Mistakes were made How to fix my sound system

I have a 2019 crewmax SR5 non JBL, when I bought the truck I replaced the factory speakers and factory amp under passenger seat. I replaced it with the TT TXD8005 3/5 channel amp. I wanted to avoid replacing the factory head unit. I rode it out for a few years, but the sound was not much if at all better. So i recently replaced the factory head unit with a Kenwood DMX10057 from Crutchfield. I also added sound deadening to front doors and plan to to the rear doors and rear wall this weekend. I have a Rocksford Fosgate prime R300x4 amp as well as a mono amp. I have 10" sub for behind the rear seat.

My question is how would I wire up the new amp/mono amp when I remove the TT junk. The TT setup was plug and play for the speakers and remote power. I have new power wire and ground wire to run, no issues there. I'm not sure how to hook up the speakers to the new amp, because the Kenwood HU has rca's that the factory HU lacked. Do I need to use RCA or can I splice into the TT harness? I will be removing the HU to install a Rago dash mount so the rear of HU will be accessible. Sorry for text wall. Just want to give as much info as possible. Thank u in advance

 

I would run new RCA cables from the HU to amp, athough it isn't easy.
Unless your amp have speaker level inputs, then you can use the inputs at the OEM amp.
You can use this harness to access OEM amp wiring without needing to splice it.
It has speaker input left/right front/rear and door speaker output left/right front/rear.
It also has the remote on for your amp.

$18 2010-2019 Toyota Tundra (w/o JBL Audio) AutoHarnessHouse.com Factory Amp Upgrade Harness AHH-4438

Amazon.com: 2010-2019 Toyota Tundra (w/o JBL Audio) AutoHarnessHouse.com Factory Amp Upgrade Harness AHH-4438 : Electronics

You can find wiring diagrams here..

Ultimate TUNDRA Wiring Diagrams Collection | Toyota Tundra Forum

And remember with your OEM wiring, the dash speakers and rear tweeters run off the HU, the door speakers run off the amp.







Good luck..

 

Thank you. Ill order that harness. Do you recommend the RCAs from rear of head unit because of better/cleaner sound? Or does it have to do with the inputs of the amp? I have no issues running wires or cables if that is considered best practice, I will most likely have the center console out for deadening and adding rear chargers to it. The Rockford amp has "speaker level inputs" with a 4 prong Molex female. I guess I'm asking because I don't know which is better, RCAs or the speaker lvl inputs, honestly in not sure what those are. I have more research to do, thanks again for your help. I've read a ton of posts in this forum and on this site, there is a core group of people who always answer folks questions or point them in the bet direction, and you sir are one of those people.

 

I ran rca cables from my headunit to my amps and dsp

I also ran all new speaker wire through the front door boot and dash locations ,, was not hard to do.

 

RCA/line/low level inputs are generally considered less likely to distort/introduce noise into your system. RCA/line/low level input are interchangeable terms. Speaker level/high level are interchangeable as well. The low/high level refer to the voltage the wire is carrying. RCAs only refer to the plug on the end, for example you could get a pair of speaker wire to RCA adapters, put them on the end of your powered/amped speaker wire, and use them for speaker/high level input into an amp that accepts speaker level inputs. When you're using a speaker/high level signal as input you're taking an already powered/amped signal, and then amping it again which increases the *chance* of distortion. It's not to say it's a guarantee and plenty of installs use speaker level inputs totally fine. A lot of factory systems nowadays are moving towards proprietary dash screens/bezels etc. which means speaker level inputs are the only option (unless using a different input source like a digital audio player or doing a crazy custom install).

Long story short, either option is fine. If given both options, I'll always choose rca/line/low level. With the harness that @1lowlife linked, you'll yoink all the TT stuff. Run your power and ground to your new amp(s) location. Run RCA's from your head unit to your amp(s). With the harness above, you'll have two female connectors, one with 12 pins and one with 10 pins. The pin outs for the connectors are:


You can ignore all the inputs/cap those bare wires since you'll be using low level RCA's for input and just focus on the outputs. Those'll correspond to the output channels on your amp. For example on the 10 pin connector, the bare wire coming off pin #2 (FL+) will go to your Rockford Prime amp's outputs Front Left +, and pin #6 (FL-) will go to Front Left -. Pair up the other 3 and you're golden. I don't recall off the top of my head which one is remote turn on, but it's either ACC, +B, or AMP. Someone can chime in or you can just test each one by connecting it to your amps remote input and make sure your amp turns off when you turn the truck off.

Two other things I'd suggest, if you're keeping your amps at the factory location under the passenger seat, I'd recommend an amp rack from Sounds Good Stereo rather than TT. Cheaper last time I checked and SGS are industry leaders/phenomenal shop. Other thing when running RCA's, the trim piece above the glove box pops out super easy when you have the radio out and makes it A TON easier to run the RCA's across the dash, down the firewall/corner and to the passenger seat. Watch this vid for better explanation: https://youtu.be/lP_41muaedY?si=9H-dC8FxqGz5vhn0&t=850

 

Sorry for the late response 12hr swing shifts reek havoc on getting things done. Thank you for the detailed response and keeping the explanation simple and easy to understand. I feel like I now understand the difference between High and low level inputs. I will be ordering the amp rack from SGS looks to be great quality with positive reviews.
One more question about the RCAs for speakers, do I need to disconnect the speaker wires at the rear of the head unit that are attached to the existing wiring harness? Or just leave the harness alone, plug in RCAs, run them to the amp input, then hook-up the corresponding speaker wires to the amp output?

I have read through so many posts, and as I said to @1lowlife you are also one of the people that is always trying to help any and everyone. So thank you @Snert

 

You can go ahead and connect the speaker wires to the HU.
Unless you plan to run speaker wires from the amp to the dash speakers, the HU will power the dash speakers and your rear door tweeters.
The door feed will terminate at the underseat amp, you just won't connect them to anything.
But I'd tape them off to prevent them from shorting out together or on anything else..

Your end product should look something like this;
I overdid it on the 0-gauge power and ground wire, just in case I installed 2 amps, but I'm happy with my 5-channel amp.



I would disconnect the battery ground while working on it.
The yellow wires in the pic above are for the airbags in the seat.
They are kind of tricky to disconnect, the other connectors just pull apart..
https://youtu.be/FRFI59zXvrw?si=9G8Glwl0UwP8YRzK

Don't forget your power line fuse close to the battery.



Be patient and don't get in a hurry.

Back in the day we had to make our own amp bypass adapters..