hi everyone,

I have been looking at the wiring diagrams between premium and non-premium (no amp) models.

the non-premium (no-amp) models have a wiring harness adapter that's available on ebay which has 8 speaker wires that connects to the aftermarket deck wiring, making the installation clean and easy.

the amp models...well, that's a different story...

ebay suppliers are very clear in stating that the adapter does not fit the amp model cars .. I assume the OEM decks are the same, and the plugs are physically identical, but the wiring orientation maybe different? perhaps some one who knows better can confirm...

from what I can see online (assuming it's accurate), the premium models have 5 wires coming out of the OEM deck; 1 appears to be ground signal, and the other 4 are signal outputs going to the amp.

what I am wondering is if there's anyway to hardwire an aftermarket deck to run with the factory amp?

The aftermarket deck has 8 speaker wires & if it's possible to integrate such with the factory amp, does anyone know which speaker wire goes where?

If I have to bypass the amp and run wires directly to the speakers, or to the trunk, I am just going to abandon the project and get a replacement OEM deck.

Thanks in advance

 

update:

replaced the headunit from my x300 with premium sound with the spare headunit that I had from my other x300 (non-premium sound), and the 2 headunits are pretty identical based on my observation. Plug is identical, although there are less wires on the premium edition which corresponds to what I was seeing on the wiring diagrams.

still trying to see if there's an easier way of fitting in an aftermarket bluetooth headunit without having to run wires to each speaker...

 

I'm guessing one of the wires would be power to the amp.

Are the pin outs on the 2 head units the same?

 

As far as I know, both standard and premium setups have an AJ9500R head unit.

The big multi-pin plug carries power in and speaker-level audio out.

On a premium setup the speaker wires are missing from the car half of the big multi-plug and instead line-level is carried from the 5-pin DIN connector to the amp.

(The other DIN connector is for the CD changer)

So, while you could fit an bluetooth carkit to a premium-equipped X300, the carkit will generate speaker level audio and the speaker wires aren't there, they're at the back with the amp.

Edit: The IO Play-2 carkit (http://www.my-io.com/products/io-play2-overview/) is capable is generating Line Out instead of Speaker Out. Whether that's at the right level for the amp, I don't know, or how you deal with the fact the car kit is two channel while the amp takes four channels I don't know either, but it's a start.