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One of the things I put in was the Sony XDP-MU110 Digital Link Sound System ($49 from Crutchfield - they still have these on closeout). This really made the stock deck shine. It does not have that funky sound from the XM or radio - it sounds good now. I mostly listen to MP3s off a USB drive, and of course, that sounds great with the added Amp in this little unit.
Drives: 2011 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD & 2010 Hyundai Sonata SE
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Originally Posted by davidmiller
One of the things I put in was the Sony XDP-MU110 Digital Link Sound System ($49 from Crutchfield - they still have these on closeout). This really made the stock deck shine. It does not have that funky sound from the XM or radio - it sounds good now. I mostly listen to MP3s off a USB drive, and of course, that sounds great with the added Amp in this little unit.
Just looked into this. How hard was it to install? I'm definitely considering getting one now. I upgraded my door speakers but the sound quality still isn't up to my standards. Could you possibly post some pics of how you intalled it? Thanks!
It was not that hard. The two areas that were the worst/time consuming were running a new power wire (8 Gauge/50AMP) from the battery to under the front seat. The 8G is for the subwoofer amp as well as this Sony unit. If you were just adding the Sony, you could probably tap into something from the inside fuse box as its only a 10A fuse.
The second area that was a little difficult was getting to the head unit - but there is a great video on youtube for that (
The wiring is not hard - you are re-routing the speaker signals from the head unit to the Sony, and then back. The Sony unit comes with 8' of speaker leads into the Sony and another 8' of wire back out.
Once I had access to the headunit, I cut back from the wire harness about 3" and did all my connections there. In addition to the speaker wires, there is a 12V switched wire to connect as well. I used the blue/orange switched wire for that.
In terms of routing the wires, I took off the passenger door sill and passenger kick panel (just popped it loose). Once done, I could reach under the carpet and ran the wires to the slits in the carpet under the seat. I did mount the unit to a piece of plywood that is shared with the amp.
All said and done it took about 3 hours and this also gave me line out convertors for the sub amp.
I put two pics up - once from the passenger side where I have access to the switches and one from the rear. If you need something else, let me know.
Drives: 2011 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD & 2010 Hyundai Sonata SE
Gallery:
0
Quote:
Originally Posted by davidmiller
It was not that hard. The two areas that were the worst/time consuming were running a new power wire (8 Gauge/50AMP) from the battery to under the front seat. The 8G is for the subwoofer amp as well as this Sony unit. If you were just adding the Sony, you could probably tap into something from the inside fuse box as its only a 10A fuse.
The wiring is not hard - you are re-routing the speaker signals from the head unit to the Sony, and then back. The Sony unit comes with 8' of speaker leads into the Sony and another 8' of wire back out.
Once I had access to the headunit, I cut back from the wire harness about 3" and did all my connections there. In addition to the speaker wires, there is a 12V switched wire to connect as well. I used the blue/orange switched wire for that.
In terms of routing the wires, I took off the passenger door sill and passenger kick panel (just popped it loose). Once done, I could reach under the carpet and ran the wires to the slits in the carpet under the seat. I did mount the unit to a piece of plywood that is shared with the amp.
All said and done it took about 3 hours and this also gave me line out convertors for the sub amp.
I put two pics up - once from the passenger side where I have access to the switches and one from the rear. If you need something else, let me know.
Thanks for the reply! I will definitely consider this.
I felt the same way when I picked up my LX V6 last week. The stock radio is not even at par wit the Rondo EX V6 I owned previously.
I have the 3rd Row Seat as I have a big family and need the seating capacity. This left me with very limited options for upgrade.
I maintained the stock speakers and added a Pioneer Slim Sub. Its mounted at the back of the right - third row seat. The amp and high low converter is under the driver seat.
An update to the Sony DSP module that I liked last week ... So after some testing with my subwoofer amp to my component speakers, I have figured out that there is a fair around of white noise coming through the speakers from the little Sony DSP amp. When the speakers were hooked up to my sub Amp, I could barely discern anything, but from the Sony DSP - not so good and there is no way to adjust that part.
I tried to look for a way to have the Sony DSP (and my Sub Amp) off while the radio is off (vs. on the 12v switched wire from the HU), and the only thing that was going to be an option was a separate switch for the amps. I could not deal with that - having to flip another switch every time the radio is activated... So it was either live with the white noise, a switch or something else.
After talking to my local audio shop, they wanted to redo the whole thing with their gear to the tune of $600 (Amp, high quality line out converter, etc).
I called Crutchfield back (that's where I bought the Sony DSP) and I suggested a Kicker Amp that has 3 turn on modes - they swapped it out for the Kicker and were very good on the price of the new unit. So the Kicker's modes are:1. 12v Switched (been there done that), 2. 6volt off set (this is sensing the speaker wires for 6 volts - which wont work either), 3. Audio signal (this mode somehow senses the audio signal, not just the 6 volts). I have high hopes for this new Amp that the turn on mode will keep the amps off and I can have the gain way down to keep the white noise at bay when it really is on. I'll say a prayer before I wire it in...
If you can afford another $175-$200, JL Cleansweep sounds great. I was disappointed at first because I didn't have the JL Audio sensing adaptor ($10) so my head unit kept muting, but now my head unit is outputting as normal.
It is small enough to fit in the spot you had the sony DSP, calibration is a breeze. You already have the speakers input there so all you need now is 12v, remote, neg which you can tie into the amp terminals.
Checking in after having the system running for a while...(tweaked the settings and so on)
The C2's are just a bit hot in the tweeters. I have the treble down to -7 or so and it sounds about right. So, I'm going to take the xo's down to -3db. The quality of the tweeters is very good, detailed but not harsh. Just too loud for my tastes.
I cannot justify a sub. The C2's shake the rear view on bass heavy stuff and sounds really good at low volume. For the 5-10% improvement it's not worth a day or 2 of my time trying to build a box in the stock location... So, I'll just keep that $250+ in the bank for some other project.
The BA's sound OK but aren't in the same league as the JL's for punch. The BA's are very soft spoken in comparison. Not bad, just not particularly awesome.. and in the $100+ coax category, there are better.
PS.. just a quick note.. my installer put the LOC in a little tiny space below the clock in the dash. He lined it with moleskin and it was a perfect spot. Not ideal for adjustments but there wasn't a lot to adjust. All I have under the passenger seat is the amp and a distribution block.. (thought I was going to run the sub)
Last edited by carlman; 02-09-2013 at 08:45 PM.
Reason: added quick note about install
Thanks for the thought. I already had the 4 channel Kicker amp on the way. It showed up last Friday and I swapped out the Sony for the Kicker. The auto sensing mode (for audio signal not voltage) works as advertised and the amp shuts off when the radio has the volume at 0 or if it is off. The sound is great as well. I have a pretty nice set up now.
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Factory Radio Upgrade
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