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Looking to replace my shot Monsoon stereo system with the Level 3 Kee Audio system with a new Double DIN HU & bezel. Don't really have a lot of free time on my hands & haven't ever replaced a car stereo system before.
Looked around at audio installers & they were quoting me $400-450 to install it all. Does that seem high to you guys?
I should just suck it up & burn one of my days off installing it myself. Not really confident in my electrical skills though. I installed all the mechanical parts just fine but they were all basically bolt on's. How difficult is replacing the stereo system?
Well since your not touching the amp that is just freaking insane price quotes.
if you didn't order it already you will need the harness adapter, antenna adapter and steering wheel control adapter (this one is optional and only needed if you wish to maintain the steering wheel controls) wiring the head unit is literally COLOR CODED as long as you can tell the difference between a Green wire and a Green wire with a black stripe it's pretty hard to screw up. I can't comment on the steering wheel control adapter as I've not done one of them before, as for putting the speakers themselves in thats pretty easy to, you remove the panel covering the speaker, remove the old speaker and unplug it, cut the tips off the old wires (or buy the metra adapters) so you can add whatever terminals are needed and connect the new speakers and put everything back together, 4-6 hours TOPS half of which is removing and re-installing panels, if you weren't so far away I would do it for half that.
keep in mind it doesn't have to be done all in one day, you could wire the harness for the headunit one night when you have a free 30 minutes or so (assuming you solder and heat shrink every connection), then take 10-15 minutes (if your a firebird) to pull the bezel, make the needed cut to fit the double din and install the radio. then just replace the speakers in pairs as you find the time.
I have all the adapters. What do you guys think is a decent price? I was thinking $200 max.
If it's that easy maybe I should just do it myself. Would I need sound deadening insulation?
for just replacing stock speakers I wouldn't bother with sound deadener unless your just looking for an excuse to try to kill some road noise.
I sure would never pay someone to do something so very easy as installing the CD player it is literally color coded, just solder and heat shrink each wire.
I did my first one at like 16 and had never touched wiring before, since then I've had an aftermarket CD player in every car I've owned installed by me, which often required rewiring the harness when moving the cd player to the new car, I've done 2 in the last 2 months, moving my good Pioneer from my bird into my Trailblazer and putting a cheap Pioneer into the bird to replace it. I just got thru building this last week and still need to wire in my 4-channel and install the front door speakers, I have more hours building this box then it would take to do your install.
Take a night and pre-wire your new head unit to the adaptor while sitting on your couch watching baseball. You should solder, but I used really good butt connectors that have built in heat shrink from Lowes. I'm not after a competition stereo so this was fine for me. This should take you 1-2 hours tops.
Next, you need to install the speakers. This requires removing the door panels and the speakers them selves. All said and done a 2-3 hour job at worst.
You do have to wire the Kee speakers with the factory wiring harnesses. This takes about an hour or two if you are going slow and methodical.
Put it all back together hour or two, and your done.
Double din is easy, maybe an hour tops to adjust and get it in right.
If you are installing a backup camera, this will add a few more hours on.
Here is mine:
Totally something a novice can do. What do you value your free time?
I would recommend you doing this yourself. It really isn't hard to do and I have a step by step guide on my website you can follow to put them in.
Unfortunately, I have found that a bunch of shops out there are very dishonest or just plain ignorant to how this system works and they will screw it up about 90% of the time. They will do it their way and it will almost always be wrong and then they will blame the speakers for not being correct or some other BS in an attempt to sell you something that really isn't compatible with your car and then make excuses that they have to bypass the Monsoon system to get it to work right.
This is what Geek Squad teaches these guys and other old school techs just bypass anything that isn't connected directly to the head unit. Bypass it if it has an on board stock amplifier. Since they don't know how the Monsoon system works, they just do this across the board. If you know the system well and have the correct speakers/subs, this is completely the wrong thing to do but they do it on a daily basis.
Take a minute to read my installation FAQ, then get a pack of crimp on connectors for the door and rear hatch speakers, unless you know how to solder....female crimp on connectors work fine for a novice. If you have the HD-6M DVC subs they have spring loaded terminals...I had them built that way! Put them in yourself and this way it is done right. I highly encourage this.
You guys gave me the confidence & motivation to do it myself. Took almost three days but it's done. Everything worked out great too. Amazing system & I'm very pleased.
I have one question though...when using bluetooth audio from my Galaxy S5 I can control the volume from my phone & from the car stereo. Where should I set the phone volume level? This is a nice system & I don't want to blow the speakers out cause I'm not setting the volume correctly while using bluetooth.
You guys gave me the confidence & motivation to do it myself. Took almost three days but it's done. Everything worked out great too. Amazing system & I'm very pleased.
I have one question though...when using bluetooth audio from my Galaxy S5 I can control the volume from my phone & from the car stereo. Where should I set the phone volume level? This is a nice system & I don't want to blow the speakers out cause I'm not setting the volume correctly while using bluetooth.
I typically max out the volume on the android device, but I play thru the headphone jack, just try to find the volume level that most closely matches the volume level when playing a CD.
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Monsoon to Kee Audio System 
