fabric

maybe that should read "stereo installed" as the car didn't come with one!

I've had an Alpine 9851 for a while now, and finally got it into the car. I had started on this last weekend, but once I saw the original harness and din plug, and my stock alpine harness (crutchfield was of no help to me with anything - a phone call resulted in 0 useful info) with all those wires needing to be attached to something, I quickly enlisted my brother-in-laws help, as he's an ace at this stuff.

So after looking around here, it seemed the best course of action was remove the stock amp, and drag wire for the speakers from the right passenger side to the headunit and wire everything in directly. Hooked up ground, constant and ignition wires from the stock harness, and attached the antenna booster to the ignition wire as well. We routed the wires along the front of the passenger seat and then up under the carpet along the transmission tunnel. Clears all the mechanicals for the seats, and held in nicely by twist ties.

I also got the iPod adaptor. Put that where the factory amp used to be. It has a cable that goes to the head unit, then one to the iPod. Brought both of those along with the speaker wire, with the iPod connection going back under the center console to the armrest. Drilled a hole in the front of the armrest on the interior part, then snaked it up and in. Don't see it at all, but nice and easy to get at when needed.

All in all, turned out pretty nicely. My brother-in-law really did the bulk of the work, I just did little stuff to help, although I learned a lot about how stereos are set up.

Oh yeah, and it sounds really good. All the speakers sound nice, and it's great to have music.

If anybody wants a stock amp, let me know. Not sure it's really of much use, but maybe if somebody is looking to keep their shark all OEM, I don't know. I don't actually know if it works - I assume it does.

deliriousga

Congrats!!

I'm doing the stereo install tonight. Do you happen to have a list (or remember) of what wire goes to what speaker?

borland

Consider putting a Cmoy amplifier between your ipod and the head unit. Makes a huge difference.

Mine sounds really good too, but with the road noise on the freeway, I'm looking at sound-cancelling ear buds for my iPod. Sony has some and they sell on eBay for under $100.

Used to think it was unsafe to drive with a headset on, but now adays its unsafe to do just about everything.

http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

borland

Oh, and you can find already built (or kits) for the Cmoy amp on eBay.

bd0nalds0n

If you really want a treat, don't go for 'phones that use active cancelling (they can introduce artifacts), but use an in-ear type that seals out ambient noise. I have the Etymotic ER-4 and they're really really clear/clean/flat.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Etymotic_ER-...-30690254.html

Granted, they're not cheap, but I bought refurbed ones from Ebay and got around 30% off retail.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...760168375&rd=1

They really do seal well, though--you can't hear much of anything once they're in. Very much like using foam ear plugs, but with speakers built in.

fabric

Hmm, I'll need to look at the old amp when I get home, I'm pretty sure I have the color combo written on a piece of masking tape on it. I know for the back it's the green/brown pair and the green is positive, but I can't remember which side had the white stripes.

I'll try to remember to look and post a follow up this evening.

fabric

Thanks for the idea and the link. I drove home with it last night, and listened to both the iPod and CD. I had to crank them both up a fair bit on the highway.

A few people have had success minimizing road noise with putting that "great stuff" foam in the back quarter panel. Looks like there's an empty air gap between part of the chassis. I'm a bit reluctuant to spray a bunch of that stuff in there, but apparently it makes a big difference, and doesn't affect anything. Anybody have experience doing that (maybe the original posters who have been enshrined on John Pirtle's keeper page can chime in again?: http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/zbody_sound_dead.txt )

randu

Hi Fabric,
I have a 84S auto that the PO has taken out the amp and I would like to put it back stock. Let me know what you have to have for it.

Randy

fabric

John -

Here is the wiring break down on my 87:

LF - brown/blue
RF - brown-white/blue-white
LR - brown/green
RR - brown-white/green-white

The rears the green is positive, I believe the fronts the blue is positive.

Hope this helps!

fabric

You have a PM about this Randy.

deliriousga

Fantastic! Thanks fabric, that will be a great help.

Kevin in Atlanta

I bought an ICELink for my Becker 220. I use it to connect my IPod. It has an inline amplifier. It also charges the IPod. I sold off my 6cd changer for nearly what it cost for the ICELink and IPod.