Post by
K03sport »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/k03sport-u129071.html
Tue May 31, 2016 6:51 pm
Just adding this here for others...replaced our failing/skipping 6-disk OEM Bose HU in our '04 Pathfinder SE with a JWC KW-R920BTS (from Crutchfield). Accompanying the install was a Scosche OEM Amplifier Integration harness v.4 p/n 142C4NN03, Nissan Antenna Adapter p/n 12040NI10, Metra Nissan Dash Kit p/n 95-7417, and a Pac-Audio SWI-RC Steering Wheel controller p/n 541SWIRC.
The install was fairly straight forward. The hardest part was soldering all the wires together. In the end, I had 4-5 ground wires that had to come together in the harness connection; however, this did not include the ground used by the OEM harness that had three wires that controlled the steering wheel inputs (wire #29). In any case, the radio fired up first time, no smoke, no drama.
Setting up the Pac-Adio SWI-RC steering wheel controller wasn't too hard, but I had to do it twice as I forgot to skip the 4th option on the JVC list as our steering wheel didn't have that ('mute' I think).
However, the install and steering wheel controls were only half the set-up battle. The next BIG hurdle was setting up the audio. Using the gain adjustments provided with the Scosche harness (set volume at 3/4 max --> 27 of 35), my gain adjustment pots ended up around the 11:55-12 o'clock position. I noticed with no other adjustments, the overall volume was much lower than the stock HU and most of my bass disappeared.
I tried the built in EQ presets,but it was only mildly better. I think I settled on the "Hard Rock" preset. For background, our stock HU was set at "Bass-02" and "Treble-03". The JVC's Audio selections were the most I'd seen on an aftermarket HU. I had to turn off the Sub-W and tell it not to "use" the pre-amp outputs. I had to select a x-over and type (2-way), freq pass through and speaker/tweeter size along with bass/mid/treb settings. I skipped the "virtual" sound enhancements as I felt they did not help the overall sound experience. In the end, it took about an hour to get the sound okay, IMO, but I think there is more tweaking necessary.
I also have the JVC set so that the volume stops at '25'. When not stopping at '25', I would get very noticeable distortion at 30 and at 35 (the max) the sound was not identifiable as music. I may have to go back into the dash and turn the gain pots on the adapter harness more toward the 11:00 mark.
If you are wondering why Crutchfield did not send the harness that uses the pre-amp RCAs (Metra 70-7551), well it turns out, after reading several posts on their site, there is consistent popping out of the speakers when switching between sources. Also, I think the space behind the new JVC unit would be extremely limited with the RCA plugs sticking straight out. Some 90* adapters could fix that I'm sure.
Not an overly hard install, but not exactly smooth like better either. Some plugging, lots of tweaking, then play. Probably a 5-6 out of 10 on the overall hardness/difficulty level. Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any questions.
p.s.: I know to do it right, I will need to rip out all the Bose stuff or get the OE HU fixed.