Tom in Austin

So I finally broke down and bought a new stereo head to replace the ancient CR-1. The new head has RCA jacks for the pre-amp outputs, but the OEM amp uses a six-pin DIN connection of some kind.

Posted the other day about how to connect these up (i.e. to keep the existing amp) and Alan suggested reaching out to Stefan at SW Stereo, who has (relatively pricy) special converter cables that do this.

But there's also the opportunity to just change out the amp, like this one mentioned in a post the other day http://www.soundstream.com/html/amps-picasso-nano.html which, of course, connects using RCA jacks and doesn't need a special cable.

Isn't changing the amp too a more logical approach than spending almost as much money on a special cable just to keep the 18-year old OEM unit? I recall from other posts mention of 928 OEM speakers having some non-standard ohm rating (2 or 4 ohm?), so I guess the next compatability question is what new amp is compatible with the speakers I have (original 6.5" in the rear 1/4 panel and Hans' new super-speakers in the doors)?

Alan

That is a resonable alternative, but depening on the head unit you have you may need up to a 6 channel amp to drive all the speakers you have. These are difficult to find in the size that will fit on the stock location. If your head unit has a 2 channel amp (or 4 channel amp) you may need less channel which makes finding one easier.

Or you could just ignore the 2 speakers on the rear quarter tops and only power 4 channels ...

Of you could mount the amp (or amps) elsewhere...

Alan

Rendergod

Tom, I went through the same process a couple months ago with my S4. The car had never been modified so I wanted to keep it as stock as possible, while upgrading at least the head unit. I managed to find the correct DIN connecter for the original Blaupunkt amp and soldered up an adapter between it and the RCA outputs of the new head unit, but unfortunately it didn't work. I finally ended up replacing the old amp with an Alpine KTP-445U which easily fits in the original location and works great. I did find the proper two-pin connectors for the old speaker wires so the job was done without cutting any original wiring.

Alan

Allen - this is 4 channels right? - what did you do about the other 2 speaker channels - use the head unit to drive them or just drop 2?

Alan

Rendergod

Alan, you are correct. I'm no longer using the 6.5" speakers. A powered sub in the back is now handling the bass.

anonymousagain

This provides all the connectivity for a small-form 2ch amp to run your 6.5's, especially if your sub is not a 5/6ch RCA, meaning it is dependent on Fr or Rr input/separation.

Point is, if adopting a remote sub (especially powered), your 5/6ch is already provided!!

fraggle

Dump the stock amp - most new head units provide MORE output than it ever did anyway. I ran new wires everywhere.

Paul Dortkamp

Hi Tom, did the same thing recently. New head unit, new amp and Hans door speakers. The amp is the Soundstream one, 4 channel in the stock location. Not using the smaller speakers in the rear as I am using a custom sub set up.

You can run the stock 6.5s off the 3rd & 4th channel of the amp. Use the head unit to decide if you will run the rears though the rear RCAs or the Subwoofer RCAs. Tried both and settled on the sub output. The stock 6.5s are 2 ohm only, check what the amp is happy with. If it needs 4 ohm then you could wire the rears in series and bridge channel 3 & 4 on the amp.

I was able to use the filter setting in the head unit to set the LoPass at 70 Hz, which keeps the voices out of the rear, but lets the bass notes through. The audio RCAs let too much voice frequency through.

To help the conversion of the amp, I used the wiring diagram and them mapped the colors to the ones on the amp. Also used an 8 pin plug and socket to make it easier. I will post a picture.

Paul Dortkamp

A picture of the installed amp. LHD car. There are two more in my subwoofer thread.

FiveElements

I'm getting ready to do the same thing... I found this deck after months of searching. It's the only deck out there that does DSP surround should built in without an additional processor on the side like Alpine does it.

Paul Dortkamp

Good find

Tom in Austin

Good info. My head does have another set of RCA pre-amp outputs for sub, so sounds like I could possibly use these for the 6.5s.

There is also a setting on the head to turn off the internal amp, which I've seen recommended for this particular unit, so my goal is to use an external amp(s) of some kind for all the speakers.