[nkonemann05]

Hey guys, i'm a noob to the mustang scene, just got a 05 GT and the previous owner had subs in it and had the level control under the driver side dash with the stock Shaker500 system. Its still wired and i want to put an amp and subs in it but i'm confused how it was hooked up before because theres some RCA cables running from the trunk to the front near the level control/deck, what i'm wondering is if there is an adapter that plugs into the deck that the cables were plugged into b/c i checked and they don't plug into the level control. And i'm confused b/c it looks like the amp connected to the rear speakers since they're spliced with wires running along with the power and ground for the amp.

This is my first car worthy of installing subs so i'm a noob to subs as well. any help would be appreciated!!!

Thanks!

[Eminembdg]

if you have a stock radio, then a Line Out Converter is needed. That is where the RCA cables would of plugged into. The line out converter is just a small box that has 2 pair of speaker wires coming out of it on one side, which need to be spliced into a speaker line and the other side would be where you plug the RCA cable into. And of course the other end of the RCA cable would then plug into the amp.

[nkonemann05]

Thanks! Thats what i thot and like i said it looks like the back speakers have been spliced into for the converter but the RCA cables run to the front of the car so i dunno..... i'll have someone take a look at it.

I do have another question, i know its bad to mount the amp directly onto the box but would it still damage it to, mount a bracket that actually holds the amp above the box?
basically have something like this crude drawing(not drawn to scale, lol):

[TheUNZippee!]

There is no problem mounting amps to the sub box. I have done it this way for 20 years. It doesn't matter where the subs are in the car, they are going to receive vibration, because bass is for the most part non-directional. Think about it. In a healthy system, the whole car is shaking, so it doesn't matter where the amps are, they are going to feel the vibration anyway. The amps are designed to withstand this.

The best thing to do in my opinion, is purchase an aftermarket head unit which will have a separate sub level control on it, with separate sub level RCA's which run to the amp.
If you wish to retain your factory head unit, you can simply run high level input (the regular speaker wires), straight to the amp, provided the amp you have is capable of handling high level in. Amps run on volts, and high level in provides more voltage than do RCA outputs, unless you spend the cash for a better aftermarket piece that will have 5-volt or higher RCA preouts. So if you go factory, you have a positive & a negative. The more volts from high level in is good, but not having the ability to control the subs separately from the rest of the system is not. You can always put a level control on it, but it's not crossed at the proper frequency over as is the sub level channel on an aftermarket deck. In fact, most afrtermarket decks also allow you to adjust not only the sub level, but also the frequency at which the subs are allowed to hit.
However, you can also purchase a separate crossover, and utilize that with a level control if you want to keep the factory head unit.