2001 Volvo V70 HU Upgrade

johnrapier · Post by **johnrapier** » 29 Jun 2011, 18:37

Hello everyone,

This is my first post in this forum. It has been very useful so far as I have replaced my ball joints,control arms, and inner and outer tie rods from the help of this forum. My question is and probably has already been answered before.

The current set up in my car is the Dolby Pro Logic system with center channel and sub woofer, this system is perfect and don't want to change anything, except for the head unit. I'm looking at replacing the factory hu with a after market double din with navigation. My only concerns are the following:

1. Is there anyway to use teh factory amp with an aftermarket unit.

2. Is there anyway to keep the functionality of the center channel, if I get a n aftermarket unit with 5.1 capabilities.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

John

Post by **JRL** » 29 Jun 2011, 21:18

Nothing wrong with an 803
Add a subwoofer and USE THE HIDDEN MENU to adjust your sound

johnrapier · Post by **johnrapier** » 29 Jun 2011, 22:17

Hello,

It already has the subwoofer, I'm trying to add navigation/bluetooth/satellite to my car. All I want to do is to change out hte head unit, keep the factory amp with the factory center channel and subwoofer.

Post by **JRL** » 30 Jun 2011, 04:37

There are only one or two aftermarket HUs out there that have a center channel as far as I know.
The Volvo amp is prone to overheating and even if it can be mated up, by the time (cost) you'll have in it by re-doing all the wiring, it would be easier to pull everything out and go with a better aftermarket AMP that would match up better to the new HU

Post by **ojdorson** » 30 Jun 2011, 08:38

You need something like this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Volvo-St ... 456wt_1172

I've made my own, but if you're not good with soldering it's probably easiest to buy it.

Post by **ojdorson** » 30 Jun 2011, 09:02

Oh, and you will need to look long and hard to find a receiver that will power a center channel speaker. In your car, the center channel speaker is powered by the head unit, NOT the amp. I'm looking on www.crutchfield.com now.

Post by **DGM** » 30 Jun 2011, 10:43

johnrapier wrote:Hello everyone,

This is my first post in this forum. It has been very useful so far as I have replaced my ball joints,control arms, and inner and outer tie rods from the help of this forum. My question is and probably has already been answered before.

The current set up in my car is the Dolby Pro Logic system with center channel and sub woofer, this system is perfect and don't want to change anything, except for the head unit. I'm looking at replacing the factory hu with a after market double din with navigation. My only concerns are the following:

1. Is there anyway to use teh factory amp with an aftermarket unit.

2. Is there anyway to keep the functionality of the center channel, if I get a n aftermarket unit with 5.1 capabilities.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

John

Bluepower may have what you are looking for.

I installed the BLP-840 recently.

You can retain your factory amp or upgrade it.

The BLP-890 model fits your year/model.

http://shop.textalk.se/en/article.php?i ... rt=5980331

I feed the central speaker in mono and adjust its level with an L-Pad.

johnrapier · Post by **johnrapier** » 30 Jun 2011, 11:10

Hello,

And thank you for the quick reply. Do you have an IM that we can talk thru. I'm in the USA do you know if bluepower is sold here.

Post by **DGM** » 30 Jun 2011, 11:56

johnrapier wrote:Hello,

And thank you for the quick reply. Do you have an IM that we can talk thru. I'm in the USA do you know if bluepower is sold here.

Members of our local Volvo Club bought 3 units from Sweden last winter. I know some units were delivered to the states. We had to resolve bugs with the supplier on these early production units. Software updates were provided to update their firmware. Now they operate normally and their documentation has improved.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread ... -Version-3

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread ... stallation

The unit doesn't have a dedicated output for the central speaker as on your Volvo HU. I made my own with an L-Pad tapped to the + of the left channel and the - of the right channel. I adjust the level through the L-Pad potentiometer. The adjustment is done at the installation and the potentiometer is hidden under the central speaker. It is working well and you can adjust it at your convenience.

http://colomar.com/Shavano/lpad.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L_pad#Speaker_L_pad

50 watts was sufficient for my application.

You can also do it with fix resistors.

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-Lpad.htm

Regards,