I have recently purchased a 98 Diamante XE jap import.
My question is can i replace the stock stereo and mate the new one to the eletronics so that I can still use the onboard fader/balance and equaliser controls

Why would you wanna do that when your new headunit will have these controls..? I'm pretty sure you wouldnt need to bother, as the new h/u will take care of that!

SuFz :rant:

I would like to retain the factory setup for ease of use and safety considerations. Also I think it would be a cheaper way to go than to replace the facia completely with a boring non import setup.

In that case you're best bet would be to have an external amp setup with a Hi-Level -> line level convertor

Assuming the standard CD player works good and the radio picks up all stations why replace it. You can get high quality line drivers, these can accept speaker level inputs and boost them to reasonable quality line level to feed to the amps. That way it will look factory, go hard and cost less!

Hmm, if that is the Jap import, the radio shouldn't work because they have slightly different frequencies then we do.

I had to fit a band expander to the radio to get it to pick up our freqs. cd player does work but is only a single unit and is in the boot and my arms arnt that long lol. thanks for your input