jjlabinski

I decided to keep my stock car stereo head unit because I could not find anything that appealed to me. What I wanted to do was buy a single din head unit then get a half din eq to fill in the rest of the space left by my din 1/2 stock unit. Well nobody in my area sells the stand alone eq units I am accustomed to from the eighties. Then I wanted to run a decent 5 channel 4 ohm amp to the speakers. Well all these five channel amps are huge. I want something small and inconspicuous. In the eighties I had jamming systems without all the crap I am expected to go through today.
It was simple..you bought a Craig R3 (road rated receiver) head unit a 1/2 din eq with a little post amp output run through your mind blower speakers with 80 oz magnets. If you were using your 8-track player it hooked up with no problems. It worked then so why cant I buy that stuff now? with the exception of the 8-track.. cd's are much worthier.

So, can someone tell me how do I keep my stock delco din 1/2 with built in eq and hook up satellite radio, a CD player and a decent amp?

help!

thx

Jeff

Iroctopless

The options and features for head-units today totally blow away anything from even 10 years ago (let alone 20). I find it quite amazing that you, "could not find anything that appealed to me". They make equipment today that does exactly what you want to do.

I'm also confused what you're referring to by crap? You can build a great system as simple as it was back then (I'm almost 40 and have installed many) or as complicated as you want.

And ironically, by trying to keep your stock head-unit while trying to hook up satellite radio, a CD player and a decent amp, you will end up with a system that is WAY more complicated and full of crap anything you had back then! It will also make huge compromises in sound quality by having to use adapters like "speaker -> line level outputs" for adding amps and "rf modulators" for adding a outboard CD player, etc, etc.

If your willing to open your outlook and replace your stock head-unit with an aftermarket one, you will never look back to the 80's stereos again. They even make din 1/2 units that drop right in with built in eq's, sat radio & a CD player all in one. You don't even need an installation kit! Add a wiring adapter and you won't even have to modify your car's stock wiring, allowing you to return the stereo back to original at any time.

If you're willing to modify your stereo system by having to add all kinds of adapters, an amp, sat radio, etc, what's stopping you from replacing your head-unit?
It can always be reversed later.

XxGeinNothingxX

iTrader: (1)

Listen to the man above, head units these days can do anything. Buy a new head unit and you will already have a 7 band equalizer built in, I would go do some reasearch online, or go to a store and just start messing with them, see what they have to offer, and go from there.

jjlabinski

Thanks for your reply, the crap Im referring to is the connectors for the sat. hook up, the huge amps you have to mount in the rear of the vehicle and all the wires you have to run to the rear of the car then back to the head unit. I never had these problems with the old technology. I could not find a decent din 1/2 head unit. I think there is three to choose from none which aesthetically appeal to me. If you know something more as far as other choices please enlighten me I will be forever grateful. I want to finish my build project but have been stuck for several months because of the inability to find a stereo system that appeals to my liking.
As said before if I am stuck having to get a single din unit I want a half din eq to fill the space in not some cheap looking adapter plate. thanks for you help

jeff

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Having more options now doesn't mean that it's got to be more complicated if you don't want it to be. You can make the system as simple as ever, and actually, the better options available in head units makes it easier to build a simple system. You don't need to fool with external equalizers or crossovers because the head units can handle it. Most of the "small" amps that you're used to are obsolete because head units make more power than they used to, plus with the built-in high pass filters, the speakers can get away with much less power, making the head unit even more useful as an amplifier in low power systems.

5 channel amps never got popular because they're fairly useless and offer very little upgrade flexibility. I'd suggest a good quality 4 channel amp instead. You can use 2 channels to power your front speakers, the other 2 for your sub. The rear fill can easily be handled by the head unit power. This keeps it simple, but if you decide later that you want to upgrade with more power, it's very easy to add a powerful sub amp and then use the 4 channel amp for all 4 interior speakers or bridge it to double the power to your front speakers. With a 5 channel amp, upgrading means replacing the amp, which is a waste of money.

