Stereo headunit compatibility

SoulSoak

SoulSoak

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Hey guys,

Some of you know, some don't, but I've now went through 3 factory OEM stereo units. The third replacement just failed. CD ERROR crap. So at $100 a pop, I'm no longer paying for what I know will continue to fail. Even despite the fact that I prefer the OEM look. So anyhow I've come across this...

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/p_29386_Absolute_DD-1000.aspx

It's very affordable and seems to have everything I would need. Unfortunately it's only capable of holding one disc at a time, but I could live with that. My main questions and concerns would be compatibility. Would I be able to take advantage of the Aux input that this unit offers? Because my current factory unit does not have an Aux input.

Also, I'm looking for advice on a clean installation. What kind of surround do I get? Or is that all dependant on the size of the unit being installed?

I suppose I could make this real simple by asking, will this unit work in my car? (I assume I'll lose steering wheel audio controls, but I'm not paying out the ass for an adapter and I'm also not purchasing more OEM units so oh well). And if it won't work, does anyone have advice on a $200 budget?

Thank you as always.
 
Thank you Joe. I'll do some more shopping and probably cough up a couple hundered for a more reputable brand name, and yes I'll only go with double din.

Since you chimed in so quick, would you mind throwing some intel as my aux input inquiry? If I curretly don't have aux capability via the factory unit, and I purchase a unit that supports it... is it as simple as plug and play and I'll have aux? Or will it require an additional adapter (assuming one isn't included via the new stereo) ?
 
All the head unit does is send a signal to the speakers (or amp). All of the Aux conversion is done in the headunit. Same for a flash drive with more music than a 6-disc changer would ever hold. An external disc changer just sends an audio signal to the head, the head amplifies it, then sends it out.

As for steering wheel adapters, I have an extra. It's a Pac-audio SWI-RC that works very well with my JVC unit. Crutchfield accidentally mailed me two and said keep it. Retails for $70. PM if interested
 
LSFrank said:
All the head unit does is send a signal to the speakers (or amp). All of the Aux conversion is done in the headunit. Same for a flash drive with more music than a 6-disc changer would ever hold. An external disc changer just sends an audio signal to the head, the head amplifies it, then sends it out.

As for steering wheel adapters, I have an extra. It's a Pac-audio SWI-RC that works very well with my JVC unit. Crutchfield accidentally mailed me two and said keep it. Retails for $70. PM if interested
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and I'll be in touch.
 
Aux in on aftermarket is usually just a analog jack. Pretty much anything will work with that. Who listens to CDs anymore? To me, having USB for MP3 on FLASH or better yet iPOD integration is the way to go. Even better if you get Bluetooth for phone integration. Not only will you have hands-free phone use, but would usually also be able to stream music from your phone. I'd really want the steering wheel controls. I use them more than ever since the aftermarket unit I put in doesn't have a volume knob. The buttons on the wheel are much easier to use without looking than the ones on the unit.
 
honestly, I can promise you a couple of things right off the batt with that radio linked too.

forgive me but I'm gonna be blunt here, everything that brand makes is complete trash... I've gotten to the point where I have to be very clear with any customers that bring in brands like that not only do that have a high failure rate, but it will get pricey having to pull it out and send it in for warranty work all the time... now, I have a huge thing against mobile video units that hide the disc slot behind the face to get a larger screen that come from great quality brands because sooner or later almost all of them break, but with cheaper brands, I'm amazed half the time when they open smoothly and work the very first time (plenty have not). this probably would not be a huge deal if you never used disc and never opened it up or used a tilting feature... luckily, they almost always break very soon so it always covered under warranty (which shipping cost half as much as the radio...) also because of the poor build quality, buttons and knobs feel cheap and work real sketchy a lot of the time. the biggest problem is they all have terrible processing and amps, so they actually sound worse than the OEM radio (believe it or not, the OEM radio is actually really well built and has great sound) loads of distortion that comes on a lot earlier that the OEM. then the interfaces tend to be complete rubbish.




