Car audio: Question about a newer radio working with the current setup

[Ackmed]

I currently have a Pioneer DEH-P3100, hooked up to an amp, sub and other speakers. I want a Sony Xplod CDX-GT55UIW. Does the setup I have now, have everything for the newer radio. I assume it does, as it already has the amp outputs and there is a fairly modern radio in there now. Just trying to make sure. I am happy with my current radio but I want to be able to listen to my ipod/phone.

What I have; http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/DEH-P3100

What I want; http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+5...7#BVRRWidgetID

 

[Smoove910]

I would think all you need is a wiring harness so you can connect power and whatnot to it. Otherwise all your speakers and amp have what they need. The newer deck has 2 sets of RCA's which is more than what you currently have (in case you decide to add another amp in the future).

 

[Emulex]

wow that is a huge step down in quality.

 

[jtvang125]

wow that is a huge step down in quality.

If he's feeding it to an external amp then the SQ difference will be minimal. Build quality would be about the same too around that price range.

And answer the OP's question, it should just be a direct swap. An extra set of preout is a bonus as you will not have split a single pair too many times.

 

[Ackmed]

Thanks. And why is it a step down in quality? As I said, I like the current setup but I hate not having an aux or usb to hook up to. The radio is getting old.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Most of the time unless you direct wire you get a wiring harness when you buy a deck, so just to make life easier I would get another harness that way you can just pop the old one out and leave it out. Then just wire the new harness to the new deck and plug it in.

the reason being is they don't give you much play in the wires on those harness... especially if you used soldering or wire connectors that would need you to cut them off.

 

[kornphlake]

It's a step down because sony gear is considered bottom of the barrel in car audio. The quality of materials and workmanship is noticeably worse in Sony than Pioneer, however what you'll actually hear may not be noticeable. About the only difference may be the quality of the DAC in the sony, which honestly you probably can't hear in a mobile audio environment.

The swap should be pretty simple, pull the old unit out, disconnect the RCA plugs, wiring harness and antenna. Cut the harness adapter off the old head unit, attatch the adapter to the new harness. Reinstall the new head unit in the reverse order. Depending on how the installation was done you may not even have to take apart the dash, you may be able to simply slip the old head unit out of the sleeve and reuse the sleeve for the new head unit.

 

[Ackmed]

Who would you recommend then? Not looking to spend more than $150, and can only put in the basic radio size. Basically I am looking for a radio with an aux, usb and with several preset EQ settings. That is what my current one has, and I like being able to switch to Vocal, to Powerful with a touch of a button for different music. The system has a 12" sub, and four other 6"'ish speakers, and two tweeters. I'm not an audiophile, can't tell the difference really unless the quality is drastic. I can't hear very well anymore, and like it loud.

Pic of my radio;

Front speaker;

Amp;

edit, another pic of the amp cant see from the above pic;

 

[Smoove910]

If you want to notice the most difference in your sound quality get a deck with at least a 4v preout. This will make the largest noticeable difference. But you should utilize all of your amp, since you have a 100xX4 and a 300X1 in one chassis on that amp pictured. Wire it up with two sets of RCA's feeding the Front/Rear section of your amp from your deck (good to have 2 sets of outputs). This will allow you to use your Front/Rear fader control on the deck to get the sound you want.

Eclipse decks are decent. I like Pioneer and Alpine personally.

 

[Ackmed]

Well.. ran in to sort of a problem. Got the Sony model I wanted. Hooked it up, was no problem. Everything worked great. But the sound was not the same (I know should have listened). So I went and got the new Pioneer DEH-3300UB.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Pioneer+...00UB&cp=1&lp=1

Unhooked the Sony, and hooked up the new Pioneer. Same color wires. Black, red, yellow, and blue with white in it too. Powered it up, came right on. Everything looks to be good. Turn on the sound, and all I have is bass. No treble. Mess with the controls, turn bass all the way down, treble all the way up, nothing. So basically all I have is bass, you cant even hear words. Just the thumbs of the bass. It is hooked up exactly like the two previous radios that worked just fine.

Any ideas?

 

[Smoove910]

Are you using a wiring harness or going the old school way of splicing? Sounds like your fader could need adjusting, or you simply don't have the speakers hooked up correctly. Lemme ask a question 1st since I don't recall the post mentioning anything:

1.) Are your 'highs' connected to the amp in your picture, or are they connected directly to the deck?

