First of all, I LOVE my new Mk2 (40gb, green, 090000750) and for the car I prefer to drive ('90 Porsche 928) the install should go fine. I'm replacing the aftermarket stereo now there and purchasing a new amp and sub-woofer.

However, snow in Washington state, and a family that needs a larger vehicle for long trips leaves me with another vehicle I'm forced to drive at times. That is a 2000 Ford Explorer. I got the factory AM/FM/CD/Cassette player WITHOUT the optional 6 CD changer (which goes in the compartment between driver and passenger). The stereo allows you to select the changer and it simply shows as "off".

Great, I thought. I'll just put the empeg-car into the same compartment (it fits great, though I'll miss the visualizations) and wire it to the CD changer input. Of course, that would be TOO easy.

Talked to an installer this morning. He says the empeg-car outputs won't work into the factory stereo (confirmed by talking to an installer friend in another town). In addition, the factory stereo has NO line output so it can't go in front of the empeg-car. The output of the factory stereo isn't at 4v to the factory amp, it's more like 400mv. This prevents us from switching between the factory stereo and empeg-car on the input side of the amplifier.

I do NOT want to replace the factory unit for a few reasons.

1. The enevitable divorce from spending more money on this.

2. I wish to be able to use the steering wheel controls for the factory stereo.

3. I wish to continue to be able to use the "dual play" feature of the factory unit which lets my kids listen to different music through headphones in the back seat.

Does anyone have a solution which will allow me to get the empeg-car outputs into the input of the factory unit?

Failing that, does anyone have a solution which will allow me to have both the factory AND empeg-car unit going into the stock amplifier (or even an aftermarker amp?). (This is difficult because the factory output is 400mv, not 4v.)

Searching for an elegant solution...

David Schmidt

Mk2, 40gb (9gb free!), blue