KeithO

I have read the stickies and some threads and am partially through replacing the speakers at all 6 locations on my 2001 Camaro with the Monsoon system. I replaced 2 sets of speakers on Thursday evening after work. I drove the car to work on Friday and the sound was quite bad.

Starting simple, I replaced the hatch area speakers with low cost coaxial Kenwood 4", 4 ohm speakers. Alone they sound like crap but I expected this (though maybe not this bad).

I also replaced the sail panel speakers with low cost coaxial Kenwood 6 1/2" 4 ohm speakers (I know the stock ones are 2 ohm). It was my idea (probably incorrectly) that since the amp only sends these speakers lower range sound since the crossover is at the amp, that only a portion of these speakers would actually get used. These speakers generate quite a bit of distortion at even low sound levels and it is very possible that I blew these.

I plan to replace the door panel speakers today. For the Camaro according to the tech here, these speakers are actually 2 separate speakers mounted together where the mids are coming from the amp (2-ohm) and the tweeters are wired directly from the head unit, yielding a 4-wire connection.

Finally my questions -

1) I am thinking that I probably blew the sail panel tweeter components, based on the buzzing/vibration coming from these speakers. Is there any reason that I couldn't simply cut the wires to the tweeters and permit the speaker to perform as a mid/sub as was originally intended by GM?

2) When my local Best Buy opens today, I plan to buy a low cost Kenwood 6 1/2" component speaker set for the doors. These speakers are actually 4 physical speakers and I am thinking that I should wire the two tweeter wires from the head unit directly to the new tweeters and the two mid/sub wires from the amp directly to the mid-range component. This means that I will probably throw away whatever crossover comes with these speakers (if any). Will this work?

Thanks in advance.

KeithO

Answering my own questions above:

1) The sail panel driver's side was not blown. A mounting screw worked lose. I decided to leave the wiring as it is.

2) My described way to mount the components for the door speakers is what I did. It worked fine. However, the colors of the wires didn't match the tech in the sticky. All 4 wires on both sides were combinations of red/black with both solids and stripes. The speakers were stock and the wires appeared to be original.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

1) You're still not getting the best sound from the sail panels because the "woofer" of the coaxial speakers is a full range speaker and you really need a sub because of the signal filtering from the amp.

2) The colors in the FAQ are correct - they just don't mention that there are red/black pigtails at the speaker end of the wiring. If you go further back in the harness you will see where the wire colors change. BTW, all Camaro speakers (including the tweeters) run off the amp... only Firebirds had the tweeters run off the head unit.

SOULPOWER

I double check and Whitebird00 you are right they are the right colors before the connector... Thanks

What I still don't get it is why I'm not getting any sound... :S

KeithO

1) Maybe I'll buy another component setup like I bought for the doors and throw away the supplied crossovers and tweeters for the sail panels.

2) Thanks for the additional info on the wire colors. Also you are correct - only the 'birds have the wires coming from the head unit. Thanks for pointing this out.

I am also considering replacing the hatch area speakers with the CL-4EX 4:
http://www.keeaudio.com/id133.html

At this point, I can hear music over the cat-back and this was my primary goal. The sound quality is disappointing however and as money permits, I will probably get the above stuff.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

You might also consider the subs (Bazooka or CDT) that Kee Audio carries for the sail panels. They will work even better than the woofers of a component set.

KeithO

Yeah I should check that.

Maybe I'll make new speakers my Christmas list items. I don't need anymore neckties.

KeithO

I used Christmas funds to buy the CDT DVC Sail Panel speakers. It sounds better but still disappointing.

However, in browsing the forum, I found that I didn't wire this correctly. I connected the audio feed to one set of terminals. Based on what I saw in another thread, it appears that I need to wire the 2 terminals on the speakers together. Maybe this will help the sound some more.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Yes, in a Camaro, you should wire the speaker terminals together in parallel (positive to positive and negative to negative) to provide the net 2-ohm impedance that the amp is designed for.

KeithO

I made the wiring mod last evening. Doesn't sound a whole lot different. Oh well.

djrowe007

what he said. honestly i have the same system but theres a huge thread on this somewhere that explains that its not the best system to replace speakers in. do you have separate tweeters because the stock speaker has basically two speakers with two connections. one connection for the low/mid and one connection for the highs.

they do make those speakers still aftermarket with 2ohm

KeithO

THe doors have component speakers and the tweeters were wired to the high frequency wires and the mid/sub is wired to the low frequence wires.

The hatch are traditional coax speakers.

The sail panel now has a set of wires coming from the amp wired into the terminals and then wires run from these terminals to the other terminals on the speaker. I seem to get bass distortion at much lower overall volumes with the "2-ohm" switch from 4-ohm.

I think the key to this system is the door speakers. The idea of removing those panels again make me break out into a sweat. I am not good a Rubic's Cubes and I don't have the patience to reinstall these panels.