mean00SS

i was wondering if i upgraded to a different stereo if the power would be reduced from switching and also if the steering wheel controls would work or not. my car came with only a cassette player when i got it the guy that had it before me only wanted a cassette player. i would appreciate your thoughts.

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

you'd have to buy an adaptor to get the steering wheel controls to work. i would recommend wiring the door speakers and the hatch speakers so that they do not pass through the monsoon. the subs won't work unless they go through the monsoon though. the monsoon distorts quite a bit. it may sound fine to you now, but when you actually cancel it out of the system, you really notice it.

mean00SS

what do u mean wire those so they dont pass through the monsoon, i wont have the monsoon i will get new stereo and i dont have a sub either, i was just curious about the steering controls and if i would lose power if i change out my stereo its all stock but is the 500 watts going to make difference if i take it out and put a different head unit in there, also where would i get this adapter. thanks for your help

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

i'm not sure what you are planning to do? just change the head unit? or change everything? what i'm saying is that if you just change the HU you will get better sound if you wire your speakers so that they don't pass through the 500w monsoon amp.

RawWS6

You can swap out the HU for something new just fine. That's the first thing I did on mine, all you need is the wiring harness and metra installation kit for your HU, can pick them up most anywhere that sells car audio. I forget the part number of the thing to make your steering wheel controls work, but note this - it's not an adapter. you have to have an aftermarket HU with a remote control. the piece is actually a little transmitter you have to mount in your cupholder or something...all it does it makes your steering wheel controls send the signals to the IR sensor on teh HU.

The Monsoon HU does not power all of the speakers, it only powers the fronts. the rest of the speakers are actually powered by the monsoon amp that's hidden in the hatch by the spare tire. it's a speaker level input as far as i remember, and putting in a new HU won't disable it.

for what it's worth, my stereo sounded better just with an aftermarket HU, even before i put in my new speakers/sub.

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

i don't think a new HU drastically changes the otherwise stock system that much. i say either leave it stock, or get a new HU with plans to get (at least a sub) in the future.

as far as what speakers are powered by the monsoon amp, the front speakers ARE. they are 2 way coaxials, and from what i've been told, the middle tweeter runs directly off of the HU while the midbass portion of the speaker absolutely runs through the amp. i know this because i recently rewired my front speakers so that they didn't pass through the monsoon at all, and instead were merely powered by the HU only.