if you really want to go aftermarket and not having to keep throwing money away is hundred dollar chunks, you're gonna want to go a little higher up the food chain, if you seriously only want to spend a little over a hundred bucks on just the radio itself, then you might as well not even consider anything with a screen on it, you're much better off just buying a regular CD/media receiver.

at a absolute minimum, I would look at the good brands like pioneer, JVC, and kenwoood's most basic models like these

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91061_Pioneer-AVH-X1700S.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91526_Kenwood-DDX272.html

both of these have a good radio tuner, single CD (any more these days is just silly as the need for CD has dropped and the added complexity just makes it ten times more likely to fail) USB and Aux in, and can be hooked up to the OEM steering wheel controls. they also have slightly smaller screens so the disc slot is accessible right from the front of the unit which makes it a lot simpler and a lot less likely to have problems. and with USB, you can just load a few hundred complete albums on a cheap flash drive and leave it in the glove box or center console.

personally, I wouldn't even consider a model without bluetooth, especially with how useful and powerful our phones have got (navigation, stored music, streaming music...) like these.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91062_Pioneer-AVH-X2700BS.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91176_JVC-KW-V21BT.html



all three of those brands will use a quality amp and have great EQ controls and will actually make the rest of the OEM system sound even better.
 
1LoudLS said:
honestly, I can promise you a couple of things right off the batt with that radio linked too.

forgive me but I'm gonna be blunt here, everything that brand makes is complete trash... I've gotten to the point where I have to be very clear with any customers that bring in brands like that not only do that have a high failure rate, but it will get pricey having to pull it out and send it in for warranty work all the time... now, I have a huge thing against mobile video units that hide the disc slot behind the face to get a larger screen that come from great quality brands because sooner or later almost all of them break, but with cheaper brands, I'm amazed half the time when they open smoothly and work the very first time (plenty have not). this probably would not be a huge deal if you never used disc and never opened it up or used a tilting feature... luckily, they almost always break very soon so it always covered under warranty (which shipping cost half as much as the radio...) also because of the poor build quality, buttons and knobs feel cheap and work real sketchy a lot of the time. the biggest problem is they all have terrible processing and amps, so they actually sound worse than the OEM radio (believe it or not, the OEM radio is actually really well built and has great sound) loads of distortion that comes on a lot earlier that the OEM. then the interfaces tend to be complete rubbish.




if you really want to go aftermarket and not having to keep throwing money away is hundred dollar chunks, you're gonna want to go a little higher up the food chain, if you seriously only want to spend a little over a hundred bucks on just the radio itself, then you might as well not even consider anything with a screen on it, you're much better off just buying a regular CD/media receiver.

at a absolute minimum, I would look at the good brands like pioneer, JVC, and kenwoood's most basic models like these

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91061_Pioneer-AVH-X1700S.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91526_Kenwood-DDX272.html

both of these have a good radio tuner, single CD (any more these days is just silly as the need for CD has dropped and the added complexity just makes it ten times more likely to fail) USB and Aux in, and can be hooked up to the OEM steering wheel controls. they also have slightly smaller screens so the disc slot is accessible right from the front of the unit which makes it a lot simpler and a lot less likely to have problems. and with USB, you can just load a few hundred complete albums on a cheap flash drive and leave it in the glove box or center console.

personally, I wouldn't even consider a model without bluetooth, especially with how useful and powerful our phones have got (navigation, stored music, streaming music...) like these.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91062_Pioneer-AVH-X2700BS.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91176_JVC-KW-V21BT.html



all three of those brands will use a quality amp and have great EQ controls and will actually make the rest of the OEM system sound even better.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the in depth write up!!

I'm just going to take your advice as you seem very familiar and experienced in this field. I'm going to order this one.

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ww.sonicelectronix.com/item_...VH-X1700S.html
I'm also going to order the surround Joe linked. Now the only question I have is, will the steering wheel control adapter that LSFrank mentioned be compatible with my car and this Pioneer headunit? And if so, are they a simple install?

