To anyone with a mercman harness, I am offering $50 to borrow your harness or for you to open it up and take pictures of how it was made.

I suspect the thread on the "correct way to bypass the TSX amp" left out information on exactly how to do it correctly as i have tried to do it many times with noisy results.

I have PM'd Mercman to purchase a harness and have been following the "correct way to bypass the TSX amp" thread for about 1 year now and am tired of waiting for harnesses to become available. I suspect mercman is witholding information so that members that want to upgrade will purchase his harness.

To the person that is willing to loan or open up the mercman harness, I think you would be doing the TSX community a great favor and utilizing this forum for what it is intended for (information not profits). I will post everything i find out so that it is available to those who want to upgrade their audio.

 

I dont know about you but when i followed the directions i didnt get any noise. It was when i first attempted to install an amp thinking it was like every aftermarket deck i ran into tonnes of noise, to the point i drove without music.

 

Are you sure you didnt get any noise? Did you use any little electrical components to make your harness? What kind of amp are you using?

The directions from mercman basically says there are 3 wires per channel from the head unit for a total of 12 wires. For each channel there is a +, -, and shield wire. Connect the + to the center of the RCA, connect the - to the shell or outside of the RCA and leave the shield disconnected at the amp connection.

Is this how you made your harness? Please let me know as i have tried many times with bad results.

 

i chopped up my cars wiring harness because i didnt even know a plug and play harness existed. What i did was buy 2 10 ft shielded rcas and cut them in half leaving me 4 pieces (1 for each channel). I then opened up the other end and cut maybe half an inch off the shield wire so it doesnt make contact with the connector. I taped it up, plugged it in and its been noise free. It should looks like this:
Head unit -> 4 cables -> amp -> 4 speakers

The amp im using is a JL G4500.

 

So at the point where you soldered or crimped onto your car's wiring harness how did you hook up the wires to the cut RCA end? There are 3 wires per channel at the stock harness a +, -, and shield wire. I take it you only hooked up the + to the center RCA wire and the - to the signal ground and left the shield at the stock harness unconnected?

 

No i connected the shield also. Let me try explaining it again. I bought a 10ft SHIELDED rca cable and cut it in half. Where i made the cut i connected all 3 wires inside my shielded rca cable to the stock harness. Once that end is done i went to the other end of the shielded rca cable (where the connector is) and cut the insulation open and cut half an inch of the shield wire off so it doesnt make a connection with the connector which plugs into the amp.

Everything i did was in mercmans thread. The only difference is im using shielded rca cables and he used shielded coaxial cable.

Here's a pic:


Just curious what amp are you using?

 

What brand RCA cable is that? Does that RCA cable have three wires? I've never seen an RCA with three wires. Usually there is 2 wires and some type of braid or foil shield. The RCA you have looks like it is using a wire as shield.

I will be using a JL 6 channel amp. It accepts balanced inputs.

 

The wiring kit i bought says type r on it but the funny thing is it doesn't have alpine written on it anywhere on the packaging. I would send the rca's too you but i only have 3 5ft lengths so you would have to find another cable anyways.

 

So are your amps placed under your seat? How long is your cable run? I think the reason you are not getting noise because your cable run is pretty short.

 

one is under the passenger seat the other is in the trunk.

 

Those are some pretty wild accusations there. Mercman was never a store front or making them as a business. He had a TSX and made one for his car. He shared some info and made a few for some people and sold them at a price that barely covered his cost of the materials and some of his time. He's just a guy. You're upset that there isn't one for sale right now? It's my understanding that he isn't making them for anyone right now, not just you. He's moved on to the 2nd gen TSX. Several people on here have made their own without problems. It isn't Mercman's fault that you can't figure it out.

 

My acuscuastions of him leaving out information are in fact true by his own admission. He sold more than just a "few" why do you think he got banned for not paying vendor fees? I am upset because he posted a DIY that was incomplete and people wasted their money trying to make it.

 

Saveth,

Is the one under the passenger seat powering the front speakers and the amp in the rear powering the sub? I ask because the high freq noise usually cannot be heard in the sub and since your cable run to under your front seat is so short you are not getting any noise in your front speakers.

 

Yes that's exactly how i have it setup. The reason i didn't have both amps in the trunk is because I'm still using the stock speaker wires behind the center console. I didn't want to have to run 2x the amount of wires. I have experienced tonnes of noise in my car. It was so bad at one point i drove around without any music for 2 weeks until i found mercmans thread about bypassing the amp. I've had my fair share of problems with the audio system in this car. But once you get it right its all worth it.

Anyways back to your problem. The longer the cable the more it will pick up, which is correct, but that's where the balanced differential system the car comes with comes into play. The shield wire picks up the noise also and cleans the signal. So that should not affect your sound quality unless something else is wrong.

 

i would like to purchase a harness if anyone knows how to get ahold of him.