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Upgrading the headunit in your BE/BH (Macintosh amp'd system)


Scoobydoo

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Here's how you go about upgrading the headunit in your BE/BH, that uses the Macintosh amplified system.

The Macintosh units do sound and perform pretty good in their own right as a factory setup, but the main reason why people upgrade them to aftermarket headunits is because they require more functionality. They want to play MP3 coded CD's, connect MP3 players easier, subwoofers, higher powered amplifiers and the like, which is really quite hard and can be expensive if you get adaptors and such for all your devices.

The process to change the headunit is the same as here: http://www.clubsub.org.nz/forum/index.php?/topic/712-upgrading-the-headunit-in-your-bebh-non-macintosh-ampd-system/

Doing this will also remove sound going to the factory "sub" 6x9, but most people would replace this with an amplified aftermarket subwoofer. 

I won't go into how to hook up speakers or subs as that's quite easy. If anyone wants this info they can send me a PM. Any 6" speaker will fit into the factory speaker fittings, you'll probably just have to cut the angled backs off them if the magnets are too big.

 

Remove the trim on the passenger floor side to expose the wiring, and find these two plugs

01.jpg?dl=1

 

Cut the two wires that are Green with White stripe and Brown with White stripe, as pictured

02.jpg?dl=1

 

Cut the Pink/White wires with a little bit of length (as pictured) to allow the connection to the other wires you just cut. Remove the black cable protection to expose the wires

 

03.jpg?dl=1

04.jpg?dl=1

05.jpg?dl=1

 

Connect the Pink wire to the Brown/White wire and the White wire to the Green/White wire.

06.jpg?dl=1

 

Tuck the wires back in and replace the trim.

On the drivers side, repeat the same steps and find the same two plugs. Instead of the small plug having Pink & White wires they are Purple and White, and from the big plug find the Red/Yellow stripe & White/Black stripe wires (as pictured)

08.jpg?dl=1

 

Connect the Red/Yellow stripe wire to the Purple wire and the White/Black stripe wire to the White wire (as pictured)

09.jpg?dl=1

 

Tuck the wires back in and replace the trim.

You will now have all front & rear door speakers going.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

no :( hadta get wof... stupid guy that took it took my subs out and i cant reconnect them....

also, when u up nxt scoobs?

got sum new 6 x 9's

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

Am a complete newbie with car audio however am fairly practical, so think I can manage my project..with a little advice first! I have a 2000 Legacy GT-B E-Tune which has the McIntosh HU and underseat amp. The HU is refuses to play CDs 95% of the time, and I can only get 2 static free radio stations even with a band expander. So I bought a complete set from an identical car - it consists of (all McIntosh components) : HU, amp and CD stacker. Have done lots of searching on the web for advice on how to remove the trim and then HU, so I think I have that part sussed.

What I would like help with is :

(i) where do I mount the stacker? (surely in the boot - if cable is long enough)

(ii) does the cd stacker plug into the amp or the HU?

(iii) any extra advice on removing the trim/old HU would be helpful too.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Matt

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 matt1710 said:

Hi

Am a complete newbie with car audio however am fairly practical, so think I can manage my project..with a little advice first! I have a 2000 Legacy GT-B E-Tune which has the McIntosh HU and underseat amp. The HU is refuses to play CDs 95% of the time, and I can only get 2 static free radio stations even with a band expander. So I bought a complete set from an identical car - it consists of (all McIntosh components) : HU, amp and CD stacker. Have done lots of searching on the web for advice on how to remove the trim and then HU, so I think I have that part sussed.

What I would like help with is :

(i) where do I mount the stacker? (surely in the boot - if cable is long enough)

(ii) does the cd stacker plug into the amp or the HU?

(iii) any extra advice on removing the trim/old HU would be helpful too.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Matt

From another thread you posted in about loosing all your "warning lights" on the instrument cluster I would say that you have an electrical problem that needs looking into before going into replacing stereo's (just a hint as it could save you heartache)

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  • 9 months later...

Very good tutorial with awsome detail it made changing the headunit realy easy (saved running new wires for the front speakers :) ). One thing i did notice with mine though was there was two of those big plugs on each side both identical the only reason i got it correct was i checked the plugs and found those two wires when i unpluged the plug didnt match up to a terminal on the other end of that plug where they did on the wrong plug if you get what i mean.

Did i mention Awsome tutorial :)

Thanks

Cam

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I just pulled out the factory McIntosh system and left all the amp, speakers etc in place. Using the DIN cable that comes from the factory amp, I just cut the cable and attached some RCA's to connect to the new head unit. The wiring for the DIN plug was a mission to find, so if anyone needs it, here it is..

Front Preout:

- pink (+) and violet (-)

- orange (+) and blue (-)

Rear preout:

- green (+) and grey (-)

- light green (+) and brown (-)

Remote amp turn on is red.

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Any chance of getting those images back up? I'm fitting a new headunit tonight and I might bypass the factory amp... or I might not... I'll probably decide at the time lol!

The factory amp has some nice specs and is quite good now that I've done the adjustable gain mod for the subwoofer channel but with the new fronts, I've picked up a fair bit of hiss so I might try driving them off the headunit to start with.

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Nice one, thanks :)

I got the headunit mostly in last night. I ended up using the factory amp... I took an RCA cable, chopped it in half and joined it to the DIN cable that runs down to the amp. It has worked a treat but as expected, I still have the hiss.

The only real problem I encountered is that the aerial cable is to short to reach the back of the new HU... doh!

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  • 1 year later...

It may have been taken out. If that's the case, then there will be a white square plug and a black rounded plug.

I believe only the amped systems got a 6x9 Subwoofer in the boot too. So if you don't have one of those, and can't see the white and black plugs under the drivers seat, you don't have an amped system

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It is pretty hard to spot under there. The easiest way is to reach through the back drivers side door and feel around under the drivers seat. If you encounter something cool (if the stereo has been off) and finned then that is the amp.

You might be able to see the two plugs chrisjunkie refers to if you have the drivers door open and you look down the outside side of the seat as the plugs are on that side but I'm not sure if stock seats are narrow enough for it to be visible.

As chrisjunkie says, if it doesn't have a 6x9" sub in the rear parcel tray or in the rear of the wagon, it won't have the amp.

Oh, and obviously if the headunit in the car isn't the McIntosh one (something like this http://nzlamb.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/pf-2520i-a-front.jpg) then it won't have the amp either.

Worth noting, I put lower impedance speakers in at the same time and they have an audible hiss through them with the amp. It isn't noticeable when the engine is running and it *might* be due to the change in headunit but I suspect not.

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  • 1 month later...

Would the wiring be the same for the newer BP legacy? I am wanting to replace the Amp/Sub with something a bit better as the Sub sounds nice with the lower frequencies <50hz I'm guessing, The door speakers sound fairly tinny for handling any sort of bass >50hz

Assuming my numbers are the right numbers :S

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ok so apparently if you want to do this on the 2003 Legacy an aftermarket HU can't connect to the Macintosh amp, Basically you gotta get a New amp that runs front speakers + sub and run the rears straight off the head unit,

Rapidradio helped me with this, Since I'm setting up a Car PC I found the only head unit with Aux input Alpine CDA-105E so the car PC can run thru the head unit for audio

Otherwise hack up wht Macintosh and try wire in an aux input D:

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