Audio geeks

[diablostang]

I'm getting ready to put a new Head Unit in my 94... I've never touched audio before, so a guy I know who works at a stereo shop (Asst Manager) told me I needed to bypass an amp in the dash that drives the tweeters (since my head unit has a built in amp).. He didn't know where off the top of his head... Whatchall think?

 

[illwood]

If you have the Mach sound system factory, then yeah, you've got some amps in there. For whatever reason (probably because mine had the tape and cd player), I didn't have the Mach stereo, but still needed to pull one or both of the harness connectors from an amp that was on the passenger side of the tranny hump inside that center console. It shouldn't be a big deal to put in an aftermarket stereo, lots of guys with factory Mach sound do it.

What kind of head unit are you looking at? Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood? Maybe you should put in an eight-track tape deck to go with your carb.

 

[diablostang]

If you have the Mach sound system factory, then yeah, you've got some amps in there. For whatever reason (probably because mine had the tape and cd player), I didn't have the Mach stereo, but still needed to pull one or both of the harness connectors from an amp that was on the passenger side of the tranny hump inside that center console. It shouldn't be a big deal to put in an aftermarket stereo, lots of guys with factory Mach sound do it.

What kind of head unit are you looking at? Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood? Maybe you should put in an eight-track tape deck to go with your carb.

Yeah, I've got the Mach factory. So do I just disconnect it? or do I need to modify any wiring...


I was trying to find a 12" Record player to put in, figured I'd do the "hidden" setup, and mount it in the trunk, but one of my friends convinced me to get some Pioneer Premier HU... Soo, that's what I'm getting. I was going to get an alpine, but one of my buds thought it looked too plain, so I was like whatever, ok. haha. I just wanted a CD player that'd play a CD decently.

Thanks

 

[The Green GT]

I bouhgt a connector that lets me plug my head into the stock amp.

EDIT: I dont have the MACH but I do have a factory amp.

 

[Zero Signal]

The Mach 460 has 3 amps: two under the rear dash and one mounted right behind the cd player. You can get a harness that will connect your HU to the factory amps, but the gains may be all F'd up. I ran it that way for awhile without any problems though. But I've seen it where the amps will max out with 3 clicks on the HU volume knob Give the harness a shot anyway, worst case is you have to run speaker wire directly from the deck to each speaker.

Alpine does make decent HUs, but I'm partial to Pioneer since they have a much simpler styling and have automatic-setting EQ+phase with a microphone

 

[badstang123]

If you bypass the stock amps and wire directly to the speakers, make sure that you have a crossover to limit frequencies. You don't want those tweeters playing full range. I would imagine anything under 2.5K to 3K hz would do some damage to them. Also I wouldn't want those woofers to play much over the same frequency range. You must do this off of the head unit with an active crossover or with a seperate passive crossover.

On the otherhand, you might gain some SQ if running the head unit through the factory amps since it will have a cleaner initial signal. In addition, your tweaking abilities will probably be better. IMHO still not worth the money though.

In my opinion, unless your adding an aftermarket component set as well, I wouldn't bother making the change. It would be difficult to get it to sound right the first way and gains would be minimal the latter.

What's your budget for the stereo? And what are you looking to get from it? If you tell us that, we could make some better suggestions.
- Justin

 

[diablostang]

If you bypass the stock amps and wire directly to the speakers, make sure that you have a crossover to limit frequencies. You don't want those tweeters playing full range. I would imagine anything under 2.5K to 3K hz would do some damage to them. Also I wouldn't want those woofers to play much over the same frequency range. You must do this off of the head unit with an active crossover or with a seperate passive crossover.

On the otherhand, you might gain some SQ if running the head unit through the factory amps since it will have a cleaner initial signal. In addition, your tweaking abilities will probably be better. IMHO still not worth the money though.

In my opinion, unless your adding an aftermarket component set as well, I wouldn't bother making the change. It would be difficult to get it to sound right the first way and gains would be minimal the latter.

What's your budget for the stereo? And what are you looking to get from it? If you tell us that, we could make some better suggestions.
- Justin

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300020676304&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=020

I just purchased that Head Unit... Look ok?

I'm not planning to add anything above the stock system I already have(yet) may add like a small sub later, if I'm not happy with the sound.. The audio really isn't real important, I just want a reasonbly nice system that plays CD's.. lol

I appreciate all the help.

 

[illwood]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300020676304&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=020

I just purchased that Head Unit... Look ok?

I'm not planning to add anything above the stock system I already have(yet) may add like a small sub later, if I'm not happy with the sound.. The audio really isn't real important, I just want a reasonbly nice system that plays CD's.. lol

I appreciate all the help.

That head unit looks pretty good. I've had great luck with my Pioneers. The one I have in my Mustang is an DEH-P7600MP. If you're like me, the MP3/WMA capability is what I love most about this head unit. I have a soft case full of CD-R disks in the car that have all the CD's I own ripped to MP3s. If you plan on adding a sub later, I would suggest a 10" in a sealed enclosure.

That should sound killer.

Yeah, I've got the Mach factory. So do I just disconnect it? or do I need to modify any wiring...


I was trying to find a 12" Record player to put in, figured I'd do the "hidden" setup, and mount it in the trunk, but one of my friends convinced me to get some Pioneer Premier HU... Soo, that's what I'm getting. I was going to get an alpine, but one of my buds thought it looked too plain, so I was like whatever, ok. haha. I just wanted a CD player that'd play a CD decently.

Thanks

Glad you have a sense of humor and didn't mind me busting your chops a bit.

 

[diablostang]

That head unit looks pretty good. I've had great luck with my Pioneers. The one I have in my Mustang is an DEH-P7600MP. If you're like me, the MP3/WMA capability is what I love most about this head unit. I have a soft case full of CD-R disks in the car that have all the CD's I own ripped to MP3s. If you plan on adding a sub later, I would suggest a 10" in a sealed enclosure.

That should sound killer.

Glad you have a sense of humor and didn't mind me busting your chops a bit.

yep yep, those are the only CD's I use! I do have some ... storebought... CD's too, but I like to mix my CD's, so either way, I'm playing CDr's.

Well we'll see how the install goes, I've got some wiring diagrams and help now, so I'll post back if I lose my brains


And as far as the carbed, I get a lot of "WHY!?!?!?!?" comments, so I'm used to it But she's my baby, and simplicity is what I felt like doing... So I dun did it.