Thread: New deck, old deck, or adaptors, HU relocation?

Hey all -
I'm looking for some input on what option I should employ to get my iPod hooked up in my '06 GP.

From my old car, I've got a JCV deck (it's 5 years old now, but still does the job) as well as a pretty decent 6 channel Infinity amp (I've already swapped the speakers). The deck's got got a couple of line-in inputs that did a stellar job with my iPod in the past - but based on some of the searches I've done, in order to keep the door chimes and such, there's a couple of adapters that I'd need to buy to get everything behaving together...

Unless I'm misinformed, after the cost of the GM adapters, it's not all that much more for a headunit altogether - do some play nicer than others with the car?

I suppose a line-in adapter for the stock HU is an option as well.

I've read a couple of things about relocating the stock headunit to the glovebox or trunk... I would assume this is a work around to keep the stock stuff behaving while still being able to use a newer deck. Does anyone know where I can find more info on this?

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm familiar with the options, I guess my initial post was more of a, "what would you do under these circumstances?" sort of post.

I apologize for the ambiguity.

I just did a bit of searching, and from what I can gather, it's retaining functions of the system (doorchimes, etc).

Take a look at this - Stereo Wire Harness Pontiac Grand Prix 06 2006 - eBay (item 110035688194 end time Aug-10-08 10:52:00 PDT)

There's just so much information out there. It's my understanding that a passive adapter won't do the job if I want to swap out decks. In order to keep the chimes/etc, I'd need to pick up one of the ridiculously expensive PAC adapters or similar. Is this a correct line of thinking?

the pac boxes will retain chimes, and shouldn't have noise, the converters all have some noise in my experience

the audio control is better, but the conversion boxes I have done had no noise (I judged sq for cmaa)

can't see that unless their module is bad

I spent a bit of time starting the sound deadening process on my doors this afternoon. Yay for left over Raammat .

Anyway, in doing so I had some time to think about the setup. And while I really don't want to run wires all kinds of RCA and speaker wire through a car that I've only had for a month, ultimately I think it's the way I'll end up going, if for no other reason that I've got an amp and deck just sitting there.

Does anyone know what the RMS output is on the standard GP deck? It drives my Infinitys alright, though it's no where near as loud as my old JCV deck which I'm thinking I'll install.

I'll do some further investigating over the next couple of days and check back before I click buy. Hopefully someone here will be able to give me the thumbs up, as I've not worked with any of the newer GM hardware.

After I get my deck with the line-in installed, I'll worry about the amp. I forgot what a drag it was to use CDs. I guess my iPod's just spoiled me over the past two or three years.

highest I have seen from any stock deck is a whopping 5 watts (and that was on a good day at 16 volts) typical is 2 watts before distortion

Wow.
That's actually great news, and makes it all the more clear that even my old deck (without installing the amp) will be a huge upgrade.

There's actually loads of info right in the howto section - http://www.grandprixforums.net/radio_install_info.php

My understanding is that I need to pick up a GMRC-01 to wire up my deck, and keep the chimes.