What about it? You have wires which you're free to terminate in whatever manner you please. My preference is a crimped pin connector but those short leads that come with your universal connectors are targeted to the solder blob and tape crowd. Many automotive shops sell generic multi-pin connectors that are pre-pinned with leads. The only crimp connectors readily available to DIY, non industrial savvy users are the spade and bullet types.
Yes, that's what I mean. Let's say I have the harness that plugs into the radio and has bare copper wire at the other end. Then I buy a Toyota-compatible harness that plugs into the harness that comes out of the car wiring behind the original stereo. That has bare wires on the other end.
Obviously the most obvious solution is to solder and/or crimp the two sets of bare wires together and shrink seal them from coming into contact with each other. But what if you think you'll be putting in a different radio into that car at some point in the future? To avoid buying a new car end harness (we're assuming the stereo comes with the stereo end harness), you can solder/crimp bullet/spade connectors to each of the above mentioned sets of bare wire ends and plug them in as you want.
I've seen the spade and bullet connectors. The main problem I see is bulkiness, as you typically need to crimp up to 11 wires (2 +V12, 1 GND, 8 audio). That's why I started looking at things like the 2.54mm Dupont connectors and was wondering if they are big enough to accommodate whatever AWG wire comes with these harnesses since I see this as superior to the bullet/spade variety of connectors.
