99Z28vert

iTrader: (1)

Just what the title says, I'm trying to figure out if my car has the monsoon system. First off the car is a 99 Z28 Convertible and does not have the monsoon head unit (the unit does not say monsoon on the window like all the ones I've seen before, simply says delco). I was curious though and did a bit of digging around in the car(after reading somewhere that all Z28's supposedly had the monsoon system stock). I found a delco amp all wired in on the passenger side in the quarter panel, just in front of the antenna. That pretty much sealed the deal in my mind that the car had the monsoon. I also pulled the speaker out of the rear sail panel and found out it has the 4 wire plug like I've read the monsoon has. Speaker also says it's 4 ohm which made me unsure, since I thought the monsoon speakers were 2 ohm? Also, did the monsoon systems in the convertibles only have 4 speakers as compared to the 6 that I think the coupes had?

So now I'm wondering why the car would have the rest of the equipment but a regular head unit? I've only had the car about a month and a half and bought it from a used car lot. All I can figure is the stock monsoon deck died and a previous owner or the dealership placed the regular deck in its place.

And my last question, what is the difference between the stock head unit and the monsoon head unit? This all kind of started because I haven't been content w/ the sound system since I've had the car. The speakers just can't handl any bass and sound horrible when I crank the system up. I'm wondering if any of this could be because of the improper head unit being there?

Thanks for any help.
Patrick

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Many 98 and early 99 head units in Monsoon systems merely said Delco Electronics on the face rather than Monsoon. The head units are not what makes the Monsoon system different - the amp and the speakers do that. The amp is connected to the normal speaker output of the head unit unlike most aftermarket systems which use pre-amp output.

You can tell whether it's a Monsoon system by the RPO (option) codes on the door sticker. Early models had UL0 for the 200 watt Monsoon cassette head unit and UN0 for the 200 watt Monsoon CD head unit. Later models used "Entertainment Package" codes such as W54 for the 500 watt Monsoon 10 speaker system with cassette and W55 for the 500 watt Monsoon 10 speaker system with CD. U59 was also used for the Monsoon system in convertibles.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Oh, and BTW, the sail panel speakers with the four-wire connectors are actually 4-ohm dual voice coil subs wired in parallel to produce a 2-ohm load for the amp.

Also, the speaker count is a little strange in the Chevrolet brochures. They count the coax woofer and tweeter in the door as two speakers so they say a coupe has eight speakers and a convertible has six. Now, in the Firebird the door woofer and tweeter are actually separate drivers as well as separate woofers and tweeters in the hatch area for a total of ten.