It's not hard to build a fantastic sounding system with only a head unit, a 4 channel amp, 2 front speakers and a small subwoofer. It's a very simple, very affordable recipe that can provide outstanding results as well as a tremendous amount of upgradability without wasting or replacing any of your equipment. It's a formula that I've followed many times.

jjlabinski

thanks

most helpful

DISTURBthePEACE

you can keep the stock delco on a shelf then in a few years it will be a collectable!

with Jim. You CAN find a deck that will do it all, is easy to run, and will appeal to you. There are so many brands out there now its crazy. Stay away from kenwoods, they are one of the more complicated decks to use (in single din applications, there flip out screens kick ***!) Pioneer and JVC are simple decks to use and offer lots of flexibility. Could also try Eclipse, Alpine, Sony (yes I said sony), or whatever you see you like! Stay away from wal-mart stufff though. Go to a specialty shop, they know there **** better and you can play with the decks. As for small amps, check out the new pioneer premier ICE stuff. Tiny, and Powerful. Not to mention loud and clean. Did I mention small? Best is to shop around and keep asking questions!

jjlabinski

I found a head unit I like... now no one sells it? panasonic CQ-HR1003U

ChillPhatCat

You'll need to buy an adapter somewhere, but here's one on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PANAS...spagenameZWDVW

Or new here: http://www.discountave.net/cqpacarcdpl21.html

But personally I'd recommend going with a CD player that is still in production.

jjlabinski

adapter? for what? Isnt this panasonic deal FM/SAT/CD that mounts in your dash and you connect speakers to?

See... we never had these problems "back in the day"!

ChillPhatCat

The ebay auction I showed you doesn't include the adapter pictured here that plugs into the back of the aftermarket stereo. Typically when you buy a new head unit, it comes with that adapter.

You'll need to splice that adapter into the harness that plugs into the car. Each one is specific to the head unit (typically by manufacturer), but can be obtained at any car stereo shop.



If the car's wiring is not tampered with it's a completely straight forward install and if you know how to solder (highly recommended over crimping or twisting) shouldn't take more than half hour or so.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Yes you did. Every aftermarket radio with the exception of a couple of those outdated 1.5 DIN units I mentioned in your PM has always required a wiring adapter in order to interface with the factory wiring that originally plugged directly into the back of the factory radio. The problem is that "back in the day" most back-yard hacks usually just cut this wire and wired it directly to the aftermarket radio wires with various levels of sucess. Using this wiring harness adapter couldn't be easier. It's already color-coded to match the standardized colors of the aftermarket radio, so it's as simple as hooking blue to blue, red to red, etc. Once that's finished, you just plug it into the factory radio plug and you're set to go.

DISTURBthePEACE

It sounds to me like you just need to go to a shop and tell them what you want and they will get you everything you need, and install it for you. It will all work the way you want, and you won't have any headaches. shouldn't take them more than 2 or 3 hours to do what you want.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

Not exactly. The factory wiring harness plugs directly into the back of the factory radio, and obviously won't plug into the back of an aftermarket radio. Every aftermarket radio comes with it's own harness that plugs into the radio, and has bare wire at the other end. To avoid cutting the GM harness and wiring these two together directly, the wiring harness adapter is designed to interface with the existing aftermarket harness. It does not plug directly into the aftermarket radio like your drawing suggests. However, since aftermarket stereo wire colors are standardized, it's a simple matter of hooking all of the right colors together in order to connect the new adapter to the harness that came with your aftermarket radio. This new adapter will indeed plug directly into the stock GM harness.

Although soldering is generally a reliable way to go, I actually prefer good quality crimp-style connectors for radio harnesses. There's not a lot of room behind the radio in your dash, and by the time you jam the new radio and all that extra wiring into the dash, you can put a lot of bending stress on the wires and their connection points. This type of stress can crack your solder connections, especially if you're not an experienced solderer. Even if it doesn't happen right away, the constant vibration of daily use in a car can eventually cause the solder to crack when under a constant bending stress. This bending stress doesn't have as much of an effect on crimp-style connectors as long as you make sure you crimp them securely.

Unfortunately, all of this discussion makes the whole process sound a bit overwhelming and confusing. The truth is, it's easy enough for any non-color blind idiot who's smart enough to squeeze a pair of crimp connectors to do it.

ChillPhatCat

Thanks for the refresher, I haven't seen one of those stock radios in a while, last one I pulled out was from my '84 back in 2001. The drawing gets the basic idea across though.

Good point.

jjlabinski

Thanks folks! Yeah I do now recall that even I "back in the day" twisted the wires together and soldered them to make the new connection. I forgot about doin that...senior moment I guess! Last stereo I installed was in my 77 Z-28.

How does that Satellite antenna stuff hook up? When I shaved my door handles I also removed the power antenna for my FM reception. Can I mount the satellite antenna on the rear hatch?

See attached photo for reference of the victim.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ski/car015.jpg


I like that panasonic unit someone turned me on to and the 4 channel amp as well

there is this road quake store at parma town mall where I will be buying this stuff tomorrow.

If you guys can spare a little more advise on the satellite antenna questions I should be good to go!

thx

Jeff

dirtye30

which sat radio unit did you purchase??? let me know and ill tell you EXACTLY where to put your antenna.