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Head unit wiring

PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2010 7:45 am
by nitemare_liberty
Hey guys, im changing the head unit in my 05 safety and wanted to know if its better to remove the stock amp and re-wire all the speakers or get a harness adapter because wont the stock amp mess it up because head unit already has inbuilt amp?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Re: Head unit wiring

PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2010 8:47 am
by garbo41610
Change the HU, use a wiring harness and change the OEM amp if you can.

Or, depending on the HU that you put in you will probably find that the SQ from the new HU is as good if not better than the sound from the OEM amp. So maybe rewire the speakers to the new HU. I'm not sure of the how the factory HU sends it's signal to the amp, probably just high level inputs I would imagine, so you probably won't have to do too much rewiring.

Re: Head unit wiring

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:05 pm
by Ric
What head unit does your model have?
If it's the stock Kenwood unit, the amp is inside the head unit, and the speakers plug straight into the back of it.
If it's a McIntosh, then the amplifier is under the passenger seat, and the speaker wires only go to there.
The wiring between the McIntosh HU and amp is low-level "balanced" wiring. It is possible to drive the Mac amp from a standard "unbalanced" head unit.

Re: Head unit wiring

PostPosted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:28 pm
by teK--
There is no stock amp in the 05 Safety... it's built into the head unit.

Re: Head unit wiring

PostPosted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:53 am
by jp928
I have just done this - overkill. Mcintosh with separate amp that expected line level. I got a harness to go to the Mc amp output plug. Then I discovered that my HU had 4 line out connectors. To use these would have required adapting these line outs to plug into the large (25mm) round DIN type plug to fed the Mc amp. Only real issue is running the new harness under the carpet down to where the Mc amp was - seat removbal required.
I replaced the std HU in my 05 outback before with a JVC dvd mp3 reading HU, and with no other changes the sound was MUCH better..
jp 08 gtb 6mt wagon