D.I.Y. the long-awaited amp integration harness by Whiterice!

[whiterice]

Ok I've had several PMs about this and now I've finally got my digital camera working and got pictures uploaded and scaled and all that fun stuff. I apologize about the delay in time it took me here but hopefully this simplifies the process for anyone who wants to do it. If it's that popular I hope it gets the status of being stickied :)

Note: This process will INTEGRATE an AFTERMARKET head unit into the FACTORY AMPLIFIER. It will NOT bypass it, simply let the two pieces work together. This should also allow for factory tweeter function and if I recall correctly, factory sub as well.

Step 1: Obtain a harness (I used the Metra 70-1722) and a pair of 2 channel RCA cables you can part with.

Step 2: Cut the RCA's so that you have 4 individual male plugs with a small (6" or so) wire lead coming off.

Step 3: Connect the positive and negative wires of each plug to one channel of speakers off the aftermarket harness. One plug per speaker. 4 channels = 4 plugs.

Step 4: Solder and tape all your connections. You can use crimp caps and other connectors, but nothing will beat solder if properly done. You'll never see a crimp cap used in one of my installs.

Step 5: Tap the blue/white wire from your aftermarket head unit harness to the Light Blue* on your factory side harness. This will turn on the factory amplifier when the ignition is on. Alternatively and not as suggested, you could use the red wire. The difference is that the red wire will turn the amp on at any time you have the ignition of the car on, the blue/white will only turn the amp on when the radio is outputting an audio signal.

Step 6: Connect the rest of your radio harness wires to the harness you bought, red to red, yellow to yellow, etc. Solder and tape, etc.

Step 7: Plug in the harness, and connect the RCA's to your front and rear RCA pre-outs on your aftermarket radio! You should have full audio from your new head unit!

To assist, here are two pictures I have to serve as a visual aid:





*while it's normal that this wire is Lt. Blue, it's always smart to hook up the original stereo and test this wire to assure that it reads +12volts when the radio is on. This will assure that when you hook the blue/white wire to it that you won't zap anything accidentally. A good installer always tests before he connects.

[xmx250]

Major thanks to whiterice!! I'm running a pioneer D3 and this will allow me to retain my stock amp without all the white noise and crazy volume levels.

BTW one question. How do i know witch side of the RCA goes to witch side of the speaker wire?

Is the red wire from the RCA plug always positive? and witch speaker wire is the positive one, is it the one without a stripe?

[CrippyBlunt]

This sounds like a better way to hook up an aftermarket unit. I'm not too happy with the amp bypass...

[whiterice]

Generally the positive lead is red or white. Whichever wire is connected the middle part of the plug is your positive, the round outer part of the plug is negative.

[xmx250]

Originally Posted by whiterice

Generally the positive lead is red or white. Whichever wire is connected the middle part of the plug is your positive, the round outer part of the plug is negative.

Thanks. How about speaker wires. Are the negative speaker wires the ones with a black stripe?

[whiterice]

Yes, for instance, white and white/black, white is positive and white/black is negative. If you notice I taped a pair of RCAs, those represent the rear speakers so I know which RCA's to plug into the correct outputs of the radio to assure a correct balance/fader set up.

[xmx250]

Alright, sounds good. Thanks

[CNUco2007]

how do you deal with gains? on an aftermarket amp you adjust the input sensitivity to match the pre-amp output on your head unit. how do you do that in this case since the stock amp doesn't have an adjustable gain?

[whiterice]

Originally Posted by CNUco2007

how do you deal with gains? on an aftermarket amp you adjust the input sensitivity to match the pre-amp output on your head unit. how do you do that in this case since the stock amp doesn't have an adjustable gain?

I'd say it's nothing to worry about, honestly. I've used this method for a long time on any cars with premium sound systems and it's never had an issue before. If you look at Metra's catalog you'll see some harness are available with RCA's already wired in the same way, it's just that in this case they haven't produced a model for the Honda's yet.

[ffswizzlestick]

Where was this when i was doing my HU?

[xmx250]

Originally Posted by ffswizzlestick

Where was this when i was doing my HU?

I'm pulling my H/U to redo it this way

[ffswizzlestick]

I was just kidding thats actually how i did mine

[xmx250]

Whiterice, is that e-tape or heatshrink that you used to wrap the saudered wires?

[whiterice]

Originally Posted by xmx250

Whiterice, is that e-tape or heatshrink that you used to wrap the saudered wires?

electrical tape. I hate working with heat shrink, it always leads me to burning myself.

[xmx250]

Alright sounds good. I'm planning on doing sauder + electrical tape.

[red_si_in_jersey]

I started a thread about this months ago but didn't get any responses. Thought nobody was interested....maybe I should of changed the title....oh well

Connecting RCA jacks to speaker wires

[CrippyBlunt]

Originally Posted by red_si_in_jersey

I started a thread about this months ago but didn't get any responses. Thought nobody was interested....maybe I should of changed the title....oh well

Connecting RCA jacks to speaker wires

Maybe because you didn't do a D.I.Y. People seem to be more attracted to D.I.Ys. It allows them to do things they would not normally do on their own. Anyways, I wish I knew about this set up when I first installed my D3

[CrippyBlunt]

Originally Posted by xmx250

Alright sounds good. I'm planning on doing sauder + electrical tape.

Hey man! Good Luck and let me know how it turns out! Did you buy the steering wheel interface? Do it now while you have everything apart that way you don't have to go back and do it again...

[WhiteSicivic06]

So this sounds much better than the aftermarket headunit pushing everything? Mine actually cleared up a bit and sounded a little better once I put my Pioneer DVD head unit in! How powerful is the stock amp?

[bilzfan]

Nice work, i'm sure this will be useful for many others here as time passes and more people get brave enough to change the head unit.