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telarium4 posted:-Is it poor form to keep the stock components and only add a subwoofer? telarium4 posted:-Is it always necessary to pierce the firewall to power the amp? telarium4 posted:-Roughly how much should an install cost given the equipment below along with another custom fiberglass enclosure?
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# ? Jan 18, 2013 18:30 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:08 |
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Cool, I see an Apline PDX amp. Which one might that be? I have a PDX 1.1000, 2.250, and 4.100 all doing various loud amazing things. Anyway, it's not really a problem just using the stock components, but don't over-extend them. They're probably going to be getting more power and can get louder this time around. They might still sound like rear end compared to mid-range components elsewhere, though. It's pretty much always necessary to go through the firewall. It's probably the safest and most direct way of doing things; you cannot and should not run wiring under the car or otherwise exposed to elements. To be fair you might not have to pierce or drill a thing. There's usually a gromet in the firewall. It sounds weird, but if you have trouble pushing the wire through the gromet in your firewall (there are already wires routed through it, so it can be crowded), then you can try taping your wire to a pencil to better guide it through. If you still have problems there, you might have more luck taping it over a bit more and lubing it up. That's what it took to get a 0-gauge wire run through my old car ('01 Civic).
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# ? Jan 18, 2013 18:39 |
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some texas redneck posted:So not only is my new (to me) car equipped with the GM beeps and bings and bongs and poo poo that go through the stereo, it also has OnStar, and the GM "retained accessory power" ahit. The way I know it (may not be correct) is that the stereo routes audio for the Body Control Module, which has OnStar, door/headlight alarms, etc. The $100 kit creates a 'fake' output for those systems, allowing you to put in an aftermarket deck while retaining all of the BCM functionality.
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# ? Jan 18, 2013 18:50 |
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So has anyone installed a video or navigation head unit and added a backup camera? I see several that offer an optional backup camera and I really enjoy not backing into things. Also do any of these nav units not have sucky outdated maps that cost $100 a year to upgrade with still outdated but a year newer maps?
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# ? Jan 18, 2013 19:37 |
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I've always installed all my components, but friends that have paid for installs over here in AU have said to me on a number of occasions that most places charge about $60 per component (per pair for speakers). And yeah, if your stock speakers sound good enough and your head unit allows the ability to add a sub, why not? No need spending on things that you don't need.
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# ? Jan 18, 2013 22:28 |
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Finally installed my stereo deck today. Took 4 hours but it was a fun learning experience. A few questins/issues: 1. The front left speaker doesn't work. I am not sure if it worked prior (this car is from 98). But I double checked all the speaker wires (front positive/negative) and they appear to be working. Any other way to test? 2. The antennae does not work AT ALL. Here's the confusing part: The wiring harness has a solid blue "Antennae" wire. The deck has a BLUE WHITE STRIPE wire and a BLUE YELLOW STRIPE wire. The BWS says "for amp power or antennae" and the BYS says "for steering wheel remote." HOWEVER, the instruction manual for the wiring harness says "Blue is for antennae" and "Blue white" is for amp power. I tried both, and neither get me any signal. What am I doing wrong? (Radio worked fine on stock deck). 3. My stock deck had some kind of 1/8th stereo cord that plugged in the back of it. It's now sitting loose behind the new stereo. I have no idea what it goes to. What does it go to?
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 06:37 |
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Is the "1/8 stereo" a bit more like this? That's the actual antenna signal wire. The only wire in your harness for the antenna is to automatically raise/lower a power antenna as needed.
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 07:12 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:Is the "1/8 stereo" a bit more like this? Yeah that's it. So where do I plug it in? My deck has no sort of plug for that.
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 07:44 |
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Yes it does, look again. The other wires are for raising/lowering power antennas. edit: Unless you got a unit so cheap it doesn't have a tuner function. Did you? LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Jan 27, 2013 |
# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:08 |
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LloydDobler posted:edit: Unless you got a unit so cheap it doesn't have a tuner function. Did you? Wait, poo poo... Is that what that black hole is on the bottom left? God I'm such an idiot
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:26 |
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the posted:Finally installed my stereo deck today. Took 4 hours but it was a fun learning experience. If you have it all connected, just go into the settings and move your balance to left and fade to forward, that will isolate all sound going not going to that speaker. If you can't hear anything then its stuffed.
