Well, if it isn't one thing it's another.

I have a 90 LS400 with the Nak sound system (at least I think so, not so sure anymore). I am upgrading my head unit to an Alpine INA-W900BT in dash nav unit. Right now, I'm keeping my factory amp, sub and speakers, and just want to upgrade the head unit so I have iPod capability. For these reasons, I decided to get the Beatsonic SLA-20N which is the adapter for LS's with Nak systems.

I got the Beatsonic and spent the entire day today wiring it up to the Alpine harness. Took pretty much the entire day to do that. Had it all wired up and ready to go, have the old head unit out of the car (along with the HVAC and Ash tray unit) and I go to plug the car's harness into the Beatsonic adapter and....it doesn't fit. The harness is supposed to be a 15 pin connector, but I have three separate connectors, one of which is a 10 pin and a 6 pin combined. This seems to fit the coneectors for the Pioneer base OEM stereo, but they were plugged into my head unit that clearly has "Nakamichi" on it's face. So I'm thinking "What the hell?" and I'm not too happy since I just wired up a harness that evidently doesn't fit my car.

So I email Beatsonic and to their credit they respond very quickly and ask me to send pictures. I do, and they are working on figuring out what's going on. I may need the SLA-20 Pioneer adapter instead, but my question is...why? I have the Nak system.

Can anyone shed light on this? Did I get caught in a mid year switch over or something, or do I not really have the Nak system?

Take a look at the attached pictures and let me know what's going on because I'm perplexed.

(sorry the pictures are kind of huge, didn't have time to shrink them down)

 

I'm beginning to think that the Nak head unit isn't what came with the car. Is there a way for me to tell, other than the head unit, if I truly have a Nak system in my car? None of this is making sense. I checked the magnet on the subwoofer, but it doesn't have any markings on it other than "made in Japan".

 

Wow dude, that's messed up. I think you do have Pioneer wiring. Idk why you have a Nakamichi face plate. They might have been changed over the years but I'm looking at my service manual (for a 93) and the connectors on the back for Nakamichi, there is three. A 14 pin, a 15 pin, and a 6 pin. On Pioneer there is four connectors. A 10 pin and 6 pin which connect together, and a 14 pin, and a 6 pin. It shows a drawing of the back of both units and neither one looks like yours. (connectors in different spots) Also, where is your amp? Pioneer has a sub-woofer amp behind the back seat and Nakamichi has a full amp (sub included) on top of the CD changer in the trunk.
Maybe one of the connectors you have on that head unit was for the phone, did your car have a phone? Like ya said, "it's a wierd problem."

 

Well...after some research, it appears the 90-92 Nak systems had the same plugs as the 90-94 Pioneers. So, apparently 90-92 LS400 owners with Nak need the Beatsonic adapter for the Pioneer systems, but the faceplate and mounting hardware for the Nak's. I'm working with Beatsonic to get this resolved (they have been very responsive by the way), but it looks like I will need the Pioneer harness and I'll be re-doing all of my wiring. Which blows. Hard.

 

that blows dude, i just recently did my stereo for a 97 pioneer and i didn't buy any sort of harness. i just hard wired it. it took me about 5 hours to figure it out and relearn hot to read a wire diagram and trouble shoot(front right speaker didn't like the stock wiring so had to hard wire it directly). i also upgraded my sub so i just bypassed the amp all together.

hope things work out for you and your new stereo

 

Eh, it shouldn't be too bad to rewire it again b/c you were already in there. Hopefully Beatsonic doesn't charge you any more b/c it was actually their fault, as long as you gave them the right info (which you did) they should have sent the right harness. Someone had to have come across this before. Hope the rest works out for ya. Can't drive without tunes.

 

I had the same problem except I pulled my "nak" hu and checked the wiring... You are correct in that the 90-92 naks have the same wiring as the pioneers...

 

Well it all turns out ok I guess. I am returning the Beatsonic adapter and they are refunding what I paid. I decided to just re-do the entire system with all new components, and I also decided that I didn't want to mess with it myself (no time) so I dropped the car off tonight to have a new system installed.

I went with an Alpine 5 channel amp, JL 12W1 sub with custom enclosure, Focal components in the front doors with Focal coaxials in the rear and a custom double din head unit install so the Alpine can be flush with the dash. Should be a nice setup. Hate spending money on installation I can do myself, but it's also nice letting someone else worry about it.

 

I hear ya on paying someone else to do an install you can do but it's nice to let someone else worry about it. Nice choice of components btw, that system should sound nice.