Thanks for all the input, you've made my decision much easier and I'm sure you've saved me a ton of headache.
 
I'm on a bad connection amd having trouble loadong pages, but just google " PAC swi rc" and see if that radio is mentioned in the footnotes. Pioneer and JVC are both compatible brands generally and I imagine any radio i. the last 6 years from a name brand will work. The car does work with this device.

Installation is easy. You splice it between the steering button wire and the radio input wire. After that its just a matter of pressing buttons to program it. I just realized you're in Holland... No idea what shipping would be. May not be worth it
 
Holland, Michigan, not the Netherlands lol. I'll check compatibility and I'll PM you.
 
To be fair, there is someone around here or Facebook that lives in that part of Europe with their LS haha. There should be no problem then
 
Hey Frank, I appreciate your effort into helping me out but I found a very affordable source here.

http://www.amazon.com/PAC-SWI-RC-Steering-Control-Interface/dp/B004HKBY8G

I'd be willing to pay you what it would cost me to order it from them, but I don't know if it'd be worth it for you depending on the shipping cost. I'd rather put some money in a fellow members pocket rather than an Amazon vendor if possible. Let me know.
 
joegr said:
Might want to Google onlinecarstereo.com complaints
Click to expand...

I have always purchased all of my car audio from them without any defect or issues. All the way back from 2004. From Alpine headunits and type R subwoofers, to installation wiring etc. Maybe I've just been lucky.
 
Well I got everything. About to dig in. Only thing I'm speculative in is this whole ebrake wiring bull****.

I ordered a small 3 wire bypass harness that's supposed to allow the headunit to operate dvds and all other functions that are restricted by requiring the vehicle to be stopped. But after opening up the box the headunit was in, I feel overwhelmed as hell lol.

I'm assuming this install is going to be a nightmare, and I've completely quit drinking so this will be rough.

IMG_20150403_181048.jpg

IMG_20150403_181048.jpg
 
Everything seems straightforward except this small harness. It came with the headunit but the manual says nothing about it. It connects to the OEM male harness in my car but I have no idea what to wire it to. It has two RCA's coming from it, two Blue/White wires, and Two Black/White wires.
IMG_20150403_182908.jpg

IMG_20150403_182908.jpg
 
SoulSoak said:
Everything seems straightforward except this small harness. It came with the headunit but the manual says nothing about it. It connects to the OEM male harness in my car but I have no idea what to wire it to. It has two RCA's coming from it, two Blue/White wires, and Two Black/White wires.
Click to expand...

I would say search (has been covered a few times), but...
One of the RCAs is for the two center channel speakers. I wouldn't connect that.
The other RCA is for the rear subs (goes to pins 1 and 2 of the 8-pin). connect it to the subwoofer out on your headunit.
The two blue-white wires are the amp turn on signals. One is for the center channel. Don't connect that one. The other (pin 4 of the 8-pin) is for the sub amp, connect that to a 2K ohm resistor. Connect the other end of the resistor to the remote out from the headunit.
The two black-whites are to the cable shields. Connect to ground or not (debatable as to which is best).

You're stuck with the "bypass" since there is no parking brake engaged or not signal available in the gen II.
 
joegr said:
I would say search (has been covered a few times), but...
One of the RCAs is for the two center channel speakers. I wouldn't connect that.
The other RCA is for the rear subs (goes to pins 1 and 2 of the 8-pin). connect it to the subwoofer out on your headunit.
The two blue-white wires are the amp turn on signals. One is for the center channel. Don't connect that one. The other (pin 4 of the 8-pin) is for the sub amp, connect that to a 2K ohm resistor. Connect the other end of the resistor to the remote out from the headunit.
The two black-whites are to the cable shields. Connect to ground or not (debatable as to which is best).

You're stuck with the "bypass" since there is no parking brake engaged or not signal available in the gen II.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on that harness.

Now I'm just curious about the parking brake bypass. The headunit manual instructs me to connect the green parking brake wire from the headunit harness to the positive wire feed of the actual parking brake. My parking brake harness has 6 wires that come from the male connector plug that connects to the electronic finger switch. Do you happen to know which one is the positive wire?
 
