Clarion CX609 (1 Viewer)

[Riad]

Yet another obligatory stereo installed ; not too shabby...

Clarion CX609 CD receiver at Crutchfield.com

I also got one of these: Toyota/Lexus Wiring Harness For select 1992-99 models with factory amplifier at Crutchfield.com for an easy breezy installation.

Waiting on this to show up so I can finish up my iPhone plug-in interface.

Lovin' it. It can get pretty loud; makes me feel like one of them rice boys. And finally a mug shot...

 

[Kaoscruizer]

awesome! .. now that looks like something a 1/4 like me can do! I keep messing with those cassette adaptors without success. I had one in my Taco and it worked great. Not so great in the LX ..

Nice work!

 

[grizzlygibbs]

Thats the exact stereo I wanna get, how did it fit? i didnt notice any trimming, also are you keeping factory amp with that other wireing harness?

 

[Riad]

Thats the exact stereo I wanna get, how did it fit? i didnt notice any trimming, also are you keeping factory amp with that other wireing harness?

There's nothing to trim; it's a direct fit with the brackets off of the OEM stereo; you have to screw in those brackets into this new one. Don't have to mess with any harness or disconnect any amp wires either; just get the additional harness (see link in my previous post) and splice the color coded wires; there are only 5. Then connect the RF looking connectors for the speakers (front/back/left/right), blue tooth mic and have fun. This is the most plug-n-play friendly thing I have ever played with. Detailed information can be found in the links I provided.

 

[grizzlygibbs]

Interesting, most guys tend to junk their amp and say it sounds better. Im gonna have to look into this! Im probably gonna just get an Iphone to USB cable and leave it in the center consol.

 

[Riad]

Interesting, most guys tend to junk their amp and say it sounds better. Im gonna have to look into this! Im probably gonna just get an Iphone to USB cable and leave it in the center consol.

Yep. You can use the (iPhone to USB) cable came with your iPhone. Don't need any additional cable unless you wanna have two for different usage. The unit has a female usb connector in the back; just plug-in your iPhone cable and you are there. Figuring out the blue tooth pairing and other little control related stuff were little hectic; could be because I was doing this at 12:00 AM last night; but it sounds great for me; that's why I didn't bother looking into ditching the OEM amp.

 

[grizzlygibbs]

Right on man well nice choice and glad its working good for you! Im gonna have to do this very soon!

 

[firetruck41]

Everything will still function if you don't use the factory amp, and it will sound much better. Also if you have any grounding issues (pretty common) causing static or a hum, you will fix that problem as well. I know, I upgraded my stereo and used the factory amp for 2 years, then I finally disconnected the amp. No more distortion from the poorly named "subwoofer", as it is now disconnected. It sounds awesome, just being driven by the head unit's amp. I think almost any modern head unit will have more and cleaner, power than the factory amp. Mine is a low end JVC and the sound is clearer and louder with the head unit amp. It is actually very easy to disconnect the amp, just get the correct harness, extend the harness wires by about 18" and plug directly in to the head unit and then to the plug that was connected to the amp (located behind the glove box).

 

[Riad]

I've got zero static in my system. My front and rear passenger speakers are Pioneers. The three back in the rear cargo are OEMs. With the stock stereo I had OK sound but the cargo speakers never made a any sound. Now with this head unit on, I have got good sounds on them. There's a control function in the unit where you can turn the rear Sub on/off. The whole truck kinda sound like a studio now; pretty cool . On the other hand, I am worried about the heat factor. There are additional cables that are provided with (attached) the Unit's harness that are not used. Most of it is used for extendability such as XM radio, Nav system and etc. which I don't plan on using. I have tucked them in back there but in general 80 has serious heat issue IMO. I know cables can get burned and mutilated. I ain't wrapping each cable in my truck with heat shields; too lazy for that. I guess I will have to check the cables back there periodically; the best thing I can do for the stereo PM; who would have thought that there can be a PM for stereo .

 

[firetruck41]

I've got zero static in my system. My front and rear passenger speakers are Pioneers. The three back in the rear cargo are OEMs. With the stock stereo I had OK sound but the cargo speakers never made a any sound. Now with this head unit on, I have got good sounds on them. There's a control function in the unit where you can turn the rear Sub on/off. The whole truck kinda sound like a studio now; pretty cool . On the other hand, I am worried about the heat factor. There are additional cables that are provided with (attached) the Unit's harness that are not used. Most of it is used for extendability such as XM radio, Nav system and etc. which I don't plan on using. I have tucked them in back there but in general 80 has serious heat issue IMO. I know cables can get burned and mutilated. I ain't wrapping each cable in my truck with heat shields; too lazy for that. I guess I will have to check the cables back there periodically; the best thing I can do for the stereo PM; who would have thought that there can be a PM for stereo .

If you are still using the stock amp, there is no way to turn on/off or adjust the sub. The factory amp just takes the left/right signals that are coming in, and sends a signal to the sub.
I wouldn't worry about the wires in the dash.