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:52 |
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the posted:Wait, poo poo... Is that what that black hole is on the bottom left? God I'm such an idiot Yep that's it. Does anyone have experience putting in a headunit in a late 90's escort? I'm having troubles getting the climate controls hooked back up because there isn't much slack on the cables, but I need to get around to fixing it because I bought another car and we now have too many cars in our driveway
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# ? Jan 27, 2013 23:20 |
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Dumb question On my 97 Seville, it has the Bose system. I did look at the speakers and the amp is just mounted to the speaker. I know one is bad in the back and I need to replace it. Most of the speakers in the junk yard have been exposed to the elements so they are toast. Would any one see a problem if I got the amp off the old speaker and made a bracket to hold the amp and just wired in a new speaker?
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# ? Jan 28, 2013 17:47 |
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Bose is all super low impedance so you can't just use any speaker with them. Gotta be Bose.
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# ? Jan 28, 2013 19:17 |
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I bought a 2011 honda civic and was unimpressed with the sound. Since, I found two of these old 6.5" alpine speakers lying around in my house, and my main question is.. would they provide much improvement to my, in my opinion, not-that-great audio? Also, it appears I can pop these things in the doors, or in the rear, as they both accommodate 6.5" speakers. My gut tells me I should do the doors, but what would you guys suggest? Also, mainly for driving comfort, I want to add some sound deadening foam around the car in various places after hearing successful stories from this civic forum post.
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 04:05 |
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They'll make a noticeable improvement over the stock speakers. Replace the fronts, unless you usually drive from the back seat.
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 05:57 |
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Finished installing a Pioneer DA100 double din head unit it my Fit, played around with it until the HDMI cable took a poo poo. The Appradio 2 interfaces with the iPhone/Android but the apps you can use with it is limited. You can mirror your phones display but can't actually use the shiny 7" touch screen to do anything, that is unless you root your phone and buy a $25 app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYFTjMkBCpY
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 06:32 |
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LloydDobler posted:Bose is all super low impedance so you can't just use any speaker with them. Gotta be Bose. Yep, this is the giant pain in the rear end in replacing a Bose system in seemingly any car. It was the case all the way back with the Delco/Bose in our '94 Z28, and as far as I know it's still the case with the Bose in my '07 Mazdaspeed3. You either have to find stock replacements or look at a total swapout.
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 08:40 |
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some texas redneck posted:They'll make a noticeable improvement over the stock speakers. Aright, I shall. Thanks!
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 15:29 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:Yep, this is the giant pain in the rear end in replacing a Bose system in seemingly any car. It was the case all the way back with the Delco/Bose in our '94 Z28, and as far as I know it's still the case with the Bose in my '07 Mazdaspeed3. You either have to find stock replacements or look at a total swapout. Yeah, I guess I will just search Ebay and find a new one. It does sound pretty good after I unhooked just the one speaker.
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# ? Jan 30, 2013 17:30 |
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IOwnCalculus posted:Yep, this is the giant pain in the rear end in replacing a Bose system in seemingly any car. It was the case all the way back with the Delco/Bose in our '94 Z28, and as far as I know it's still the case with the Bose in my '07 Mazdaspeed3. You either have to find stock replacements or look at a total swapout. I'm going through this all now with the Bose poo poo in my '03 Escalade. I decided to just replace the speakers and run everything off the stock amp for now to see what happens. I pulled the speakers and found surprisingly normal ohm ratings across the terminals (yeah, I know not the whole story for speaker impedance but at least a good baseline). I got 3.5 ohms out of the rear door speakers, 3.3 out of the front door speakers, 3 ohms out of each VC on the factory (DVC) sub...and 12 ohms out of the 2.5" rear pillar speakers. Welp. I guess they can't all be easy. The only thing I didn't check was the front A-pillar tweeters, which are wired in parallel with the doors. From everything I'm reading, those are 3.x ohms as well. Meaning, I can drop a 2 ohm set of components up front, a 4 ohm set in the rear doors and a DVC 4 ohm in the sub enclosure without worrying about frying the amp. Not much can be done about the rear pillar speakers I guess, but since those are the least important I don't care about them all that much.
