When my kids turn on the back seat stereo it blasts/overides everything else and cannot be adjusted. Just had new amp and door speakers installed w/ a PAC AOEM-GM24. Anyone experience this before? Probably another perk courtisy of my install friends I would imagine.

its because of the way the rear seat audio system works.

see, from the factory (when the audio system is stock), the headunit outputs front left, front right, rear left, rear right signals. These audio signals go down into the console, and the front left/right signals go directly into the front inputs Bose amp. However the rear signals go FIRST into the RSA (rear seat audio) box, then thru the circuits in the RSA, and out again THEN go to the rear inputs of the Bose amp. When the RSA is off, it simply passes these rear signals right on thru and out to the Bose amp, so the Bose amp gets front and rear signals from the head unit like it normally should. BUT....when you press the ON button on the RSA, it cuts the rear "outputs" to the amp and simualtaniously sends a data signal to the head unit to say "hey im in RSA mode". When the head unit gets this signal, it keeps outputting the front signals to the Bose amp as normal, but it CHANGES the rear signals its outputting to whatever is wanting to be played on the RSA. So if you're listening to the radio and the kids in the back want the CD, the head unit keeps sending the radio out the front output signal wires, but it sends the CD out the rear output signal wires. Because the rear signal wires (which have now 'turned into' secondary audio signal wires) are "looped thru" the RSA box, the RSA box gets these signals first and plays them thru the head phones for the backseat passengers. The RSA has to cut off the Bose amp from ALSO receiving the signals when its turned on because if it didnt cut the amp off, the front speakers would be playing the radio normally, but the back speakers would be playing the CD or whatever is selected on the RSA, because remember how the rear signals coming from thte head unit "turn into" the RSA audio signals. I dont know if im explaining that so its clear, but if you think about it, its a pretty clever setup and gets rid of the need to have a "third" set of outputs/wires coming from the head unit JUST for the RSA, so it cuts down on wiring and still works fine.

BUT.....when you have a PAC AOEM-GM24, it intercepts these front and rear audio signals coming out of the head unit, BEFORE thge signals get to the RSA or stock Bose amp (even tho the stock Bose amp should not even still be hooked up because you have an aftermarket amp/speakers).....so when the kids turn on the RSA, the head unit stops sending the normal rear signal out of it and starts sending the signal out of whatever it wants to play out the RSA. The PAC AOEM-GM24 doesnt know the difference, it just takes whatever is fed into it and spits it out to the aftermarket amps, so when the RSA is turned on, the PAC AOEM-GM24 outputs the RSA source over the rear channels of the aftermarket amp. If you still wanted the RSA to work, it IS possible even with the aftermarket amp. You would have to get creative with the wiring and do some splicing and soldering and it would work as normal, but if you dont care too much about still having the RSA 'active' you can just unplug the RSA box so even if the kids hit the button, it wont make the head unit go into "RSA" mode.

Hope I explained that clear enough....GM is really confusing with how things are hooked up....

Ben

Just use the front RCA's from the PAC. I had the same problem also. Scares the heck out of you the first time it happens.

Thanks for the response guys. I figured this was common, or at least Ben would know what's up:) Definitely startling. I don't think my two kids will ever touch it again even if it were fixed. Of course their friends will though.