Both the white and blue plugs are OEM/factory. The blue plug is all that's necessary for the headunit;
the white one plugs into the OEM headunit for the optional (dealer installed) cd changer and/or XM tuner.
The other plug looks like it plugs into the car's connector and I assume the other end has a Kenwood
connector. You also have some other non-standard wires in there that look like speaker wire. Since you
have evidence of a trunk-mounted amp/sub in the past, these may not be hooked up to anything right now.

 

You don't mention why you want a new headunit other than working dash controls.
You very likely could get your existing headunit to work with the dash controls simply by
adding Modifry's DCI, and if you went for the plug&play harness it should be trivially easy.
Later if you wanted a different headunit, if you stuck to Kenwood you'd likely need no
rewiring.

 

Yeah, no good reason other than just cause! My better half gave me $500 bucks toward a radio for my birthday. I would like the hands free phone thing and the existing radio had no mic with it, but mostly.. just cause I wanted a new one to start fresh. Might try to sell the other one it works fine.
And I did get another Kenwood on the advice from the guy at Crutchfields, and the plug and play harness from Modifry so I hope it all goes smoothly.
Then I "might" have a look at replacing the speakers.
Just working on making "the" car "my" car...

 

I'm an old guy too. But I went for the no cd and very happy with it. Mostly not having to carry cd case, etc.

But the unit you're getting will still have all the bells and whistles, plus cd player. So other than a bit more cost, and moving parts that otherwise wouldn't have to be there, its really the same thing.

My setup:

Digital media receiver

90w rms class D amp, tucked into dash right behind short chassis of hu. Class D barely any heat, so no worries about being tucked away. Uses so little power, can be powered off small gauge wire off fuse panel under dash (there are spare power sources in our fuse panel).

Component speakers, with crossover for tweeters (xover tucks into pocket on inside of door card)

Underseat powered sub. Also Class D, so also powered off fuse panel. No thick wires through firewall to battery. I placed it in passenger footwell, notched into the white styrofoam wedge that is under carpet. So totally invisible.

Kenwood makes a similar class D mini amp tp what I used (my setup is all pioneer). Kenwood also makes a similar underseat powered sub.

I like the extra punch of 90w per channel (with amp bridged), so I can hear top down highway. The sub just always setting up crossover built into hu to shunt bass frequencies from door speakers. Taking that bass load off doors now allows cranking volume much higher before distortion.

You could do a similar setup just by finding a different place under dash to hide amp, instead of behind hu.

Then I added sound deadener to doors. Huge difference. Only a couple pounds added.

Apply dynamat type material (I used noico brand, the 40 mil version, Amazon) at 25% coverage. Cut pieces and place then center of any panel areas inside door. Clean thoroughly with alcohol first. Use a roller to fully press and seat adhesive. Then apply foil tape to edges.

Dynamat doesn't block sound. So don't apply 100% coverage. Just wasting money and adding needless weight.

Dynamat adds mass, changing resonant frequency. Damps the oil drum effect. Panels stop vibrating. From stereo. From road noise.

Next add actual sound blocker. Something super light weight (its a sportscar, not a Lexus). Thinsulate works very well. Apply at full coverage to back of door card.

Huge difference in annoying cabin sound. But can actually hear engine and exhaust even better, since less garbage noises blocking it out. Stereo sounds many times better out on road.

Can also do floor and even trunk, but 75% of benefit just from doing the doors.

 

Just for reference this is the radio I have ordered...
Kenwood KDC-BT782HD CD receiver at Crutchfield

 

Depending how things go I may swap out speakers (2 in door cards each side is all, correct?) If I do that and pull the door cards I'll take your advice in the sound deadening you talk about, seems like a very good idea. This car right now has wiring in it for an amp I believe, 2 heavy wires coming off the "L" and "R" ports on the bottom of the head unit (I should have taken a pic) so I'm guessing that is what its for, they terminate in a roll in the spare tire hole hooked to nothing. When I took out the radio today I did not plug them back in when I put the radio back in and all still works fine.
In the post above I listed the radio I ordered in case you are interested.

 

Hands free phone? My maybe 10 year old Garmin GPS does this in my S2000. Noise level for hands free is almost prohibitive in a S2000.

-- Chuck

 

Oh, I used to talk on the phone at 80 mph on my Harley it cant be that bad!
I do understand what you are saying though.

 

Hands free or helmet headset?

-- Chuck

 

Helmet headset, could not do it otherwise, couldn't even talk to the wife on back without it.
And I was a safety instructor.. ATGATT