Sony Xplod.... Don't laugh cdx gt07

Tonight I decided it was time to put my favorite head-unit in the xf! This thing has been in every car I have owned it works awesome very easy to use it was cheap and hell it still works after 5 years and seven cars lol Another plus is the buttons match the green lighting theme!

So, after fighting with this for 5 hrs and the help of this forum kinda... it works!
What I learned!
1.) Don't buy a generic wire harness for 93-96 VWs and expect things to go smoothly!
2.) Throw out any and all other experiences you have had with stereo installs!
3.) Don't expect to find a wire diagram of your head-unit online!
4.) This cars speaker wiring is unlike all others!
5.) The car has 6 speakers and only 4 wires for all six on the plug?
6.) Switching the red wire and the yellow wire was not a good idea?!?
7.) I have the red connected to the red along with the blue amp wire?!

So after this crazy wiring job i stuck everything together and went to try my ipod on it (the main reason i wanted to install this unit) and the drivers side speakers wouldn't work! I freaked out and almost gave up. But to my surprise after wiggling the aux wire in my ipod i herd the faint sound of music through my left side speakers! I switched out the cable and bam works fine!

 

Sweet!

I had a Sony Xplod stereo - I think it was the CD-MP3000 or something like that for about ten years and two cars. It was a great stereo. It was one of the first generation to play MP3 CDs, and that just plain kicked a$$... until iPods became ubiquitous. If it hadn't been for the advent of front and rear USB connections for head units, I would still have that Sony unit.

Anyway, I have a $2,000 Eclipse stereo in my Crossfire, and I hate it. (I didn't pay that much for it, thank God!) In fact, if I hadn't paid so much for it, I would throw it away and put in a cheap JVC sub-$200 head unit and be happy as a clam... in fact, I just might. I'll miss the GPS being built in... oh well, can't have everything LOL

 

The worst thing to me in a stereo is buttons the fewer the better lets be honest who the hell wants to be fiddling with 20 different buttons while driving and accidently hitting others while trying to turn or push the intended one! I like simple yet functional and this xplod is that one **** turns the volume up and does the base, fade, and balance the others all have about 5 functions each as well. It has 15 buttons 10 of which are the 0-9 preset radio station buttons.

 

Pioneer DEH-P5000UB

One **** pretty much does it all