2.) Are there 2 sets of RCA outputs coming off your deck? Did you connect both pairs?


Personally I would've went with something like the Pioneer DEH-5100 since it has your features AND dual 4v preouts for your amps.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130P510...ures_and_specs

 

[Ackmed]

I am splicing the four wires, and then plugging it in the back of the receiver. Crappy pic, but here it is;

1. I guess to the amp. There is nothing connected to the deck but the RCA's, ant, and the plug with all the wires.

2. There is one set of RCA, a white and a black.

Its plugged up exactly how the last two were. I dont know why this isnt working like it should, ugh. And that one you linked sure looks nice. Dont see a price though.

 

[Emulex]

that wire is not very good looking; I'd suggest an active crossover and two amps; say a punch pro 25.2 bridged mono @ 2ohms for a sub and maybe another 25.4 @ 4ohms for the 4 mains. If you can - use a little better quality rca wiring.

check your crossovers and EQ settings my friend.

 

[kornphlake]

It looks like that amp needs at least 2 pairs of RCA inputs one pair for the front and one pair for the rear and an optional pair for the sub, the amp will split the signal to the sub if only 2 pairs are available but it won't split a single pair to the front and rear channels (at least that's the way it looked in the 30 seconds of searching I did.)

There are two possible problems, A) you messed with the switches and knobs on the amp and now it's not setup right or B) you accidentally disconnected the splitter that sent the signal to the main channels on the amp and now all you're hearing is the sub.

Another possibility is that the headunit has a built in line level crossover that is low passing the signal to the amp. This would be unusual in a low cost head unit, but shouldn't be ruled out entirely. I wasn't able to find any documentation on the head unit so it's difficult to suggest how exactly to check the settings on the head unit. I expect that there'd be an option somewhere to set the pre-outs to either sub or full range, or something along those lines. Because you only have a single set of pre-outs they need to be set to full range, if the pre-outs are for some reason hard wired for sub only you'll unfortunately need to try another head unit.

 

[jtvang125]

Here's some troubleshooting steps to see if its something on the HU or on the amp

-Disconnect yellow power cable on HU for about 5 minutes and reconnect. This should clear all settings and reset it back to factory default settings. Make sure you don't touch this wire coming from the car to any metal part of the car or the HU while its disconnected.
-Disconnect RCA from the amp. Do not use any splitters at this time. Plug the single pair of RCA to the front inputs of amp. Turn on stereo and see if you hear anything on front speakers. If you hear only bass on the front speakers then the HU probably has a setting to set the RCA to low pass only. Check manual to see if you can set it to full range. If you can't then this HU probably won't work for you unless you're willing to use speaker level inputs.

 

[Smoove910]

Based on your response, I would suspect the internal x-over on the amp itself. I looked up the model # and it is a 5 channel amp. It should be hooked up with channel 1/2 to your front left and right, channel 3/4 hooked up to your rear left and right (if you have any), and channel 5 hooked up mono to your sub/s.

It sounds like it was originally hooked up with channel 1/2 hooked up, channel 3/4 bypassed, and channel 5 to the sub, but for some reason now all you hear is the sub.

Here's a pic of your amp inputs:
http://www.audiosavings.com/viewer/...age_guid=8f5444bd-8f4e-467a-b634-649b5da60e22

You should have your RCA's going to the 'CH 1/2', if that doesn't change your outcome, you should adjust the high pass filter. If the symptom remains, you can try hooking your RCA's to 'CH 3/4' and see if anything changes.


Lastly, where are your speaker wires coming from your deck? All I see are your RCA's, red/yellow/black/blue wires. Where are your front left/right and rear left/right speaker output wires from the deck? Me is thinking they need to be connected to something, or at least capped off if you aren't going to use... but I don't see them at all. Here's a link to your wiring harness:
http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DEH-3300UB-Receiver-Direct-Control/dp/B004BLJXLQ

It shows a green/green w/stripe, a white/white w/stripe, a purple/purple w/stripe, and gray/gray w/stripe. Where are these?

I would still recommend a deck with dual RCA outputs, which would work perfectly with your amp.

Hope it helps, and good luck!