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# ? Jan 31, 2013 02:12 |
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The new Prius's bluetooth systems have a feature where they automatically find my iPhone when I start the car and resume playing whatever it was playing when I turned the car off. All of this happens without me having to push a single button. I'm looking for a new head unit for my 2001 Pathfinder and would like this feature. Is there a particular name for this feature or a particular type of compatibility with the iPhone that is needed to get the bluetooth system to work like this? I have been in cars with decks with bluetooth audio streaming and they don't just automatically start playing from my iPhone so I think its something beyond just audio streaming. edit: After looking at Toyotas site they seem to describe this feature as "Multimedia system will automatically reconnect and resume music streaming after a disconnection due to loss of wireless signal." does anyone know any any aftermarket head units that can do this? ralin fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Feb 1, 2013 |
# ? Feb 1, 2013 04:01 |
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I have finally decided to swap out the stock head unit in my 2006 Mazda5. My other vehicle is a 2012 Mazdaspeed and with that head unit I can do the following which I love: -Make CDR-s full of MP3s -Use Aux In if needed to my phone (Galaxy Note II) -Stream Music over bluetooth (Galaxy Note II) -Take and make hands free calls over bluetooth -Change volume and tracks from not only mp3 discs but also over bluetooth streaming.(huge deal to me) Id like to have the same functionality in my Mazda5 but Im wondering which is the best way to go. My initial plan was to just go with something cheaper like these: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130X700BT/Pioneer-FH-X700BT.html?tp=5684 http://outlet.crutchfield.com/p_105KDA735B/JVC-Arsenal-KD-A735BT.html?cc=02&tp=5684 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0079LGMB4/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= I planned on adding a Axxess ASWC so I could control stuff from the steering wheel as I really dont want to lose that functionality. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120ASWC/Axxess-ASWC.html One thing Ive noticed in the past in other people's vehicles is the volume and bass just never seems to be the same over streaming bluetooth as it is if played over disc or through aux in. I might be insane, but I swear it doesnt sound as good over streaming. Maybe this was on older decks and they have this worked out on never ones. Most decks I find are iphone iphone iphone iphone ready. Im wondering if anyone can recommend me a deck that will play nice with my android phone for steaming audio and taking calls. Im not sure how it works making calls as none of the lower end decks I saw looked like they had voice dialing. And then my last question would be, does anyone think with an AXXESS ASWC module and either of those head units Id be able to skip tracks over bluetooth streaming while using my stock steering wheel track up track down buttons? My 2012 mazdaspeed3 does it, so I know the technology is out there. I just didn't know if there was any thing specific I needed to look at when shopping head units for ones that have that functionality. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Franco Caution fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Feb 1, 2013 |
# ? Feb 1, 2013 19:29 |
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I have a JVC KW-900BT that I run my iPhone through. Mostly bluetooth, but I've used USB and stereo mini as well. Streaming is always going to sound worse than the direct connection. Whether the difference is noticeable over road noise is another thing—it sounds plenty good to me. I definitely don't sense a volume or bass difference between any of those connections. Track skipping, handsfree, and whatnot work great over bluetooth and should with pretty much any modern bluetooth deck. The Metra Axxess works great on my Subaru. I got a harness that was specifically designed to hook up to the Metra ASWC as Crutchfield's didn't have the right connections and would have required cutting into the factory wiring.
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# ? Feb 1, 2013 21:34 |
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I've got a sealed enclosure I built awhile ago. I pulled it this weekend to re-finish it, since it's a solid 3 years old, has more blemishes than solid paint, and want to finally re-do my cable and amp set up. I noticed that, while there is significant resistance when pushing the cone in, I hear air escaping through the binding posts. Is this a concern? FWIW I think the sub sounds fine (CSS SDX10 in a .9cf enclosure), but it's audio so.....you can always do better. Also, any opinions on Kenwood 952? I love my Alpine 9886, but the Ipod control no longer works, and I'm tired of making calls while driving with my iPhone mic and ear buds. It seems to be the cheapest BT headset with two, clean lines of text (why Alpine abandoned that on ALL their HU's I'll never know).
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# ? Feb 4, 2013 00:52 |
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Reggie Died posted:I've got a sealed enclosure I built awhile ago. I pulled it this weekend to re-finish it, since it's a solid 3 years old, has more blemishes than solid paint, and want to finally re-do my cable and amp set up. If you want to just build a new box, I highly recommend this one.
