Welcome to the forum! You will be very happy that you joined! Take a look at this thread HowTo: P11 Headunit Installation. It's one of the more detailed HowTo threads that should answer your questions. And although it's done for a P11, they may be some differences in between it and your P10, but it does explain the installation use of a Scosche level converter.

EDIT: Oops! I didn't read your post properly. Sorry. I thought you had a P10 not P11. You sig on the right lists a 1990 G20. To answer you question, all your doing with the level converter is controlling (reducing the) power output being from your new headunit to levels so that can can still utilize the stock speaker & amps. But like I said, read the thread I posted for a definitive answer.

 

Just get a headunit with more than one set of preouts and use the Metra harness (I forget the model number; it's available if you search on this forum) that has RCA plugs instead of solderable wire. That will provide an actual clean unamplified signal to the stock amp, which is what the stock headunit does and what will yield the best sound quality.

EDIT: This assumes you actually have a P11 as you say. The P11 uses an amp for all the speakers, though. The 91-93 P10 only has the rear amp, and the 93.5-96 has two amps, but you should bypass the amps if you have a P10 anyway.

 

i recommend getting rid of the old stock speakers! speaker wires are not too hard to run under the door sills on the passenger side, and new speakers are not too hard to install in the rear deck. the front doors are also not terribly hard to do. powering some aftermarket speakers of any price off your headunit will definitely sound better than reusing the old stock speakers, which were kind of cheesy to start with.

also welcome!

 

So is the factory amp worth using? Do you know how much power it puts out approx? What im guessing is the scosche unit allows you to double amplify but in a fashion where you can find a balance between the amp and the head unit? And by using the metra harness all the amplification is done solely by the amp correct? Thanks!

 

Yeah sorry i have a p11...do you still suggest i replace the speaker wiring? The last car i drove was a 1990 Integra which has 18 year old wiring now and it all seemed to be perfectly fine.

 

Argh! Sorry for the one million posts. Ive never dealt with a factory amplified system before. So i looked up the metra unit and saw that it had two sets of RCA's. In my P11 there is only one amp and i believe only the rear speakers are amplified. So with two sets of RCAs are they assuming you drive a P10 that has two amps?

If i use this metra harness on my P11 with two sets of RCAs will the rear speakers be powered by the factory amp and the front speakers be powered by the head unit?

 

Schosche

im using an aftermarket stereo on my P11 and S14, using the factory amp and speakers with the Scosche thingy at walmart.

Im having no problems with it.

they work great.

 

If you search for the Metra part number on here, you might find more info. I thought that the fronts were amped too on the P11, but I could be wrong.

 

forget aftermarket! grab 6 disc changer from the pathfinder and plug it into your factory harness. It's plug and play and sounds phenominal! You can dump several hundred dollars on a new head unit, adapters, speakers, and wiring plus a day to install it all and it might sound a little bit better! But I couldn't imagine it sounding that much better then the stock setup. I love the way my factory stuff sounds with the pathy unit in there. I get compliments all the time! Plus it looks really good! Aftermarket stuff today is too flashy with all the silver trim and blue lights! BTW this is just my oppinion and I'm sure others would disagree. It is the norm to dislike Bose if you have a nissan. I wasn't the biggest fan myself until now.

BTW I only have ever seen one amp under the back deck in my 99. I always thought there was just one?

 

I've used both the line level converter and the RCA harness and they both sound about the same to me. I'm still using the RCA one since it's less clutter. I believe the only problem is that some say that you need a deck with a high preout voltage or the volume would be very low. I have a 4.5v preout and the sound level is about the same as the line level converter turned half way up.

 

So guy. When using the RCA's the rear speakers are still amplified through the amp while the fronts are powered by the headunit correct? What headunit are you using?

 

The Bose amp is a 4 channel I believe so all 4 speakers should be amped. When using the RCA's the headunit is sending a unamplidfied output to the Bose amp to be amplidfied. I'm using a Kenwood KDC-x859.

 

Robkris...what year pathfinder?