I have a MY00 RS and my CD player died today so I'm going to be in the market for a new head unit since I will be glad to be-rid of this setup.

My questions about the stock setup (I have the “premium” speakers, if you can call them that, and sub under the seat) are:

- What is the max watts of these premium speakers? I don't want to get a head unit that is over that amount (correct?) or else it will be bad for the speakers (I think)

- Will I still be able to use the mini-subwoofer under the driver’s seat with a new head unit setup?

Also, if anyone has suggestions on a head-unit that isn't too terribly expensive I'm all ears (one that has an Aux. for my iPod too).

 

I just replaced my factory HU with a Sony Xplod with aux in for my ipod (99$). It seems to make the "premium" factory speakers sound better, although I plan to replace those too. I haven't had any trouble with over-driving the speakers, but it seems like the subwoofer (which is still working) is a little less responsive. That is, on tracks where I had to turn the bass down because it was too much, are good w/ flat eq, or even need a bass boost. Some tracks don't get much out of the sub with out a max out on the EQ on the head, even with tracks that were decent at only plus 2 or 3 with the factory head.
Anyone know why this would be? Can I adjust the gain or high pass on the sub to help with this??? Also, has anyone had luck with aftermarket speakers? My biggest complaint with the stock speakers is their lack of bass response. There's a big gap between the subwoofer and the midrange that should be filled in with mid-bass frequencies. The sub is nice, but with poor mid-bass response, there's not only a hole in the sound, but tracks that don't have lows low enough to need the sub much, have very little base. Am I making sense here??

 

Did you hook up the new head unit by yourself? If so, did you need any wire adapters / harnesses to get it up and running? I've been reading about installing head units (as I have never done this before) and saw that those two things might be needed depending on the unit itself.

I was just worried that the connection for the sub was something proprietary that wouldn't hook into an aftermarket unit without some hacking of the wires.

As for the sub, I've seen that there is a gain **** on the sub itself. Perhaps try adjusting that? You can see the thread here

This is the Sony one I saw that I liked because it is only $99 and has an aux port for my iPod

 

That is the HU I have. Actually, I had Circuit city install it. With a free labor install I only paid a total of about $131 for the unit and the install. Not too bad.
But to try to answer your question, you shouldn't have to do any wire hacking, I think you just need a harness. I think the sub is intgrated into the speaker system, which might be why it is no problem with an aftermarket head. Unfortunately, it also means that you can't control the sub output with the sub level control on the sony head, but since you don't have it on the factory head, you won't miss it. If I'm wrong on any of this, please somebody jump in.

 

All of your assumptions sound like they make sense. I'd still try adjusting the buttons on the sub itself under your seat and see if that does anything. Let me know if it does help

 

Hello,

I’m trying to hook up an am hu to to the premium sound option w/underseat sub in my 06 obs. I’d like to keep the underseat sub too… but…

When I removed the factory hu (it’s the one with 6 disc changer) I found that there is a special little harness that plugs into the back of the deck to send an audio signal to the sub. It’s a proprietary harness with two wires leading away from the hu and on short wire that bridges from one of the sockets in the harness and then directly back to an adjacent socket. So far, I haven’t figured out how to wire this into the harness that connects to my new sony hu. There is quite a bit of info in the scoobymod forums about the connection to the sub, but I haven’t found anything about the connection to/from the factory hu. If anybody has any experience with an install like this I’d really appreciate your advice. Cheerio!

 

it's just the harness if you are keeping the stock speakers/underseat sub.
you can buy them at circuit city