2 Head Units

Hi guys,
    I asked my brother to get me a cd changer for my Sony XR-CA360 head unit. He is in another country and wants to send it to me with someone. The problem is he cannot find one and wants to send me a cd head unit instead.

    I don't want to remove the first one because I still want my car to play tapes. Is that possible? If it is would someone tell me how? Because I don't want to try something and fry one of the units.

Thanx a lot guys

Yes its completely possibly, the worst part about it is find space to put hte second HU.  You will need to wire all of the speaker leads and everything in parallel, and then switch the ACC wire, just wire both of the ACCs to a toggle, it should be (1)ACC of HU #1 (2 center)Switched 12v (3)ACC of HU #2, you may also need to use a relay, Im not completely sure, it all depends on how much power the decks are drawing.

sk8's right about the wiring, but my question is why dont u just get one of those double din players that has the CD and casset player built in?

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"Shiny chrome when used in conjunction with bikini models is particularly effective in inducing brain deficit disorder"

02 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Monster System on its way.

Thanx a lot guys,
     The thing is, I don't want to sell the head unit I have because I would lose a lot of money. Buying another head unit would be cheaper than getting a double din player and I almost never use a cassete. If you want to know how much this costs here, I paid a full-month's pay cheque for a sony 222 amp a couple of months ago (I work more that 50 hours a week and get 126$ US, I'm arranging for a better job now).

     The car has space to put 3 head units. It is a Corolla '89 and it came with separate cassete and radio player, and then we removed the cassete player and added a better one.

     I have 2 rear speakers connected to the 222 amp, and 2 front speakers connected directly to the player. Can I connect the cd player to the RCA connectors of the amp and the cassete player to the high level inputs??

     About the power thing, this is what I'm thinking. I'll drive both players from the ignition harness. I'll connect the CD player directly to the switched power and the cassete player to a relay that is controlled by the CD's remote turn on lead. When the CD player is on, the remote turn on wire cuts the power from the switched 12V source and disables the cassete player, when its off, the casste player can be used. I'll connect both remote turn on wires to diodes, the output of the diodes to each other and then to the amp. Is that possible??

     Now, about the front speakers. Just want to make sure, can I connect the positive terminal from the cd player to the positive terminal of the cassete player then to the speakers, and do the same for the negative terminals??? Since only one of them would be turned on at a time. I can also put a relay on the power input for the cd player so its turned off when the cassete player starts playing.

That was a lot .
Thanx for the help guys

please do NOT wire the speaker wires in parallel. you will be causing damage to one or both of your head units. you need to use or create a proper switching system. you can create this switching system with 9 spdt relays, or 2 of these relays.

if you're comfortable with wiring relays, then just wire up each speaker wire to the 2 h/u's in a 5 wire reverse polarity method. that will account for 8 relays since there's 8 speaker wires. since your rear speakers are powered by an external amp, you will need to isolate the rca's rather than the speaker wires in the same method. the odds of encoutering engine noise when doing this increases exponentially. the 9th relay is used to make a for a stronger remote turn-on signal to turn on so many relays and the external amp.

this task is time-consuming, somewhat confusing, and patience-testing. it's not usually something i recommend most people to try. i honestly suggest you get a cd changer and be done with it.

Thanx jimmeezgolfvr6,
    About the front speakers, I don't need to hook them up to the casste player since I don't use cassets at all, so I can use the rear speakers only when using those.

    Now, about the rear speakers, can I connect the amp as I said in the previous post?

    I do agree with you that getting a changer is much better, but what if my bro doesn't find one. He is an accountant and that is not what he's best at.

regards

If both the head units have at least 2 sets of RCAs then you could just go with a RCA switcher. Ii automatically switches the signal between head units when it senses an audio signal.   

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Duane...

If you think you're confused, imagine how you feel.   

Hi Sweekster,
     I don't think I can find something like that here and I definitly know my brother doesn't know how to find this kinda stuff. My sony HU only has 1 RCA output for the rear channels.

     I was wondering, I really didn't understand what jimmeezgolfvr6 about "5 wire reverse polarity method". Does anybody have a diagram for that??

     Will wiring those relays cause any quality loss? I don't have a problem with wiring a relay. I designed and emplemented a small computer based on a Motorolla 68K CPU using a wire rapper. Now THAT needs patience.

     I can control the relay using the remote turn on of one of the players. Will this and the switched power with the relays thing I mentioned earlier work??

     I'm thinking about getting the Alpine CDA-9825. It has Aux input but I don't know if I can find the optional part. I was asking just in case.

Thanx guys.
Regards

up on the upper left part of this screen, in the blue area, click on "relays". There's some really good stuff in there.

You could watch e-bay for a cd changer. I'm guessing your cassette deck is a couple years old? You'd need to find out the compatible model #'s, either from your owner's manual or sony's website or call their customer service. They probably don't sell too many that are new anymore..  though this would be your easiest and hassle free hookup.

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You'd better get me out of this lord... or else you'll have me to deal with. -- Hunter S. Thompson "F.A.L.I.L.V."

let's pretend that your existing h/u can be called deck #1 and the new h/u be called deck #2. here's how to do a 5-wire reverse polarity:

pin #85 = ground
pin #86 = remote turn-on from deck #2
pin #87 = 1 wire of speaker output from deck #2
pin #87a = 1 wire of speaker output from deck #1
pin #30 = 1 wire of speaker lead going to a speaker

to do this with rca's you need to open them up and treat each outer and inner portion as a speaker wire.

also, most sony changers in the last 10 years or so will be able to work with most sony h/u's (ones with changer control) of the last 10 years. btw, if you don't listen to cassettes, then why bother with all this at all? just replace your existing cassette deck with the new cd player! good luck!

Hi guys,
     You still haven't answered my questions. Will the relays cause any quality loss, and will switching the power using the remote turn on wire work as well?

     My casstte player is UniLink enabled, so it will work on most changers available today.

in your case, the quality loss is negligible on the front speakers. you probably won't notice it. but if done to the rca's, the chances of picking up engine noise is much higher. switching the power usind the remote turn-on wire will work, but all you're doing is using one deck to turn off the other. you still cannot wire speaker wires in parallel.

Thanx man,
     So I should be using the high level outputs of both units for all the channels. I heard that this can cause a lot of noise, is that true?? There is a connecter that has 2 male RCAs as input and one RCA output. Can I use that?? It transforms from sterio to mono. But since I have a wire for each channel it might work. Can anybody confirm?