I took mine out, there are 4 I/O's 3 of which are being used, one is the fiber optic line that im assuming is coming from the dash screen. What are the others? I see one that looks like the speakers would be receiving their signal from...if thats the case, i plan to splice in a second amplifier strictly for the Ipod with a toggle switch that cuts the sound from the factory amp to the ipod amp.

 

So I had the idea of hooking up my ipod to my factory stereo because i could not replace the OEM radio with an after market due to the fiber optic system. I found somewhat of a solution that worked...

I hooked up a 4ch alpine amp and powered it by the 12v auxiliary power jack in the trunk. ran a remote wire from the dash to the amp. inserted the Alpine amp in between the factory amps' speaker output and the in door speakers utilizing the "direct speaker level inputs" on the alpine amp. Made a balanced 1/8th female to unbalanced stereo RCA male cable. purchased two, female RCA to dual male RCA y-adapters so that the 2 channel output from the ipod could connect to the 4 ch RCA inputs on the amplifier. I used the Female 1/8th end and drilled a hole through the dash giving the car a factory style auxiliary input. The amp noted in the manual to not use both "speaker level" inputs and RCA inputs at the same time. Of course I did it anyway (not like a line level audio cable can fry anything anyways), but infact doing so worked out perfect. I was wondering how I would switch between the factory radio and the ipod but come to find out, upon plugging the ipod into the aux input, it automatically cuts off the signal from the factory amp and starts playing the ipod only.

and even better, the noise floor is almost silent! no humming! only issue is when listening to the factory CD player, when you switch tracks there's a very slight click sound through the speakers.

total cost $130

 

oh yeah, and buy a 9volt battery to pop the speakers to find out what wires you need to cut and which wires go where.