Steering wheel volume controls and aftermarket stereo - ?

ok, but that was how long ago--35, 40 years?

Talking about buggy whips in the middle of a discussion on the space shuttle just gets everyone confused and imparts bad information...

The results can be magnificent.

Tell me how you would create perfect connections for a very large car audio amplifier TODAY. It's being mounted in your trunk.

That makes sense, but the radio must support the additional inputs for volume control and station changing, etc., that do not originate from the radio's own front panel. The OP may very well have purchased such a unit, in which case the installer and/or the sales-person should have told him that the harness you speak of would be needed, or the features would be lost.

I always buy the harness adaptor that either directly connects or splices to the connector of the radio, then directly connects to the harness of the car, This allows the car radio to be replaced again at some future date without having to rewire again, simply unplug the adaptor that was previously installed and plug in the new adaptor.

The OP's audio unit apparently does not accommodate external inputs. He is using the radio from another car that did not have steering wheel controls.

I haven't installed an aftermarket radio in one of my personal cars since I replaced a broken one in my '72 Chevelle since I haven't had a need to.

I can tell you what I would NOT do: I would NOT cut the factory wiring harness in any way, shape, or form.

There is no factory wiring harness for this hypothetical, but everyday situation. How would you create perfect connections?

My ass and your face.

Clean out your locker, boy.

Poor Ray....stuck listening to a stock sound system...

Ya know how some people are with their computers? At the end of a post they have a small dissertation that lists every part inside the thing down to and including the cooler...You've been here long enough to know I'm like that with my stereos. There's just no excuse for bad sound. The Scion's unit was one of the best I've heard, and I replaced the speakers with MB Quarts. Talk about a chore! I had to make 'adapters' to make them fit the doors...

But, I gave in and a year later installed a JVC with a little more functionality. To anyone else it would have sounded good, but since I was a kid 'flat' music has always sounded like an AM radio...

Still haven't put a woofer in it...yet... ;)

Back in the goodle days, you didn't have a choice!!!

My '85 Corolla's wiring has been cut down to nubs!

Of course, the idiots that stole my $1200 'home engineered" sound system didn't exactly take the time to undo the wiring properly...

You'd need to go here for that:

ROCHESTER GREYHOUND STATION?187 MIDTOWN PLZ?Rochester, NY 14604

Since I mostly listen to AM radio, I'm hesitant to spend time, money, and effort on a sound system.

Actually, I built a lot of these systems before I started listening to AM. And, your hat looks a little tilted...

But I also have XM, and when I get tired of listening to Rush it sounds great...

XM receiver right in front of me. Push a button. Even tells me whan my favourite songs come up. Even has Glann Beck.

But no 'Penis Boy'. Thank God.

...Otherwise known as Howard Stern. Seems he has made it his life's goal to say "penis" at least 1 million times on any medium he can.

For a smart guy, he sure plays to the Lowest Common Denominator....

Only after I moved back to Chicago and started listening for traffic reports.

Satellite would be nice on my camping trips when I'm away from areas with a decent selection of radio stations, but for now, I just use the handy dandy steering wheel controls on the LS and Sequoia to search for stations.

I must be getting old... haven't heard of P.B.

$1,200 gone... man. I don't buy car audio systems worth more than $100 precisely to avoid that kind of pain.

Besides... car audio quality isn't as good as home stereo quality. I learned only about a year ago to pay attention to THD (total harmonic distortion) specs. Some jokers at Sears were advertising a JVC home stereo unit with 10% distortion at full output power. 10% garbage in the sound. The electrical engineers over at sci.electronics.design said that HAD to be a mis-print. I called the tech folks at JVC, and no, that really was correct.

My Kenwood manual specifies 1% THD at full output power.

My Onkyo system at home is something like 0.08% THD at full output power.

Then again... with road noise and such, who'll notice distorted sound, eh?

Michael

I think I'd rather listen to non-stop weather and traffic ;-)