Ive been reading a little on crutchfield.com. They have component speakers listed as what fits in our car. The Kenwood KFC-P403 are on sale for 79.99 and include two 4" and two tweeters for the rear plus crossover. Problem is, I think you just use one set of wires, like the ones used from the amp to run the factory 4" and not the wires from the deck to the tweeters. Would this sound better then the alpine route? Also they list the Kenwood KFC-P705ie for the front 6 3/4" and tweeters. Chepest I found these was at discountsjungle.com for 129.99. Also comes with two crossovers but same thing as the rear, I think you use one set of wires going to the 6 3/4" and not use the tweeter wire from the deck at all........Please post your feedback. I may just keep the Alpines if they are better, or I may exchange em for the component speakers since im still in my 14 day grace period.....

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

Those components sound like a good idea actually... You dont have to use the tweeter wires coming from the deck. Aftermarket component setups will be based off using 1 set of wires fr both the woofer and tweeter, and that WILL work fine... IMHO It may even sound better, I'd say go for it!

 

Well, my old ones go back tomarrow. I did a side by side comparison between tweeters, doors, and rears. The only Alpines that I thought sounded better then the factory speakers was the Alpine SPS-100A 4" for the rear. I also discovered that I had a bad voice coil on one of the factory rear tweeters because it sounded like crap. So its off to the dealer to get an original replacement. Im out all the shipping costs though so this was a hard learned lesson to me. The Alpines sounded OK, its just that the factory seemed to play louder and thump more. It seemed as if the monsoon didnt provide enough power to get the Alpines to sound right. Bear in mind this is just my opinion though. I was trying to find a nice sound upgrade for under $200.00. I guess ill have to keep factory sound. I got other MODS id rather spend my money on.

But thanks to all for the feedback.

Good Luck.

 

All the posts I read about upgrading the Monsoon system are about the 500watt syatem, none about the crap 200 watt system like my 99 SS has. Any info on that? Is it just a straight swap or do I have all these amps and crap too.

 

its the same crap as the 500 watt system... Check out the other sticky post for camaro speaker specific info...

 

Rogue leader, thanks for the info. What a great post!! Now that I've just purchased a 1998 TA with both subs blown, I'm glad I read the post. However, I'm disappointed to see that the 4406's are discontinued. Someone asked whether an 8" sub could be "muscled" in to replace the 6.5" - maybe with a little cutting??? What parameters would I need to look for to ensure that if I purchased an 8" sub, that it was in the correct "bandwitdh" (for want of a better description).

Again, thanks.

P.S. IF anyone finds the 4406's, would you post the details please?

 

ehhh good luck getting it in there... I dont know if I would go cutting my car for this setup. JL 6W0s are affordable... sorta... and the Kicker RMB6 is available. Plus an 8 may need more juice to push than the 6.5s, maybe better off with an amp and a sub in a stealthbox for some bass if you cant find suitable replacements....

 

I'm replacing all speakers, hu, and amp in an '02 T/A Firehawk convertible.

Kicker KX700.5 amp

CDT CL-61 comps for the front doors (bridged 150 watts x 2 @ 4 ohms)

10" sub ??brand/model?? in passenger side stealthbox
(200 watts x 1 @ 4 ohms OR 400 watts x 1 @ 2 ohms)

CDT CL-6x coax rear filler (40 watts RMS/80 watts max)
****instead of powering these with my Pioneer DEH-P86DHR HU at "22 watts per channel into 4 ohms," would It be possible to power them with the stock Monsoon amp to get better performance? If so, what wires would I use from the Monsoon amp, and how much power/resistance would they be getting?


CDT CL-6x SPECS:

Model: CL-6X (Slim Coaxial)
Midrange: 6"
Mounting depth: 2.25"
Crossover: 6 dB.
Tweeter: Angle mount .75" metal dome
tweeter for perfect imaging
Power handling: 40 watt RMS/80 watt max
Frequency response: 60Hz-20kHz
Sensitivity: 92 dB.
Impedance: 4 Ohm

 

This should probably be a separate thread, but if I were spending the money to replace all of the gear that you listed I would just spring for an additional 2 channels of amplification and completely strip all of the stock Monsoon gear out of the car.

 

If I were going to do all that, I would skip the Monsoon tie-in as well. In my 1995 Firebird, sans Monsoon, all I did to make that sysem sound better was to build a box that fit securely about the gas tank, mount a single 12" Blaupunkt woofer, hide a 250w Blaupunkt amp in the box, and tap into one of the rear sail panel factory leads. That improved the sound 500%, put it cost several hundred dollars. The set up was easy to remove - I cut the speaker tap lead and power lead and removed the box. If I recall, I did have to install a line level adapter from Radio Shack - but that was cheap and easy as well.

So, you don't suggest any 8" subs that would meet the same load and peak requirments of the 6.5's? If I read the code corretly, a 4408 should be in the same family as the 4406, just in an 8" version. Anyone try those yet? I just measured and inspected the sail panel area, and installing 8" speakers would not be an easy task. The factory made a nice, flat surface to install the 6.5's to, but it just isn't that flat for the 8's. So, I will keep looking for the 4406s.

Again, thank you so much for starting and keeping up with this post.

