Hard Wiring an S50 / Ipod / Etc.

zracer196 · 02-19-2006, 10:16 AM

Hello,

Have a Pioneer D1 with a whole bunch of other stuff...

Just bought a Sirius S50. Love it...What is the BEST way to hard wire it to the head unit - Sound quality wise...I have already hard wired the power.

I also bought a pair of RCA's (to head unit) with a small headphone jack to the cradle the S50 sits in. Have it hooked into the AV input on the D1.

While there is no interference anymore...The RF actually has better sound quality...Very disappointed with this.

I also had the sirius tuner add-on with the D1...Graphics are TERRIBELE since the Pioneer has a tie with XM. The D1 is lacking a TON of features on the Sirius side.

Note the OEM input does not work since I am not running the OEM head unit and am running the D1.

Thanks in advance!!

Sammy Sandbag · 02-19-2006, 01:24 PM

I'm not familiar with the HU, but does it not have an AUX input? I'm a little confused as to what you are asking since this is an aftermarket HU. How do you have it wired currently?

grunge311 · 02-20-2006, 06:34 AM

It sounds like you did it right. Don't expect to much out of sirius, the sound quality is pretty low to begin with, they use a very low bitrate.

but if you say it sounds better running RF (radio frequency NOT Rockford fosgate) then Im stumped.

eakes · 02-20-2006, 08:13 AM

If it sounds worse through the aux in than it does with the FM modulator, then there is a problem somewhere. The output of the Sirius could have a distortion problem. The likely problem is a mismatch between the output gain setting of the Sirius and and input gain setting of the Pioneer. I would suspect the input gain of the radio is set too sensitive and is being overdriven by the Sirius.

zracer196 · 02-20-2006, 10:48 AM

Running the S50 through the internal RF setting means I have a bit of interference / static. There is no wire to the HU...RF transmitting only.

I am now using an RCA to mini headphone wire...Running from the back of the S50 (the mini headphone jack) to an RCA input (AV input) on the back of the Pioneer D1...This cut a large amount of sound / bass / treble from the sound. The RF sound quality is better except for the static.

What about an RF relay (or whatever it's called)...A wire that goes from the S50 cradle to the antenna input on the HU? Supposedly when you change from the Radio source to the Sirius source it changes from Antenna pick-up to picking up the Sirius signal...Working from the antenna jack...

eakes · 02-20-2006, 11:49 AM

Your RCA to mini jack cable - is that stereo or mono? If mono that could explain some of the degradation of sound quality.

Yes, there are FM modulator devices which go in-line with the antenna lead. When these are activated the antenna input to the radio is disconnected from the outside antenna and is connected to the output of the modulator. This reduces the chance of interferrence from strong local FM stations. These devices cost more than the radiating ones and would need to be fed by the same Sirius audio output you are using for the aux input to the radio. It is just as likely to be a problem feeding the modulator as feeding the aux.

According to the write up at Crutchfields the vehicle doc for this model has line out connections. You would get better results for sound quality if you used these outputs to connect to the radio. It is extremely likely the headphone/earbud jack has internal compensation to make these devices 'sound better'. However using this jack to connect to the radio results in poor sound quality.