dimebag

So, I'm installing a head unit in my car. I have the one harness, that is the power and ground n speakers. I do not have the other, for the factory amps and subs. I understand that my rack in the rear will not work, and am ok w that, as I am adding a 12. But...if I turn the vol up at all, everything, esp the top door speakers break up terribly. What's this about? Wull getting the other piece and using the factory amps and rear subs fix this?

teej281

I think it will. My car when i got it had an aftermarket headunit in and it sounded TERRIBLE!!! I just put the Mach 460 back in it because all you really gotta do with that is just add maybe an amp and a sub and go because its already a pretty good sound system i think. And if youre swapping it out for a headunit with an iPod jack, you can get a harness to use with stock headunit to plug an iPod into it.

BraMas

I'm pretty sure you have to use a little box made by Scosche when you put an aftermarket deck with the Mach460 system
Crutchfield has them
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_142C4FD...er&ssi=0&avf=N

Z28KLR

When I put my dvd head unit (replaced a CD-6 Mach 460 unit) in I just bought the harnesses so it was plug n' play. The main harness that has the power wires, etc., only fires the tweeters, the small 4 wire harness does the door/panel speakers. Crap, I forget how I wired it...... Think I wired the front channel to the main harness and the rear channel to the small harness (which would mean I have no fade control). New unit has a sub out so I just brought my rca's up to it. Anyway, I recall there being some sort of compromise when I was hooking it up, and I think losing fade control was it.

That link on BraMas' post is what you'll want to get it done right with no compromises.

WhiteFoxGT

We got it figured out.. Got the other piece to the harness and now the factory amps are powering the speakers not the head unit.. sounds so much better

freefallin98

In order to hook an amp/sub up to my factory head unit, I had to get a Hi/Low converter box. It essentially allows the usage of RCA's directly into the box. It took me like 5 hours, but I eventually spliced into the rear deck speaker wires and went that route.

However now I am very unhappy with the sound and overall performance with everything as a whole. When my sub is not on, my factory speakers sound like crap. They sounds distorted, could this be because I turned my stereo up to loud with the sub and so it blew the speakers? They still sound alright I guess, but just sound a bit distorted.

I was also told from a very reputable shop that my sub is not sounding clean because the power source isnt as clean if I were to install an aftermarket deck. Is this true? It makes sense....

I am a sucker for good, clean bass/sound. I really want an aftermarket deck sometime. What exactly do I need? Dude at Best Buy said I needed a "dash kit" and "wiring harness". Can anyone help me out here? I need to strip out the cheapo Wal Mart 12g kit I am using because the fuse has blown like 6 times and I am essentially not drawing enough power from my main fuse under the hood. It's a 30 amp fuse that keeps blowing and my Pioneer amplifier is pushing 2 30 watt fuses.

Z28KLR

^^^Your sub will sound better with an aftermarket head unit, given it has a sub specific output rca jack (my subs instantly sounded much better when I upgraded head units due to having more control over the output and sound frequency; plus they're just plain getting a cleaner overall signal). As for your speakers, you have the same problem as me..... The car is 10 years old! Replacing them is on my list, but it might be a while as it's not currently near the top of that list. Maybe if I blow a couple of them it will happen sooner (necessity being the mother of most upgrades). You wont need a dash kit if you go with a double-din size stereo. And you don't necessarily need the harness as long as you don't mind hacking and splicing into the factory harness (just get the harness, 2 of them if you have Mach 460; better yet the one linked in BraMas above post). And yeah, 12 gauge wire is pretty small, maybe go with 8 gauge; that's what I've got powering a 1000 watt swapmeet special amp (hey don't laugh, the thing actually sounds good, just has some goofy *** name) w/ 2 Kicker 10's in a sealed box, 60A main fuse.

freefallin98

That's what I thought. It sounded right, but I don't know what to believe anymore when it comes to stereos. A lot of guys like to blow smoke up my you know what. I am actually going to go rip out my wiring and speaker box so I can free up a little room for the up and coming high school golf season (I help coach a high school team). However, I do want to upgrade EVERYTHING just not right now as I have suspension wants before that. I can leave the stock Mach 460 system low enough in volume that I wont be bothered much by the distorted sound.

So about getting a non-factory head unit: I need a "double-din" CD player. I have heard the term, but I have no idea what it means. And about this "wiring harness", what does it do? I am guessing it just mates the factory to aftermarket wiring. How much would one of these bad boys run?

Just trying to figure out how much I have to save for a mediocre deck. Nothing special just something quality that gets the job done.

WhiteFoxGT

You need the Metra 70-5519 ( or similar because of year. make sure you tell the audio place your year) for the headunit install.. This will allow you to retain the stock mach460 amps and sound with an aftermarket head unit. Then, from there you can wire up an amp + sub just like another normal install...

Z28KLR

Double-DIN size is what your car has now, stock (about 5" or so tall), single-din is the more old school standard size head unit like most cars built before the year 2000 have (like 2.5" tall). Those harnesses usually run about $25 (and your comment regarding them is correct; just makes it all plug n' play so there's no hacking and splicing), and the dash kit..... Oh crap, I just realized your car is a 2000, so pretty sure the double-din size doesn't apply to you, right? I think they switched to that for '01-up. That being the case, no dash kit for you, and aftermarket head units will be cheaper as well.