McIntosh to Double DIN in MY07

[yardman]

Reading the Nexus thread the other day reignited my passion for an all-in-one unit. I’ve decided my preference to achieve this is via a double-DIN conversion.

I have the MY07 H6 with 14 speaker set-up so I’d like to pull the McIntosh head unit out, install the eye-watering expensive D-DIN facia kit/AC panel then wire in a new head unit, whilst utilising the existing amp and speaker set-up.

But, there is so much conflicting advice out there.

“Can’t be done” “Possible, but difficult” “Buy the cables from here (dead link) and just plug it in”.

So, audio gurus or people who've done this before – what’s the score? I'm a fairly competent DIYer, have wired in stereos before, but am struggling to understand what makes connecting to the McIntosh Amp so difficult.

Ideally, if I could just buy a plug-and-play ISO style cable I’d be happy to save myself the grief of splicing, but it seems this option is unavailable.

Thoughts/opinions please.

(Apologies if this topic comes up a lot, I've read a host of online articles across here, LegacyGt and other random sources and have yet to form any kind of conclusion)

[mihai]

The Mcintosh headunit uses a proprietary connection between itself and the amp for the signals (Also uses balanced signals). There are no RCA outputs from the stock headunit, or on the amp itself.

Therefore, in order to connect up an aftermarket headunit to the stock amp, you will have to somehow splice RCA jacks into this proprietary cable and then run RCA's from that to the new headunit.

Alternatively, you can replace the amp at the same time with a 5ch amp and then run RCA's from headunit to amp.

OR! You could wire the door speakers directly to the headunit (bypassing the McIntosh amp completely). This will work easily, however you will lose the sub and the door speakers will handle the bass (this can most likely be controlled from the headunit, depending on headunit capabilities).

[yardman]

Thank you Mihai, the internet can now resign – you’ve made this succinctly clear.

So, following on from your comments, I have the following options:

Butcher up some kind of harness that takes RCA from the after market head unit into the stock Subaru wiring to the Amp. Plus, wire-up the common signals. (I’ve been reading about this on LegacyGT)

Or,

Replace head unit and amp, but keep the standard speaker arrangement.

Either way has its pains but I’m more inclined to try the ‘butchering of harness’ just because I’m tight and like a challenge…

[wastegate]

You can get that 20pin DIN connector that connects to the AMP, there are a few Chinese places that have them but require buying 1000 at a time.. Still looking around for other suppliers. Was thinking of making up a harness for the Parrot to connect between the stock McIntosh HU and AMP. Technically not hard, just finding the parts for limited runs.

[chubbs]

i have just currently done the double din install in my MY07 STI lib, but i went the expensive way and installed Alpine PDX mono, 4 channel and alpine speakers. you will also have to install a steering wheel control module to get the steering wheel to control your headunit, which is bit tricky. all the best with the install

[DownUnder]

Buy some RCA ends from jaycar or similar and just wire up a plug. Should be easy enough. I find that sometimes ISO harnesses are wrong anyway. If you really don't wanna make a custom harness. Pull the cable out and take it to an autoelectrician and get them to make you one. Unless the McIntosh doesn't accept low voltage analogue signals and take some different kind of input (doesn't sound like it does)

[mynameisdaniel]

Unless the McIntosh doesn't accept low voltage analogue signals and take some different kind of input (doesn't sound like it does)

The Mcintosh headunit uses a proprietary connection between itself and the amp for the signals (Also uses balanced signals).

Is it even possible to create these balanced signals using a regular head unit's output?

[jp928]

I have done this in my 08 gtb. two main options on the connections - get a cable for RCA to the Suby speaker connector (that connects to the std amp) from Dave carter (aka SVXDC , posts here, so search), or get a HU that has suitable outputs to feed the stock Mcintoss amp - some models of JVC do this, as in my DV6105. As I had previously bought from Dave, I got a cable from him, and it all worked fine.
note that its a fair bit of work...I removed the front pax seat to get at things and run the new cable from the hu under the carpet and under the seat to the speaker connector.
choice of hu is critical - I found with the DV6105 that I don't bother with the amp (sold with rest of the mcintoss) or the sub woofer, and the sound is much better than stock. This model will play movies from dvd and also play mp3 files from a dvd, so I have around 1500 audio tracks on one disc, and you can do random on the whole disc.

jp 08 gtb 6mt wagon