Aftermarket HU w/Infinity speakers + audio controls

[LibertyGuy]

Hello everyone

I'm looking onto changing the original 6cd HU in my 06 Liberty to a HU that has mp3/wma/usb port. I want to be able to use the steering wheel audio controls. I am also keeping the Infinity speakers.

With that said, what do you guys recommend HU wise? I'm not looking for gps or video playback. Just a HU that can play mp3/wma from cd or via usb key that I can plug into the face. I'd also perhaps like to have RDS(you know the feature that tells you the radio station name, song playing).

Thanks, oh and this seems like a great forum, glad I found it. Thanks google! nana.gif

 

[JLRockies]

you'll need a wiring harness, dash kit, steering wheel control adaptor, antenna adapter and it there's not an amp bypass kit you'll need to do the bypass manually. I believe the speakers are amplified at the speaker. What you need to do is cut the wire going into each amp, the wires going to the speakers and connect them.

Head units are all the same these days so buy whatever has the features you want at the best price. There is a chance the system will sound worse because when you remove the original HU and bypass the amps you will also be bypassing the DSP circuits that add equalization to cover the poor perfomance of the speakers. I recommend replacing the speakers as well since it's less work the the results will be better.

 

[LibertyGuy]

Oh...wow that sounds expensive. I know i'd have to buy the dash kit, but I didn't know I'd need a special wiring harness, antenna adapter, audio control adapter and have to bypass the Infinity speakers. Most HU that I've checked on crutchfield all have preamp outs. Can I use those outputs for the speakers?

I'm assuming someone has installed a HU with the Infinity speakers still in place. How did you do it?

 

[JLRockies]

you're going to need the antenna adaptor if you want to listen to terrestrial radio.... nothing to do with infinity
you're going to need a dash kit to make an aftermarket radio fit the opening... nothing to do with infinity
you're going to need the steering wheel adaptor if you want to keep steering wheel controls... nothing to do with infinity
you'll want the wiring harnesses to save you hours of work and blowing fuses if you're not experienced and have test equipment... nothing to do with infinity
you can use the low level outputs of the radio as long as signal ground is not comon to chasis... wouldn't count on it but without proper test equipment to confirm, the outputs will short out if you're wrong. It also requires cutting open an RCA cable and soldering the tiny wires to the harness I recommended above. This still will not solve the problem of possible asstastic sound from removing the DSP chip in the original head.

Buy the stuff you need, prewire by matching the color codes on the harness plug the antenna in, plug the steering wheel in put the dash back together and replace the speakers.... much easier.

 

[JeepOwner07]

You said you were looking at crutchfield, they tend to supply dash kits for free, look around and see what else you might get for free from them, in either case, the antenna adapter at best buy was like 15 bucks or less, the dash kit if not included from crutchfield should be around the same price up to about 20 bucks. Don't know about steering wheel adapter as i don't have those in my libby lol

 

[TreyVasseur]

Along with the wiring harness There is another adapter to make the infinity speakers work. I cant remember what its called but I had the infinity package in my megacab and I wanna say its like $150. Its to power the built in amp. Thats the only way I know of doing it. Ill check my storage I think I have one. I put factory stereo back in before i traded truck in

 

[12Bravo]

To get the Infinity speakers to work with an aftermarket head unit, I had to hook up the remote (blue wire) from HU to the wire harness adapter.

 

[LibertyGuy]

Yeah...sounds really expensive and complicated. Think I'm going to stick to burning audio CDs

 

[LibertyGuy]

Well I bought the wiring harness, dash kit and antenna adapter.

So all I need to do is hook up the HU's AMP REM wire to the wiring harness Yellow/Red stripped wire?

 

[desync0]

The wiring harness colours, should match the colours of the wires coming from the radio, the blue remote wire from the new HU either went to a blue or blue w/white. I can't remember off the top of my head lol

but do NOT connect the remote wire to the yellow or red wires, you'll *hopefully just* blow fuses.

 

[LibertyGuy]

The wiring harness colours, should match the colours of the wires coming from the radio, the blue remote wire from the new HU either went to a blue or blue w/white. I can't remember off the top of my head lol

but do NOT connect the remote wire to the yellow or red wires, you'll *hopefully just* blow fuses.

Yeah your right! I did some more research and the blue AMP REM wire from the HU hooks up to the blue/white AMP Turn-On wire on the wiring harness I bought.

I have to buy a separate ~80$ adapter for the steering wheel audio controls. I'm going to hold off on buying this for now as this part looks like it's going to be a huge headache to get working

 

[desync0]

With how close the radio location is in the KJ I didn't even bother with the steering wheel adapter.

 

[LibertyGuy]

With how close the radio location is in the KJ I didn't even bother with the steering wheel adapter.

Yeah your right about that. I'm so use to using the wheel controls though so I'll likely cave in and buy the adapter