Bob

 

Well Im sure they will sound fine but thats a whole lot of cutting youre gonna need to do. Just not worth it IMO, because if you decide to get a nice setup with good rear speakers and a seperate sub you'll be pretty pissed you cut 8inch holes in the back of your car.

... Spaceboy check my response in the other thread, toss the Monsoon....

 

Snow has melted away enough finally that I took out my car for the first time this year, and installed the speakers I had waiting for it. The 4406's sound great, at first I didn't even notice that the power cable to my stealthbox amp had corroded off

I'm having a problem with my pioneer door speakers though. I can't even hear them over the other speakers, and even if I send all the sound up front I have to turn it way up and its still quiet and doesn't sound very good. There's some conflicting information about wire colors but based on the wiring diagram from another thread (see attachment), the metal clip being on the tweeter side, midrange the opposite, and tracing the wires I think I have it right:

Driver: Light Blue -, Dark Blue +
Pass: Dark Green -, Orange +
Subs: black stripe wire -, other +

Seems weird that isn't dark/light green on pass side, but that's the way it is in the diagram and the pair on the connector for the stock midrange?

Can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

just tried a pair of kicker's rmb6 as a replacement for sail panel subs. you can get a good price on them at the moment since they are being phased out for kicker's new ss series (ssmb6). unfortunately they dont seem to work well as replacements. even though they have a higher rated senstivity they still seem pretty quiet at the power levels available from the monsoon at 4ohms. in order to get decent sound levels from them i need to crank up the 40hz and 250hz levels to the top end of the scale (probably about +2-3db which makes since since the 2-4 ohm change is going to cut power in half). this causes some distortion in the other speakers of course. another factor is that the rmb6's dont fit the stock holes so its hard to get a good seal particularly with the way gm decided to get the wires to the speaker (i will probably make some plates to see if a better seal helps these speakers).

however, the bass from the rmb6's is much clearer and not as muddy as the stock sail panel subs. i will probably keep the rmb6's and just get a multi-channel amp to drive a subwoofer and the sail panels. (or just stick the rmb6's in my quadcab rear doors). the ssmb6 has a lower minimum rms power. perhaps it would work better. it seems to have the same ratings otherwise.

on a related note, the rear fill sounds just awful. yes, its rear fill no one cares. i have some inifinity kappa 5x7/6x8's with an external crossover. how does replacing the 4" mid-range with the 'woofer' part of the coaxial to the monsoon (directly--not through the crossover) and the crossover/tweeter to the headunit connection sound? pretty sure i can squeeze a 5x7 under that grille (might have to back mount it though).

 

Someone else mentioned to me that they did that and it sounded great, so give it a shot if you have the spares lying around.

As for the RMB6, that sucks, The 4406 Rockfords were perfect for this application and of course they discontinue them as soon as we need em. Maybe someone else will have something sooner or later. The Kickers do sound like a decent replacement, so its better than nothing....

 

Hey Rogue Leader, again thanks for hanging in there. I went looking in person, not online this time, for a replacement speaker for the sail panels. I few shops tried to sell me Pyramid 6.5" subs, but that's flea market stuff so I didn't buy... yet.

Anyway, someone suggested Blaupunkt. I had such great luck with the 12" sub in my 1995 Firebird that I thought I would look at options... of course, no shop had a 6.5" Blaupunkt sub in stock. Blaupunkt makes a 4 ohm 6.5" component sub with tweeter (P652C), but its power rating is real low: 20 watts rms, 40 watts max. And then there is the PXT652, which handles more power. Would the power available to the sail panel speakers likely overpower and blow this two speakers? Would it be unwise to use both available audio leads, sub and tweeter, to power the sail panel speakers?

Thanks again for all your good advice.

Bob

 

Jason,

The wiring diagram you have is for a convertible and will not work for a coupe. Colors and pinouts are different.

You will need to go to the houston f-body homepage and they have the wiring diagram for coupes.

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

I checked it out and it looks like its the same?

E15 Dark Blue 1857 Left Front speaker +
E16 Light Blue 1957 Left Front speaker -

F6 Dark Green 1953 Right Front speaker -
F7 Orange 1853 Right Front speaker +

http://www.houston-f-body.org/tech/m.../AmpCamaro.htm

 

Hmm I honestly dont know, Do they play at all? just weak?? its possible the channels on your amp are shot, its been known to happen.

 

DO NOT BUY Pyramids... Known fire hazards... Id put a $5 sony boombox in my car running on AA batteries before I bought Pyramid speakers!

The Blaupunkts you speak of sound good for this application, the Monsoon setup is not extremely high powered, (that "500 watt" rating is peak power), so they should work ok. Now the Tweeter is a bit of a problem because you cant connect it at the sail panel, the wiring there is filtered for bass only. BUT you can always use that tweeter as a replacement for the front, and then get some decent 6.5 speakers for the front.

 

They do play, just very quietly. I can't really here them unless I crank it way up and fade it all to the front, then it's still really quiet and doesn't sound very good. The stock speakers were working right so I don't think its the amp.

Do I have to cut the wires to the tweeter on the speaker (don't really want to do that) or tie the mid + and tweeter +, -'s together?

What was someone saying about speakers canceling each other out? Even though I have the correct +/- do I want to reverse one of them or one of the amps?