Sony MEX-HD1 Installed w/ Pics!

[Psychobroker]

First and foremost, I must thank both Justin (Jahntassa) and Mike (ragingfish) for all the advise given to me over the past couple of weeks with this install...Crutchfield buyers BEWARE, their GM harnesses do NOT come with a remote amp turn-on lead. Thanks to Mike, I knew what to buy from Best Buy and was able to finish the install. Here's a few pics...the first ones are meant for those who have not installed an aftermarket head unit themselves. I'm not the best at walk-throughs, so I hope this helps somebody Sony's promo pic:Sony harness on the left, Best Buy GM harness on the right (for a Saturn L series):NOTE: The Saturn harness' remote amp turn-on lead is set to the A3 pin slot (I think that's the location)...it SHOULD be in the B3 pin slot to workWiring soldered together:Soldered wires w/ heat-shrink tubing:Wires bundled:Final harness pic:Harness connected:Mounting kit, Sony DIN sleeve, antenna adapter, and subwoofer RCA's connected:Deck installed:Decl w/ faceplate:The MEX-HD1 doing it's thing (burning a CD to the HDD!)Deck open:Night shot w/ flash:Very CRAPPY night shot w/o flash (will update later):This is by far the most awesome listening tool I've ever owned...a dream come true! Thanks again Justin for the excellent product advice Here's a nice write-up about the MEX-HD1 with more pics.

[tbm34]

Psychobroker,Looks great, and thanks for the info. I'm kind of following in your footsteps upgrading my M&T package, starting with some Polk db6500 components.What did you do with your factory M&T tweeters when you installed your Polk db 6750 component speakers? From your pictures I can see you installed your tweeters in the door, but the tweeter grills by your rear view mirrors are still there as well. Did you connect the crossovers to your front and Rear channel woofer wires?Thanks-tom

[POLO]

Friggin awesom

[Psychobroker]

Quote, originally posted by tbm34 »Psychobroker,Looks great, and thanks for the info. I'm kind of following in your footsteps upgrading my M&T package, starting with some Polk db6500 components.What did you do with your factory M&T tweeters when you installed your Polk db 6750 component speakers? From your pictures I can see you installed your tweeters in the door, but the tweeter grills by your rear view mirrors are still there as well. Did you connect the crossovers to your front and Rear channel woofer wires?Thanks-tomHey there Tom...thanks for the compliment! I just left the stock tweeter where it is and spliced the crossovers into the front and rear channel woofers like you said...now that I think about it, that might not be the best setup. Maybe Justin or Mike (or anyone else) could chime in.

[Jahntassa]

Very nice! Glad you finally got it! Make sure you try out the various screensavers. For a white on dark dotmatrix display, it's pretty awesome!I think the only problem I have with it is you have to manually enter in the track data without CD Text (Right..? I think that's what happens) But..beyond that, i've always wanted one... glad to see it in a Vibe!Every setup is different, btw. There's nothing that says you can't leave the stock tweeters running with the aftermarket tweeters. I think it'd be too much for me.. i'm pretty sensitive to high-end.. but everyone hears different!

[HamiltonAudio]

Quote, originally posted by Psychobroker »Hey there Tom...thanks for the compliment! I just left the stock tweeter where it is and spliced the crossovers into the front and rear channel woofers like you said...now that I think about it, that might not be the best setup. Maybe Justin or Mike (or anyone else) could chime in. looks like a solid job!! the only gripes I have (completely constructive!) is:1. You left the org/wht dimmer wire on the Metra harness loose and untaped. 2. You soldered/heatshrunk your way to a nice harness, but then proceeded to tiewrap things RIGHT over the connections.Number 1 is bad because there may be 12V on that lead, dangling in your dash. It may also require a ground trigger, which it may receive intermittently (shorting in the dash) causing things to act goofy. Every car is different, but its still not good! Number 2 is bad because the connection points are the most sensitive. You've tied them together tightly with a tiewrap. In the process of all the wiggling and jiggling that harness will do in your dash (you do drive the car, don't you!? ), you may have a pair of connections rub through your heatshrink and short on you. Sometimes you get a little blob of excess solder or a "pokey" (a single wire strand that is hardened with solder, now read to poke through your heatshrink).if you haven't guessed, I'm all about safety. It looks very good otherwise!!! Should be easy for you to pull and clean up to be on the safe side...beezy

[ragingfish]

Pyschobroker:What's that black box on your sony harness? Built in GLI?

