high impact

iTrader: (5)

I need some guidance here, I have read through the FAQ's but still need some assistance. Please forgive my ignorance of stereo system install - I am an old school hot rodder and never ever concerned myself of music quality until recently. I have a 2000 Formula with a monsoon stereo system. The factory head unit was long gone when I bought the car - it has a decent sony head unit plugged into the stock monsoon system and I think I want an upgrade. I want to upgrade the speaker system for a nice clean sound - i do not need thumping bass but would like a nice, full range.

So I dove in head first - I purchased a set of JL 6.5 ZR component speakers/tweeters w/crossovers for the doors and JL 5.25 ZR component speakers/tweeters w/crossovers for the rear hatch area. I am reusing my stock subs in the stock location but will replace these hopefully by mid-summer.

Can I reuse the Monsoon amp for now? If I do, can I simply hook up the speakers to stock wiring without the included JL crossovers?

I'm pretty sure I'd be better off replacing the stock Monsoon amp - is there a recommendation for an amp that could be installed in the stock location and utilize the stock wiring harness? I am very willing to remove the stock harness ends - how critical is it to replace all the wiring or can I reuse it?

Thanks!!!

ZouMechE

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, you can just hook/wire up the speakers with the Monsoon amp in place if you want

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

...except that you will have to do some modification to make 5.25" speakers fit in the hatch area - the originals are only 4".

Forget about reusing factory wiring for an aftermarket amp. There are numerous problems with doing that including: there is no factory remote turn-on wire, the Monsoon amp uses speaker level input, none of the tweeters are wired to the amp, the Monsoon amp has eight channels, and the factory speakers are set up for unique signal filtering. Not to mention that you probably couldn't find an aftermarket amp to fit the OEM location that's any better.

high impact

iTrader: (5)

I have already modified the hatch area panels and they fit beautifully. I will have to figure out a clean/hidden location for an aftermarket amp and rerun all the wiring I suppose. I planned on doing all this at a later date but it sounds like I may need to pull the trigger a little sooner than I originally planned. Sounds like I better utilize the JL crossovers and not rely on the monsoon amp for signal filtering. The more I dove into this project the more it became obvious I have go all the way or back up and reinstall my factory speakers. I should have done more research before flinging myself headlong into a speaker replacement.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

It is not necessary to use the crossovers that came with the speakers. If you want a simplified installation with reasonably good sound quality, simply mount your component sets and wire them to the factory connections while leaving the Monsoon amp in place. Then if you still want more improvement in sound, you haven't lost anything - you can still add an aftermarket amp and rewire. But if you find that you like the way it sounds with the factory amp (many people do) then you've saved yourself money and effort.

high impact

iTrader: (5)

I tried it without the crossovers utilizing the factory amp. I guess it sounds ok - it's actually extremely crisp and clean on lower volume levels. Something doesn't sound quite right when you really crank on it...no terrible distortion or anything - maybe I will try this for a while as long as I am not hurting these high dollar speakers.

I will definitely be adding the aftermarket amp and rewiring at a later date. Are there any specific amps that could be recommended? I assume I need a 5 channel amp? What size?

Thanks again!

nitrodude

I'd return the 5.25" speakers and get another set of 6.5". The stock 6.5" "subs" are cheap and sound terrible at higher volumes.

I Have a set of 6.5"s in my front doors, and 6.5"s in the sail panels, Disconnected the speakers in the back hatch area as they really arnt needed.

I already have wiring/spare batts in the back for my bass system, So I just ran off that, But most mids amps will use 8g-4g wiring, so get 20ft of that, 16ish ft for running it and 3ft for ground. and 50ft of speaker wire to run to your amp.

Run the power wire on the passenger side of the vehicle and run a thin 16-20g wire for your remote turn on from the remote wire on your head unit. Then find a bolt in the hatch area, remove it grind down to bare metal and ground the amp to that.

On the OPPOSITE side of the power wire, Run 2 sets of RCA cables. To go to the amp (assuming your HU has 4ch+ preouts)

Take the harness off the stock garbage monsoon amp and throw that POS away, DONT cut off the end connector.

Pull out one speaker at a time and look at the wires, front speakers have four wires as the tweeters have seperate wiring. Just cut off the four wires, crimp on new terminals for your new speakers, Now heres the tricky/time consuming part, take a 9v battery, find the two matching color wires in the back harness (theres a few same colors, But the two for that speaker will be side by side, now grab two T-taps, and crimp them onto those two colors, and crimp a spade conector on some 14-16g speaker wire, touch the wires to the 9v, the front left speaker you just connected should make a pop noise, thats how you know you have the right wires. Now hook that speaker wire up to your new 4ch amp.

Do the same for all the speakers and you're done! Took me about 1.1/5 hours including pulling door panels.

a 5 channel amp is only needed if you're going to run subs as well. Do you text? shoot me a PM with your # I'll answer any ?'s you have.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Based on your description, you must have a Camaro. The OP's Firebird doesn't have four wires on the 6.5" door speakers because it has tweeters mounted separately. But it does have four wires in the sail panels because Firebird Monsoon systems have DVC subs there.

