jdroelle001

iTrader: (2)

This is copied directly from my thread on the v6 board. I'm getting a lot of different answers and facts, and am hoping someone on here can give me clear answers and help me out a little better.


Well I finally got a job here at school as a cashier for home depot. Good enough for now.

Now that I have some money, I need to start putting some of it into my car.

What I want to do is replace my front door speakers with either components or coaxials, and get the new kicker 6.5" shallow subs for the sail panels.

Now after all of the searching and reading I've done here and on ls1tech, I just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

As of now, all I have is a panasonic headunit (cq-8303u).

I was going to install alpine coaxials in the front doors, and just bypass the amp for those speakers to get full sound out of it.

However, now I'm wondering if I should just get a set of components. From the faq:

"the door speakers are wired as components so you either have to buy component replacements or get coax speakers that can be modified to separate the wiring of the tweeters from the mids".

If I'm reading this right, I can install components, and instead of using the crossover they come with, I would just wire the woofer with the wires from the amp, and the tweeter with the other two wires that go to the stock tweeter. This may be a better plan for me. I don't really want to add an amp. I read somewhere that the factory amp sends about 25 watts rms to the door woofers. Would that be sufficient enough to get components? Or would I be better off sticking with coaxials and bypassing the amp?

If i'm leaving out any other info needed to help me out, let me know. I'm just looking to do things right the first time and be happy with it.

Budget wise, I wanna stay below $150 for the doors.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Components would be your best option but it's not easy to find components that mount like coaxials the way the Monsoon speakers do (with the tweeter in the center of the woofer). CDT makes some excellent speakers that mount that way - check with Kee Audio, I'm sure he can set you up within your budget.

the727kid

Anyways though, if your going to use stock power I would reccomend using co-axials and by passing the amp, and run your own new wires to the HU.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Why give up the extra power of the amp?

dragonrage

I'd call it worth it to give up the couple decibels at most to be able to ditch the stock Monsoon crossovers, unless your HU has a really weak amp. section.

the727kid

Too much hassle. Easier to make it sound better with HU power. Remember more power does not always = sounding better.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Ah yes...but that's my point. You can get those CDT coaxially-mounted components that will connect just like the factory speakers and drop right in to the factory mounting. In a Firebird it's even easier because the components mount separately so there's plenty on the market for replacements. The Monsoon head unit and speakers are pretty bad but the amp is actually quite nice for a relatively low-powered unit. Given a clean signal and some decent speakers it can sound pretty good.

the727kid

How can you guarentee a clean signal, can you set the gains for the amp? And even if you could you don't know where the EQ is boosted at so it'd be a pain IMO. Besides either way you did it, using the stock xover or using the component xover your gunna have issues. Say you use the stock xover and the stock tweeters is crossed at 2300@6dB... what if you have a tweeter that only plays down 3000, or 2800@24dB and vice versa. From most stock systems I encounter today, this is the case, actually they have tweets playing down in 1khz and possibly lower rang, with the mid covering mostly just bass. Same goes for the mid, what if stock xover only lets the mid play to 400z? That could get ugly lol.

Now say you use the xover that comes with it, either way you wire it your going to get FQs cut-off. You wire it to the tweet...the xover will only see everything above the xover point of the stock amp, and vice versa.

jdroelle001

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the replys. As far as the the components with the tweeter set up like a coaxial, I'm not really worried about having to mount the tweeter seperately.

I guess my biggest concern would be this: It seems that most of the coaxials I see are more sensitive than components (so most components would sound much better with an amp). I'm wondering if the coaxials would actually end up sounding better ran off the headunit, as opposed to components off of the stock amp.

the727kid

YEs they would.

dragonrage

Well, it depends on which coaxials you are comparing to which components. You can find fairly efficient (maybe 91dB 1W/1m) component sets that would work pretty well off of the HU.

