I have had my empeg for over 3 months now and it still does not work in my car. It works perfectly fine and the trouble has been with installation and the numbnuts that call themselves experts in my area... I will give my moral first, you can read the story if you are further interested....

moral: CAN NOT ADD EMPEG TO CHEVY FACTORY SYSTEM BY HARDWIRE...

One sunny day in 2002, happy go lucky myself went out and purchased a 2002 Chevy Tahoe. Extremely happy with my purchase, I wanted to upgrade the factory system and add an empeg to play my library of MP3s. Behold!!! the factory system actually sounds pretty damned good. I did some preliminary investigation and found that there were 3rd party companies who made adapters to add rca outputs to the factory system via the CD changer connector on the back of the unit (peripheral electronics - junk!). Talking to my local stereo installer who agreed, purchased the ONSTAR adapter, the cd changer adapter and had it all installed, cutting the center console to install my newly shiney empeg. Picked the car up and Alternator Whine!!! returned the car and the installer could find no wrong, called Peripheral and found that the factory system does not work with their adapters... Solution provided by installer??? Buy a new head unit, preferably Alpine.

Fine! bought the Chevy sized Alpine unit with the AiNet input. Installer states $20 adapter will be necessary for input of empeg RCA outputs... Calls back and states the Alpine Chevy sized head unit does not have versalink... now will need $80 adapter... Fine... installs and calls again... versalink adapter requires CD changer to work... #?!@!!! I purchased CD changer and now there are concerns with 4v outputs vs. Alpine versalink RCA input 850mv maximums... #!@ again....

To this day, no MP3s yet...

Moral again? Do your homework... I am taking suggestions for all who can wake me from my nightmare....

I am taking suggestions for all who can wake me from my nightmare....

Purchase an amplifier. Connect: Empeg->Amplifier->Speakers.

Ditch all other equipment. YOU WILL NOT MISS IT.

Yeah what tony said...

I'm actually driving a '01 tahoe around for the next week or two as I learn to drive with a trailer, and while the sound system is pretty good, it's nothing to worry about replacing. A decent amp will run you less than the cost of the alpine, and far less than the cost of the CD changer. Alpine is good stuff, but it isn't cheap. If you want CD's, get a cheaper CD player and have it feed into the empeg. You won't use it enough to justify spending much on it.

The alpine deck is unnecessary... If you were happy with the factory stereo, I'd call crutchfield and see if they've got an adapter that will let you plug something into the factory stereo. If that still has ground loop problems, go over the FAQ's ground loop trouble shooting. If you want to replace it, buy an amp and do it right. It won't fit in the dash quite right, but you can find a trim ring for it I'm sure...

Good Luck,
Matthew

I was able to keep my stock (Bose) headunit in my 2001 Yukon Denali and use the empeg as a replacement for the in-dash cd player. I played with all the aftermarket convertors but they required the use of cd-changers, locked-up annoyingly often and are pretty expensive (especially for the inconsistent behaviour). I found a cheap, excellent work around. I purchase an extra 9 wire harness that runs between the head unit and the auxillary indash cd-changer (from ebay). I extended the wires in this harness and used it to transplant the stock cd-changer (hidden) in the back of the truck (Be sure to leave a cd in the player). I hooked up all wires to the cd changer EXCEPT the speaker wires. I ran these thru a PAC Bose convertor(you can use a simple high level to line level convertor if you don't have the Bose) to the empeg which I mounted where the indash cd changer was. I tapped all the empeg power/ground etc wires into the same harness. Now when you hit the CD button on the headunit it plays the cd in the changer with NO sound, and I can operate the empeg which plays thru the headunit flawlessly. If I had the time I would now try to finsih adapting the empeg so it would be directly controlled by the PWM signals of the headunit. ( I was getting excellent help from this forum until I became extremely busy with work related projects). Another day I guess.

Bob

I don't know how it was wired, but a person I know successfully installed an empeg into a 2002 Cadillac Escalade and still uses factory spreakers/amps. Also, the OnStar still works just fine with the empeg too!