Aftermarket HU Can't Power Stock Antenna

[unwrittenLaw]

I purchased a new aftermarket Kenwood head unit for my 2004 WRX. After it was installed, the am/fm signal went to crap. After some troubleshooting, the installer tech said that he thought maybe the factory Subaru head unit had some special power rating (which was @ 75ohms on the factory head unit) that made the antenna work better. He said that "no" aftermarket head unit would get the clean am/fm signal that the factory head unit was able to give. Is this true? So there is no way to have a good sounding radio signal with an aftermarked head unit and the stock antenna?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[lathanm]

The stock 04 05 antenna is powered. There is a whit wire on the wiring harness that needs to be connected to the blue antenna turn on lead on the aftermarket HU. You can also connect this wire to any swithed 12V source if your HU doesn't have a power antenna lead.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749402

[Darrell]

My Pioneer Premier DEH-P550MP powers gets the same reception as the stock head unit did. I believe the blue wire that is typically used for power antenna control is the wire that controls the antenna amplifier at the rear of the vehicle.

[WRXNavigation]

Ya, who ever told you no aftermarket units will have good reception in the impreza was an idiot. If you connect the power antenna lead from the head unit harnedd to the subaru harness it will work fine. I just installed a Pioneer 860mp and forgot to connect that wire. It had poor reception. But once I connected it I have way better reception then the stock unit had.

[ej20fan]

That's because Pioneer Radio's have a Super Tuner 3D...meaning it's a third gen tuner, with an analog to digital converter...resulting in better sounding radio. Furthermore, the analog signal, after being converted to a digital signal is processed within the unit for better clarity, filtering out distortion. If you're crazy about AM, you should ground the antenna wire (not the trigger wire, but actual antenna) to the chasis of the car. Make sure that the panel you're attaching the wire to is steel, not aluminum.

Please tell me that the guy that told you that complete non-sense didn't work at Circuit City...I'd have to have a chat with him...