Mismatched radio, amps 400E
 

I, or rather, my wife has a 92 400E, out of which we removed a very bad JVC unit that had been chopped in badly (antenna not even connected) We bought a later model MB CD-radio unit, wired it in per factory, and the sound is good, but not great.

Original set-up is head unit with twin amps in the trunk, pushing 3-ways on the back deck, subs in the front doors, and mids on the dash. I sat in an identical still-factory car and the sound was nice and full. Ours is nice but not full.

The tech who found me the unit said that since the new radio contains an amp, the signal is mismatched to the rear amps, and that I am losing depth. Makes sense to my untrained mind.

Without buying another radio (wife likes this one, especially since she gets all her favorite stations!), can the radio be "tuned" to match the rear amps? Should I just wire all the speakers up direct, bypassing the factory amps? Do I lose anything that way?

Any thoughts would be appreciated?

Sound Problem
 

Hi peterhardie,
I would probably recommend wiring past the amplifiers. The radio you now have in it has more power the the original radio had. That is overdriving the input of the amplifier thus causing distortion at a medium or higher level of sound. Get the sound you want with minimal labor.

Cleeve Morrison
La Jolla Audio Repair

www.lajollaaudiorepair.com

Cleeve,

Thanks for the reply. Am I losing anything cutting the rear amps out? Does the newer radio push as much sound as the amps would have?

Also, is there a drop-in equal- or better- quality replacement for the rear deck 3-ways? I was looking for some factory replcaements, but thought I'd check with an expert.

Thanks.

We sell a drop in replacement for your car works in both front and rear made in germany by rainbow. They are direct replacements and will enhance the sound of your system a lot. Let me know if you are interested.

Scott@lajollaaudio