Quick and Dirty Amp Bypass? (1 Viewer)

[Leandro]

Just ordered a new hu for my LX to replace de nakamichi, will bypass the amp also. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I'm still confused on some of the connections

 

[janz3n]

I just did this last month with a lot of self inflicted pain (mark levinson system tho). Ill try to help if you have questions. My suggestion - Get a multimeter, learn about the key wires (power, ground, remote etc) and use bundled wire for the speakers.

I ran new speaker wire from HU down behind glove to the amp and did what this fellow mudder suggested for amp bypass.

I also ran a backup camera (Back-up camera with intelligent tracks) at the same time. Only thing left to do is install my antenna Y adapter (https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01I97Y49I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) since it came like 2 months later.

 

[AdventureBound]

thank you for the suggestion of the bypass harness!

 

[Jon Hardy]

Does that bypass harness work with the ML system? I'm looking for the easiest way of replacing the head unit.

 

[cmunn95]

The problem is the factory harness only has 5 wires for the 4 channel output from the head unit to the amp input. 4 positives and a shared ground. I am sure you noticed the 4 RCA plugs shared the same ground in the aftermarket adapter you currently have. Tying the speaker grounds together would be a surefire way to fry the internal amp in your new head unit

When I bypassed my amp, no aftermarket bypass harness was available. Truly running 8 wires from the head unit to under the passenger seat was easy work, especially if you are lazy and buy bundled wire like I did. I used the Metra adapter for the power and antenna triggers.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002ODEZ1G/

I’ve got an 01 Lx with Mark Levinson WITH NAV. I noticed that the amp connectors are different than the Mark Levinson without nav.

I bought a 9 wire bundle to run from the headunit to under the seat, but is it really as simple as just splicing into the speaker wires at the connector? I’m trying to completely remove all the mark levinson stuff and it’s super confusing.

 

[fritzfox]

I've replaced/bypassed my '02 Mark Levinson with nav. I spliced into the speaker wires under the passenger seat without too much issue All the normal sets of +/- wires were there as expected coming out of the ML amp (edit: maybe out of the nav ecu under the seat as well?) leading to the doors. I ended up replacing my door speakers as well. HU was also drawing too much power or something from the OEM power supply and would randomly shut off. That was fixed when I ran a separate power circuit to the HU fused from the battery.

You probably know, you need to use a .5W 68 ohm resistor to trick the nav into thinking the OEM stereo is plugged in if you plan on keeping your nav AC controls. Seems like it was true across all the nav years including ours (?) I haven't researched it heavily. But it worked great for me.

I’ve got an 01 Lx with Mark Levinson WITH NAV. I noticed that the amp connectors are different than the Mark Levinson without nav.

I bought a 9 wire bundle to run from the headunit to under the seat, but is it really as simple as just splicing into the speaker wires at the connector? I’m trying to completely remove all the mark levinson stuff and it’s super confusing.

 

[fritzfox]

Here is a picture of the 2002 LX speaker wires off the wire harness (almost forgot I took it) I can't remember if it was the nav ECU or ML amp. Certainly very possible that the wire colors changed between years.
All + then -
Front L, Front R
Rear L, Rear R
Almost sure that's the order I used from left to right, top to bottom. Of course you can verify at the doors if you change out your speakers.

I’ve got an 01 Lx with Mark Levinson WITH NAV. I noticed that the amp connectors are different than the Mark Levinson without nav.

I bought a 9 wire bundle to run from the headunit to under the seat, but is it really as simple as just splicing into the speaker wires at the connector? I’m trying to completely remove all the mark levinson stuff and it’s super confusing.