I bought a pioneer AVH-P8400BH head unit (6.5" depth, 7" screen) and the other dash components to replace my stock head unit, as I wanted more features that I couldn't get with the stock head unit.

The pain of course is the D2B fiber connections. I have spent a lot of time researching and still have some unanswered questions:

- what are the max rated watts of all the premium alpine speakers? I found an amp I want to buy that outputs 75 watts/channel and don't want to overdo/underdo it and damage the speakers (I am aware the stock amp is 40w per channel). At the same time, if each speaker can handle like 150 watts, then maybe I would want to get a more powerful amp. I want to get the most out of these stock speakers.

- what are the impedences of all the speakers? From my research I am inclined to say all the speakers are 4 ohms, but some places I read 2 ohms, or even 8 ohms.

- how many amps do I have available without needing a different battery/alternator? The amplifier I want to get is 50 amps I believe, plus 10 amps for the head unit.

- I have been thinking about putting the front left mid/tweeter and front right mid/tweeter in parallel versus how they are currently each on separate channels. If I am correct, the rear speakers/tweeters are in parallel, right? Are there drawbacks to doing this? I wanted to do this so that I only need one amp instead of two. Also, I didn't want to remove the door panels at all (since I'm getting this professionally done the cost goes way up if they have to take off the door panels).

-Some of the car audio stores I have talked with told me I would need to buy crossovers to put in the doors, but do I really need to? Since the tweeters have capacitors on them that act as a high pass filter I think (does this only apply to the rear tweeters?), shouldn't that be fine? (I'm not sure whether the current stock amp does some sort of internal crossover for the front tweeters/all speakers or something). The new amp I want has only 50-500 hz filtering for two channel pairs. (so three filter knobs)

- from just the wiring coming out of the stock amp going to the speakers, would I be able to plug those wires into an aftermarket amp (2 wires per channel for the fronts so they are in parallel) or is there more to this than I am aware?

- I noticed that the stereo has the options that seem like positional sound where I can select all, front, front left, front right, rear, rear left, rear right. I'm assuming this is not just some fancy trick with balance/fade, right? If it really is positional sound, does that mean that the amp is doing some sort of digital signal processing or surround sound? If so, does that mean to get the same quality out of non-stock head unit/amp I will need to buy a digital sound processor and will need to keep the front tweeters on separate channels? My new head unit has some of these features.

Any knowledge would be appreciated. My goal is to replace the head unit and amplifier with aftermarket, without needing to rewire the speakers or even take off the door panels.

 

replace all speakers, to remove panel takes 2mins then you no what your dealing with

 

After finding the page on the forum that describes taking off the door panels, I guess you are right. It's not too hard. I went to a car audio store yesterday and asked them many of my questions and they put my mind at ease. Getting an amp that is 75 watts/channel should be okay, but they did recommend getting crossovers installed for the front tweeters. I am assuming that the front tweeters are the same as the rear ones, right? In that case, I think I can get away with not having to buy a crossover at this point in time. In the future I may get a digital sound processor add-on to better tune my sound.

The amp I'm going to get is the JL XD600/6 - 6 channel amp. I'm going to put the front left speaker/tweeter in parallel, front right speaker.tweeter in parallel, and then just wire everything up. Each sub will get it's own channel. JL link to amp

 

I've also been thinking of upgrading the sound system on my car too.

That head deck you bought is a very nice one, make sure you take plenty of photos on the install. Im looking at getting a Sony XAV-601BT but looking at the reviews not too sure now.

You are better off simply getting after market amplifiers and speakers, they shouldn't be too hard to install at all. However you might need to buy clips on ebay for the door pieces, they are made of fragile plastic and will break off everytime you take the door panel off.

 

I sort of want to get new speakers, but don't feel like spending another $500+ at the moment. The head unit, amp, and anything else is already over $1000+. Since I don't feel comfortable doing the work myself (afraid I'll break something), I'm looking at $300+ for it to be professionally done. Maybe audio upgrade 2.0 will be the speakers. I am planning an upgrade 1.5 as well where I will put in the backup camera (I'm having wiring for that put in too in my current upgrade).

Plus, seeing as how my drivers power seat controls+ heated seat + mirrors stopped working all of a sudden today, I may be looking at $500 - $1500 in repairs in the future. That will make me have to put the audio upgrade on hold for another month at least.

 

sounds like a blown fuse or disconnected electrical connector

 

I disconnected the battery and took out the drivers seat, inspected all the wiring harnesses, unplugged them all and plugged them in again, took out the fuse and put it back in, put the seat back in and connected up the battery and it's working again. At first though it was sort of intermittent, but now it has been good for a little while. I'm still suspect that there is a problem, but I'm not going to worry about it for now. I have my mirrors in the proper position, and my seat in a comfortable position so I shouldn't have to deal with it for a while.

 

Question. Im looking to buy a x type, 2003, 2004 or 2005. Most likely a 2003. The pioneer 8400 unit mentined above is THE unit i want to get. My question is: in the x type, when you go with a aftermarket unit, do u HAVE to replace the speakers and amp? Are all the stock sound systems fiber optic?