It's better to cut the connectors off the factory speakers and install them on the replacement speakers than to cut the factory harness. And it's better to use the wiring schematics in the Monsoon FAQ sticky than to mess around with a battery.

nitrodude

Yup, I do have a 2000 camaro, thought they were identicle, But either way its pretty close. He still does have four wires up front, Two for the mids, two for the tweets
Doesnt really matter how many wires he has anywhere, He just needs to pick two, and find the coinciding ones at the back amp.
As for the connectors Its however he wants to do it, I have no thoughts of turning it back stock, even when I sell it that monsoon system will never touch this camaro again lol, So I cut the plastic connectors off and crimped on some new terminals, a lot easier IMO.

And yeah, A wiring schematic WOULD help greatly, however the one on this site is complete garbage, None of the colors were right, and some of the colors werent even listed, or will listed 3-4 times for different speakers
9v battery test is a sure thing, and wont hurt the speakers. If you're really cautious use a AA battery, just have to listen harder or have a helper.
I've been doing that for years when installing mids, to subwoofers to check that the speakers were wired correctly/in phase.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

My whole point was that they are NOT "pretty close". The Firebird Monsoon doesn't even run the tweeters off the amp so you would never find that wiring pair at the amp connector and the tweeter pairs have inline passive high pass filters so you couldn't use them for full-range speakers anyway. In other words, he can't just "pick a pair".

The schematics in the Monsoon FAQ are taken from the GM factory service manual and have been proven accurate time and again over the years here. If you didn't find the corresponding wire colors, you weren't looking in the right place. And when there are multiple wires of the same color, the connector pin-out diagram will tell you which one to use.

You may find it okay to cut off factory connectors and splice into factory wiring rather than run new wiring but not everyone has the Best Buy installer mindset and prefers to do the job so that it is as plug-and-play as possible and always leaves the option to return to stock at some later date.

nitrodude

I was unaware the firebirds tweets werent run off the amp-In that case he couldnt do that, and would have to use the mids wires.

At any rate-The wiring diagram for my car wasnt right-thats all i know. Maybe my colors are faded or I am color blind beyond belief-But they didnt match up.

Please-Don't insult me by saying best buy installer...I am far from that.
Hell best buy installer would just say its not even possible to "By pass that amp" LOL.
I dont see how cutting old connectors off makes me a best buy installer either?? LOL. I dont know about you, But I NEVER plan on downgrading my system back to stock, Even when I sell it the only thing I will remove is my sub components, the 4ch and mids will stay in my car.
I dont see anyone going back to stock, And if they REALLY wanted to, T taps were used on the amp harness, so that could be plugged back in, and old wires soldered back on-But who in their right mind would want to do that?

The way I did it was easy and simple.
Plus, Soldering the connectors off the stock mids, onto your new mids voids warranty on your new Mids FYI.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

You may have run into the wiring color issue that several others have discovered... GM put undocumented red and black wiring pigtails on some of the speakers so you have to go back some eight to ten inches farther in the harness to find the colors listed in the schematics.

I for one did put my T/A back to stock when I sold it. There was no way I was giving up my nice Kenwood double DIN HU with navigation to some young guy who didn't care and wasn't going to pay extra for it. But restoring to stock took no more than a couple of hours because everything was plug compatible - no factory wires had been cut during installation.

high impact

iTrader: (5)

I am learning as we go here go so I appreciate everyone's input. I already purchased and installed the speakers - the 5.25's are installed with tweeters in the hatch area - they are staying. I will replace the 6.5 subs some day - hopefully soon. When I do replace the subs I will be installing an aftermarket amp. I did reuse the factory connectors on the speakers and tweeters - I removed the wiring off the factory speakers (leaving enough to reattach if I ever return to stock) and soldered the factory pigtail onto the JL speaker terminals - I like a nice clean install. I was originally hoping the monsoon amp was a quality unit but quickly found out it doesn't perform very well or provide much power. I think my speakers are greatly under powered until I replace that amp. I will have to decide if I want to replace those 6.5 subs or install one in the left rear quarter panel. The biggest problem I am really facing is where to hide an aftermarket amp and the JL crossovers since they are so large.

high impact

iTrader: (5)

Since I didn't use the crossovers do I need to install high pass filters to the tweeters?

nitrodude

Like I said I'll never put the stock speakers back in this car-No one deserves to have to listen to that
Besides selling the car=Upgrade time in the new vehicle

Like I said me personally, would just do 6.5"s in the doors and sail panels, the hatch area speakers are kind of a waste. Plus if you dont know about ohm loads and series/parallel wiring its easier to just have 4 mids on a 4ch amp.

If you get the right amps, There are some decent 4ch's that are EXTREMELY small, I got to see the new american bass micro amps from a rep, And they are incredibly small for the power they put out.
Even with regular sized 4ch amps, I believe you should have enough room to remount it where the monsoon amp was (Its been a while since I've looked back there, But I remember a pretty good amount of space available)
Make an mdf/birch panel and mount it to the factory mounting spots, then mount the amp to that.

nitrodude

And if ya want some bass, I have a 3500 watt amp too LOL

Trans-Am Terrorist

Do you happen to have photos of how you got your 5x7's into the rear hatch spot? I don't want to put in the 4" speakers and was trying to figure out how you did it because I have some nice 5x7's I'd like to throw in here as well.