Scosche Adapter

[cham]

I am installing a Kenwood stereo in my pathy and there is but one wire I am unsure about regarding the adapter. Because I have factory amps, I have connected the P.CONT/ANT.CONT wire of the Kenwood stereo to the amp turn-on wire of the scosche. Does this also mean I have to connect the amp ground wire(which is adjacent to the turn-on wire) of the scosche adapter to the ground wire of the stereo?

[ferrariowner123]

Ideally you would want to wire around the amp and bypass it at all costs. Get your self a wiring diagram from the Factory Service Manual (which can be found in the "garage" section of the forums) and look for the speaker input and output wires, match side to side and corner to corner so that the fader and balance still work. The factory amp really doesn't push that much wattage and i think most modern decks put out more power.

 

The amp will severely limit volume range, at least that was my experience.

 

But i did not need to ground the amp at the stereo or have ever heard of an amp ground wire near the stereo. There should be only one ground up there and that's for the the unit itself. You can sometimes ground the outer casing of the deck as well to help with static or interference issues. Generally, its not needed though. (RESEARCH DONE)I just did some research on the "Amp Ground" apparently its something only scosche kits have. Either way, the site i visited (xterra forum) said that Nissan's don't generally use that. while i don't remember seeing anything, just see if that wire on the adapter kit actually goes to a wire on the factory radio wiring, if its a blank plug, its not used.

 

If you want to wire the amp in just to prove it works or see if your happy with the results, just wiring the Blue with white stripe wire, (may show up as antenna connect or ANT. CONT) to the amp turn on, will do the trick, but that wire will always be an amp turn on (%99.9 of the time, just to cover my rear). If i remember correctly the antenna (at-least on my SE 1996 model) Didn't get a turn on from the deck. I think it just went up when it detected antenna use? NO idea honestly, but i do not recall a wire from behind the dash that made the power antennas go up or down, if you have a whip antenna (which is what i replaced mine with) this is a non issue.

 

I have torn apart my dash way too many times and have changed the stereo about 3 times in the 5 years i have had it, so i'm fairly confident of the wires that back there, at-least in the case of my early production 96.

Hope that answers your question.

 

-Kyle

 

[jyeager]

Well, my experience completely contradicts Kyle.

 

Yes, tie that amp ground to one of the other grounds back there.

I did. Maybe that's why Kyle got no volume!

The factory amp performed great with my setup.

 

And yes, the radio provides a turn on to the antenna too.

I tied both the amp and antenna to the turn on wire.

 

Sorry Kyle, I just did this in my '97 and just about everything you said is wrong.

[ferrariowner123]

No worries, I think my early production pathfinder (11/95) makes for differences not normally found on normal production models or I'm not remembering everything correctly.

 

-Kyle

[XPLORx4]

This may not be 100% relevant to this discussion, but my '97 has a power antenna and when I connect the antenna/amp lead from the head unit to the antenna wire, it always goes up whenever the radio is turned on. I don't often listen to radio, and I usually use Pandora, spotify, etc through my iPhone.

 

So, to keep the antenna from raising, I wired in a switch in the antenna-power lead and installed it next to the cigarette lighter. That way, the power antenna doesn't activate for no reason.

[cham]

Kyle, I figured out the grounding wire so I don't have to worry about that but when I did install the headunit, it does have a limited volume like you said before it gets distorted or fuzzy, less volume than my previous factory stereo which is the opposite of what should be happening. I know all my wires are correct and snug but the speakers are just not performing like they previously did at high volumes. When I sit in the car the highs and mids sound better at medium to low volume but get bad with only a slight increase over medium volume and when I open the door and just listen to the woofer, it sounds echoey and fuzzy at parts. I believe this is because the current factory amps are being overpowered with wattage than what it normally was powered with when I turn it up. The Kenwood has 22 watts RMS if that makes a difference to anyone. Can somebody confirm this because if so I am bypassing all the amps because I NEED MY HIGH VOLUME CLEAR. Hopefully if I do need to bypass I won't lose too much bass.

