PAC amp pro question/help

So I’m looking to upgrade the system on my ‘20 jbl system. I’ve been through the emotional roller coaster of being hopeless that I have to gut everything and start from scratch to becoming reinvigorated upon discovering the ap4-ty13. I’m in the planning stages and I’m just a little confused about the logistics of how it works exactly. I guess my real question is do I have to run all new speaker wire from the aftermarket amp to the components? I got some JL C3-650 components for the front and some Infinity REF-6532ex for the rear doors. Leaning towards Kenwood Excelon X802-5 amp with a JL 10TW3-4 sub. Any input, guidance, or recommendations from real audio guys would be much appreciated. I haven’t installed a system in 20 years and even then I was just a hack teenager.

 

You ALSO need the APH-TY01

 

That will let you utilize the wiring harness back at the amplifier, and give you leads to all 6 speakers (4 doors, 2 dash tweeters)

This also means you can mount your crossovers back at the amp instead of in the dash

 

Ahhhh..I see. Praise be to PAC audio. Amazing. Couple more questions if you don’t mind. Does the AP4 signal correct as well? Does that harness come with a chart indicating which color goes to each location? This is very very helpful to me so thank you much. I’ve done hours of internet digging the past couple days and can’t seem to get a concrete answer to these things

 

It puts out a clean flat signal. You can use the radio’s eq for a bit of adjustment, or add a DSP for true tuning and time correction.

the wires should be labeled, but I suggest always checking just to be sure. A 9v battery is all that’s needed

 

I've used this harness for JBL system, unfortunately it's a universal adapter used acrossed multiple cars. The labels did not match the speaker. As mentioned prior, you can use a 9v battery to identify speaker location. Takes a couple of minutes and is harmless to the speakers.

 

correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the stock JBL speaker wiring route the dash and door speakers in sequence, with a crossover in between? in which case, if you're using the APH-TY01, is there a simple solution to running these as separate channels, or does that mean running at least one pair of wires outside of the harness from the aftermarket amp?

 

No, jbl wiring has different wire runs for dash and door speakers. They are individually powered by the amp

 

the cool thing about the jbl, if one is interested in tearing out all the factory gear, is that it's really easy to go full active with the amp mounted behind the seat, as all the speakers are already broken out for it. the bad thing is that you're limited to about 50w/channel with the factory wiring, and also restricted to the amp location as well. any other setup/power/amp location, it's easier to run your own wiring.

 

I installed my amp pro with a Kenwood 802.5 amp today. After I got all the wires run and everything wired up. Fired it up annnddd nothing. I can’t for the life of me get the amp to actually turn on. I have a remote wire hooked up to the lead from the amp pro. I measured 14v power coming into the amp and 1v power at the remote going into the amp. I’m convinced this amp is a dud from the factory or that isn’t enough juice from the remote turn on? I checked the 3 fuses on the amp, they looked fine. Replaced them just to make sure, didn’t work. I’m kinda stuck. Don’t know what to check/do next.

 

1v won’t turn the amp on. Needs 10-11v minimum

grab a paperclip or spare piece of wire and jumper the amp power positive over to the remote wire and see if it turns on (it may spark, don’t worry though)

 

I’ll try that tomorrow. I tried to jump it with a 9v battery but no dice. I thought about doing what you just suggested but didn’t wanna fry something. Let’s say I do that and it works, what’s my next move? Do I need to add some kind of relay in the remote line?

 

Yeah a 9v battery won’t be enough to trigger it.

try jumping the power and remote tomorrow and that will tell you if the amp works or not.

it’s strange that the remote-out from the amp pro isnt working. It should be a 12-14v signal

 

Couldn’t help myself. Went out in the cold after everyone went to bed. Used a little piece of speaker wire I had laying on the floor and bingo. Red light on the amp goes on. No sound still though even with me holding the jumper there. At least I know it was me who f’d something up and not a bad amp. Figures. I’ll have to pull the HU and look at everything again tomorrow. I must be missing something stupid.

 

It was something stupid. Swapped the wrong 28 pin plug. Everything seems to be working well now. Just have to clean up my wiring and put the subs in. Anyone know if there is an advantage to running a bass knob from the amp vs using the knob that came with the amp pro, or is it tomatoes tomahtoes?

 

I would personally run the one for the amppro. It is tiny and easily can be mounted on a blank switch panel in the dash, or nearly any other spot in the truck.

also, if you ever need to replace or upgrade the amp, you don’t need to run a new bass knob.

I’ve also seen several amps that the bass knob doesn’t do an even sweep from 0-100%. You don’t get much volume change for 80% of the turn then ALL of the change happens in the last little bit, leaving you very limited fine tuning. It’s like a shower that’s really hard to get t the perfect temp.
The amp pro knob is really smooth and even

 

I moved my oem amp and aftermarket amp last evening to make some room for the new sub box coming in today. The way it’s setup as of now, the aftermarket amp is mounted to abs, which is mounted to the back wall using a couple of the original bolt holes. The jbl amp is in front of the new one mounted to the floor using the original mounting bracket. This setup should give me juuust enough room to fit a 36” long box behind the seat. Problems started shortly after. The volume is becoming unresponsive after a little while, maybe 15 minutes or so of playing. When you turn the knob or use the steering wheel control the volume drop down will appear with the volume number but as you turn either up or down the number won’t move nor the volume change. I’m wondering if the new amp, being only a few inches behind the jbl is getting warm and triggering some kind of protect mode on the factory amp. Or, possibly, I f’d up one of the wires in then bottom plug that goes into the jbl. I had to unplug everything when I moved the amp and getting that bottom one out was a b*tch. It got a little aggressive for a second. I don’t see any physical damage nor loose wires but who knows. I will move some stuff around later, mounting the jbl away from the new amp as much as possible to see if that helps. Was curious if anyone had seen this problem before, where the volume stops responding and if they were able to decipher the cause.

 

Update: sh*ts all f’d up. Volume is locked up won’t move at all. Checked every splice and connection today. Tried to “start over” by taking negative off battery and unplugging/ plugging in amp pro at HU. Got subs in today, the amp pro knob wont adjust bass either. When I crossed state lines coming home from work, the front speakers muted and stayed muted until I shut off and restarted truck at the next red light. At this point I’m thinking the factory amp is fried. Really bummed, I didn’t wanna go with an aftermarket HU, yet anyway. Looks like I’m going to have to get one now though. I don’t know what else to do. Anybody interested in a slightly used amp pro and rear harness?

 

You need to unplug the amppro and harness and just connect factory wiring back and see what happens

A big pro to the harnesses is that you can troubleshoot much easier.

 

i would suggest reaching out to PAC about the 'locked' volume, and see if they have any suggestions to check. that module is way too expensive that they can't at least provide a little insight.