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# ? Feb 4, 2013 11:32 |
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Lowclock posted:Not really a concern, but if you want to fix it, fill cavities with a mixture of sawdust and wood glue and then paint over that and all the seams with fiberglass resin and some strips of nice heavy mat. The inside corners were all caulked with silicone 2 when I built it. I ended up using bonds on the outside seams, but that was more for aesthetics and not for sealing purposes. The only air escaping is happening at the binding posts. I have a recessed binding post box cut into the side of the enclosure, fully sealed around the perimeter. But where the posts themselves are leaking.....not sure there's much I can do but I've never read anything regarding that so was wondering ifits irrelevant (and a common issue). As for the box....why exactly would you recommend that? It's vented (mines sealed) and vented boxes need to be designed around the sub. My sub would want a vented enclosure around 1.8cf, tunes to 24.5 (not even sure what the link you provided was tuned too). I eat to try vented eventually, but designing one seems daunting.
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# ? Feb 4, 2013 18:33 |
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Reggie Died posted:I noticed that, while there is significant resistance when pushing the cone in, I hear air escaping through the binding posts. Is this a concern? FWIW I think the sub sounds fine (CSS SDX10 in a .9cf enclosure), but it's audio so.....you can always do better. You should be able to goober up the inside with silicone or putty of some kind, right over the electrical contacts. I doubt it makes any difference in the world, but if you seal them up you'll be able to stop wondering. I hate wondering about stuff like that.
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# ? Feb 4, 2013 19:42 |
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Reggie Died posted:The inside corners were all caulked with silicone 2 when I built it. I ended up using bonds on the outside seams, but that was more for aesthetics and not for sealing purposes. I'm just not a big fan of sealed boxes. They were a great crutch back in like the 80's when there weren't really many specialized subwoofers, and the ones that did exist were garbage by today's standards. Now we have subs with long gaps, huge excursions, big cooled voice coils, better suspension, and nicer electrical characteristics, and we don't really need any of the stuff that sealed boxes were good for anymore in the first place, except maybe for the fact you can do really tiny enclosures. I guess they do sound a little different, but unless you're trying to impress an RTA, I personally like the sound of a good ported box more. They're louder, more efficient, have better power handling, still sound great if you do it right, they're just bigger than sealed boxes. Just ignore the manufacturer's recommendations, even if just for that fact that those are for boxes in a house and not a car. They're an OK place to start, but just because they recommend it doesn't mean it's the best or necessarily any good or even been built outside of a simulator. 24.5 is tuned pretty low and wasting a bunch of energy for something that is in maybe 1% of all songs for any length of time. I went through my whole music collection of like 5000 songs took the one with the lowest bassline I could find and threw it in an audio editor and measured the period. 34hz. There was someone earlier in the thread who mentioned tuning to like 15hz or something silly for playing movies, which I guess is okay if you prefer earthquakes over music, but otherwise there's no point. Pre-fab boxes aren't inherently wrong because of the fact they weren't designed your particular woofer, but because they are poorly designed to begin with. They do weird poo poo like make 2.4 cuft each of airspace for a 2 woofer ported box tuned to 35 hz or something which is fine, but they do it with a single slot port right in the center that's barely an inch wide siamesed between both parts of the box across the back wall with not even some deflection. This works fine in a simulator or in outerspace with 2 speakers playing the exact same amplitude at the same time, but we're working in a car. Even pre-fab sealed boxes end up crappy because they do stuff like glue the carpet into the seams to save time, and probably neither of them will have the correct cutout diameter for your sub, usually being too big so you end up with screws barely into the edge of the lovely particle board. Technically the thing I linked is a pre-fab because it's not made specifically for your application, but it works very well on anything without a really tiny or huge Vas or Fs. It has just the right amount of port area and volume per box volume with great geometry that actually works in a car and real life with music. Sorry for the wall of text. tldr: Still build that box.
