Hinkie

Here is a claimed solution for coordinating the head unit dimming with the rest of the instruments. https://www.surrealmirage.com/vrg3/dimmer/

Hey Guitar Guy, I've done this too now, thanks to your posting and proving it possible. I bought a junk Mcintosh stereo from Japan to acquire the 20pin din socket / cable cause I didn't want to butcher good working McIntosh Tuner's - they are quality tuners, shame their integration with other stuff is harder than this! I also got thrown by the Red earth and blue wiring, and initially wired them to normal expectation (!) and got no sound! Eventually figured to swap, them recalling your comments about red earths and suddenly this great sound burst forth into the car. I bought the fascia ex Japan as that seemed cheapest. I did not realise they are original Subaru equipment. Came with an earth wire and antenna adapter (after I'd bought one expecting to need it!) Shame Subaru doesn't sell them less the Kenwood Air Con Control as I anticipate most people will be like me with a perfectly fine controller not needing replacement. I used a Kenwood Head Unit which (similar to the above referred Alpine) a blue Amp 12V on (Light Blue (!) "Power Control Wire") wire complete with an excessive dethump delay. The voltage when on and wired to the Red wire was 0, pretty much proving the Power Control circuits are current limited and protected, as is the amp! I used some shielded RCA cables, cut them short and spent a few hours laboriously connecting the wires and heat shrinking covers etc. The Kenwood has two Subwoofer outs which made me wonder. I'm using the red RCA alone and it appears to be working fine. Need some music with strong bass alternating between left and right channels to tell if I've limited the bass to one channel. So far sound works perfectly once getting over the Red earth problem! Haven't figured out how to get proper dimming light levels. I wired in the Outback's orange illumination wire but that doesn't seem to do much other than go from 12V to 14V when the lights are turned on. The associated while Illum Neg goes from 0 volts to 10Volts but in reverse to the dimmer so I am not sure how to exploit that. Maybe swap it for the orange lead but that might work it back to front? Also on the Mcintosh head unit there is a green wire into an 8 pin socket. Not sure what that's for and whether I should be using that, anyone know? The service manual says its a dimmer cancellor. (8 pin J900 socket) Soo once again many thanks for the posting and hope some others are encouraged as well cause the McIntosh speakers and Amplifier setup are IMO really good and its stupid to try to replace them.

Further information that may assist others. Some McIntosh Head Unit version and the US and Australian NAVI Service Manual's are on the Internet - searches Clarion PF-2551l pdf (A and B versions found) and Kenwood FGZ000MF2 and FGZ203MF2 pdf for the Navi screens. The 7" navi screen definition FWIW is 234x400 pixels. How to enter Test and manufacturing modes is shown. Feeding the McIntosh EF-1208l amplifier Power On 12V line with a 470 ohm 0.5 W resister may be a prudent safety step as they seem to do to turn the amp on. Delaying turning this on signal may be a useful dethump opportunity for anyone so effected.

Hi Subagurus Inspired by Super Guitar Guy and Super Stereo Installer I thought I'd share some information in appreciation of the super time and work these guys and everyone else generously shares here, thank you. I've decided to do the double DIN and install one of the new Kenwood DNX9180DABS HU with Navi and add the dashcam. Currently collecting my bits, plans, work in progress. I figure if I can get all that kit running my Outback will be more capable than a new one, (no dashcam!) and a hell of a lot cheaper! Plan is to use the existing amp. I think they feed 80W (RMS?) per channel but that's not confirmed. Still knowing how they perform I am happy enough with the McIntosh amp and speakers. In the mean time I wanted to swap the Japanese banded PF-4062l head unit with an (ex NZ GT Legacy) PF-2551l for the standard NZ bands. Thought must be too easy! Wrong! Swapping the units, which have the same plugs (not necessarily the same wires though!) proved to make both the McIntosh display and the upper Nav screen (Still in Japanese) just flash and will not work.... Quickly turn off.... After much thought and studying most of the Internet and with a little help from Jeremy I figured that the 4062 will have, being a later unit, a lot of stuff that integrates with the Jap Nav gear, and that it all connects through the 20 pin J800 socket that has a heap of wires that I've not traced, but they connect to the Bus, what ever smarts are therein, no doubt the intermediate SWC smarts (not found how Subaru interface the control with the HU, but probably academic) and the Nav and who knows what else. The more common Subaru 20 pin plug J901 just has the power lights and antenna amp power - all essential to run the Head Unit. So....Legacy PF-2551l will run fine in a JDM Outback as an interim radio for me. Woot. (without steering wheel controls connected) when one simply does not plug in the back J800 plug - for anyone wanting to try that. Will keep me going for now. For the planned Double Din install I've bought a "junk" PF-4062l from Croooober for its sockets, especially the 20pin DIN wired female socket. My original thought was to use all the sockets as that would smooth the interconnection, now that expectation I've now pretty much shown to probably be wrong so arguably it was an expensive 20pin DIN, but then seems they're not otherwise available at any price.... Part of the cost! For anyone wanting to also do this conversion I figure a junked EF-1208l amp could also be used as a 20pin DIN socket part source for the HU end to run to the Mac amp being used in the car. That would have been cheaper for me, but committed now. There's currently a cheap one going to the first taker.... I bought some RCA leads which I'll splice into the newly imported DIN plug lead at HU end which I figure will be robust enough. Also will need to feed the amp on (I assume) with the +12V "Power on" to turn the amp on. Plan to find the Original Subaru GPS existing device and swap it with the new Kenwood one. Seems no point installing the digital antenna on the windscreen as I think (open to correction) there is no digital audio around to connect to in New Zealand, especially the Wellington region. Yet to resolve issues anticipated. The McIntosh kitted 'rus feature 4 speakers in each front door. The Kenwood has some rel sophisticated frequency smarts for feeding different speakers different frequencies, particularly to protect tweeters. But they don't go so far as 4 different speakers per front channel with intermediate single feeding amp channels(!). I don't know but expect there is a crossover network in each front door (anyone know?) which'll do the frequency distribution just fine. So that leaves me with the expected question of what cut off frequency to feed the sub woofer, and whether I trim any base of the four door channels. It might all just work without fiddling with any EQ. Not yet figured out what to do with the Nav unit, expect the Backing CAM works and is appreciated, all be it at a liney resolution. Be nice to have a 720p front and rear cameras with the front one thru a replacement 720p screen mounted between the vents, and the higher defn rear cam thru the Kenwood. Not figured that bit out. Comments welcomed.