Hello everyone


Every one of our volvo's have a radio with problems.

alpine amps seem to be high quality. wishing to replace alpine head units with aftermarket. Have been told by stereo shops that they will use the speaker wires which exit the output side of oem amps. But they will not use the oem amp.

there appears to be a wiring harnewss vo01 or vo01b which scousche sells which plugs into the output wiring of the amp which facilitates use of the existing speaker wiring ONLY.

It seems the wiring in the area of the head unit will be totally useless. This includes the wiring which originally plugged into the head unit as well as the round amp plug which leads to the oem amp.

I had a glimmer of hope that the amp could be used when we visited circuit city and the top installer said that the amps installed in 740 and 940 were of such quality that they could handle the signal from an aftermarket head unit. The implication was that the amp would not be bypassed but used along with a new aftermarket head unit.

He said that other auto mfg have amps which could not tolerate a head unit with more signal output.

If the amp could be used, one would need to find adapters for the both the amp and the wiring coming from the oem head unit.

Thanx for any discussion I am sure that any responses will start the education process for us

Bill

Don't do this. The OEM amps are absolute crap. Some of the worst car audio electronics on the planet. Just about any aftermarket receiver you put in will output MORE power and much cleaner power from its internal amplifier than the Volvo amp will. You would actually be degrading the sound quality by hooking up your new receiver to the Volvo amp. Just connect the speaker-level outputs on the new receiver to the speaker wires on the "powered" side of the Volvo amp.

By the way, once you hook up your new receiver, you'll want to replace the crappy Volvo speakers too. The only reason you haven't noticed how bad the OEM speakers are is because the signal going to the speakers is so bad from the OEM system.

My 960 came with the "Premium" system and the difference in sound quality after I gutted the OEM system and replaced with Alpine electronics and Polk speakers (with an MTX sub) is like night and day.

Just my $.02
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Lance '92 965 w/ 180K miles

If you are looking at an aftermarket head unit which has its own amplifier built in, as most do these days, the output from the head unit is at "speaker level", rather than at pre-amp level. I.e.: 1. You don't need to run the output through your OEM amp, and 2. The speaker level output is much higher than the preamp level input your OEM amp is built to handle. This is why the previous post made references to smoke, etc. You are very likely to fry something by running speaker-level current into the amp's input.

If you are looking at a new head unit which has pre-amp output connections, then it's a piece of cake to connect by adapting one end of the DIN cable to connecto to the outputs on the new head unit. There are several prior posts here on the pin-out designations on the OEM equipment. I have a 6-pin OEM connector with several inches of cable attached which you can connect to the connectors for the new head unit, it you need it. Don't cut the DIN cable in your car. If you're looking at a permanent installation, and not going back to the OEM in the future, let me know if you want to sell the 14-pin connectors from the OEM amp and head unit, and the 6-pin DIN cable.
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We have met the enemy and they is us. [Pogo] '99 S70 cop car : Rough Rider tires& suspension, Walmart fog lights, speakers by ebay, ambiance by Pall Mall, trim by Le Duc d'Tape

Those OEM amps are junk. The one in my old 740T was a noisey little bugger.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 80K mi, '96 965 >120Kmi, near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

You can buy connectors that you can use to wire up the head unit to the amp. They are called DIN connectors and you can buy them at an electronics supplier. I have one but I have been told the oposite info regarding the Volvo amp in that it only receives mV signals from the amp but will not handle the 1.5V that comes off a aftermarket head unit. If you are daring enough to try this and find out if your amp likes it or not (aka smoke the amp input), please share with us.

If you open up the head unit you can determine/trace the output signals going to each speaker as they should be printed on the cuircut board. This should allow you to properly wire the new head unit to the factory amp using a DIN connector.

Hope this helps and I defineitely don't want to be responsible for any problems that may arise from these 'ideas'(pls don't blame me;). If there is anyone with real experience in this area please shed some more light on the subject. Thanks in advance,

Tim