Ok, so I have this old beat up 95 villager with an aftermarket kenwood head unit (http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productTypeId=20&productId=694). I want to put my rio in the car but I'd rather not buy an amp and new speakers, so I was thinking that maybe I could use the amp in the hu instead. The kenwood doesn't have any rca inputs, however it can accept a kenwood (or compat.) cd changer so I was thinking of buying this (http://www.rcainput.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RCAI&Product_Code=kenwd_aux_v1&Category_Code=K) and then using it to connect the rio. Would such a thing work? If I hook that to the rio, I'm guessing that takes care of audio, but what about power? The only stuff I know about car audio is what I learned watching my friend install the kenwood to begin with, and that isn't much. So is this something I could possibly do or should I buy the equiptment and have a professional do it? Can it even be done? I remember talking to my friend and he said either it's not possible or that he'd have to run a wire through the firewall.

Thanks so much,
Evan

Assuming that the adapter that allows you to simply plug RCA plugs into the CD-Changer port works (ISTR that Kenwood changed their protocol at some point and the adapters they sell now don't work with older units), then, yes, that would work. As far as power goes, you'd just splice the two units wires together, so that both of them draw power from the same wire provided by the car and both of them use the same signal to switch on. One possible problem is if your car's wiring can't handle the power requirements for both units, but I don't remember hearing any real-world reports of that actually occurring.

Oh, and usually, the most difficult part of installing a new stereo, IMO, is getting it to fit in the dash properly. The wiring should be fairly easy.

I will give you a real world report of such a thing happening. My Mk2a in my 98 Civic EX. I currently have the empeg's constant power wired directly to the battery, through an in-line fuse, of course.