[Jahntassa]

I'm going to assume he tucked that dimmer wire in somewhere, as he did a fairly good job with everything else. As far as the heatshrink goes, he seems to have used fairly thick stuff, and apparently is pretty good with soldiering (as far as I can tell from the pics)I wouldn't be too worried about the heatshrink, unless he's autocrossing, the harness won't have much play when it's shoved back there, and the tiewrap will keep it from slipping back and forth.Mike: Yeah, that's a GLI/Transformer.. many higher-end units have that, including a good portion of the Alpine series.. helps reduce any natural noise in the power source.

[Psychobroker]

Quote, originally posted by HamiltonAudio »looks like a solid job!! the only gripes I have (completely constructive!) is:1. You left the org/wht dimmer wire on the Metra harness loose and untaped. 2. You soldered/heatshrunk your way to a nice harness, but then proceeded to tiewrap things RIGHT over the connections.Number 1 is bad because there may be 12V on that lead, dangling in your dash. It may also require a ground trigger, which it may receive intermittently (shorting in the dash) causing things to act goofy. Every car is different, but its still not good! Number 2 is bad because the connection points are the most sensitive. You've tied them together tightly with a tiewrap. In the process of all the wiggling and jiggling that harness will do in your dash (you do drive the car, don't you!? ), you may have a pair of connections rub through your heatshrink and short on you. Sometimes you get a little blob of excess solder or a "pokey" (a single wire strand that is hardened with solder, now read to poke through your heatshrink).if you haven't guessed, I'm all about safety. It looks very good otherwise!!! Should be easy for you to pull and clean up to be on the safe side...beezyActually, #1 would be a clear section of tubing instead of red/white/blue And i'll definitely remove the tie...I didn't realize they could affect each other in that way. thanks

[ArcsVibe]

Gotta say Psycho it looks very clean and professional. How does it sound? I also have a Sony (much much lower end) and I am very happy with it.Very nice bro! Love the custom job on your car

[tbm34]

Another quick question for you Psycho,Did you run your new Sony head unit through the M&T amp, or bypass it entirely?

[Psychobroker]

Thanks alot Sam It sounds and works like a dream, however, it's very evident that my db6750's need more juice, so I can't wait to install the 4-ch amp I ordered (audiobahn A6004T). The db's are rated to handle 10-100w RMS @ 4ohm, so the crappy M&T amp is only pushing 12.5w rms to each channel! The M&T amp is advertised as 200w (2ohm), which I am sure is it's peak rating, so that would mean it puts out 100w RMS @ 2 ohm or 50 w @ 4ohm into 4 channels..) Unless the HD1's 23w per channel supercede it? I'm not sure how that works...maybe Justin or Brian can answer this sub-question..? (thanks guys)

[Psychobroker]

Quote, originally posted by tbm34 »Another quick question for you Psycho,Did you run your new Sony head unit through the M&T amp, or bypass it entirely? Yep, I had to run it through the amp for now b/c I expect to receive my new amp anysay to run RCA's. I'm not sure how to bybass the amp w/o just removing and soldering/splicing the wiring directly...I would do it if it would improve the power going to my speakers...but I'll probably just wait for the new amp.

[Jahntassa]

Due to the fact that you're running 4 Ohm door speakers, and not 2 Ohm, yeah..the headunit amp would most likely be better with your speakers. Usually external amps are better because there's:- Less interference (lots of random electricity behind that dash)- Better heat dissipation- More room for the componentsHowever, because of the 2/4 Ohm difference, in this case, the M&T amp won't do as well as the HU.It'll be pretty easy to build a jumper to bypass the M&T amp, or to wire into the speaker output harness of the M&T amp, so you don't need to go too far to hook up a new amplifier.

[Psychobroker]

So, is it true that, because of the M&T amp, the signal to the door speakers are not at all being amplified by the HD1?It would make sense, and maybe the only audible improvement over the 6-disc changer is that I've now got the sub/amp connected with RCA's instead of the converter..

[ragingfish]

Based on the way you have it wired, the signal should be getting DOUBLE amped -- once by the HU and again by the amp. If you use RCAs, then the head unit should not be amping. But you used the main wire harness, which is an amplified signal already...At least from my understanding.

[Psychobroker]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Based on the way you have it wired, the signal should be getting DOUBLE amped -- once by the HU and again by the amp. If you use RCAs, then the head unit should not be amping. But you used the main wire harness, which is an amplified signal already...At least from my understanding.that's what I was thinking, but I really don't know how that works..

[HamiltonAudio]

Quote, originally posted by Psychobroker »Actually, #1 would be a clear section of tubing instead of red/white/blue And i'll definitely remove the tie...I didn't realize they could affect each other in that way. thanks good idea on the tie man...if you think about it, you don't want those connections made to be in contact tightly at all...just creates a possibility for problems. Only reason I bring it up is cause I've fixed this very problem as well as have replaced head units toasted because of it.Not sure what you mean by the red/wht/blue?b-money