Volvo Amplifiers in P80 Cars
Volvo Forum member BEJinFbk writes in one post everything you need to know to set off in the right direction with fixing or building up your Volvo’s audio capability. If you’re new to Volvo radios, start here.
The Mini Bible of 850/S70/V70/XC70 Amps
I’ve seen a lot of requests for information on the Volvo OEM amplifiers and how to interface with them.
I’ve got a ’98 V70 R that also includes the Dolby ProLogic Surround, so that’s what I’m basing this on. The thing to remember here is that the amp is just an option in an assembly line process. It costs Volvo time and money at the factory to add an amplifier option, so they Keep It Simple Sound. Every car comes prewired for at least a deck and 4, and in the Gen 1 870’s case, that’s really 8 speakers. By using 8 ohm speakers with two for each corner, they can just wire the 8 ohm voice coils in parallel.
Ohm’s law tells us that the stereo will see a 4 ohm load at each corner using this method. With the basic HU’s, like say an SC-816, the 4 x whatever amp in the deck just drives the speakers directly.
But people wanna Rock da Volvo, so pretty much every HU they’ve made in the last 15 years or so has an amplifier connector.
It’s a circular, 6 pin DIN connector that provides a preamp level signal for all 4 corners, a signal ground for them and a 12 volt remote turn-on signal whenever the HU is turned on. Pretty basic stuff.
- SC-901 AMP Connector
- RCA-Diagram I downloaded this pic somewhere… Thanks to Whoever!
In fact, since almost all this stuff is made by Alpine for Volvo, they stick to the same levels found in car audio everywhere. The thing that throws most people is that they use a single 6 pin DIN, where aftermarket car audio would normally use 4 separate RCA connections and a stand alone remote turn-on lead. (Ya know, the blue wire ). When Volvo adds the amp, they’ve come up with a nifty cable assembly that has the DIN from HU to amp, the speaker return leads from the amplifier back up to the HU location and then amp power all in one tidy package. So adding an amp or making any changes or upgrades is Plug and Play!
Fortunately, all it takes is a simple adapter to connect the DIN to RCA and it’s very easy to build or buy. You can get them as New HU to OEM amp, OEM HU to new amp and “Add a Sub” to an OEM HU/amp. ( Search eBay for “Volvo Amp” if you don’t care to solder up your own ).
Last Updated on August 19, 2020