SoulSoak said:
Now I'm just curious about the parking brake bypass. The headunit manual instructs me to connect the green parking brake wire from the headunit harness to the positive wire feed of the actual parking brake. My parking brake harness has 6 wires that come from the male connector plug that connects to the electronic finger switch. Do you happen to know which one is the positive wire?
Click to expand...

Like I said, you don't have one. You won't be able to. You'll have to connect the bypass instead.
 
1LoudLS said:
honestly, I can promise you a couple of things right off the batt with that radio linked too.

forgive me but I'm gonna be blunt here, everything that brand makes is complete trash... I've gotten to the point where I have to be very clear with any customers that bring in brands like that not only do that have a high failure rate, but it will get pricey having to pull it out and send it in for warranty work all the time... now, I have a huge thing against mobile video units that hide the disc slot behind the face to get a larger screen that come from great quality brands because sooner or later almost all of them break, but with cheaper brands, I'm amazed half the time when they open smoothly and work the very first time (plenty have not). this probably would not be a huge deal if you never used disc and never opened it up or used a tilting feature... luckily, they almost always break very soon so it always covered under warranty (which shipping cost half as much as the radio...) also because of the poor build quality, buttons and knobs feel cheap and work real sketchy a lot of the time. the biggest problem is they all have terrible processing and amps, so they actually sound worse than the OEM radio (believe it or not, the OEM radio is actually really well built and has great sound) loads of distortion that comes on a lot earlier that the OEM. then the interfaces tend to be complete rubbish.




if you really want to go aftermarket and not having to keep throwing money away is hundred dollar chunks, you're gonna want to go a little higher up the food chain, if you seriously only want to spend a little over a hundred bucks on just the radio itself, then you might as well not even consider anything with a screen on it, you're much better off just buying a regular CD/media receiver.

at a absolute minimum, I would look at the good brands like pioneer, JVC, and kenwoood's most basic models like these

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91061_Pioneer-AVH-X1700S.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91526_Kenwood-DDX272.html

both of these have a good radio tuner, single CD (any more these days is just silly as the need for CD has dropped and the added complexity just makes it ten times more likely to fail) USB and Aux in, and can be hooked up to the OEM steering wheel controls. they also have slightly smaller screens so the disc slot is accessible right from the front of the unit which makes it a lot simpler and a lot less likely to have problems. and with USB, you can just load a few hundred complete albums on a cheap flash drive and leave it in the glove box or center console.

personally, I wouldn't even consider a model without bluetooth, especially with how useful and powerful our phones have got (navigation, stored music, streaming music...) like these.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91062_Pioneer-AVH-X2700BS.html

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_91176_JVC-KW-V21BT.html



all three of those brands will use a quality amp and have great EQ controls and will actually make the rest of the OEM system sound even better.
Click to expand...

Guess here is a good place to ask you this: I've been considering replacing the HU in my LS with a Kenwood DDX271. What's the difference between the 271 and 272? I can't really find one other than the 272 is a little bit newer refresh of it?
 
Thought I was all done. Think again. New problem.

The unit doesn't turn off when I turn the key to off and remove it from the ignition. Weird thing is... if I disconnect the harness plug from the unit and reconnect it while the key is not in the ignition, it won't turn on.

So... while the unit is connected and I cycle the key to the run position, the unit turns on and prompts for initial setup. Now before I begin to set it up, if I cycle the key off... the unit turns off.

However, if I cycle the key back to run position, and I complete the initial setup (Language selection and phone detection), then go to cycle the key off... the unit remains on and won't turn off until I pull the harness plug out.

I'd begin by questioning if I have the remote wire connected wrong, but if that were the case... why would the unit turn off once started prior to completing the initial setup prompt?

So confused, wish things could be easy.
 
Do I have to do something with the illumination/dimmer wires? They aren't connected to anything. They are orange/white, Orange/black etc.
 
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