While playing around with places to install my gauges (still a work in progress folks), I made a discovery. If I completlly gut the upper cubby in the center of the dash, with minimal modification I can fit a DIN radio in the hole that is left. I have to check behind that spot to see If it is physically workable.

 

The 2005 Limited has that nasty auto HVAC unit built into the radio. I already have one patch  module so it sort of works with bluetooth and ipod, but it is clunky. I can not get rid of the factory radio. The factory radio is a 6 disck changer that plays MP3 (updated from a 2009). IN Blu and the Justy I have a nice media player that works very well with everything. 

 

I freely admit that my electronics skills are a bit lacking.

 

I was wondering..... Is it possible to have two stereos wired in parallel to the speakers and such? I would use the stock unit just for discs, I would use the DIN mount for everything else.

 

Thoughts?

You could get one of those transmitters you plug all your mp3/iPod/flash drive into that just plays it on an unused radio station. Tune the stereo to that station and all of your MP3s are right there. I've seen dual stereo setups before but I don't know particulars.

I have a module that plugs into the stock unit (GROM) but it isnt a true interface. It doesnt automatically interupt a music source on a call (or when the GPS is running), it doesnt fully list the song info, it doesnt break down the music into playlists (its a subaru head unit program issue, not a grom issue). It is limited in what it can do for a subaru due to subarus hardware configuration.

 

A fm module would be even more lacking. 

You could get one of those transmitters you plug all your mp3/iPod/flash drive into that just plays it on an unused radio station. Tune the stereo to that station and all of your MP3s are right there. I've seen dual stereo setups before but I don't know particulars.

 

FM modulators. Total garbage. Lots of bleed through simply because there's no such thing as a true "dead" station.

 

My suggestion is if you have the aux, to get a cheapy 7" tablet off of eBay and use that as a hard drive of sorts to allow for downloaded media. You can leave it in the car for the most part, and if you have wi-fi at the house, you can do all of your downloads over that.

Not possible where i live.

maybe a one way diode like those solar pathway lights use to keep the solar panel from discharging the battery, you could solder one inline on each speaker wire on both the radios before you splice the speaker wires together, that would keep power from backfeeding into the radio your not using.

Edited March 27, 201313 yr by mikaleda

Thats what I was thinking. I am still pondeing the possabilities. There is also a hack to cut the board and solder the broken connection so you can lay down the radio part of the board, but I dont fully understand the directions.

Thats what I was thinking. I am still pondeing the possabilities. There is also a hack to cut the board and solder the broken connection so you can lay down the radio part of the board, but I dont fully understand the directions.

interesting but, i'm not sure i understand. what do you mean by lay down the radio part of the board?

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dual-hvac-pcb-relocation-info-53848.html

Yikes! i can see why you want to wire another radio inline, that looks like a pain. i did a little forum searching and there is another option for wiring two radios together, it sounds like diodes don't work well. there was a few people that used DPDT relays or switches but, there were people that used diodes and it seemed to work as well. i'm not quite sure how they wired the relays but it sounds like only the positive side needs to be interrupted on the radio that's not being used.

Looking at the circuit board now. There are two different ways of doing it. I used to be able to solder by hand a human hair sized wire, but I dont have the equipment to do it anymore (a very good temp controlled soldering iron). Any EE out there up  for a challange?