rusnak

Oh here's one for the oldie audiophile.

My 914-6 has an old Concorde HPL 515. Remember those? It's heavy, has the Mosfet converter, and a tape deck that has variable speed to compensate for voltage fluctuations.

wwest

In researching the Blaupunkt Monterey I discovered that it doen't have any "pre-amplifier" RCA jack output connections. So if you wish to use the Kenwood amplifier you will need to find a good electronics techie to locate the correct internal output signal connection point and add 2, L+R, RCA jacks.

Since the radio only has two (2 ohm speaker drive) output channels that should be relatively easy and inexpensive effort.

While the techie is in there you might wish to disable the (useless) cassette mode and and 2 input jacks for connecting an external auto source. Or you could always do that via purchasing a "dummy" cassette to couple in the external autio source.

rusnak

^ I would take that as a "no".

You could do all of that, but in reality it's much better to just replace the unit. There are better ways to keep the '80s alive than by keeping the actual head unit in the car. The '80s sound so much better on state of the art audio gear.

wwest

While I am clearly not one, there is something be said about keeping the original equipment intact, in appearnce at least.

Personally I have NO use for AM/FM radio, nor cassette drives. But having a dual channel audio input capability (multi-disk CD player, or even an Ipod, comes to mind), along with pre-out jacks, allow one to keep, "preserve, the "old" and still experience the best of the best for modern audio technology.

SARGEPUG

I don't want to change the Blaupunkt, because it adds so much character to the interior. If I was to upgrade it, at most I would go w/ an '80's upgrade, like and Alpine "six crystal"! At least that's what we would call it here in NYC, back in the day.

Crutchfield proposed this amp, here's the email message:
If you're wanting to add power to your system, an amp is really the only way to do so. One of our better solutions for this is the Alpine Power Pack:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500KTP4....html?tp=35782
It can be integrated in to any system and is the only amp we have that doesn't require a separate power line to be ran up to the batter. You'll get a big boost in power and it should really open up your new speakers

Will this be an easy install? I don't want to uninstall and reinstall the speakers that I just installed!

Jay H

We called 'em Chicklets!

That Alpine would certainly work. You'd have to use the speaker outputs from the factory Blau, run those into the Alpine, then take the Alpine outputs and run that back into the factory harness so you can still use the speaker fader on the center console. You can (of course) access the factory wiring harness behind the Blaupunkt and would not have to uninstall your speakers. There are probably a million (electrical) reasons to bypass that center console passive fader from a sound quality standpoint, but again, from a 'coolness' factor, it's kinda fun to use the factory controls.

Jay H

I'd LOVE to see that unit!

SARGEPUG

Chicklets! lol

What is entailed install wise? Do i need to take apart the dash to get to the harness? If so, prob not worth the aggravation to me.

SARGEPUG

These are the grills that crutchfueld recommended and that I just bought.

Jay H

If you are using the speaker fader in the center console, you may have to run this Alpine in bridge mode (2 channel mode) so that two channels don't go to waste.

I'd run a power lead from the positive terminal of the battery to this amp even though Alpine and Crutchfield advertise this amp as not needing a separate run to the battery like most amps do. But, a 12 or 10 gauge run to the + battery terminal won't hurt and might even help a slight bit.
Ground can be picked up anywhere you can find metal.
Switched power lead goes into the head unit. Tap into this and the Alpine will probably fire up every time you turn the ignition on, but that's probably fine since this is a new amp.
The Blau has only two speaker level outputs that could be used to feed this Alpine unit.

All of these wires are found behind the head unit which can probably be spliced into with the head unit in place. However, it's relatively easy to remove the head unit to get at the wiring harness.

I agree with putting grills on the rear deck speakers.