Mach 460 headnunit replacement experience

[carbuff]

So, my 2001 came from the factory with a double din mach 460 system. The guy I bought it from replaced it with a single din sony head, mex-5100bt. Its a decent enough unit with tons of options. But to me it sounded a bit wimpy. No real bass to speak of. I looked at some youtube videos of mach systems and how to wire them up with a new head unit. I saw that you needed special harnesses and a resistor for the amp trigger and all. I figured that the guy must have just used a basic harness and somehow bypassed the amps, as it sounded like all frequencies coming from all 8 speakers. So I pulled out the deck and to my surprise it looked like a nice job with all the right harnesses and proper resistor for the amp wire. No butchered wires. Then I noticed that the phono plugs that are supposed to be plugged into the sub-out jacks are plugged into the rear speaker jacks. I switched them to the sub outs and powered up the radio. Only music from the small "tweeters" but nothing from the 4 subs. I navigate the head menu and find the sub out switch and set it to on and turned up the dbs. Well lets just say that theres plenty of bass now. The amps in the trunk actually get warm now so I guess theyre working. Its interesting that the amps are just for the 4 subs and not in stereo and only handle the bass. The rest of the sound comes from the 4 little speakers. It sounds much better and I guess I need to tweak it a bit. I hope the sound does not get lost with the top down.

 

[ttocs]

more then likely the tweeters are playing full range and distorting from bass? You can fix this with a capacitor on the speaker wire to each tweeter and it will sound much better

 

[carbuff]

Yes, in some of the write ups I read, they said to go into the eq section for the full range speakers and cut down the bass to them. It would have no effect on the subs and would be a workaround for a filter. Like I said I still need to tweak the setup and find all the menus in the head unit. I still cannot find the 10 band eq that supposedly exists. All I can find are the pre set eq setups. Hopefully Im geting the car on the road tomorrow so I can set it up for driving with the top down.

 

[trebor3170]

Do you have the manual for the head unit? If not, check Sony's web site for a downloadable manual, most mfgs have them, I'm sure Sony does too. With these new radios, the manual is a necessity.

 

[carbuff]

Yes, I downloaded it last night. I think I have to choose "custom" in the preset eq section and that will give me access to the 10 band eq. I just got it registered today, 1.5 hours at the dmv, but its raining today so Ill have to wait for the skies to clear before messing with it again.