Mach 460 Swap out Questions

Took the plunge and swapped the HU for a Kenwood X879 (Sat tuner and ant) and JL audio compnents front and coax in the back.

Questions;

Should the shop have replaced all of the factory wiring?

Should I dump the factory AMPs or use the 5v from the HU to power them? (It does not sound like they are working anyway)

Will the 50 watts from the HU be enough to provide very good sound?

Last question, the HU was mounted on the bottom of the double din beacause the installer said that the dash kit can't work on the top of the double din? Looks out of place and glare is now a problem. Anyway I can get the HU mounted on the top slot?

Thanks for your help!

"Frustrated in Maryland"

1. No

2. If the shop already installed it using the factory amps you should be fine. It's usually easier to just do a rewire to the new speakers though.

3. The head-unti will output around 18 watts continuous, which is probobly a little bit less then the factory amps.

4. The installer is correct, because your dash is curved at the top right? If so then the head-unit would not have enough clearance for the top opening so they must put it on the bottom instead.

The only thing i can think of to get rid of the glare is to get a head-unit with an adjustable faceplate angle (many of the higher end alpines have this feature) check in your manual and see if this is an option for your current cd player.

Thanks for the response!

4.The reason given was the factory brackets are installed on the bottom and that they would need a special bracket to top mount the head unit. 

Is there a quick way to determine if the amps are working? On the factory head unit you could hear when the amps kick in 3 seconds after power up..Now there isn't any difference?