QucikSilver

iTrader: (4)

All you have to do to run components in your car is cut a hole in the door panel to mount the tweeter and mount the mid-bass in the stock location. (in a camaro) when you are wiring the the head unit into the car take the wires for the two front speakers from the radio ( grey, grey with black trace, white, and white with black trace). from there you will need to get about 6' of 18GA speaker wire and run new wire to the new set of components from the back of the new radio. This will ultimatly power the new speakers off the radio and will keep the rear (stock) speakers powered off the stock amplifier. From there you will wire the aftermarket amp from the new head unit as you normally would.

If you have any questions you can call my shop at 817-690-2781 and I will be glad to help you with whatever you need.

Quick Wire Technology

Ask for Joe

jdroelle001

iTrader: (2)

Thanks again for all your input.

I called crutchfield today and talked to the guy about the alpines that I was looking at, and also a comparably price infiniti coaxial set. The infinitys are 2 ohm so it would draw a little more power from the headunit, but he said their much more efficient and clearer, and the 2ohm load wouldn't mess up my headunit. If I go with coaxials, I'll probably purchase the infiniti's. However I'm not going to throw the component idea away, so I'll still be looking around for some of those and see what I want to do.

dragonrage

You don't want 2 ohm speakers for head units. They're for external amps only. Also, Infinity tweeters sound bad.

pentavolvo

infinitys will sound way worse then the alpines they are harsh tweeters. 2 ohms is only good for amps stable to 2 ohms, doubtful that the monsoon is.

QucikSilver

iTrader: (4)

If you would like to get a really great sound out of a pair of Coax use a set of Memphis M-Class. The tweeter in the middle of the mid-bass is 360 degree rotatable so you can aim the high's up towards your face as opposed to having them fixed and aimed at your feet. They run right about $125 and sound great right off the head unit. That is correct about 2 ohm speakers off an aftermarket HU. They are not designed to work like that. Every head unti is designed to put max power out in a 4 ohm stereo. Plus infinite speakers are very aggressive and I personally have never been very satisfied with them. They tend to over power everything else in the car.

TireSm0ke

iTrader: (1)

First of all I have dealt with crutchfield many times in the past, and their techs really disappointed me. They are very friendly, I will give them that, but in terms of technical advice they really dont know what theyre doing imo. Honestly the stock amp is not terrible for what it is, and if your going to use components in the fronts (it would be a waste not to) the stock amp should sound decent, probably better than what your h/u will put out. The only complication with using the stock amp with its eqs and crossovers is that if you say, want more bass it will raise the bass freqs on all speakers. I just put a set of monster 6.75 dvc subs in my trans am, they sound amazing for they are, and require no mods except for a spacer, which Ian (Kee Audio) so kindly supplied. Im assuming you have a camaro, im not sure if they make a svc version but i am very impressed with these subs. But pretty much the stock amp will put out as clean a signal as it gets. The reason stock systems sound like **** is bc of the crappy speaker material, and that the headunit causes tons of disortion. Stick with the stock amp, get a set of good components (CDT, Memphis), and you should have a decent setup with a pair of good subs. I would give Ian at Kee Audio a call, hes very helpful and will take care of you. Hope it works out.

superbee_68

iTrader: (3)

I bought a set of 10 dollar a pair subs off ebay and some efx components for $50, used the stock head unit, stock crossovers, and stock amp and it sounds great! Efx is not a very well known company, but all of their amps come with birth certificates like kicker, and thier subs are comparable to jl w3's. The speakers sound great for the price. The subs are paper cone 50 watts and put out great, clean, loud bass. Paper cone is the way to go if your not pushing much power, and has a more mellow, realistic sound.

The only problem was that I had to fade the sound to the front a little because the new speakers have more resistance than the stockers, and the rears were too loud.

KEE AUDIO

iTrader: (65)

EFX is made by Scosche.

dragonrage

$10 subs like JL w3s? lol. Someone knows nothing about how speakers work. I gbet those subwoofers have 3-5mm of Xmax (really bad) and no faraday rings in the motor (= higher distortion), a low quality cone, a surround that'll deteriorate in a small number of years, etc. I also bet that you (superbee that is) have no idea what half of what I just said means.