04CompetitionOrange

I am already talking to some of the guys who help out in the audio seciton, but I figured I would post the question here too seeing as how this section sees a bit more traffic...

I have the mach 460 system and recently replaced the stock head unit for a pioneer. After the swap yesterday, it seems that I have lost a good deal of sound quality, primarily bass. Best Buy did the install and they used the correct "amp integration" wiring harness.

Anyone else experience this....any suggestions on how to fix it?

2000AZ5.0GT

Isn't it because the stock speakers are like 4 Ohms opposed to 2, which is closer to an industry standard? or some boohockey like that?

04CompetitionOrange

I think there is some bullhockey involved with ohms and what-not, but I thought the integration harness was to supposed to eliminate that.

2000AZ5.0GT

I thought the harness (at least when I installed one) was to coordinate wire's and what not, so that you could splice the right wires into the right ones, no?

At least that was the way it was when I installed a pioneer in mine, the harness connected to the ford harness, and then had wires that I spliced into the harness that connected to the head unit.

I'm no electrician (I suck at electrical stuff), but I'd think there'd be a way to wire something in to change the OHMs? like a resistor or something? where's Cliffy when ya need him

04CompetitionOrange

I hear ya...

The integration harness does make it so that the new wires for the head unit all have a place to go, but it just seems logical to me that in "integrating" the amps, the sound quality should be the same.

2000AZ5.0GT

well, can you go in and adjust the settings in the head unit itself, that's usually the first thing I go to. Like you should be able to adjust a visual multi band equalizer, or at the least the Lows, Mid's and HI's

I've always used a lower Low setting, a High Mid setting, and a medium high setting

I think you can probably adjust the EQ on the Pioneer unit to account for the differences

Tim99GT

Did you adjust the equalizer on the radio?

Edit: D@mn... AZ beat me... LMAO

04CompetitionOrange

I did adjust it a little bit, but it still just seems off. I am going to adjust the levels a bit more tonght to see if I can get anymore out of it.

I feel like if I was at 100% sound quality before, I am now at about 80%

GThopeful

Mine is the exact same way, though I swapped in a Kenwood head unit. I've messed with everything and I still can't get it to sound as good as it did with the stock unit. If my stock one still worked, it would already be back in the car.

04CompetitionOrange

So what is the remedy? Eventually replace the speakers / amps and do away with the 460 system all together?