Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

I violently yanked the long-broken stock deck from my car today, and i'm left with a mess. I have been without car audio since I started driving and i've finally had enough, need some tunes.

Until I get a replacement car, I want to throw in a CD Player / AM FM Radio with maybe a couple of decent speakers (6x9s?) that I can pull back out easily when I junk the car. What are good makes/models for each that will go easy on the wallet? I'm not looking for anything crazy here..i just want to listen to some music, ya know what I mean? The original stock speakers might even still work, I have no idea. I'll have to see. The decks been broken for 5 years so I dont know the condition of everything else. (sue me its not an F Body, but I dont think that matters in this case)

Thanks.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

A used head unit sounds like the perfect way to go, as long as you can get one with enough documentation to prove that it's not stolen.

If you want a new one, the low end Pioneers at Wal Mart are going to be your most affordable option for a good quality radio.

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

I see some units that come with 4 speakers (2 6.5" and 2 6x9s) with a deck for about 100 bucks online...I guess I go down there and take a look at what they have. Maybe Fry's has something, i'm lucky enough to live right down the street from a Fry's and there is no walmart nearby.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Anything that comes with speakers and a head unit for $100 is not likely to be a worthwhile improvement.

For around a hundred bucks, you can get a good sounding, reliable Pioneer head unit at Wal Mart. It's got no frills, but it does the job. Then you can stick with your stock speakers until you decide to upgrade those. To get a halfway decent sounding set of front speakers, you're unfortunately looking at a minimum of about $60-$100, but upgrading those will give you the most benefit once you've got a respectable head unit. You can upgrade the 6x9s in the rear later on if you desire.

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

Bought a Pioneer deck today at Fry's for $120, wired it and installed it. Works great, but a couple issues. First of all no way to hook up my power antenna (It was attached to the stock deck and went up when the deck was turned on) so my radio is really fuzzy, and the car has 6 speakers, one in each door and two below the rear window. I assume I will have to live without the two far rear ones? Can I re-wire the speakers so the sound for the rear doors is output to the speakers below the rear window and live without the ones in the rear doors? I would rather have that than what I have now.

NEEDAZ

Blue or blue with a white stripe from the hus harness. What’s the model number of Pioneer you got?

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

DEH-2700.

No thrills, plays CD's and Mp3s. 4x45W. Thats all I need for now.

What do you mean? Wires for what? Like I said, its a Mazda 929 not an F Body, I was just posting here for the heck of it to see if anybody could help me out since it was a pretty general audio question.

I have some other general car forums that I check and their moderators are all complete *******s and 90% of the questions are "what wing/bodykit will give me best performance for my 85 civic". Thats why I prefer to ask here.

Gummie

His comment doesn't pertain to any car. hus is secret code. It might be easier deciphered if you was it as HUs or even HU's. It means headunit's.

On the wiring harness for the head there should be a blue wire with a white stripe. Hook that to the power antenna.

I would be amazed if the unit didn’t come with that wire. Also, most of the wires on aftermarket harnesses are labeled so you could try reading some of them.

The antenna will only go up now if you’re listening to the radio. It will go down if the headunit (hence fourth referred to as HU) is playing a cd or doing anything else that does not direct involve the radio.

As for the speaker question, it would depend how the stock speakers were wired. I highly doubt that the stock deck had 6 sets of speaker outs. Odds are that it had four and the rears are wired together. Hook up the deck and see what speakers play sound.

NEEDAZ

HU's harness...

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

I connected all the HU wires to the car's harness, and still had a bunch of wires left over on the car side that had no HU counterpart. One was Power Antenna, another was illumination, and the rest did not even have an adapter in the harness adapter set I bought and are left unused (but were used in the stock deck).

I examined the electronic diagram in my shop manual and all that needs to be done to raise the antenna is ground the "Power Antenna" lead. I wired a switch in between a ground and the power antenna lead, and boom, I just flick a switch under the dash when I want to listen to the radio. Problem solved, ghetto style but it works fine.

As for the two far rear speakers, i'm sure they are the plugs that are left unused on the car side, so someday when I have time I will re-wire so instead the rear door speakers the trunk speakers are used and abandon the rear door speakers. The stock trunk speakers are actually blown anyway and sound like crap, so this is just as well.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Like they already said, there's either a blue wire or a blue with white wire. Every head unit has this. It's designed specifically to turn on amplifiers and power antennas. Hook that up to the car's antenna wire and you won't have your ghetto rig anymore.

The illumination wire on head units is usually orange with a white stripe, but a lot of head units, especially low-end ones, don't have an illumination wire because they don't dim.

If you bought a wiring harness instead of hacking your factory wiring, none of this would have been an issue.

NEEDAZ

2700, the radio's harness should have a blue wire with a white stripe, pin 6 in the harness if that helps. Pioneer usually calls this the 'B. REM' output. And it should go high anytime the radio is on. Couple of things you said that got me scratching my head. It should take 12V on the power antenna wire to get the antenna to go up, not ground? Two far rear speakers in the trunk? Did you have the Bose option?

Darkshot

iTrader: (4)

Actually I did not hack my factory harness I DID buy a new harness for the new deck. It was a breeze to install except this one issue. I must have missed that blue wire that for the power antenna, because I am sure I got all the wires hooked up right, all the functions and 4 speakers work correctly. When I have time i'll take it back out and see what I missed and if I can get it hooked up right, but for now i'm fine with what i've rigged up. Its all completely hidden anyway.

If I had done it correctly, will the power antenna retract when playing CDs? Or will it be up as long as the deck is on because it can also be used for powering amps? If the latter, then I would prefer my ghetto switch anyway so I can have manual control over the antenna.

NEEDAZ

As long as it is working right. If you had a 'just blue' wire, that would only go up in tuner mode.