The back of the Sony CDX-MP450X has provisions for front and rear Audio Out for connecting to aftermarket amplifiers, as well as provisions for an optional Sony Remote Control.
You may not have known this yet, but your car already has a Sony CD Player in it. After you remove your factory stereo you will see Sony's label on the bottom of your CD Player!
This is the completed wiring harness with both the Sony harness and Peripheral Interface Components adapter joined together. Be sure to use electrical tape or shrink wrap to insulate your soldered connections. Using convoluted tubing to wrap the wires can help clean up your installation.
At this point you have a couple of options. If you are going to be using the
Sony CDX-MP450X with an aftermarket amplifier you'll need to start routing
speaker wires, RCA cables and power leads for your amplifier. We decided to use the
factory amplifiers for now. The Sony CDX-MP450X does have provisions for
using an aftermarket amplifier, as you can see from the picture. Using the
factory amps, speakers, and wiring will not give you the ideal sound quality,
but it will get you back on the road faster.
To truly upgrade your sound system you'll need to update the speakers, wiring
and amps as well. We hope to do an amplifier and speaker upgrade in the
future, but for now we were just interested in being able to play our MP3s!
With that being said, if you are going to be using the factory wiring and amps
then it's time to start assembling the wiring harness adapter.
We chose to solder the connections of our Peripheral Interface Components
adapter and our Sony wiring harness. This will ensure the best connection
without having to worry about loose wires that could degrade sound quality or
possibly short out our new system. Using the diagrams provided with the
CDX-MP450X match up the wires on the Sony harness with those on the Peripheral
Interface Components adapter. The Sony harness utilizes the following
pin-out:
Blue/White wire - Amp Remote [This circuit is used to turn on either the factory or aftermarket amplifiers.]
White - Left Front Speaker (+)
White/Black - Left Front Speaker (-)
Gray - Right Front Speaker (+)
Gray/Black - Right Front Speaker (-)
Green - Left Rear Speaker (+)
Green/Black - Left Rear Speaker (-)
Purple - Right Rear Speaker (+)
Purple/Black - Right Rear Speaker (-)
Yellow - 12v Positive (+) Always On [This circuit provides power at all times. Be careful when working with this wire to avoid shock! It is energized even when the key is turned to OFF! This is used to keep the radio's memory alive so that your pre-set stations and CD programming remain active.]
Red - 12v Positive (+) Key On [This circuit only provides power when the key is "On" or in the "Accessory" position.]
Light Blue - Car telephone Interface [This provides auto-muting when your cell phone is being used.]
Blue - Antenna Remote [If your car has a power radio antenna you will use this connection. The Mustang doesn't have one so there's no real need to hook it up.]
Black - Ground [Connect this wire to a metal surface on either the dashboard frame or your adapter's ground circuit.]
The Peripheral Interface Components adapter utilizes the same colors for its
wiring scheme as the Sony adapter. This makes matching up the wires a snap!
When you're done soldering the connections be sure to wrap them using shrink
wrap or good quality electrical tape. Since the Sony CDX-MP450X comes with
its own internal amplifier, we recommend that you turn down the gain on the
Peripheral Interface Components adapter. This should help clean up the sound
some by reducing distortion caused by running an amplified signal into another
amplifier.