Edited November 5, 2015 by cham

[cham]

Also how will by system sound with all new speakers coming straight from the headunit? Will it soound better most likely than the stock bose system( I already know I will most likely lose bass)?

[ferrariowner123]

Yeah, i can sympathize, it kinda sucks, all that work and its worse than before, but fear not, its maybe 30 minutes to and hour more of time before you can get your stereo where you want it.

 

Like i said originally, bypassing the amp gives the stock speakers the full power of the head unit, which isn't much but i think its more than what the stock one outputs (don't quote me). Its really easy to do, just find the FSM, go to audio in the EL section, find the pinouts for the amp, figure what color wires are inputs and which are outputs, splice the matching ones together and presto, no more volume issues. In theory at-least. The amp resides in the back of the car, on the drivers side, so you'll need to pop out the drivers side cargo paneling, its all just pop clips, just be careful putting it back, its really easy to miss align the pin and crush them rendering them pretty much useless for installation. I would also recommend removing the cargo anchor point closest to the panel, its kinda gets in the way. For my 96 its really annoying. they might have changed that on later models.

 

And to answer your question, new speakers will totally help with sound quality, but quality speakers are a must. I personally love alpine, but haven't tried many other companies, heard great things from Rockford Fosgate, and then the super high ends (Hertz, audison, Macintosh (when then did car audio stuff)). Just pick a decent brand like Kennwood, alpine, or Rockford Fosgate. and i promise you they will sound better than the foam junkers that "Bose" equipped models get.

 

Let us know if you have any other problems, i'm sure one of us can you give you some advice.

 

-Kyle

Edited November 5, 2015 by ferrariowner123

[jyeager]

Also how will by system sound with all new speakers coming straight from the headunit? Will it soound better most likely than the stock bose system( I already know I will most likely lose bass)?

 

Sorry you are having so much trouble with this. Like I alluded to previously, I put in a new head unit (17/55 watts RMS/Peak x 4) and new speakers throughout, including component speakers up front like original. I left the factory amp in place and used all the factory wiring.

Everything works great. I have more volume than I can handle before hearing any distortion. Just to get the most out of the system and to use a 5th channel for a sub, I replaced the factory amp with an aftermarket amp 2 weekends ago.

This also works well. Still using the factory speaker wires....next up, I'm going to run RCA cables from my head unit's pre-amp outputs...just because that might be better...???

 

I describe all that just so that you know that the way you have done it has worked for someone else.

 

Yet there is something wrong with your system.

 

Before cutting in to your amplifier harness, why don't you try an experiment? Removing the amplifier, disconnect the 2 harnesses. Identify the power and ground wires for the left rear speaker. There will be 4 total pins. + in to amp, + out to speaker, - in to amp, - out to speaker. Jumper across with a couple of paperclips with the stereo playing and see if the sound is good. If so, you know your amp is the problem. If not, your speakers might be.

 

I don't think anyone knows how much power the stock amp puts out, but it stands to reason it's something over 20watts RMS...otherwise the factory head unit could have been built to provide 20 watts RMS and the system wouldn't have needed the expense of the amplifier. But that's conjecture.

 

Good luck.

 

 

BTW, you are only running your rear speakers through the amp? Not the fronts?

[cham]

When you replaced your front speakers jyeager, did yours also have some sort of amp thing adjacent to the woofer like in the 2002 pathy because I have yet to replace my fronts and i believe that amp adjacent to the woofer is what is making the front speakers sound bad too, not just the rear speakers. Also how does your paperclip method tell if the amp is the problem? Also if the factory amp is generally around 20 watts RMS, what would happen putting only a tiny bit more watts do to the sound quality. Could just like 2 watts over the amp cause such a drop in volume like this?

[jyeager]

I had the Non-Bose sound system. Front components had no amp or crossover...just a resister in the tweeter acting as a high pass filter. So not the same as you have.

 

The paper clip method just allows you to temporarily bypass your amp without cutting/splicing...which is permanent once you do it.

 

And I think you are asking if a difference of just a couple watts would make the sound bad? No.

[jyeager]

Just to clarify. The non-Bose system had no separate amps in the front. Just a single 4-channel amp in the back that powered all speakers.