Bypass amplifier?

I'm trying to install an aftermarket Sony CD receiver in my '05 Sonata. There's power to the unit but no sound. Is there an amplifier on this car I need to bypass? If so, how?

Reply to
mdufrene
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snipped-for-privacy@cctimes.com wrote in news:1120772333.421907.71860 @g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Do you have the receiver hooked up with a hyundai wiring harness?

Reply to
Eaton Wings

Yes, I plugged in the existing harness to the Hyundai harness that Crutchfield supplied with the new head unit. I've read about bypassing the outboard amplifier but can't find any info on how to do it.

There's power and a signal (can see the graphic eq on the unit moving) but no sound.

Reply to
mdufrene

snipped-for-privacy@cctimes.com wrote in news:1120795574.527626.59950 @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Does the unit have an "aux" (or some other named) button that you accidentally pressed? Is your fader set incorrectly (feeding signals to non-existant speakers?) Wish I could help more but I'm one of those that needs to see something in person in order to fix it. That's why I'll never work a help-desk.

Reply to
Eaton Wings

Can someone help with the amplifier question? Someone must have had this same experience.

Reply to
mdufrene

I think you're on the right track, but I unfortunately don't have the answer; I'm not that knowledgeable about audio components.

I think Richard Steinfeld may have some expertise in this area. Perhaps if he sees this he'll have something to offer.

Reply to
hyundaitech

I did.

Note that my audio knowledge is in home and professional recording and broadcast systems. Car audio is quite specialized and has an almost unique ability to permanently shred the driver's hearing apparatus and create real drive-by misery to others. Having gotten this off my chest, I'll attempt an answser.

From what you've written, I think that the place to zero in would be on what's sometimes called the "processor loops." In other words, there may be a signal out point and a mating signal in point. We're talking about four jacks here.

Some car stereos have this ability -- the idea is to be able to run the audio from the head section (tuner, CD, etc.) out to an external processor device (originally, an outboard equalizer). The signal is then returned into the unit after processing to be fed into the stereo's power amplifier stages; from there, the amplified signals go out to the speakers. You may wonder why there could be connections for your unit since it's already got an equalizer. Well, some people might get talked into using an echo device -- which nobody ever needs because all recordings have exactly the desired amount of echo already and adding more is like (them metaphor in my mind is not suitable for children).

Two methods of switching are used for such a "loop." One is to use one jumper cable permanently attached between the jacks for each channel. The other is via a digital switch in the receiver. Since it's 2005, I suggest reading the instructions carefully to see if you've just gotten a menu selection mis-set. And, yeah: some of Sony's instructions can be the worst Japlish ever conceived -- complete with insane names for functions and explanations that never made sense in the original Japanese in the first place (My Sony digital camera has a "sports lesson" mode!!).

Another possible point of signal interception may be in order to accomodate external crossover networks, "subwoofer" amplifiers, etc., etc.

So, I recommend putting this thing on your workbench, connecting it to a

12v battery and a pair of speakers, and while reading the manual, try slogging through the menus. I think that this is going to work. You should have an antenna to test the FM (a short wire will do if you're in an urban area)and a CD for raw sound. The reason for doing this out of the car is to see if the unit is, indeed, working OK.

I'm guessing about your unit totally, so I really don't know what you've got. But if you get sound on your workbench, this eliminates the stereo itself as the source of the problem.

For speakers on the workbench, you can use just about any speaker ever made. Home speakers are fine. You'll just get less sound from them. You won't damage the car stereo using them. However, whatever you do, do not short circuit the speaker wires together -- even one strand of the wire touching the other polarity can instantly fry your output ICs.

Always keep in mind that in a car, an honest 5 watts is a hell of a lot of power! 15 watts will be across the threshold of pain. And it doesn't make sense to spend lots of bucks on car stereo because you can't hear the quality over the road noise. In other words, I believe in keeping car sound systems really simple and save the money for the good stuff at home.

Another option that occurred to me is that your stereo may just be what's called a "head" unit -- in other words, the equivalent of what in high-end home audio has been referred to as a "tuner-preamp." In this case, there's no speaker power at all -- your unit is intended to work into a separate amplifier in order to drive the speakers. Hmmm. You did use the phrase "head unit," didn't you? If so, you _must_ use this with an external amplifier. A low-powered one should do nicely.

Further, I really doubt that Hyundai put a separate head unit and power amp in any car. Why bother? It's not needed in any car. So, I'll assume that the original factory stereo was the traditional all-in-one box with speaker lines coming out. In other words, there's never been an OE amp in your car to bypass. Perhaps I'm wrong and somebody else can correct me here. But if I were Hyundai, I sure wouldn't waste money on this extravagance.

Finally, if you're not sure about what you're doing, you may want to hire an installer to get everything right. As I said above, car audio has always been somewhat specialized. I was just inside an old Motorola AM-FM car radio that my friend bought on eBay for his 70s Mopar muscle car -- he paid big bucks for the thing. I did some preventive servicing on it for him, and I had to marvel at the uniqueness of what I found inside it, and also the excellent reception and decent sound, still after all these years. Impressive.

Richard

Reply to
Richard Steinfeld

from what i heard thre is an amp in sonatas in the trunk behind the liner unplug it then run wires straight from your stereo or re- route then.....

Reply to
beto1217

I can't talk about the particular year, but I have the highest-cost 2000 Sonata and I can assure you that there is no separate amplifier in it.

