Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Front speaker sound output

I had thought of replacing the Kenwood 1804 unit with a 1824, but a) they seem hard to get and b) it wouldn’t get over the patchy internet radio or lack of DAB in Ireland. It is also a lot cheaper to install a €100 radio which gives the radio, Bluetooth hands free phone and Bluetooth music from the phone, by just disconnecting the Musicstream unit and plugging in the radio! I have done a “dry run” of the connections, with only a scrap aerial and everything worked perfectly, as soon as I get the aerial delivered, I will do the final install. The radio will be a bit out of the way(just like the trad cars with theirs up under the dash tunnel) but this is easily solved with a remote control.

Cheers!

Hi Robbie, little question : did you find a permanent positive line (generally needed for radio memory settings) around the Kenwood amp or did you had to put one ?

For “dry run” I just sourced the power-on power wire - full install will require sourcing it

Dada,
There is a yellow wire attached to the 1804 which is said to be ( according to its manual) a constant 12v so I expect it is what is required!

Great ! Thank Robbie

I fitted a fader to control the front vs rear speaker balance on my MY22 Plus Four. The lack of volume from the front door speakers had been frustrating me, like everyone else!

The fader works great. However it’s a rather involved process.. but I will try to explain how I did it, in case this is useful to anyone else:

Step 1 is getting to the amp - which is quite tricky. You need to remove 4 screws at the bottom of the panel and then carefully ease out the 5 Christmas tree fasteners along the top of the panel.




Step 2 is to insert an RCA fader unit onto the B channel speakers. The factory wiring has a pair of blue splitter RCA cables to distribute the sound from the MusicStream unit to the A and B channels on the KAC-M1814 amp. You need to unplug the B channel L&R RCAs and insert a fader to be able to attenuate the gain to the rear speakers.





Step 3 is to set the A and B Input Sensitivity gain on the amplifier itself such that (with the fader at mid-position) the sound is balanced between the rear and front speakers. (See amp instructions, there are screw driver adjustable channel gain controllers to the right of the RCA plugs)

Step 4 is to reinstall the panel - and find a place to fix the fader unit.




+++

Adjusting the playback volume depends on various volume controls; the sound level on your phone, the Bluetooth MusicStream gain control knob under the dashboard, and then the fader to adjust the front vs. rear balance. Obviously the fader is only acting on the rear speakers, hence if the fronts are still too quiet you’ll need to increase the phone volume or the MusicStream gain knob.

BTW I personally find using a Tunai Bluetooth phone remote control button on the steering wheel is very helpful to be able to adjust overall volume whilst driving.

Folks,
I managed to do the final instal of the radio over the weekend with the major help of Peter O’Brien, Kirwans Garage wonderful mechanic. Firstly, Pioneer speak with false tongue! The CD- SR110 remote is NOT a Bluetooth remote, it is an infrared unit and the mvh S410BT doesn’t have an infrared receptor so the remote won’t work!!
Secondly the battery of my phone died so i have no photos.. Sorry but the previous poster shows the connections as well as I would. The connections just need to disconnect the inputs from the Musicstream unit and substitute the radio ones.
THE GOOD NEWS the smart sync app from Pioneer allows the use of the iPhone or android phone to control the radio _I expect that a wired remote may be more reliable, but so far, i find the app acceptable. I now have all the music from my phone, the radio stations I like and the hands free phone. The microphone from the radio was threaded along the base of the centre unit and mounted on the steering wheel binnaclebehind the wheel. The radio aerial is a “Stick on” one mounted behind the back panel beside the amplifier.

Huge thanks to Peter who expertly cut out the slot for the radio in the panel (not a trivial task as it is a thick bit of aluminium) and checked out the electrics.

Cheers, and sorry about lack of pictures!!!!!