Hi, hope you can help, I have been so impressed by some of your stereos that I have tried to upgrade mine and keep the stock head unit (HU), but it isn't working out.
I have the midline system and tried to add a 4 channel amp into the system, with another amp, subs, and half built sub boxes waiting.

I bought a 4 channel loc and soldered the connections in behind the stock hu, then ran rcas to the amp under the drivers seat, then ran speakers wires to the the nearest factory wires,(the door sills and kick panels). I dont want to route wires to all the speakers, is the setup I have possible? Now I get only loud pops and a nasty electrical smell with the rcas hooked up and without them in the amp I get so sound at all, (I should still be getting HU output to the speakers right?). The HU still lights up and changes cd's but no sound.

Is there a fuse in the stock hu I blew?(other than the passenger side fuse panel) it doesnt seem to be putting out a signal

Is the wiring I have wrong? - Can I tap into the speaker wires for the loc, then splice back into the wires further on with the amped signal?

Did I totally screw up? :cry:

I hate to tell you, but it does sound like you screwed up. Here's a few things I see wrong:
-The way you describe it, you had the factory head PLUS the new amp both sending signal to the speakers at the same time. I'm sure the speakers didn't appreciate that.
-Adding an amp to power the factory speakers is not something I would do. The factory speakers are 2 ohm and even a low powered amp could blow them pretty easily. If you're adding an amp, you should seriously consider installing some decent aftermarket speakers, otherwise, what's the point?
-Using the factory wiring to run the signal from the amp to your speakers is not the best thing either. The factory speaker wire is pretty anemic at best. While it is a minor pain in the a$$, you should take the time to run some decent wire (12 gauge at least) from the amp to the door speakers.
-Most of the members who have used the factory head in their systems have used some type of signal cleaner between the head and the amp to improve the quality of the sound.

The fact that you're not getting any sound is a little confusing, but if you were in fact feeding the factory speakers from both the amp AND the head unit, you may have killed your speakers. I'd try stripping the system back down to where you started, and see if things can be made to work again. If not, it could either be the speakers are dead or something got fried on the head unit. A nasty electrical smell is not a good sign, but since the head still seems functional, I tend to suspect the speakers.

If anyone else out there wants to add or correct me on anything, please feel free. I just want to help.
Good luck with your troubleshooting.

Thanks, I came to the same conclusion, should have ran new wires to speakers. Probably fried the head unit, got confused with the wiring. I was just gonna give the stock speakers a little more power since I had the amp laying around from a previous car, and since I was gonna have to run power wiring for the sub amp anyway.

Well, looking forward: Does anybody have a extra 6cd head unit they would like to sell from their aftermarket stereo upgrade?

Thanks again for your help.