

Hello everyone, I had a shop replace my stock speakers with all Focal's and they added a Focal subwoofer, and an Audio Control amp with dsp. well it sounded great for a couple of days and then it just stopped playing any audio whatsoever, I took it back to the shop and their solution was to add load resistors, from my research apparently when you replace the stock speakers, sometimes the system will not detect a load, and you need to add the resistors, and everything seems to be working fine now, however I am going to be installing an aftermarket Pioneer head unit and my question is will the load resistors need to be removed, or will the aftermarket deck be fine if I just leave the resistors in there? I do have a 2021 Taco with the non JBL system if that matters. Thank you.

 

Maybe look into adding an amplifier that can handle a 2 or 4 ohm load. I'm guessing the ohm rating of your new speaker system is throwing off your stock head unit.

 

yes, that was the problem the ohm load, and the problem was fixed, I have sound again, but what I want to know is if I leave the resistors in the system is it going to cause an issue with the new aftermarket head unit, the amp that is in there now is handling the ohm load fine, I am not sure if they wired the speakers for a 2 or 4 ohm load, I am assuming 4 ohm.

 

I'm a bit out of my element here regarding speaker wiring, but I know the resistance of the circuit will be altered by wiring the speakers in parallel as opposed to being wired up in series through a crossover. Did the shop tell you why they added the resistors?? With that said, it is very possible your head unit will not be able to handle the increased power draw if the shop set up your speakers in say a 2 ohm configuration.

 

yes, they did tell me however it was not in layman's terms that I understood, that is why I researched on my own and found out that some stock head units will turn off the audio if they do not detect the correct ohm load, so that is why they added the resistors so the stock head unit would see the proper ohm load, now that I think about it, the ohm load should not matter too much to the aftermaket head unit as much as the amp being able to handle the ohm load, I have wired up subs in the past to a 2 ohm load and as long as the amp could handle 2 ohms everything was fine, maybe I was overthinking this.

 

ac-lgd
load generating device & signal stabilizer




Today’s factory systems include more Class D amplifier technology which can mute, distort or emit damaging frequencies to your new aftermarket audio equipment when the factory speakers are removed. Using carefully selected resistors and a Zobel Network, the AC-LGD has been designed to generate load and stabilize signal from the factory system to ensure the best possible audio.

The LGDs come in pairs and can be easily connected to your AudioControl Factory System Upgrade product with the pre-wired connectors. The LGD is installed between the factory speaker outputs and your line output converter or speaker level inputs on your amp or processor. Each LGD pair comes with standard wire colors for front and rear connections.



This is straight from AudioControl's website and these ac-lgd are the load resistors they used

 

So the load resistors they installed are probably coming off the factory headunit into the high level inputs on the amp and not actually connected to any speakers. When you install your new headunit I would assume your going to run RCA cables to the amp to replace the high level inputs.

So, when you do that it will bypass the load resistors.

 

they actually installed one by the amp and one behind the head unit, I am thinking about running RCA cables to the new head unit, so that does make sense that it would bypass the resistors. Thank you everyone

 

This would be the first time I’ve heard about a Toyota radio that requires load resistors. I ran my 2020 connected to nothing so I could take measurements with no issues. It’s also totally weird that they were installed in two places.

Maybe something changed in 2021…

 

Yeah I wish I understood it a little better myself, I think the installer was a bit stumped too, they even called tech support at AudioControl and they suggested the load resistors, but nobody was able to explain why it worked fine for a few days and then just stopped producing audio, the installer tried one resistor at the amp first and he said that did not work, and he put the second one in and it worked. At least the shop did the right thing and fixed the issue, and it did not cost me any extra.

 

It sounds to me like they unknowingly affected a wiring issue behind the radio during the process of installing the load resistor there since it shouldn’t matter where they are installed and it wasn’t working at the amplifier side.