I just bought a new Kenwood mp3/cd player to replace my 5th gen prelude stock cd player. I was told by an installer who has the exact same car as mine that I am going to have a lot of problems changing out the radios. He wants to charge me $130 just to install the new head unit because he says he has to rewire the speakers because of the factory amps and acoustic feedback system. Can somebody fill me in on this or point me in the direction of a good Prelude audio site? Thanks

 

He's not correct - the rear AFBS speakers are 2 ohm speakers. So if you rewire them to bypass the AFBS on an aftermarket head unit - or even the stock one (which are designed for a 4 ohm resistance), you'll have problems.

If you swap in aftermarket speakers in the rear, you want to bypass the AFBS - which, by the way, is really easy to do. Probably 10 minutes of labor if you've done it before, about 30 if you don't know what you're doing.

I'd find another installer who knows what he's talking about.

 

Sounds like your installer is just BSing you so he can get some money out of it. There's absolutely no problem using a new headunit. Although the rear speakers will remain in MONO if don't bypass the stock amp. I didn't bypass, just hooked it up and sounded fine.

Jay

 

I found a site called Garys Prelude Audio FAQ...he says to not hook an aftermarket head unit up to the rear speakers because of their low restistance. What other options do I have?

http://personal.jax.bellsouth.net/ja...ludeaudio.html

"There is one other important peice of information about the rear speakers -- they are 2 ohm speakers, not the usual 4 ohm. The consequence of this is that you will overheat the head-unit if you attempt to connect these to a typical head-unit; most aftermarket amps can handle 2 ohms. There's only so much modification that can be done with the rears. (If you disable AFBS, I recommend replacing the rear speakers as well, or running them with an aftermarket amp; do not hook up the rear speakers to a head-unit.)"


[Modified by mah_00, 3:01 AM 5/2/2002]

 

It is possible to increase the resistence seen by the head unit. Most head units aren't MOSFET integrated ciruitry that can use lower impedence. Try looking into wiring a 4ohm resister in series or wiring both speakers in series to yield a mono 4ohm load. These are basic ways of coarse. Installers usually run resisters inline with a seperate tweeters so that they don't overpower the sound stage. Ultimately its more complicated to hookup, but possible. Get rid of the AFBS box. It is not an amp, just feedback circuitry. It makes a muffled low quality sound which is mono. Now you have 2 2ohm speakers to deal with. Goto http://listen.to/preludeaudio http://www.the12volt.com/index.asp , and http://www.kosef.re.kr/~jwkang/speaker.htm and get an idea how you want to wire these OEM speakers.

 

Your installer is just trying to make some money off of you. All you have to do is go buy a wire harness from your nearest AutoZone, Bestbuy or any other audio/electronic store, and install your radio....You aren't going to have to change out any speaker wires or anything like that...I've had probably 7 or 8 different radios in my car and never had to change any speaker wires

 

That warning is only if you are attempting to directly re-wire the head-unit to the rear speakers! If you just leave the AFBS amp alone, you can swap out head units with no problem. Buy a standard $15 wiring harness, and wire it up yourself, if you know how to crimp wires, etc.

To put it another way, you can just swap out the head-unit and hook up the rear speaker WIRES under the dash, and AFBS still works, because you're really wiring the h-u to the AFBS amp, not the rear speakers. The reason I point out the 2ohm bit is because a lot of people wanted to re-wire around the AFBS, under the mistaken thought that the new h-u is better than the AFBS amp.

Let me know if you need more info. I know it's a bit confusing at first, but then, there is no other factory system like ours! Once you see how it works, it's no big deal, though.

 

I asked my installer about this when I put in a Premier DEH-P430. He said "no sweat. The amps in the unit are durable enough not to cook-off. Just don't try to win any SPL contests."

Had this setup since November, plays louder than I can stand!