Today with the help of my freind I replace the factory amp in my evolution x. First I must say WOW what an impovement. First let me explain hard facts that I found on the way. And then how I overcame them..

1. The factory system sounds like crap. One of the major problems its to weak and the auto leveling keeps the volume low becase the amp starts to clip. You will notice this becase the audio will not get louder over 30..

2. The wire harness on the car is diffrent from the rockford vs the non rockford system.. The radio ouputs only front high level to the amp only.. And fad and sub control are all contoled by the bus. (this was a concern to me but there is a fix)

3. If you have a non rockford system and you want the nav mmcs system by all means do it. I love the unit..


Okay after removing the head unit and the amp we ran 2 sets of rca 3m each and amp turn on wire down from the radio to where the oe amp is installed.. then ran 4G power wire from the batt in trunk to where the oe amp was..

For the front speakers I ran wires into the doors

a. drivers door down the kick panel to where the oe amp.
b. pasenger door behind the glove box down the cnter console to where the oe amp.
c. drivers side rear to the amp
d. passenger rear along the passenger side up the kick pannel behind the glvoe box center console to amp

* Note. You can cut the plug at the amp and wiere all the spakers there but I just wanted nice cable. And well I just wanted to(my friend wanted to do it that way too but I was f it.. I bought the wire allready..

Then we wired the amp up.. its a 4 channel rockford fosgate with pass through.. ran a 1m rca to the center console and then a 15 foot rca from the console to the trunk.. this is for the sub amp.. I wanted to install a nob to control the sub gain..

Okay here comes the fun part.. Remember how i said the head unit only outputs fronts only to the oe amp then you have punch level and fadding.. well guess what (it can be programed by the dealer back to six speakers only no premeum mode.. But guess what if you unplug the oe amp and unplug the radio from power it will reset its self and then get rid of the oe amp contorl and output front and rear high outputs. bingo.. on the car harness its missing the rear outputs but guess what they can be added in..

Okay so once the raido reset installed a four channel hi to low converter pluged in the rca and it all worked great.. taped into the acc for the remote turn on and i had music.. ya.. with left and right fade front to back..

The oe mids and highs sounded like never before.. I was happy..


Next the sub amp was mounted next to the batt in the trunk.. rewired the sub and wired in the amp.. tested again and i had bass boom boom.. that can be controled by the center console.. cleaned up the wireing ajusted the amp and settings... All I can say is this is the way this should of worked from the factory..


Things that changed.. the raido when you push setings and then audio the menu is now diffrent no punch settings and no misuic and hall settings i will

also the auto level is not there anymore you can crank it till the speakers blead. So this tells me the auto leveling was built into the crap amp and the amp is a joke..


Next upgrades..

Image 6 inch mids and tweets in the front doors.
-- this will be done sunday

Moving the sub amp under the passenger seat
2 15 inch subs free air. in the trunk..

I will update the post with pics and clean up.. But if you hate the factory mmcs system the problem is the amp.. To make it quick and easy replace it with a nice 5 channel amp with high level inputs run 4 pairs of speaker wire down to the amp and wire the speakers to the amp under the seat all the oe speaker wires are there front rear and sub..

 

That's awesome information!! Thank you very much...I will be doing a PDX-5 in the near future.

Adam

 

post pics when you get your new speakers and subs in plz!
thanks

 

Nice work. So, did you lose the Punch bass level adjustment on the head unit?

 

Don't use the knob as it only boosts the bass at 50hz. It does NOT adjust your gain.

 

Question: do you have a pic of the stock rockford speakers? I'm curious what they're made of. Cheap paper, or polypropolene?

 

I have a pic of the stocks around here someplace. Let me go find it... From what I remember, the magnet was decent sized, and I think it was a rubber surround, so not horrible, but pretty bad

OK here ya go:

 

^ Don't they look so pretty, yet sound so shi*ty?

 

So... you put in a new amp, which works perfectly with your MMCS (read: works with your steering wheel controls/cuts out appropriately for phone calls and GPS, etc...) with no additional hardware except for the amp? What kind of amp did you choose?

If you pulled out the MMCS from the dash, did you look to see if it had RCA outs on it as well...or? I am very curious... I'd love to get rid of the stock amp, and its' issues, but definately want to keep the Nav/Phone interface and Steering Wheel Controls intact...

 

Yes its gone I installed a line level control in the center console for the sub amp love it...

 

line level control -00db to + 8db its a pac LC-1

mounted in the center console

 

There are no rca on the uint.. like i said unplug it for a few minuts and unplug the amp and it resets to default witch has front and rear line level you need to add cables to the harness or tap into the nav harnees with has all the wires..

Ps the stock amp is junk.. the output leveler is gone so you can crank it till the stock speakers blead

I would recomend installing a real amp in there with the stock nav and speakers I have been since i dont have the time to replace the rest of the system and it sound way better..


like I said replace it with a nice 5 channel amp and all you need to run is 4 speakers wires to the new amp and cut the og harrness to the oem speakers..


I know what you are going to say rockford amps.. but these are real amps I Im starting to belive the oem stuff is just branded rockford

 

Yea and one meun that had the music type and dsp setting but who cares it sound way better

when you hit set it goes to this screen



To this when you hit the sound menu so there is one screen missing here
notice the punch level control missing.. and the sub graph in the trunk

 

As the title says, I have no Rockford Fosgate OE, but I do have the OE Navigation MMCS.

I am trying to determine what exatly I need to replicate your setup. It sounds to me like I may need a part of the Rockford wiring harness..? or are there aftermarket solutions that connect to the rear of the OE Navigation head?

I understand everything from the line level converters back, I'm just trying to figure out where to tap into the head unit to get those extra channels needed to support the aftermarket amp.

Thanks,

don..