Subwoofer <clarification, long>

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

I should have given you all more information about my basic stereo system.
I naively thought the subwoofer addition would be a simple wiring only
project -- Wrong!

This system came with the car.  I don't know exactly how its circuited.
There are wires running everywhere.  It was professionally installed, but...

>From information provided by the car's previous owner, the basic system is a
Clarion AM-FM cassette with a 6 disk Clarion CD Changer in the trunk.  It
has ADS powerplate speakers in the rear deck driven by a 100 watt amp,
Alpine mids in the doors and highs in the dash driven by a 150 watt amp, and
the subwoofer I mentioned is an Altec Lansing "Voice of the highway" 6"x9"
driven by a 40 watt amp.  The subwoofer's foam was worn out so I had it
re-coned.  When I hooked it back up, it just buzzed.  There are 6 wires
running to this speaker (all different colors - I hooked it up right!) from
a variable bass control unit mounted under the hand brake. 

The subwoofer itself has a circuit board attached to it.  I want to
eliminate the bass control "Voice of the highway" wiring and components and
just drive this subwoofer off the head unit.  I suspect the 40 watt amp I
mentioned that drives this subwoofer is the circuit board attached to the
speaker enclosure.

It sounds like I should try and figure out if the amp that drives the rear
speakers has a subwoofer output.  If it does, my problem is solved.  If it
doesn't I should see if my head unit has a sub-out lead?  If that fails,
replace the rear amp with one that does have a subwoofer out lead?  Comments?

Thanks again for the help!


Regards,

John Karasaki

The Karasaki's, proud owners of AUDI automobiles

1981 Coupe
1982 TQC
1984 5000S Wagon
1990 V8