dodgeramrod

Can an aftermarket head unit be used if the truck has the infinity sounds system in it from the factory. reason im asking is because Ultimate Electronics said an aftermarket unit would blow the amps, and would only work with new wiring and speakers?

Sea:\>Drive

It can, but it is not plug and play. You have to bypass the Infinity amps. If you plug and play, it will work, but only long enough until you get a little zealous with the volume ****.

Recommend changing out the speakers anyway, the Inifity's aren't all that. Go all new, it isn't too difficult a task, and with eBay, not that expensive.

CASMOKIN

Im pretty sure that an aftermarket unit can be used with existing speakers. You may very well end up blowing your speakers though.

As far as replacing the wiring, I dont think so . ( I am assuming that they are referring to replacing the speaker wire?) I replaced my stock speakers when I put my new deck and amps in. The existing speaker wire stayed in w/ no problems. IMO the stock speakers sounded like garbage.

Tom

ratsun

As said you will need to bypass the Infinity amps (depending on the year truck you have) but no big deal since most the Good HU now have as much power as those amps. I personally would agree that all the factory stuff is junk even when compared to the entry-level stuff the aftermarket world offers. You can use the existing wiring to a point but in some instances its just as eazy to run new than slicing into the existing all over the place. Each to his own but the stereo upgrade is a must in any set of wheels.

TRCM

I'm looking at spending $1000 right now to completely replace my system

kenwood KDC-X789 head unit
Polk db6500 speaker system front & rear
kenwood KSC-SW1 subwoofer (150 w)
profile ap1040 amp (80w x 4)

Does this sound good ?

ratsun

_______________________
I would say the first thing you need to buy is a 50 square foot roll of some type of sound deadener to seal up your doors with.
Then pick a HU you like the looks of and are comfortable with using (can you actually make adjuastments to it while driving?)as some are very complicated to adjust. I also like the units with seperate outpus for subwoffers as it allows you to remove the bass with a HU adjustment when not wanted. As far as speakers go thats as personal as ones favorite color. You have to listen to the different ones in the price range your at to decide. Certainly the Polks you picked are a huge improvement from stock but so would Infinity,Alpine,JL,MBQ, ect in the same price range but what sounds better to your ear is up to you. Subs well for them I can only say that the power to them and the enclosure they are in is more important then the actual sub. For power I would recomend looking in your local classifieds or ebay for some good old school made in the USA amps. There is never enough power (of any kind) Power is control and unfortunatly thats where the money comes in, but there is still lots of really good old amps out there that can be had at very good prices. amps like PPI art series, Zapco reference,Soundstream class As, rockfordfosgate, ADS,MTX to name a few all made killer amps in the early to mid 90s prior to the CHINA buyout invasion. Still to this day little has been made that will compeate with them unless you are willing to pay $10 per watt. One of the oldschool made in the USA amps rated at 50w will rock the socks off any of the China 200w jobs and I seriously doubt any of the China jobs will still be kicking 15 years from now. Sorry for the long winded post just tring to offer some advice that may save you some money down the road. Rock on

Rauschbo

If your stock Infinity system is like mine was, bypassing the amps means that you have to run all new wiring - not a big deal, just an FYI; As you're going to aftermarkets, the point is moot.

The Kenwood head unit you listed has 5v preamp outputs - that's GOOD, should work well with your amps...

Should sound pretty solid.

hotdram

TRCM,
I have a Kenwood H/U: The KDCX-879. I have had it about 2 years and love it. I believe the one you are looking at is a newer version of what I have. I really like the motorized face, it has plenty of power and has pre-amp outs. Mine also has RCA jacks for an AUX input. Couldn't tell if the one you listed does or not. Might want to think about one that has an AUX in, that way you can plug an Ipod/MP3 player into it

KDCX-879




~Rob

Gotlift01

Maybe I'm the oddball out of the group, but before I put my components in I ran my deck using the factory amp and didn't bypass anything. Everything worked fine and had no problems what so ever with it, I just didn't like the quality of the speakers so I changed them............infinity sucks in these trucks!!!




~Nick

P.J

I did the same. And documented by journey HERE
Once you get a few pages into it I posted pictures of what the front speaker "baskets" look like, how you disassemble them from the crappy stock infinity speakers and my experiences along the way.
I have to say, even a few months later, I don't regret NOT rewiring the whole truck. It sounds great and was not that big of a project.

Make sure when you buy the fronts (if you are sticking with 6X9's) that you consider depth. There isn't a whole lot of room back there between the door and the window.
If you are truely just trying to replace the head unit GO FOR IT! You can get a harness from Crutchfield that will keep all six of your speakers working just as they do now. you can make the decision to replace speakers in pairs or all at once down the road, whenever. I'm not really believing that the headunit will fry the amps, but I don't do it everyday for a living. I CAN tell you that I have a 50X4 Kenwood and my fronts have yet to hiccup, sound crystal clear to me (Siruis). No, serious, they do!

Gotlift01

Well I now have a seperate amp running all of my speakers just cuz they require a lot of juice, but the stock speakers and factory amp worked just fine with an aftermarket deck. And I'm by no way easy on my audio equipment, I had them suckers blasting with no issues



~Nick

Chrisreyn

what if the truck is so loud theres no point in haveing a radio in the first place????????????

CORed

Hope this isn't a thread hijack, but as far as head units are concerned, anybody have any recommendations for a DIN & a half size... that will more fully fit the 94-02 trucks than just the standard DIN size? I have seen some recommendations on older units years ago but they are no longer available.

Any thoughts? If this IS a hijack, just tell me to go away. :-)

P.J

The Din & 1/2 selection stinks. Maybe like 3 or 4 decent choices.

I was intitally worried about how a single din was going to look, but I'll tell you it suits me just fine, it's not like vast areas of plastic above and below the unit, like you would have with a Double Din.

mxdsl183

i hooked up a pair of pioneer 6X9's in my front doors and sisnt bypass the amps, is that why they sound like crap when i turn it up? whats the easyest way to by pass them?