To begin, disconnect the car battery, taking note of any required precautions suggested by
the vehicle manufacturer such as alarm or radio codes, or on board computer or AGM
battery requirements.
For vehicles with front mounted batteries find a suitable point on the firewall/bulkhead to
run the power wire through. Where the cable passes through the metal it is absolutely vital
that a rubber grommet be fitted to prevent the cable from chafing through the insulation as
this would be a major fire risk. The positive wire needs to go to the + positive terminal on
the battery. A fuse of appropriate size to protect the cable needs to be fitted in line no more
than 18” from the battery.
Once you have the power cable in the car, run it back to the boot or to where you intend to
fit the amplifier. When you do this, be aware that you will need to run the remote turn on
cable and the RCA signal cable from the head unit back to the amp too.
If the wires you are running have to run over or go alongside other looms of the car, try to
cross them at right angles to avoid unwanted interference in the signal, and try not to run
them parallel with other cables either. If you can, run the power and the signal cables down
opposite sides of the car. This isn’t essential but if you do get any interference once the job
is complete the first thing to look at will be separating these wires so if you can do it first it
makes a lot of sense!
The absolutely most important aspect of the power install is the earth wire. This wants to
be very securely bolted to the chassis of the car. We recommend drilling a hole (take care
not to drill through your spare tyre, brake lines or anything else) in the boot floor and sand
off any paint to the bare metal where the wire will be connected. A bad earth is a very
common flaw in installation and can cause a number of headaches later down the line so be
sure to take care in doing this. Do not use a self tapping screw to secure the earth down, as
it will probably soon come loose and impair performance. Other common disasters include
trying to earth to rear light mounting bolts, boot lock mountings and other ways to “trap”
the cable in the hope you might get a good earth. For every volt the amplifier doesn’t see it
requires twice the power to create the same output which means poor performance and a
possible broken amplifier. Once the work is complete neatly repaint the over the finished
bolted connector and chassis of the car with some primer to prevent corrosion.
We would like to make clear that the current demands of modern high power car audio are
highly significant, and dependant upon the speaker loads, gain levels and supply voltage.
We make every reasonable attempt to publish test results showing the likely current
consumption of each of our amplifiers, and we urge installers - even ones engaged in
modest car installations - to make provision for these current demands. Poor power supply
planning and a failure to provide sufficent energy to run the amplifiers is amongst the
number one reason for premature (or instant!) failure of the unit. It can also destroy
speakers, source units and even cause fire.
On a related matter, we have been made aware of the use of Bassface products in
situations where bench power supplies (or power supplies that are not a conventional car
battery/alternator) are used to power our products. From a purely technical standpoint
there is no good reason why this cannot be accomplished successfully BUT it is absolutely
critical that current provision is made with reference to the appropriate test estimates. We
need to make clear that due to the number of possible technical hurdles we are unable to
extend warranty to any kind of installation where the power source is not a 12v
