Replacing Monsoon Head Unit

[Veritas13]

I am trying to replace my Monsoon head unit in my 05' GA. I have a Premier DEH-P680MP and bought the Scosche DCGM09 wiring harness. When everything is plugged in, the deck come on, acts as if it is reading a cd and receiving radio signal, but the speakers make no sound at all. The amp to my subwoofers turns on, but again, the woofers do nothing. The subs are currently hooked up to a hi-low converter, through the rear speaker wires. Is the Monsoon amp not turning on??? Do I need to run new speaker wire for the whole car and bypass the amp altogether? (In other threads I've seen that the rear speakers are DVC; will this cause more problems if I rewire the car?) Is there a problem with the signal being amplified by the deck before it gets to the Monsoon amp? I cut the RCAs off of the DCGM09 because it's not a BOSE system. Was that the wrong way to go? Does this sound like a grounding problem?

Any and all help/suggestions is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Andrew

[Brandon]

i had the same problem when i replaced my monsoon head unit with a pioneer. theres another thing you need ontop of the wiring harness. i got mine at best buy, it was pricey, but its basikly a wireharness on one side and a box on the other side... plug and play really, but somehow it makes it all work ... i think its a bypass box (sorry, ive been up for 25 hours now so i dont know what im trying to say) but go to best buy or someplace like that, tell them your car with a stock monsoon, and you need the bypass kit to get it to work.

[Brandon]

wow, this is good for a thread that has no replies! (on the main forum, it says no replies)

[MantaGreen97]

I don't get it... You have a P680MP and you're still trying to run the sub amp (which I'm assuming is aftermarket?) through the factory Monsoon speaker leads and using a LOC? What on earth??? I mean are you kidding me or am I somehow missing something that would explain the above car-stereo-malfeasance? Just get yourself a set of RCA cables and connect them to the sub output of the P680MP and to the amp. It'll actually work for starters, LOL; you'll get the crossover done at the HU; you'll get sub level control at the HU; and, it will sound a lot better. I don't see what's so difficult about this :???:

[Brandon]

if he has the factory monsoon amp, an aftermarket stereo wont work since the amp powers all the speakers... he needs the bypass... or run new wires to all the speakers....

[Veritas13]

Getting the subs to work is the easy part. That doesn't solve the problem of all the other speakers not working...

The Scosche DCGM-09 is the bypass adapter thing that costs an arm and a leg (thank god for ebay). It isn't helping the problem.

I think I'll just run wire from the head unit to each of the speakers.
Does anyone see any problems that I should be forewarned about?
Thanks.

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by Brandon
if he has the factory monsoon amp, an aftermarket stereo wont work since the amp powers all the speakers...

Really now? The aftermarket stereo won't work? All of it or just the amp or? :lol: Of course it will work you just have to wire it properly which is the easiest way to do things if you were replacing all the Monsoon stuff. Now maybe it might not be good to run the Monsoon speakers with it, but having the Monsoon speakers and amp in there has nothing to do with using the pre-outs on the HU to run the [aftermarket] subwoofer amp. ;) Which I thought was all of his problem, until I read his reply:

Originally posted by Veritas13
Getting the subs to work is the easy part. That doesn't solve the problem of all the other speakers not working...

The Scosche DCGM-09 is the bypass adapter thing that costs an arm and a leg (thank god for ebay). It isn't helping the problem.

I think I'll just run wire from the head unit to each of the speakers.
Does anyone see any problems that I should be forewarned about?
Thanks.
That's the best idea, but it might sound strange if you keep the Monsoon speakers. First off from what I know I don't think you can connect up the rear speakers because they are DVC, no? Secondly you'll lose the Monsoon processing which is quite a relevant part of the whole Monsoon system--running the Monsoon speakers with an aftermarket amp (including the P860MP internal amp) may make it sound bad. May being the key word because I'm not sure really as I've never actually heard it that way myself.

Sorry I can't help any more with what you're attempting... Definitely connect the sub amp properly though, lol. If the additional part you need for the speakers that Brandon mentioned is expensive, I'd look into just replacing the Monsoon fronts (they're still worthless 4x6s no?) with a decent comp set and letting the rears go, as it might cost the same or not much more to do that.

