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1999 Saab 9-5 Pioneer amp to HK amp “conversion” Jeffo2, ort11
I have been meaning to do this for a bit, and finally got it done, so here goes.
AS ALWAYS, THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Starting Point: Non-HK, Pioneer Head End, Pioneer Amp, 5 Speaker Sedan.
Goals: Replace Saab Pioneer Amp with Saab HK amp and add two rear deck speakers and see what it sounds like with OEM non-HK speakers and 3rd party speakers in the rear deck.
What you will need to do this:
- Saab HK amp
- Speaker wire
- Small Soldering iron, flux, solder
- Grey wire nuts
- Two 6x9 speakers rear
Problems:
- Add the 4 connections for the two rear speakers to the HK Amp since the non-HK wiring does not include the back deck speaker connections.
- Replace the Pioneer amp with the HK Amp
- Run wire to back deck from the amp location and install rear deck speakers.
Solving the HK-Amp connection problem:
- One way is to obtain an HK version of the amp connector and then splice in all of the lines including the two deck connections. This was REJECTED due to the problem getting the connector with the wires and the number of wires that would have to be cut and spliced.
- Other way is to tap into the HK amp with 4 wires and then use these to run to the back deck. This was ACCEPTED and was not too hard to do.
0. You will need some soldering skills to do this. If you don’t have, get someone that does. This is by far the hardest part of this project.
1. Remove the PCB board from the HK Amp by removing all screws and pulling the board out of the one end.
2. Identify the 7/27/8/28 numbered pins on the bottom of the PC board. You can use the Angy Kitchen reference to do this.
3. Take two pairs of speaker wires and CAREFULLY solder them to the bottom of the PC board. I decided to go perpendicular to the pin rows cutting one a bit short. Strip off a very small amount of insulator on each wire, tin (dip in flux and solder) and then solder the wire quickly to the PC bottom pin. This actually worked pretty well. Take your time.
4. Remove one of the metal jail bars from the close end and feed the two pair of wires through the end.
5. Double check the solder joints for dead shorts, etc.
6. Reassemble the PC board in the amp taking care making sure the wires are ok and insulated.
Solving the Swap Amp Problem
- Remove the passenger front left carpet cover that has the three plastic push button holders. Slightly push in the center button (not too far) and remove the three buttons and the shaped cover.
- Remove the under glove box cover with the 4 torx screws and remove. There is a plastic holder to the front of the car, you may have to work a little to get the panel out from the white holder.
- Remove the passenger plastic door sill with the silver SAAB logo. It comes right off with a little tugging. Take your time.
- Remove the one black plastic push button holder like the grey ones before that is just where the door opening goes vertical.
- Carefully pull back the carpeting from the outside of the car to the inside exposing the silver Pioneer amp mounted to the outside wall of the car.
- Remove the amp, two plastic nuts on the button and one metal nut near the top.
- Lift and remove the amp, you may have to detach the white plastic wire holder.
- Remove the connector by squeezing the connector inward in the inside part and rotating off.
- **** You can test the HK Amp here and you may want to BEFORE the HK-amp connection modification above. Simply attach the HK amp and turn on the stereo system. All speakers should work. It should be a bit louder than the Pioneer amp, but not a ton.
- Attach the connector to the HK amp and mount to car
- **** You can test the rear deck speakers here to make sure they work with the amp mod before running the wire.
- Remove the passenger back door sill SAAB logo plate. Same as before, remove by lifting up carefully.
- Remove the door seal from about 6:00 to about 10:00 looking at the door from the outside.
- Remove the two rear deck speaker grills by moving the rear seats forward, remove the black push connectors, lift the grills up (this will take a bit, they are in pretty good with snap connectors), remove the grills to the front of the car.
- Remove the two speaker blanks in the 6x9 holes
- Run the speaker wire from the amp location under the carpet, past the door pillar using a wire, and then to the back. There is a hole to the truck in the passenger back near about 8:00 with a foam / cardboard cover. Use this to run the wire to the 6x9 compartment.
- *** I ran both wires here and the one to the drivers 6x9. You can do this a bit different if you want.
- Mount speakers and connect to the wires using the grey wire nuts. You can use the grey wire nuts by the amp also.
- Test by firing up the radio and make sure the speakers work by playing a heavy bass song.
- Replace all in reverse order.
Discussion:
Please note that I did NOT replace the non-HK speakers with HK speakers. I used a low end rear speaker set (Wal-Mart $36 DUAL “illumination” speakers, 150 watt). No, I did not hook up the illumination part of the speakers. I did not want to spend a ton of money on the speakers until the system was in place. To my surprise these speakers are handling the low end pretty well. I might not replace them. (ya, ya I know, DUALs are not all that great but really work ok in this application).
I did find some complete HK speaker sets on EBAY, but hey wanted WAY too much. It’s up to you if you want to put in HK speakers or other 3rd part speakers.
As far as sound goes, there is definitely more volume. The rear deck speakers really add to the low end and completely fill the car. As before, the high end is a bit bright off of the windshield, I usually run the fader a bit to the back. The only complaint that I have is I think there is some missing mid range as before the conversion. I wish the head end had a bit more on the equalization and I will play with it a bit more.
Well, that is about it. A few other things is replacing the back grills with ones that have Harmon Kardon on them. There is an HK amp, so I guess this is not too bad, and of course, replacing all OEM HK speakers.
Yes I know, the Ohms do not 100% match the HK ohms. You could probably get even more volume with the HK speakers. But even now, it is hard to turn it up 100%.
Test CD: I hope that this will get some discussion.
I have been using Peter Gabriel “Passion” CD as the test. There are some really nice tracks to push the system. Also, the Pointer Sisters “Jump” can push the system pretty well.
Conclusion:
I think this is worth the conversion if you can find an HK amp that does not cost too much and you have the soldering skills to tap the amp for the rear deck speaker outputs.
Reference:
Many thanks to the angry one:
Comments and questions are very welcome, good or bad...
posted by 24.160.252...
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