Quick99Si

iTrader: (27)

cliff notes: bought a modded car, complete audio noob wants to remove the aftermarket system, what's the best way to go about it?

Hi, I recently bought a car and only learned that it had a "full system" once I picked it up. The car is a 98 w/ Monsoon. It looks like the OE amp was bypassed completely since the door speakers were getting their signals from the front tweeters, and the sail panel speakers were getting theirs from the hatch tweeters. From my searches and reading wiring diagrams, it seems that the speakers were powered by the headunit in this configuration (using aftermarket amp).

Now I want to go back to almost stock while using my Diamond Audio D3 6.5" speakers (a pair of components and a pair of coaxials). I replaced the front speakers with mine and wired it back to how it came from the factory. So far, a good improvement.

REAR & HATCH
I then used the signal from the rear hatch speakers (not tweeters) to drive in parallel the speakers in the sail panels. This sounded "better" to me than using the hatch tweeter signal. Isn't this processed by the amp? The problem is that the whole thing sounds muffled to me, even after playing with the front/rear bias and treble/bass settings.

1. Is the Monsoon amp to blame or is it the configuration? I assumed the DA speakers would sound better through an amp, even the stock one?

2. Do the tweeter wires (front+back) go through the amp at all?

3. Is it adviseable to run the front and sail panel speakers straight from the headunit?? I plan to swap in my Alpine IDA-X100, and it shouldn't be too hard to go with this setup.

Thanks for reading if you got this far

Darksol

Unless there is a issue with the head unit I would leave it. The stock 500 watt Monsoon system sounds like ***. And speakers alone will not fix it.

If I recall though, the signal for the tweeters in the door kick panels are run from the woofer in the door first then to the tweeter in a series.

I replaced my speakers with Infinity Kappa's with tweeters in the stock location. I also ran new speaker wire from the amp into the doors.

If you want to dump the current head unit for a better fit and finish (to go from a single din unit like the one you have to a double din to fill the center stack more completely) there are a few wright ups on this site. But if you like clear music I would leave the Monsoon out of the loop. IMHO.

Good luck.

blackram_air

iTrader: (1)

The monsoon sticky has all the factory wiring colors and where they come from listed in it. From my understanding the factory wires have inline filters to filter for highs and lows. The stock sails are not coaxial but component. Running coaxial there with the filters could be your problem. I would advise to read the sticky very closely to see how close yours is to stock. Whitebird seems to be the guru for the factory radio maybe he will post his opinions in this thread to help out.

Quick99Si

iTrader: (27)

The headunit is an ancient aftermarket Eclipse that will be swapped for an Alpine soon. The front door tweeters and speakers have individual leads. Mine came ran "in series" (technically in parallel), but I went back to invididual. That one sounds pretty good IMO.

And blackram, I've read all the stickies and FAQ's I got my hands on. There's a lot of good information there (not just this forum) but my question is about remove an aftermarket system whereas most people go the other way... the normal way!

Oh, and my sails are not connected (the speakers in that location get their signal from the hatch speakers, see my post above). Is it possible that it sounds muffled/crappy because of this?

I guess my main question is if I should spend the time in wiring it the way it is in my Type R right now: headunit, straight wire to each speaker (4)... and then deal with tweeters either with crossovers or not, and ditch the hatch 4" speakers all together?

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

so, why are you going back to stock?

i had my car broken into not long ago and most of the aftermarket equipment was stolen. i had components in the doors and they were the only thing not taken. what i did was wire them directly to the head unit. the sounds was actually quite good all things considered. having good speakers is important; even the bass was not bad.

IMO it's not worth the trouble wiring back through the monsoon amp. i had the monsoon system and the amp, and i just chose to do the simple route of going straight to the head unit instead. overall it was definitely the easiest choice and the sound difference from the monsoon was negligible.

Quick99Si

iTrader: (27)

How would I wire it straight to the HU? Do you just use the tweeter inputs (blue connectors stock) for the signal or do I have the run all new wire?

And the reason I removed it all is because I don't find the appeal is large systems... that and I don't appreciate the added weight to added benefit ratio. Keep in mind that my other car is a 230whp 2500lb fwd handling yellow beast :/

blackram_air

iTrader: (1)

Wasn't trying to imply that you hadn't read the sticky. Sorry if ot came across that way. I understood your post as you are going back to stock using the factory wiring. My understanding is if you are using the factory wiring then there are signal filters in line of the wiring that makes the stock system component. If you are driving coaxial with the factory wires from the hatch ten yes that could be the reason they sound muffled. My understanding is none of the factory speaker wires get a full range yet the coaxial acts as a full range driver then splitting the signal in the speaker.

myk

iTrader: (4)

I did the same thing because any aftermarket stereo in my city is guaranteed to get stolen-I don't want to deal with that crap...

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

run new wire. it's incredibly simple. i actually did it with my door speakers without removing any body paneling except the plastic that runs along the seats at the base of the doors (i think this is all you would need to remove to do the sails, too). the plastic below the glove box on the passenger side and above the pedals on the driver's side is very easy to stuff up a wire in the corners out of plain sight.

also i just cut the stock speaker wires from the HU harness and spliced them directly to the new wiring that runs directly to the speakers themselves. the sail panel speakers might take a little more effort, but not much.

are your door components using the stock wiring? i don't know how that is happening, but if that's the case, then you could just buy a cheap monsoon amp and hook it up and you would be set. otherwise, again i would just suggest running new wires and running them from your components to your crossover, then from the crossover directly to the HU.

if you are running directly to your HU, you wouldn't have any way to power the hatch speakers though. since the HU isn't going to provide the sail panels with independent midbass frequencies only like it would in the monsoon system, having the sails and doors being comprehensive in terms of all frequencies being played would be more than ample, especially for someone that is downgrading their system to near stock.

Quick99Si

iTrader: (27)

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm gonna do some testing on the stock wiring (I BELIEVE the tweeter leads are unfiltered before the capacitor) and I hope to use the stock wiring. I pulled out the aftermarket speaker wire that went to the amp, even though it could have easily been reused, due to an OCT-type situation.

FWIW I ran the hatch 4" speakers in parallel with the sidesill 6.5's and it seems to deliver better sound quality over just 4+2 speakers. I don't think this would work as well straight from the HU as it does through the stock amp.

Thanks again everyone