Richard

Reply to
Richard Steinfeld

"" wrote: > beto1217 wrote: > > from what i heard thre is an amp in sonatas in the trunk > behind the > > liner unplug it then run wires straight from your stereo or > re- route > > then..... > > > I can't talk about the particular year, but I have the > highest-cost 2000 > Sonata and I can assure you that there is no separate > amplifier in it. > > Richard

I also wonder about this. I hooked up my kenwood head unit in my 04 Sonata and I get power and no sound. Can anyone confirm for sure that there is some kind of external device. Also, do you need to use the "Power control wire" from your head unit? Any help at all would be appreciated.

Reply to
caz1429

"caz1429" wrote: > I also wonder about this. I hooked up my kenwood head unit in > my 04 Sonata and I get power and no sound. Can anyone confirm > for sure that there is some kind of external device. Also, do > you need to use the "Power control wire" from your head unit? > Any help at all would be appreciated.

Well I looked on hmaservice.com and looked at wiring diagrams for 2004 Sonatas. The CD Player/Cassette combo for some wires said "Amp left front (+)" etc. I took off the trunk liner and found the amplifier. I was hoping i could just strip the wires going to the amplifier and solder them to the wires going out of the amplifier. The problem is there are more wires going into the amp than coming out. If I figred out what the speaker wires were and soldered them, and just taped up the power wires going to the amplifier, could I keep the existing wiring and have it work with my aftermarket deck?

Reply to
caz1429

Please tell us exactly where under the trunk liner you found the amp. I'm willing to be proven wrong -- I don't recall seeing one on the diagram for the 2000.

There is one type of amp hookup that I don't regard as "Kosher," which may be in use. That is, the amp would actually get speaker-level signals from the "head unit," which would actually be an ordinary-powered complete car stereo. In this case, you'd see four audio wires going in, plus the 12v + supply and the ground wire. There'd be four wires going out to the rear speakers; maybe others for more speakers. Running shielded "line-level" lines from the head unit to the amp would appear as only two thick wires going in for audio. I definitely prefer doing it this way, but it's got to be done properly.

There's as many people selling fancy car-stereo special wires as there are for home stereo -- almost all of it unnecessary BS. But they've got to be made up correctly.

Richard

Reply to
Richard Steinfeld

"" wrote: > caz1429 wrote: > > "caz1429" wrote: > > > I also wonder about this. I hooked up my kenwood head > unit in > > > my 04 Sonata and I get power and no sound. Can anyone > confirm > > > for sure that there is some kind of external device. > Also, do > > > you need to use the "Power control wire" from your head > unit? > > > Any help at all would be appreciated. > > > > Well I looked on hmaservice.com and looked at wiring diagrams for 2004 > > Sonatas. The CD Player/Cassette combo for some wires said > "Amp left > > front (+)" etc. I took off the trunk liner and found the > amplifier. I > > was hoping i could just strip the wires going to the > amplifier and > > solder them to the wires going out of the amplifier. The > problem is > > there are more wires going into the amp than coming out. If > I figred > > out what the speaker wires were and soldered them, and just > taped up > > the power wires going to the amplifier, could I keep the > existing > > wiring and have it work with my aftermarket deck? > > Please tell us exactly where under the trunk liner you found > the amp. > I'm willing to be proven wrong -- I don't recall seeing one on > the > diagram for the 2000. > > There is one type of amp hookup that I don't regard as > "Kosher," which > may be in use. That is, the amp would actually get > speaker-level signals > from the "head unit," which would actually be an > ordinary-powered > complete car stereo. In this case, you'd see four audio wires > going in, > plus the 12v + supply and the ground wire. There'd be four > wires going > out to the rear speakers; maybe others for more speakers. > Running > shielded "line-level" lines from the head unit to the amp > would appear > as only two thick wires going in for audio. I definitely > prefer doing it > this way, but it's got to be done properly. > > There's as many people selling fancy car-stereo special wires > as there > are for home stereo -- almost all of it unnecessary BS. But > they've got > to be made up correctly. > > Richard

Well I took some pictures

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also took the wiring diagram from hmaservice.com and fixed it up alittle in MS Paint.
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Reply to
caz1429

I am the original poster of this thread and this is what I found out.

There is indeed an external amp in the '05 Sonata. It didn't make sense to me to rip out the trunk liner looking for it. When I ordered the Sony CD unit from Crutchfield, installation instructions for this particular car were included, but didn't mention the presence of another amp or how to deal with it.

So after I hooked up all the wires from the adaptor harness, I saw there was a green wire not being used in the main harness. A call to the friendly Crutchfield guy confirmed that there is indeed an external amp, and this wire powers it. All I had to do was hook up the blue/white wire power/amp wire to the green wire, bypassing the harness for this wire only, and I had beautiful sound! So simple...

Reply to
mdufrene

"" wrote: > I am the original poster of this thread and this is what I > found out. > > There is indeed an external amp in the '05 Sonata. It didn't > make sense > to me to rip out the trunk liner looking for it. When I > ordered the > Sony CD unit from Crutchfield, installation instructions for > this > particular car were included, but didn't mention the presence > of > another amp or how to deal with it. > > So after I hooked up all the wires from the adaptor harness, I > saw > there was a green wire not being used in the main harness. A > call to > the friendly Crutchfield guy confirmed that there is indeed an > external > amp, and this wire powers it. All I had to do was hook up the > blue/white wire power/amp wire to the green wire, bypassing > the harness > for this wire only, and I had beautiful sound! So simple...

Thanks a lot!

Reply to
caz1429

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