Well fellas I purchased a pioneer deh-14ub I want to install it myself since i know how to get the radio out. I already have alpine that is past its time, it has an aftermarket harness. Ive search for a pioneer harness but Im not sure if its a complete harness or if I need to do some wire splicing, Im lost. Since I have the alpine is the antenna universal between aftermarket different headsets or do I need to buy another?

 

You need the correct harness for your headunit since it goes plugged in to the back of the stereo and not all the plugs are the same. Antennas for the most part are universal.

 

^ what he said

but your radio didn't come with its own harness??

 

Yes is has a harness but it has to be spliced. Im trying to find a harness, if it exsist, that doesnt need to be spliced.

 

oh, not sure those exists. but it's pretty straight forward, you just have to match up the wire colors/patterns with the car's harness.

get some crimp connectors from radio shack or something, strip the wires, and just crimp them tightly.

 

they do exist there called quick disconnect harnesses but there garbage you should just splice it together

 

Radio installed sounds great with my 4 way pioneers. Easier than I thought.

 

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Looks better in person

 

I"m thinking of adding an amp to my door speaker setup, so the ? is what is best way to judge which amp to buy? Is rms more important than wattage or is wattage more important than rms?

 

Sigh....

RMS is a measurement of wattage. It essentially means "continuous wattage output"

Amp selection is based on a combination of the speakers you already have (or will have) and the application you're looking for (4 channel, 5 channel, etc)

 

^ Hahaha!

It's pretty straight forward man. Check it out:

Let's say you replace all 4 door speakers with speakers that take 100 watts RMS. You'll need an amp that will push no more than 400 watts RMS (4 channels X 100 watts per channel.) Other than that just make sure that the Peak output on the amp isn't higher than the Peak wattage that your speakers will handle and you should be fine. If you want to get something to run the whole system off of look into some of the 5 & 6 channel amps out there. They have 4 channels for your mids & highs and 1 or 2 channels to run subs. IMO, you don't want to get into bridging an amp to run mids and highs especially if you're not super comfortable with calculating wattage output in relation to resistance (Ohms).

Side Note: A lot of times when it comes to high quality mids & highs less is more. I hooked my MB Quartz up to an amp I had laying around just to see what they'd do and they screamed! I had to wire them back to the deck until I can get a larger amp on my JL 15W6, saying they were overpowering is the understatement of the year...

 

not necessarily true...a some head room from your amp can be a good thing.

 

Is that trim kit black? Hard to tell in pics. When I bought mine the local shop said they only came in black. There happened to be a rep there from Kicker and he found one that matches our center vents darn near perfectly. To each their own, just wanted to make sure you were aware.

 

I've been messing with stereos since I was able to drive but I'm in no way a "master installer." Clarify for me, are you saying your speakers should be able to take more than the amp can push or vice versa? I was trying to keep it simple for him esp without knowing what kind of Pioneer door speakers he was running. Not Pioneer necessarily but we all know that some manufacturers stretch power ratings. I'm going to try and redo my system this winter with a bigger amp on my JL and a 4 channel to run my MB Quartz's? Quartzi? Whatever! So any info is greatly appreciated.

 

The amp shouldn't be working overly hard to power some speakers. The harder the amp works, the level of distortion will start to creep upward. My amp can easily fry my speakers, but I have it tuned enough to properly power them.