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# ? Feb 4, 2013 23:44 |
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Lowclock posted:Yeah I wouldn't really worry about the leak if it's that tiny. I've even heard that a little leaking is a good thing, but I don't really build sealed boxes unless I have to. Your spot on in the fact that my sub (I think) is intended for HT use, and as such there "suggested design" is most likely meant for HT. That being said, I followed their recommended sealed enclosure to the T and really like the sound. I went sealed because a)easy to build and b)take up much less room in my extended cab. However, I've always wanted to try a ported, especially since I recently searched some reviews for my woofer and a few people mentioned it sounded great sealed but even better ported. (audio is the WORST when it comes to upgrading/the search for better sound) I was always hesitant in building ported due to the design aspect...I need X amount of cu, than add a port....but then I need to subtract the internal port structure from my cu...than does the port count towards cu or not....and than I get confused and go back to sealed. I think I'll try your build just for the hell of it. I'm a carpenter so they are pretty simple to bang off, and there's always tons of 3/4, 1" and 1"1/4 MDF lying around job sites. I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend. Sidenote: what constitutes a "tiny or huge Vas or FS"? I ask because despite only being a 10", the SDX10 is quite beefy, with a Vas of 53 and Fs of 26. I don't pretend to fully understand those numbers or their ramifications, which is why I'm asking.
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# ? Feb 5, 2013 02:17 |
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ralin posted:The new Prius's bluetooth systems have a feature where they automatically find my iPhone when I start the car and resume playing whatever it was playing when I turned the car off. All of this happens without me having to push a single button. I'm looking for a new head unit for my 2001 Pathfinder and would like this feature. Is there a particular name for this feature or a particular type of compatibility with the iPhone that is needed to get the bluetooth system to work like this? I don't know about on the iPhone, but I know a lot of audio-related apps for Android have that specific item buried in their settings. "Resume On BT A2DP Connect" does exactly what you're describing in PowerAmp. Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but check your primary audio apps to see if something related may be buried in there.
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# ? Feb 5, 2013 03:56 |
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Reggie Died posted:Sidenote: what constitutes a "tiny or huge Vas or FS"? I ask because despite only being a 10", the SDX10 is quite beefy, with a Vas of 53 and Fs of 26. I don't pretend to fully understand those numbers or their ramifications, which is why I'm asking.
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# ? Feb 5, 2013 06:48 |
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I'm a complete newbie to car audio, but I thought I could at least install a head unit. But I need advice, please. This is the back of my new unit, which is really a refurb: This is what my harness looks like. Am I missing something? Did I buy the wrong harness, is my head unit missing a part, or am I meant to solder the wires directly to that black box?
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:29 |
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We need your units' model number, and the year/make/model of your car.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:31 |
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Noni posted:I'm a complete newbie to car audio, but I thought I could at least install a head unit. But I need advice, please. This is the back of my new unit, which is really a refurb: That harness (assuming you bought it separate from the deck) is supposed to plug into your car's wiring. You solder / crimp the harness that (should have) came with the deck to that one. The idea being you don't hack up your OEM wiring to install it.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:33 |
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Noni posted:I'm a complete newbie to car audio, but I thought I could at least install a head unit. But I need advice, please. This is the back of my new unit, which is really a refurb: The head unit should have been packaged with its own harness. If it's missing, contact the seller and get them to send you one.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:36 |
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West SAAB Story posted:We need your units' model number, and the year/make/model of your car. 2001 Honda Accord DX, Pioneer DEH-4400HD Molten Llama posted:The head unit should have been packaged with its own harness. If it's missing, contact the seller and get them to send you one. That must be what the problem is. If the seller doesn't have it, what are my options? Will Pioneer send me one? Are there some generic solutions? Boy I'm kicking myself now for buying a refurb. Thanks for the fast responses, guys!
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:44 |
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Noni posted:2001 Honda Accord DX, Pioneer DEH-4400HD How many speakers? As mentioned, the adaptor for the back of the unit itself.. should be in the unit. I've bought a handful of Pioneer, and they all had that much. Your adapter to your car is likely a match, but without the other part to graft together, won't do you much good.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:49 |
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Noni posted:2001 Honda Accord DX, Pioneer DEH-4400HD Usually the customer service is pretty good about things like this. I bet they'd just send you one if you called them. I had a Rockford Fosgate deck back in the mid-'90s that had a couple of the RCA preouts (they were built into the harness) start to flake out. Called them, and they had a new one in the mail to me free of charge that same day. I got the deck as a floor model at Best Buy, so who knows what kind of abuse it took before I got it. I'm still using it in my Prelude in fact.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 00:50 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:08 |
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Noni posted:Will Pioneer send me one? Depends on how old it is. If its a current design they shouldn't have much of a problem doing so, but if its an older design that's been out of production for a while you'll probably have more difficulty getting one.
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# ? Feb 6, 2013 01:17 |