[el_duderino]

rogue, your FAQ post is excellently written. Thanks very much.

I have a question, however, in that early in your post you state that volume is controlled within the amplifier itself, but later you list the preamp signal wire colors.

If the volume is controlled remotely within the amp (a la GM and BMW, among others), then wouldn't that mean that the preamp signal can't be run directly into an aftermarket amplifier without some sort of preamp volume control? (JL Clean Sweep, Zapco SX, etc?)

We recently did a BMW X5 here where we had this problem - the customer stipulated that the steering wheel volume controls and built-in graphic EQ in his Nav HU had to work after we were done, and tapping that fixed line-level signal would have defeated his steering wheel controls (and I *think* his graphic EQ, I honestly didn't test that).

So we did the rack-o-Soundgate/Navone LOC's on the OEM amp outputs, and summed them together, thus retaining OEM preamp controls and allowing us to use our own crossover points. We used a parametric EQ to smooth out the OEM EQ curve and correct for phase cancellation after summing. I'm concerned that we need to do the same thing to this vehicle...

We will be doing one soon. Would you like a crossover frequency chart on the OEM system? We take an NT Acoustilyzer and measure each channel's output with pink noise before we take the speaker and throw it over our left shoulder...