 

[Ackmed]

Whoa, so many answers. Obviously you can tell I did not put the system in the car. I traded a '03 Mustang for this '68 Mustang. It came with the audio unit already in it. I know generally how audio works, but once you get into amps I get sorta lost. My '03 had dual stock amps, but I left them alone.

I am going to try those recommendations later, I cant get into it right now. And I can post some pics of the connections on the amp, but I really dont know where they go. Mainly because I cant get into the custom box, without taking it apart. Or at least take the sub out.

Here is a pic of the sub, with the back seat out;

As far as the wires go, there is only one set of RCA cables plugged into the receiver. But on the amp... there are two. Not sure why. Then on the other side there is a whole slew of cables connected. Again, Ill get some pics probably tomorrow. I do not use any of the speaker wire, its all zip tied up. I only use the yellow for always on. The red is to the ignition to turn off the power. The black is ground. And the blue/white is to the amp. Again, it is hooked up exactly as the last radio, which was a Pioneer too.

I tried messing with the settings, I will unplug it altogether an reset it. There is a Sub 1 and Sub 2 setting. And you can set it to normal, reverse, or off. Off makes it to where there is zero sound, because only the sub is putting out sound.

I really should take the whole thing apart and see whats what. But from looking at it, it looks like its put together really well. The custom box is made nice and tight. There is a sealer in the hole for the wires running to the amp thats in a box, looks like hot glue. The wires and cables look to be all new, and are all hidden. But until I go, I wont really know what I have. But I really dont care as long as it just works. If I cant get this to work, guess Ill move up to a higher end Pioneer. That Sony worked just fine, but like others said it just didnt sound as good. Which really surprised me. Mainly it was the bass. I did not change any setting on the amp, before I tried to radio. I literally took the Sony model out, unhooked the four wires. Then hooked the same four wires up to the new Pioneer, and ran into this problem. At that time I messed with the sub settings. One at a time, putting it back to where it was before I changed it. Didnt do anything, but then again I really didnt know what I was doing.

Thanks for all the suggestions, sorry Im such a dunce with this. I am going to try either tomorrow or Thursday.

edit, remembered I have this. This is used on the front right speaker that you can see in an above picture. There was one on the left side. The guy took it out for some reason, and I left it out because I want to put manual in it, and it would be cramped. Not sure how this box is used, but all the connections have a wire in them, then somehow it makes it back to the amp. Crappy cell phone pics.

 

[Smoove910]

The pics of the zapco are passive crossovers used for your mids and tweeters. Your speaker outputs from the amp would hook into the +/- inputs of those crossovers. I would say they are rather important as they distribute the signal to what speaker, i.e. mids goes to mids and highs go to tweets.

After reading what you wrote, it sounds like there is a splitter somewhere that takes the RCA from your deck and splits it from 2-->4.


I decided to download the manual to your deck and see something on Section 02 Page 7. Here's a link to the manual:
http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/25/121/DEH-3300UB/media.html

It says your RCAs are either rear or sub output. So to get a full range signal from your RCA's, you need to ensure you've done the following:

1.) Press M.C. to display setting mode
2.) Turn M.C. to change the output and press to select. 'REAR-SP-PREOUT'
3.) Turn M.C. to change the setting.
REAR-SP:FUL-SW
PREOUT:SW-REA
- Even if you change this setting, there is no output unless you turn the subwoofer output on.
- If you change this setting, subwoofer output in the audio menu will return to the factory settings.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ackmed]

Hmm. that sure looks like it would work. I swear I read that manual over and over.

Just went out and tried that setting, but it isnt as easy as it looks. I cannot find the Read-sp-preout. Hitting the middle knob and turning it gives you two options, audio and function. It even says that in the manual link you left. Ive tried pressing it and releasing, and pressing and holding. No matter how you do it, there are only the two options. Ive been thru all settings I can, and cant find it. I feel stupid, and starting to get annoyed.. ugh.

FIXED
You were correct with that setting. The radio has to be OFF, then hit the SW button. Why couldnt they say that... or not have it default like this. Anyways, crisis averted. I was starting to feel ptsd kick in

Thanks to all.

 

[Smoove910]

Good to see it worked for you! I still think the 4v preouts would be sweet with your setup, especially if you could get a deck with 3 sets of preouts, 1 set for front l/r, 1 set for rear l/r, and 1 set for subs. Essentially you would have three pairs of RCA's running to your trunk, but the sound control/quality would be well worth it.