I tied into the existing wiring at the amp plug as it's not much fun running new wires into the doors. I did use both sets of the factory wires and just crimped both into a single connector. Again, there are two sets of wires to each factory speaker due to the dvc setup. This also allowed me to keep the factory seal/grommet in the speaker enclosure. Pic in post 34 kind of expains all this. Unfortunately you do have to cut the factory wiring but it saves a lot of time and frustration.
I replaced the upper door speakers with JL C5's. They aren't the cheapest but sound great once they've broken in a little. At some point I want to play around with tweeter location but not been at the top of my priority list.
Hey Kingnut,
No, been low on my list to amp these. I wanted to RTA the car first and decide on crossover points between door subs/midbass and the C5's. Replaced the amps for both door and trunk subs and just used factory line-out's for each. Mids/highs still on the factory radio. I did wind up adding in an Audio Control Matrix Plus since the factory line level signal is so weak. I also have a EQX waiting to go in once I get around to it.
Recently added a PAC AOEM-FRD24 so I could also RTA the factory settings for each speaker output. It appears that the front/rear speakers are still sending full range even with the Shaker option. But that's just a guess at this point. If it does then this simplifies the connections as I can ignore all the sub outs. Otherwise I need to sum these along with the main speaker lines first. Would like to use an IDS tool to try reprogramming the radio with different options/settings but can't yet figure out all the codes.
Sorry for the rambling here, probably a bit more than you were asking
I hadn't heard of those guys before. That looks like a nice amp, especially for what they're charging. Their 5 channel amp looks pretty nice as well and has a remote level control input.
I'm using the XD400/4 in bridged mode (200x2) for the door subs currently. It's mounted up under the deck to the right of the RR speaker. It's also a compact amp (2" x 8.5" x 7") so it hides nicely.
XD400/4 - Car Audio - Amplifiers - XD - JL Audio