Somebody please help me with a wiring question...

Its Saturday, so I will make it short and sweet...thanks in advance.

Mastercraft X7 with stock system which includes a Clarion XMD3 head unit, four speaker system, Clarion APX400.4M 2,3,or 4 channel amp.

I just added 4 tower speakers (actually 2 cans that are front/back units), they are Kicker 60s.

Task/questions:

1. I have a spool of regular 14g speaker wire, can I just use it and wrap the exposed parts?
2. I am assuming I can run a single speaker wire up to the speakers and wire them in series, correct?
3. Should I run a second speaker cable up there for future use or to use for lights?
4. OK, now the complicated stuff (at least for me).....My plan is to wire the tower speakers into the amp, along with the sub. I plan on taking the 4 stock dash speakers off the amp, and plugging them into the head unit so I end up with the 4 regular speakers on the head unit, and the sub and tower speakers running off the amp. Sound reasonable?

5. The monster tower site recommends that you put the in boat speakers on the "rear" setting, and putting the tower speakers to the "front" connections so that you can manage the loudness of the tower speaker by using the fade control. Sound reasonable?

6. It was also recommended to turn the base all the way off on the tower speakers....sound reasonable?


Settings/connections, please confirm:

1. take 4 stock speakers and tie them into the head unit rear speaker out terminals.

2. Leave the RCA front and rear inputs on the amp alone.
3. On the amp, set the front gain (tower speakers) to?????
4. On the amp, set the rear speaker(sub) gain to??????
5. Base boost??? Will this kick up the base on it all? You dont want base on your tower speakers do you?
6. I also have the following setting that I do not have the slightest idea what they are:


Rear channel input selector
Front input mode switch
Rear input mode switch
Speaker level inputs
Front frequency control
Front X-over mode switch
Rear frequency control
Multiplier switch
Rear X-over mode switch


I would be more than happy to pay one of you a few sets worth of gas (20 bucks) via paypal if you can provide all of the information that I need to get this done.

Thanks in advance. No, I mean it, really thanks!

Ok, it's raining and I'm bored so I'll answer You can't do any of the crap you want to do for too many reasons to list. The simplest thing would be to leave the stock speaker/amp setup alone. I am assuming that the sub is new because you didn't mention it being part of the stock setup. SO, you need to add an amp to power your sub and tower speakers. SINCE you are running four tower speakers, they will be wired in parallel for a total impedance of 2 ohms per channel on the tower. The sub, is it dual voice coil? What is the impedance? If it is a typical 4 ohm single voice coil sub, then I would recommend a 4/3/2 channel amp that can run individual channels at 2 ohm. Run the tower speakers off two separate channels @ 2 ohm, and bridge the other two for the sub @ 4 ohm. Run 14 ga. wire to the tower speakers, 2 conductors per side. If there are 4 posts on the speakers, bridge them with a short piece of wire, black to black, red to red at the speaker. That puts the speakers in parallel for 2 ohm impedance.

Your head unit may have multiple RCA outputs, even one marked SUB. If so, run long RCA's to the new amp, and set the switches per the manual to accept either the one RCA for both the tower speakers and sub or two RCA's. If not, you may be able to use a short jumper RCA cable from your current amp to supply input signal to the new amp, look on your old one and see if there is an RCA out. Or, you can use splitter cables to supply input signal to both amps.

If you have a dedicated sub out, set the crossover to low pass, 200hz or lower, tweak to see where the bass sounds good. Set the crossover for the tower channels to high pass, 150 hz and higher. That keeps both types of speaker from trying to reproduce sounds that they are not good at reproducing, and makes things sound better.

Mount the amp well, vertically, somewhere that won't get wet. It's a good idea to make the heat sink fins vertical if it's convenient, but that's not critical. Use big, high quality power wire, and a big fuse close to the battery. Wire directly to the battery, that's usually easiest. Walmart sells Scosche wiring kits very cheap, you'll need extra ground cable because they are too short in a car kit. Use good RCA cables. Use a multimeter to test power connections before you power up.

Amp selection is very subjective, I will say that I have used Hifonics amps with great results. Dirt cheap, lots of features and they put out what they are rated at. They are 2 ohm rated. You might want to get the same model you already have for aesthetic reasons.

You may get close to exceeding the ability of your charging system/battery to supply power, you might want to consider adding an extra battery and some kind of isolation device. The simplest is a 1/2/All perko switch.

Hope that helps, I don't need the bucks so don't worry about it

Well, that is exactly the answer that I wanted to hear (kind of). thanks.

The amp is stock. I have no idea what the ohm thing is or why. Sorry. Here is what the manual says:

4 channel...2,3 or 4 channel, mixed mode, 2 ohm load capacity, blah blah blah.

I hope thats enough. The good thing is that had every intention of spending the afternoon getting this done, but instead took my 3 year old daughter out to teach her to ski. Its a no go at this point..but much closer than it was at 6:00 am Life was good today, and after 15 beers I should not be typing no less wiring anything.

I will pick it up in the morning. The most important thing is....is 14 gauge wire OK? one strand or two to the speakers?

As long as I have the infrastructure, I can always make changes later....but I want the right thing in the bowls of the tower.

Thanks man, I owe you

14 ga is OK, a hot and a ground to each speaker can. Lights are another issue.