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Just the door speakers. I’m assuming the tweeter and mid speakers share the same channel. I really don’t want to get involved with tearing into door panels and removing tweeters, installing crossovers, etc. I’ve done all that and have been unhappy ultimately.
The thing that bothers me the most is at this point in time now my car is 16-17 years old. I say that a lot. Cars from different backgrounds etc and climates may not have the same durability remaining in their plastics. I’m very weary about digging too deep into my essentially mint red interior as a majority of the parts are discontinued and very difficult to locate. Breaking that plastic panel (apparently very common) and almost not being able to replace it was very eye-opening to me. Most of the cars I’ve modded were newer vehicles where I didn’t have to worry about parts availability. Now there’s people hoarding anything and everything they can because availability is dropping off of dealer lists like crazy. That’s a scary thing if you love your car; especially if something just happens beyond your control and you can no longer find a replacement for what broke
As mentioned earlier by @shrykhar , plastic pry tools yo.
I just removed the interior vent/radio door piece with zero issues. The key for me was to preach patience. Nevermind that my recently purchased car is approaching 18 years old, I had no idea of the state of the plastic clips and tabs that I'm about to undo. So, I took my time going from one corner to the next.
My pace was literally in terms of millimeters, and then centimeters when it came to prying the piece out. If I see it budge a little, cool, move onto the next corner/side. Get a kit with multiple pieces of pry tools, so you can jam one in, nudge it a little, and keep it there to hold the position. Use another pry tool on another corner/side and nudge there.
I just got done getting the access panel off too to install my KTP-445A.
I found that contorting my body so my head was under the dash and pinching the clips and pushing them out from the back side worked for me.
It definitely wasn't easy and I worked up a sweat, but I was able to get it off without breaking anything.
The KTP-445U is definitely the way to go, as mentioned above, since it can be bridged to run the front pair of speakers. I have mine running off my Alpine headunit RCAs, gain at about 30%, to Polk door speakers. I can turn the volume to nearly max with no distortion, though I've also set proper LPF with a roll-off around 80Hz. It easily gets uncomfortably loud, and I don't usually go higher than 25/26 out of I think 35 on the volume. Paired with the self-powered sub I have behind the driver's seat, the system sounds amazing for the ~$600 I have into it.
Originally Posted by Kyle
If I recall I had everything setup properly. I even made a custom harness coming from my headunit to adapt the inputs to RCA for the KTP-445U.
If you had to custom wire something to adapt to the RCAs, it sounds like you're using speaker level outputs from your headunit. It should be RCA -> RCA.
As mentioned earlier by @shrykhar , plastic pry tools yo.
I just removed the interior vent/radio door piece with zero issues. The key for me was to preach patience. Nevermind that my recently purchased car is approaching 18 years old, I had no idea of the state of the plastic clips and tabs that I'm about to undo. So, I took my time going from one corner to the next.
My pace was literally in terms of millimeters, and then centimeters when it came to prying the piece out. If I see it budge a little, cool, move onto the next corner/side. Get a kit with multiple pieces of pry tools, so you can jam one in, nudge it a little, and keep it there to hold the position. Use another pry tool on another corner/side and nudge there.
In addition to the tips above, make sure the plastic isn't cold when you're working on it. Cold plastic will be a lot more brittle and harder to remove without breaking things. If needed, use a hairdryer or heatgun to heat things (be careful obviously, don't melt anything) and it should be a lot easier to avoid breaking plastic pieces.
Hey guys, I installed a KTP-445A and am disappointed that it didn't make as much a difference as I thought it would. I can barely tell a difference to be honest.
Made a huge difference for me but I dynomatted the doors and door panels. I'd suggest you do the same and the bass will come alive!
Hi All, found this post and it was very helpful for me to come to a decision on which replacement headunit to buy. I've been in touch with Modifry and they suggested the Alpine UTE-62BT is a better option over the Alpine UTE-73BT due to the true Mute function using their DCI rather than just lowering the volume. The one thing I was concerned about is that the UTE-73BT states works with iPhone X/8+/8/7+/7/6S+/6S/6+/6/5S/5C/ and UTE-62BT states iPhone 6S+/6S/6+/6/5S/5C5/4S/4/3GS/3G. I realize this is most likely due to the age of the different units and the documentation lists what was available at the time. I chatted with Crutchfield support and they said the newer iPhones are fine using bluetooth and USB connections. I figured that was the case but thought I'd see here if anyone has the UTE-62BT on an iPhone 8 or up and can give me peace of mind that there are no issues. Thanks!
Last edited by Quahogboy; Oct 18, 2019 at 08:02 AM.
I recently installed my new Alpine CDE-HD149BT, with the Modifry DCI controller, Alpine wire harness and SCV harness. I know I could have made some harness myself but way too easy to just buy them from Modifry. It took me about 2 hours. Longest part was figuring where to put the bluetooth microphone. I ended up just clipping the mic to the side of the sun visor and the pickup is better there than any location in the dash. I love the radio as it made my stock speakers come alive. As long as I can keep from VTEC'ing I can use the bluetooth phone
I recently installed my new Alpine CDE-HD149BT, with the Modifry DCI controller, Alpine wire harness and SCV harness. I know I could have made some harness myself but way too easy to just buy them from Modifry. It took me about 2 hours. Longest part was figuring where to put the bluetooth microphone. I ended up just clipping the mic to the side of the sun visor and the pickup is better there than any location in the dash. I love the radio as it made my stock speakers come alive. As long as I can keep from VTEC'ing I can use the bluetooth phone
Nice install! It looks great. I've been back and forth getting the CD player version Alpine or not. I’m going without it because the normal driving around town I rarely use cds and only use them when We are on a road trip (for example just got home last night from FL driving my wife's Pilot and had several cds going on the trip). My thoughts were that having a cd book would be something else to make room for me to figure out. I know it’d fit under the seat but Thinking I can just rip all my cds to my phone and then also I have a lot downloaded on amazon music. I figured it’d be pretty simple and less distracting than searching for a cd and then trying to keep from scratching it.
I recently installed my new Alpine CDE-HD149BT, with the Modifry DCI controller, Alpine wire harness and SCV harness. I know I could have made some harness myself but way too easy to just buy them from Modifry. It took me about 2 hours. Longest part was figuring where to put the bluetooth microphone. I ended up just clipping the mic to the side of the sun visor and the pickup is better there than any location in the dash. I love the radio as it made my stock speakers come alive. As long as I can keep from VTEC'ing I can use the bluetooth phone
Does the volume knob prevent the radio door from closing?
