remote wire

[optoomistic]

do you allways need to hook up a remote wire to an amp

no matter what input you use...

dan

[kain_03]

yes, there is no other way for your amp to know whether your car and your head unit are on or not, all the remote wire does is simply send a charge to the amp whenever the head unit is on, that is if you use the remote wire that most decks come with these days, you can also use any hot wire leading of the ignition.

[crx4luke]

You can also run a wire that runs constant, and just run a switch through it so that you can switch your amp on and off. I usually do this for friends of mine that don't want to replace their stock stereos, and most of them like the idea. I may actually put a switch in for myself, even though i run my remote wire off my headunit.

[k67p67]

Actually, some amps sense signal in your high-level inputs and eliminate the need for a remote wire. This is particularly helpful when hooking up a stock HU to an aftermarket amp. Though, I would definitely recommend using a remote wire or switched 12V wire if they are available and you don't have an amp with sensing capability.

[moofoo]

Originally posted by k67p67
Actually, some amps sense signal in your high-level inputs and eliminate the need for a remote wire. This is particularly helpful when hooking up a stock HU to an aftermarket amp. Though, I would definitely recommend using a remote wire or switched 12V wire if they are available and you don't have an amp with sensing capability.

In particular all of the new JL amps. But even they recommend (in the manual) that the user use a seperate remote wire.