Spent this afternoon overhauling the audio setup in my Turbo....

It came from the dealer with what I thought were standard front speakers, "Mac Audio" rear 6x9's and a really poor Sony CD/tuner head unit.

I didn't bother trying any cd's, because the reception on the head unit was poor, the rear speakers crackled, and only the passenger side front speakers worked.

So this afternoon I ripped the headunit out and started tracing out the wiring, as there didn't appear to be any speaker wiring present (only the power ISO connector). It was clear that the speakers were not directly connected to the headunit ... they were connected via phono leads...
"Hmmm.." I thought

So I traced the rear speaker wiring to underneath the drivers seat... I was guessing at this point that the stock amp was still being used; I move the seat all the way forward, flip it up, lift the carpet and... see a funky Sony amplifier staring back at me! Sweet!
I found the phono leads were a bit loose so cleaned the contacts up as best I could and then refit the leads.

Then I spent a bit of time fitting my headunit from my last car... actually, this stereo has followed me from two cars - I first got it as supplied with my Supra TT when it was imported from Japan (it had an all-singing, all-dancing satnat, av/tv, dvd setup.. ALL Pioneer kit); it's pretty much the highest end unit they've ever done (MEHP9000CD) and has a single slot cd, single slot minidisc, reciever, equaliser, dsp, cd/md text, dab control, 45x4 amp and hundreds of other things that i've never used ... I swapped it out to a mk1 MR2 that I bought, and then removed it when I sold both the MR2 and Supra (which were both to fund the 911 purchase!). Not a bad piece of kit for something I basically got for free when I picked up the Supra !

So the headunit got wired up to the ISO power block and fired up fine. Next thing I did was plug in the phono cables and put in a minidisc (disc 1 from the Chili Peppers latest album if you're interested - a fantastic album btw!) ... WOW! The rear speakers had improved 10x ... the crackle had gone and they were much, much clearer and deeper sounding. Still had only one side playing up front though; so I started tracing the other set of phono cables... funnily enough they also wound their way to the drivers seat... "Eh?" I was thinking... "must be a Y-connector to the amp or something" .... but no, this other phono cable went to the other side of the seat (front, not the rear)... I duck my head down, lift the carpet and set another identical Sony amplifier sitting there! I fiddle with the phono connections and the other speakers burst into life! Result!

Now at this point in time I know I've got stock front speakers, I've had the grills off and they look in good condition and sound reasonable.... but the rears are sounding much too good from what I've heard about them. They're definitely bigger than stock, as they don't sit quite right. I figure it's worth a look to see what are under the grills and gently prise them off - erm... they're not Mac Audio speakers at all... they're a pair of new looking 3-cone Alpine 6x9's!

So, from that initial crappy audio setup, with a swap out of the head unit and a big of jiggling of wires I've now got something that sounds much, much better and will end up costing me much less than I thought! I've only got a set of front speakers to buy now.

Isn't it nice when you find things in a new car? A handful of change is great, but this is better

Only one downside is that I've found that my little Alpine subwoofer (its a self powered one that is designed to fit under a seat - but with the amps under the drivers seat and turbo/fuel/ignition modules under the passenger seat, it ain't gonna fit now!) pretty much won't fit anywhere in the car

 

Megatron,

That is a result. I posted recently on replacing my front speakers and keeping the stock grills. I would be interested to hear what you do in this regard - if you want to keep the stock grills!