PapaCap

1995 SC400

Basically, I bought this car and it was stripped of many interior components, one of them being the head unit (aka radio). This was my first Lexus, so without looking or knowing...I got a Pioneer head unit and it didn't work.

I checked the amp at this point and realized it was a Nakamichi, along with the CD changer. Luckily, I had 2 Pioneer amps (bought one off eBay, the other at Pull-a-Part) and both of them worked with the Pioneer head unit.

So I'm wondering. Does anyone have a Pioneer head and Nakamichi amp? I'm wondering if the amp is dead or if they changed some wiring to make them incompatible (the wiring harnesses are the same, fyi).

Also, can anyone verify that the Pioneer amp is a 4 channel amp? I took the Nakamichi apart and it appears to be a 6 channel amp (I assume 2 channels are bridged for the sub...which my car has).

Or does anyone have a schematic to the Pioneer and Nakamichi amps? If I have that, I can make it work.

However, if the Pioneer amp is 4 channel, I may just put a separate amp in to power the sub, which I plan on upgrading. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

PC

PapaCap

This is more for reference than anything.

Since no one could answer my question, I answered it myself.

I bought a Nakamichi head and it is compatible with the Pioneer amp. And I assume it is backward compatible, as well, but I didn't try it.

What happened was I bought the car stripped and it did not have a head. However, it did have the amp. Before I knew what was what, I bought a Pioneer head. Then I realized they made 2 different stereos and the amp in the trunk was a Nakamichi.

So I plugged the Pioneer head into the Nakamichi amp and it only made a clicking sound. So I thought they were incompatible. So I bought a Pioneer amp, hooked it up, it worked.

I just bought a Nakamichi head because I wanted to use the Nakamichi amp with the sub channel. Plugged the Naka head into the Pioneer amp. Works great. Plugged in the Naka amp. It made that same clicking sound. I'm going to buy a Naka amp tomorrow at a junk yard. Hope it's gtg.

So in conclusion, it seems both the Nakamichi and Pioneer systems are 100% compatible (now that sub channel, that's a different story...gotta hook it all up before I can tell that...and btw, all the rear deck speakers are cut *sigh*...why do people do this stuff). Hope this helps someone.

Papa