[Veritas13]

Could you elaborate on why the speakers might sound funny?

If the rear speakers are DVC will this give the wrong resistance for the deck? Or is it some other type of problem?

[Brandon]

it doesnt sound bad in my car with the monsoon speakers and an aftermarket hu.

[nineteen88ga]

All you should have to do is hook up the remote turn onwire up in the harness as well. Think of it like this:

The Monsoon amp is just like your sub amp, it needs a switched signal to turn on. In the radio harnedd, hook up the blue/white from the pioneer to the blue/white in the harness you purchased for the car side, also don't forget to tag your sub amps remote turn on to this wire as well. This should take care of your problem

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by Veritas13
Could you elaborate on why the speakers might sound funny?
Well I had thought that Monsoon incorporated some special processing but it looks like maybe not...
Originally posted by Brandon
it doesnt sound bad in my car with the monsoon speakers and an aftermarket hu.
Are you running the Monsoon amps though or the aftermarket HU amp? Because I'm thinking the Monsoon processing is just crossover stuff that is in the amp(s)? If there is no processing that makes it a little bit of a joke (because then Monsoon is just a name they slap on to it but means absolutely nothing except you have an external amp).

Anyway it seems like it's not hard to get it running with the Monsoon amp and the aftermarket HU?

Originally posted by Veritas13
If the rear speakers are DVC will this give the wrong resistance for the deck? Or is it some other type of problem?
Yeah that's right you'd get the wrong impedance to begin with (actually the individual coils might still be the wrong impedance) and the way it's designed isn't like it's "DVC" I don't think, it's more like just a bi-amplified co-ax more than a DVC driver. I.e. One amp channel drives the high-frequency section and another channel drives the mid frequency section independently. Why that is of any benefit in the rear on a 6x9 is a mystery. I mean it is a benefit to bi-amp but it seems kind of like a waste to me in this application.

But it seems like you won't have to worry about that anyway, since you can still run the Monsoon amp and use the aftermarket HU.

[Veritas13]

Brandon, how did you deal with the problem of rewiring the rear speakers?

[Veritas13]

Is there anyone else out there that has rewired their car and run into the rear speaker problem?

[MantaGreen97]

I thought the solution (as Brandon and Steve pointed out) is to not rewire the rear speakers at all and continue using the factory amp?

If you want to rewire then I would suggest not running the rear speakers at all, just rewiring the fronts.

[Veritas13]

Pulled everything out the other day and noticed that my buddy that helped me out with some of the wiring didn't want to connect the blue wire to the blue-white wire. Well turns out thats the remote wire for the factory amp. At least it was jut a dumb mistake and a simple fix. The Scosche DCGM09 adapter costs an arm and a leg but my deck works perfectly with the Monsoon system now. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[nineteen88ga]

Glad I was able to help!

[Brandon]

yea, i didnt re-wire anything... i bought the module thingy that allows the radio to play with the factory amp... plug and play.

[nineteen88ga]

Up untill recently I was always under the impression that the Monsoons had to be gutted and rewired....at least thats what other installers had told me.

I did a headunit install on a customers GA and found all it needed was the remote turn on to be hooked up, to turn the factory amp on.

[JoeyC]

I am new to the sight and have to tell you this is great!! I joined after I saw all the stuff you all talk about. It started though because I have an '04 Gran-Am GT with the Monsoon and started seeing there were so many hook up issues. I bought the Clarion DXZ865MP and the wiring DCGM09 to be sure to hook it up. The Clarion has RCA attachments for the speaker system though. I assume though I should just wire it up the old fashion way though right? The amp wire was where I was lost and you all helped me TREMENDOUSLY. LOL!! A weight has been listed. If anyone knows about the Clarion aftermarket RCA's to the DSGM09.

Thanks for everyone communicating so well! This is SWEET!!

[nineteen88ga]

those RCA connections are for adding an amp. if your not running your speakers off an external amp you don't have to worry about them, just speaker wire in your case.

[JoeyC]

Thanks!! I actually got it hooked up and it works GREAT!! I gotta little static when it gets too loud so I'm gonna check m connections to be sure everything is ok.

Thanks again!