A/B Switch

Ok my parents are ticking me off so i had an idea.....I have a Sony CDX-1200 i pulled out of an older car and they wont let me put it in my 2002 Dodge Neon <sarcastic tone> it's under warranty</end sarcastic tone> so heres my idea, is there a way to create a switch to switch between the Factory Stereo and the aftermarket and have the aftermarket hidden in the console?

Yes you can hook it up but it would not be in your best interest to do it like this. $$$$$$ It sounds like your parents have legitimate concerns as it sounds like it is their vehicle. We all need to respect that fact. Now if you can get your parnets to read this maybe they can make an educated and informed decision. It is ultimately their decision and if they don not want it in there, not much we can do. They need to know some good solid facts however.

(1) in 16 years of retailing car stereo's I have never had a customers warranty on their vehicle voided by the vehicle manufacturer for changing the stereo. As a matter of fact I believe that there may actually be laws to protect the consumer in this case.

(2) the vehicle manufacturer or dealer may have led your parents to believe that it cannot be changed and if so then no warranty.

It is very easy for a professional installer to change the factory radio in a neon. Please go to www.scosche.com and look up the cj1277 (cj1279 if the dash is a rectangular cutout) installation kit and cr01 wire harness (maybe cr02 - I'm not at the store today) Both of these items are necessary to install an aftermarket cd player into the neon. If you use these pieces there is absolutely no modifications to the vehicle at all, no extra screw holes, everything bolts right into place and looks great. The vehicle can be put back to stock at any point in time afterwords. The harness is used so that when you unplug the factory radio, this new harness plugs into the factory harness and is color coded to the aftermarket stereo (an agreed upon standard in the industry). No speakers out of phase, no improper power wire problems etc.

For your parents, they can rest easy, if you really want this cd player put into the vehicle, offer to pay for the installation yourself so they know it's been done properly and that if a problem does arrise, the local dealer is there to look afetr them. If we all listened to what the manufacturer or dealer says about warranty on their cars when we own them, then we wouldn't be able to use winter tires either now, would we?

So the old concern about blowing speakers eh? Here is a simple way for you to understand blowing speakers.Let's say that you have yourself a brand new 5.0 mustang and you do the pilsbury tire bake off at every stop light. Next week the tires are bald and you need new ones. Is it the tires fault for crappy design or your fault for a heavy foot? A speaker blows beacuse of abuse, like the tires. The speakers job is to do what we tell it to do. If we feed a speaker distorion it says ok here ya go but I'm not going to like it. End result the voicecoils heat up and melt and down to your favorite store you go for new speakers. This has nothing to do with watts btw. If you want it loud, buy an amp for them. If you want more bass, add a sub. If you want to enjoy what you have, don't turn the bass control up, this causes the cd players tiny little amplifier to clip (distort) and send this clipped signal to the speaker. It's how we use our stereo that blows speakers. Be careful of your cd choices as well, some of the tracks are laid down with so much bass that they easily saturate an amplifier.

Experiment #1 - do only for a brief second. Trun your bass all the way up, play your favorite tune until you hear the speakers distort. Make a note of that volume level. Turn the bass all the way down, play the same song and see how loud it will go this time, then finally try it with the bass in the center. Bass / treble and loudness are all volume controls that when they hit the amplification stage can cause drastic effects on how we hear sound. Let me know how your mad scientist experiment goes Dr. Jekyll.