stereo advice

Hi. I recently bought a '99 LS and am looking for information/advice on upgrading the stereo system. Eventually I intend to add a subwoofer and amplifiers but for now my budget limits me to replacing the head unit and door speakers. The factory unit has the radio and cassette deck above the heater controls and a separate CD unit below the controls (pic attached). I would like to replace this with an XM and MP3 capable unit and am looking for suggestions. The factory unit looks like a 2DIN so I'm probably going to need a mounting kit of some kind as well so any pointers in that direction would be helpful. Also, what size are the door speakers for this model? They look like 6.5".

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Welcome to the site! The radio provision is actually 1.5 din. Speakers are as you said, 6.5". Most aftermarket head units are satellite radio ready, which means you will still have to buy the satellite tuner of your choice, XM or Sirius. As for an aux MP3, a lot of the newer HU come with an aux mini jack either in the front or the rear. Some models even have a USB port so you can listen to music from a flashdrive.

Congrats on the purchase. Ive got a 99 oldbody style. The above poster is correct it is a 1.5 din. just about any aftermarket radio will fit. If you want to remove teh remote cd player it just slides out after pressing teh tabs on teh side. Take some advice though. Leave the jumper harness from the headunit in place. I removed mine to put the radio in my moms astro and it was a pain to remove. You can get the tray to replace the cd player either from your gm dealer or lmctruck.com they have accesories for your dash. On the speakers they are 6.5 in the four doors. In the rear roor there should be two under the fabric grills. The grills just pop off with a little movment. Those are 4x10s a little harder to find. The only thing I did find about changing my radio to an after market headunit is I lost my rear door speakers. Ipluged my original headunit in and they worked, but when I plugged teh other one in they stopped. My suggestion is when youu install your wiring harness adapter. Find the wires for the rear doors and tie them in to the front speakers. It will make the stereo sound alot better even without subs and amps. Hope this helps.

stormgrey99 said:

.... The only thing I did find about changing my radio to an after market headunit is I lost my rear door speakers. Ipluged my original headunit in and they worked, but when I plugged teh other one in they stopped. My suggestion is when youu install your wiring harness adapter. Find the wires for the rear doors and tie them in to the front speakers. It will make the stereo sound alot better even without subs and amps. Hope this helps.

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There is a seperate amp that powers the rear door speakers. If you power up the amp turn-on wire, you'll be able to get sound from the rear door speakers. Most of these models used a pink wire that' you'll have to power up.

I guess it would be located in the main plug. I have a power probe test light to power it up and try. Would it be best to hook it up to my remote turn for my amp. Is it a solid pink or striped.

stormgrey99 said:

I guess it would be located in the main plug. I have a power probe test light to power it up and try. Would it be best to hook it up to my remote turn for my amp. Is it a solid pink or striped.

Click to expand...

Use the remote turn on wire from your aftermarket deck(blue or blue/white stripe, depending on model) and splice that into the factory amp turn-on wire. Should be a solid pink if I remember correctly. But test to make sure.

Looks like I came to the right place. I wasn't even aware about the rear 4x10's. Thanks for the great info.

wire colors for GM

check out this website for what color does what:

http://www.installdr.com/InstallDocs/GM/Suburban.html


this website told me which was positive and negative for the rear roof speakers. i replaced my cd player and all 4 speakers in my 1997 2 door. took about 4 hours b/c the door panels are a b*tch and you gotta splice the wires for each speaker and the power for the cd player. but they are color matched so it's ez as pie. then you just plug it in

i got all kenwood and spent $156 for everything including shipping. $106 shipped for a kenwood cd player with aux input for ipod and 2 6.5 kenwood coax speakers for the doors. crutchfield is great b/c they gave me the harness plugs for the speakers, antenna, and cd player dash mount bracket for free. i got the kenwood 4x10s off ebay for $40 + shipping. sound is night and day from stock.

mine doesn't do mp3 or xm but i don't need it b/c i got the ipod plugged up. prolly gonna cost you at least $150 for a cd player that does mp3 and xm plus the external xm stuff.

make sure you get one with "pre-amp outputs" if you wanna add an amp/sub. these are red and white rca plugs one for left and one for right channel. the higher the voltage the cleaner the sound transmission.

damn i love that website!

i have a 99 LS not to thread jack but will i loose the rear speakers with the install of my alpine? it doenst have a bose system in it or should i jsut matcht he rear wires up to the front wires? and also where si a good place to run power wire from the battery. im finding mixed results