OK, I love VW/Audi products, but I could not justify S4 money for a car that would spend most of its life in the garage at the airport. So, my GTI replacement?? A 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX. Drove one today and immediately put my money down for a silver 5-speed sedan ($400 over invoice -- ask me where) for May delivery. What a hoot of a car. Anybody want to buy a loyal GTI 16V with 111K miles??

The WRX comes with a double-DIN radio-cum-CD player. I want to make room for the Empeg, but want to keep a generic head unit in the car for daily trips to the grocery -- I may only put the Empeg in the car for longer road trips. A cool thing, I see that the Sony XA39 head unit switcher is listed for sale on Crutchfield (I thought it was no longer produced) so I may use that to allow 2 head units -- OR I could have Empeg feed the optional AUX inputs of a Kenwood (or other) head unit. I think of Kenwood because they seem to have the best combo of hidden/coded/removable faceplates. .

I guess my biggest questions is whether I can jam 2 single-DIN units ( the Empeg plus a Kenwood CD/Radio) into the stock double-DIN spot in the WRX. I figured I'd start this thread in case folks have other brainstorms WRT Subaru installations.

Thoughts??? Thanks. Jim

I may only put the Empeg in the car for longer road trips.

Don't count on it.

___________
Tony Fabris

Tony,

Not trying to minimize my love for the unit or anything, but, since I don't commute by car to work presently (I drive to airport then go somewhere else usually), a lot of my driving is just to the grocery store or to my mail drop. Since the Empeg is pretty much my main source of music at home now, not sure I'll unplug it every time to put it in the car, especially if I could be listening to something fantabulous like Car Talk! I still have enough Boston native paranoia that I wouldn't want to leave a pluggable gem like the Empeg in the dash while I grocery shop, so I may just transplant my basic kenwood removable faceplate unit into the WRX above/below the Empeg sled. I definitely want it for pleasure driving and am really looking forward to: Jim takes Empeg out of home sled, plugs into car sled, drives to boat, plugs into boat sled... repeat process in reverse.

Jim

Well, generally a double din slot is just that, two slots. I have a Toyota with a double slot, and well, actually, on my model, I have three slots, one in the upper dash. And two in front of the gear shifter. So the empeg sits up high in the dash, and my previous changer controller unit sits lower down. The empeg would not fit as it wouldnt be able to fully slide out of the sled without hitting the gear shift.

So comparing apples to oranges, you should be able to fit two units into that double slot. and usually that din is a cage that comes out of the dash, so you could then take a empeg sled and your previous/current head unit and drop them into the cage to see if it would fit. It would only be about an hours worth of work to avoid a weekend worth of trouble.

My thoughts...

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

I could have Empeg feed the optional AUX inputs of a Kenwood (or other) head unit

Two ways you can go here. Have the empeg feed the Kenwood, or have the Kenwood feed the empeg.

Empeg feeds Kenwood: Pro: The Kenwood works when the empeg is not installed. Con: You don't get to use the empeg's 20-band parametric equalizer when playing CDs from the Kenwood.

Kenwood feeds empeg: Pro: You get the empeg's equalizer with the Kenwood. Con: No empeg, no sound.

I'm building my new system with the Sony switch, and I think it is the way to go. I will be doing it with CD player feeding empeg with one small twist: I am adding a relay to the control line of the Sony switch so that signal out to the amplifiers *always* comes from the empeg as long as the empeg is in the dash and turned on; otherwise it comes from the CD player. This is to accommodate having both the CD player and the empeg on, with the CD player feeding the Aux Inputs of the empeg so I can use the empeg's equalizer.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

If I understand your new system, when the empeg is out the CD player drives the amps through the switch, otherwise the cd goes through the empeg to the amps. If so, that sounds a very neat solution, although you'll have to be careful when removing the empeg from the car.

You'll need the CD player at high volume when playing through the empeg. If the empeg is removed, the CD player takes over, and you get instant full volume... =)

I did this by accident when tracing a ground loop and it hurt (I normally run the empeg into my MD/CD, but I took it out of the system for a few minutes to "debug" some noise).

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

Hey congrats on the new purchase, I am looking at a WRX or a new Celica, cant really decide which...

But anyway, are you going to keep the stock 2xdin sized in dash unit? It does have a 6 disc changer, and well, some music just doesnt belong on my empeg.

Let us know.
Thanks

Smoker_Man
#080000449 MkII - 36Gb Blue

Well, I couldn't figure a way to keep the stock double-DIN unit and still make way for the Empeg. The spot occupied by the ashtray didn't look big enough and it's right behind the shift level. SO... the plan is to rip out the stock radio/CD (I wish it were an option so I could delete it, but not so) and install a single-DIN radio/CD with the Empeg sled. I have an old Kenwood 601 on hand that I may use if I can get the Empeg to feed the Kenwood AUX using their $20 adapter; if not I may get the Kenwood 715S. For the car, the sanest option seems to be to feed the (not always there) Empeg into the AUX of the (always there) Kenwood. To add a subwoofer, I may just add one 2+1 channel amp in the trunk for rear/subwoofer -- let the Kenwood amp feed the front speakers. In this situation, there's no Sony XA39 switcher as the Kenwood would be the unit that turns on the amp in the trunk.

With the 715S, I could have the Empeg on AUX with the adapter and even still use my Kenwood 10-CD changer on the other input. Don't know *why* I'd do this, but I could!

On the boat, I already have a 4+1 amp, so I am going to use the Sony switch to auto-switch between the Empeg and an existing Kenwood FM/cassette. I was going to ditch the Kenwood in favor of the Empeg tuner module, but then I thought it might be nice to have an Empeg-independent radio hooked up anyway (and I wanted to finish the install and couldn't know exactly when the tuner module would arrive...so...).

The WRX *will* be a hoot. Acknowledged turbo lag and less-than-Mercedes interior finish, but 227 HP, phenom handling, and possible 27 highway MPG. I was going to get a Wolfsburg Jetta 1.8T (and had a hard time straying from my VW/Audi loyalty), but one drive in the WRX was all it took. Once the Miata effect cools down, you should be able to find one to test drive. I know it will smoke the Celica, and not the worst form of transportation for a trip across Snoqualmie Pass during a snowstorm.

Jim

Jim,
If you look for a thread titled 99 Subaru Forrester (search for "Forrester gage" and you'll get only that article), you'll get a rundown on my install, which sounds similar to the two-DIN stereo you mention. I too wanted to use the stock stereo as the head unit (I had the 'premium' stereo option). Trouble was the cd/head unit interface was a proprietary format, not a standard RCA in/out. With some work, I'm sure it could be done, but I settled on getting a new head from Crutchfield.

The other thing you may face is that although the slots are DIN, the opening through the dash plastic is not, and I had to trim mine to get the empeg to slide in and out. My replacement tuner/cd (as slave) did not requre modifying the dash trim.

To answer your core question of whether or not you'll be able to fit two DIN units (empeg + another), I believe the answer will be yes.

-Zeke

just say you weren't paying much attention...