Ok i'm tired of my monsoon CD player not working but I am not sure what to do. The only reason I want to get a new stock unit is for the steering wheel controls cause I use them alot. I also dont know how an aftermarket unit would work with the monsoon. Will all the speakers and amps still work? What unit would you guys recommend if you had about $320 to spend?

 

I was thinking abou the Alpine CDA 9813. Is this unit pretty good for my car? What problems will I have with it?

 

That head'll do ya just fine, then you get ya a premade wiring harness that hooks up to the one that goes in you stock head, then you connect the wires between the head unit and the harness. Oh BTW there's a $15 dollar part that hooks you steering wheel controlls up to an Alpine head. Look around, its not too hard to find.

 

$15 part? who makes that

I know of the soundgate adapter, thats more like 75 for the alpines only

or the $60 ( http://store.clubgp.com ) PAC SWI-X adapter.

I have the PAC piece, and it works great <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

Ryan.

 

Can somebody please answer my question about if all the factory speakers and amps will still work? I will get the steering wheel adaptor for sure but i still want ot know about the other questions. If I cant get the Alpine 9813 should I get the Sony CDX-MP70, the CDX-M850MP or the Pioneer DEH-P7500MP? Help ASAP! Planing on purchasing within the next few days!!

 

im sorry, im used to the other site, where there is a FAQ sticky on top, with that answer in it.

Yes, with the standard GM wiring adapter, all speakers will work as originally designed with the stock headunit, or an aftermarket deck, w/ speaker level outputs.

The only decks that will not work with the stock system are VERY high end units, that do not have a built in amp.

Ryan.

 

So explain this to me then: I went to LaSalle electronics last night to pick up my new deck, a Sony MP70 by the way, but the guy said that they dont make wire harnesses for the monsoon systems to hook up aftermarket HU. He said that I waould have to either put all new speakers in pr run all new wires to the speakers. I dont know what the hell to think since I have seen quite a few aftermarket HU in Firebirds on this site alone. Any solutions?

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by SlowTA6:
<strong> So explain this to me then: I went to LaSalle electronics last night to pick up my new deck, a Sony MP70 by the way, but the guy said that they dont make wire harnesses for the monsoon systems to hook up aftermarket HU. He said that I would have to either put all new speakers in or run all new wires to the speakers. I dont know what the hell to think since I have seen quite a few aftermarket HU in Firebirds on this site alone. Any solutions? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">this is Very Simple.

Most car audio shops = morons when it comes to the monsoon.

The monsoon, is a cool setup, the way it was designed, GM used a stock speaker level output deck, and used this to feed an aditional 6 channels through an auxilary amp. it has its pro's and con's

PRO's

This allows the complete replacement of the deck, with ANY speaker level output deck.

Con's

You lose some Sound quality by double amping the signal.

The reason most stores are confused, is most other systems need fancy adapters to install aftermarket decks in factory amped systems. as far as i know, there is no such adapter available for the Monsoon, so the shop is correct when they tell you they dont have the adapter for the monsoon.

HOWEVER, there is reason they dont have an adapter, that is because there is no need for one, the standard GM wiring harness used on 95% of 90-2000 GM cars will work. Just tell them you need the harness for a 96 grand am, it will work fine.

the metra part numbers you need are:

Wiring harness- Metra 70-1858

Antenna adaptor- Metra 40GM10

Ryan. <img border="0" alt="[USA]" title="" src="graemlins/patriot.gif" />