 

[Riad]

Well then I have no clue what's going on. When I select/deselect the rear sub on/off option in the little display, I can tell the that there's sound difference in the rear. I will check again. On the same topic one question comes to mind: Does the 40th Ann. have the exact same stereo/sub/amp setup as all the other 80s out there?

 

[Riad]

So I went ahead and disconnected the amp behind the glove box; no power to my new stereo after that. It seems like I got the wrong harness if I want to bypass the OEM amp. Also it looks like if don't use the OEM amp, I am not going to be able to use the factory sub in the back; which is no big deal. I've my nephew's old stereo from his Toyota Yaris. Plugged it into the other two gray connectors with the amp disconnected. Sounds 100 times better ! I was pretty amazed. So I am all for disconnecting the OEM amp. What harness can I use? Or can I hack the harness I've got with my stereo.

Thoughts?

 

[grizzlygibbs]

Any audio store should have a clairion to toyota direct harness, they are cheap too! then you dont have to hack that stuff up!

 

[Riad]

Yeah, that's what I am hoping. Planning on going to Best Buy in the morning; supposedly they have the harness. Will find out more tomorrow. I'd love to be able to use the rear sub but I guess there's always other ways to get that working.

 

[HntWhtTail]

my kenwood is ran to factory amp, pioneers in the doors, when I use the sub function on the deck it actually adjusts level to the rear,, including the factory sub and rear cargo speakers. I cut the wires on the factory sub and used the high level signal into an infinty basslink 10, the rear cargo speakers will be disconnected next time I am back there with the panels off. using the sub control works this way beacuse the rear rca outs are used for subs in a typical system with the decks interanl amp running all the other speakers front/rear. With the factory toyota amp you need two sets of rca outs, if your deck like mine only has two sets the rear is also the sub channel, when you adjust the sub you are actually increasing volume to all the rear channels. My deck also has a built in crossover I can cut out the lows to keep the front and rear door speakers for bottoming out with low bass. but because this signal is shared with the sub in the rear it cuts the low bass there too.. I need to by pass factory amp so I can have a truely controllable system. But it works for now and sounds great even with the factory amp.

 

[firetruck41]

Riad, any harness you buy you will have to splice, as the length from the head unit to the amp wire harness location is longer than most cars. I used the Scosche TA02B (~$10) from walmart, IIRC. I used ~16G or 18G wire and spliced in ~20" of wire between the Clarion wire harness that came with the head unit and the Scosche wire harness (which plugs into the Toyota harness at the amp).

 

[Riad]

Well, it's done . I went to Best Buy and got the Toyota harness; same as the Scosche TA02B; spliced it with the Clarion Harness then hooked it up with the pair of gray OEM connecotrs; disconnected the white OEM connector from the other harness I got from Crutchfield and the two connectors from the OEM amp behind the dash. Works like a charm. And yes sounds a whole lot of better (I now have real Bass). I played with it by connecting the clarion directly to one of the connectors that goes into the amp; only one fits. That didn't make any difference. There was no power into the Calrion. Since I am not sure about the way things are setup in the 40th Ann. I decided to go the easy route. One of these days I'm gonna hack the rear sub as well. What I've got so far is more than enough for me; don't really need the sub but that will take the back burner for now.

 

[webster2001]

Riad, thanks for the post and the recommendation on this head unit. Purchased mine last week a from Buy.com for $219 with shipping. Sounds great and look stock. Took about 1 hours to install with unhooking the amp.

 

[antor]

Everything will still function if you don't use the factory amp, and it will sound much better. Also if you have any grounding issues (pretty common) causing static or a hum, you will fix that problem as well. I know, I upgraded my stereo and used the factory amp for 2 years, then I finally disconnected the amp. No more distortion from the poorly named "subwoofer", as it is now disconnected. It sounds awesome, just being driven by the head unit's amp. I think almost any modern head unit will have more and cleaner, power than the factory amp. Mine is a low end JVC and the sound is clearer and louder with the head unit amp. It is actually very easy to disconnect the amp, just get the correct harness, extend the harness wires by about 18" and plug directly in to the head unit and then to the plug that was connected to the amp (located behind the glove box).

Firetruck so what is the correct harness to do this and where can I get one?
Thanks, Anton

 

[firetruck41]

Firetruck so what is the correct harness to do this and where can I get one?
Thanks, Anton

Answer quoted below:

Riad, any harness you buy you will have to splice, as the length from the head unit to the amp wire harness location is longer than most cars. I used the Scosche TA02B (~$10) from walmart, IIRC. I used ~16G or 18G wire and spliced in ~20" of wire between the Clarion wire harness that came with the head unit and the Scosche wire harness (which plugs into the Toyota harness at the amp).

I have an LX, and had to extend the harness to the amp harness area, but I believe the LC has a connector behind the head unit that you can plug into.