Problem Installing Alpine Head Unit

95riosnake · Feb 27, 2007

Chythar said:
I used to have a complicated adapter like that with my Mach 460, but I found a cheap one from Metra that's designed for the Mach 460. It's model number 70-5514. I use that exact one with a Pioneer in my Mach 460 without problems.

Of course, this sends the amplified audio from the head unit to the amps, so I wouldn't crank the volume too high. The fancy adapter from Crutchfield will simply help keep you from shooting yourself in the foot and cranking the volume too high.

Careful you get the 70-5514, not the 70-5519. The 70-5519 is for the 99-04's, and won't work with the 94-98. I made that mistake.

I might give that harness a try. As far as the amplified signal going to each speaker, maybe I could add the gain box from the scosche harness to the metra harness? I may try that. I listen to my music LOUD so I'm a tad worried about blowing the speakers.

urban96 · Feb 27, 2007

i dont have the mach system so im not sure whats different.

when i did mine (bought alpine deck and stuff from crutchfield) i completely bypassed the factory amp with the supplied wiring harness.

In the kit there was a harness connected to some really long wires. what i did was cut the long wires off and connected that right to the leads coming out of the deck

i then disconnected the harness that plugged into the factory amp and plugged it into the one i just connected to the decks output leads. worked great for me

turbogt · Mar 6, 2007

Like I said originally, they are for illumination/dimmer/ dimmer ground or some b.s. like that... The factory radio had those features so there are pins in the harness for them, BUT, that doesn't necessarily mean they are to be hooked up to an aftermarket deck.. Most radios don't come with a dimmer or illumination wire anymore, as they are automatic OR they are cheap and just don't dim automatically...Your alpine has the illuminaiton input and the solid orange wire takes care of that... Just tape, or put caps on the extra wires and be done with it.

95riosnake · Mar 14, 2007

Just to update everyone, I got it to work. I called Crutchfield and they said they were having an issue with the adapter harness being too tight, hence it was causing some pins to be pushed out and in turn they weren't contacting. They recommended trimming a small section of the aftermarket plug with a dremel and plugging it in. Well this got me up to having 2 functioning speakers...ugh.

So I troubleshooted and cussed a little...then had the thought "well I have 2 of these harnesses now, why not try something?" I had suspicions from the beginning that the black gain adjustment box may be the culprit, so I decided to delete it and bypass it. I simply snipped the wires before the gain box and connected the wires directly to the speaker leads coming out of the deck rather than going through the gain box. VIOLA! it worked just fine. I don't know what was going on with the gain box, and I find it odd that I could have received 2 defective ones in a row, but I guess it is possible. So to wrap up, I removed the gain box and everything works great...you have the potential to blow the speakers if you crank it all the way, but you always have that risk so I am not worried.

Just wanted to bring some closure to the topic

69clark · Mar 15, 2007

Good, I was clueless! Mine worked, thats all I know.

turbogt · Mar 18, 2007

95riosnake said:
Just to update everyone, I got it to work. I called Crutchfield and they said they were having an issue with the adapter harness being too tight, hence it was causing some pins to be pushed out and in turn they weren't contacting. They recommended trimming a small section of the aftermarket plug with a dremel and plugging it in. Well this got me up to having 2 functioning speakers...ugh.

So I troubleshooted and cussed a little...then had the thought "well I have 2 of these harnesses now, why not try something?" I had suspicions from the beginning that the black gain adjustment box may be the culprit, so I decided to delete it and bypass it. I simply snipped the wires before the gain box and connected the wires directly to the speaker leads coming out of the deck rather than going through the gain box. VIOLA! it worked just fine. I don't know what was going on with the gain box, and I find it odd that I could have received 2 defective ones in a row, but I guess it is possible. So to wrap up, I removed the gain box and everything works great...you have the potential to blow the speakers if you crank it all the way, but you always have that risk so I am not worried.

Just wanted to bring some closure to the topic

That is good to hear... That "gain box" is a hi/low converter... Another way to get around that (only if your deck has front and rear outputs, which all but two current alpine models have) you can get RCA style plugs that are NOT coax, but just speaker wire... These come from Aamp, I will try to find them for you... This way, the input level to your factory amps is much lower giving you a more linear volume control...
Older Alpine decks had an option of running high power or low power on their decks, fixing your exact issue, BUT Alpine has gone cheap and dropped a TON of features...

AaronG · Mar 19, 2007

Cool, glad to hear you got the problem sorted out. I'm going to purchase an Alpine head unit shortly -- which model did you get?

Aaron

95riosnake · Mar 20, 2007

AaronG said:
Cool, glad to hear you got the problem sorted out. I'm going to purchase an Alpine head unit shortly -- which model did you get?

Aaron

I got the CDE-9852...its a pretty nice unit. It sounds pretty good really.

I may be just replacing all the mach speakers sometime, I haven't decided yet...I am shooting for some forced induction before I mess around with any more audio.

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