I am in the middle of improving my '97 TA with Monsoon and upgrading the sounds. Before this I replaced all the original speakers with 2 ohm Infinity Kappas in the doors, 4 ohm Alpines in the hatch and Pioneer small subs in the sail area.

Subthump was helping me put together a complete system but lack of funds dictated old overstocked stuff and used where possible. I did buy his stealth box, nice looking piece.

I scored a four and a two channel amp. And I found a remanufactured DD Pioneer 3100 DVD. I just hooked this thing up and wow. What a head unit for cheap. I do not like that the only Ipod hookup is in the front, but other than that it rocks. I also came across a dirt cheap Kicker 10 inch sub.

Now to my questions: (I am a somewhat newbie to stereo upgrades)

1. ReWiring - Ouch, I do not want to rewire the whole system so here is my plan. Hook up the HU (already done) with the stock connector. Then patch both Amps into the existing monsoon connector in the hatch. (Not my idea, but it seems like a good one.) Then the front tweeters will still get their signal from the HU and I will have pre-amp access to front, rear , and subs. Will this work? Or is the line out convertor in the monsoon Amp? If not I will need an LOC back there, which I already have. Anyone know where the LOC is?

2. I have one 10 inch sub and a 2 channel Amp. Do I send both channels to the one sub? I am hoping to have preamp sub input here already at the Monsoon location. Same for the 4 channel Amp hopefully.

3. The Pioneer 3100 is a double din. I do have a DD plate, but do I have to cut off the bottom plastic shelf where the 1.5 Din was? It seems like i do, If so I will have to get creative on mounting the thing in there.

4. Since I see so many posts on this I assume I have to power my Amps right off the battery. But what trips the Amp on? The Pioneer only has the Antenna trip. I hope the Antenna gets a hit even if i am only using the Ipod or DVD.

5. Will those 2 Ohm front Kappas be OK in this setup? I assume they will be louder then the 4s. Maybe i will have to favor the back with the Pioneer fader.

6. One Amp under each seat the best location?

I may decide to ditch the back seat Pioneer tiny subs but they do sound nice for being so small. If I do ditch them I should have access to their wires at the Monsoon Amp spot to hook midrange speakers into the rear channels. Or maybe I will try just sending them the rear full range signal. They are good speakers. Worth a try.

Wish me luck.

 

1. The Monsoon amp runs from speaker level input from the head unit. There is no pre-amp signal available anywhere in the Monsoon system so you would have to use a LOC to get that signal. But why wouldn't you use the pre-amp output of the new head unit?

2. It depends on the amp. If it is bridgeable at the correct impedance to match the sub then yes you use both channels bridged. If it isn't then you'll have to settle for using on one channel.

3. No, you do not have to cut the bottom tray to install a double DIN head unit. There are plenty of threads about double DIN installation - a quick search should provide all the information you need.

4. You new head unit has a wire labeled "remote" that is used to turn on the amp when the HU is on.

5. Again, that depends on the amp. If the amp is 2-ohm stable then you can use those speakers. If not then you'll have to replace them.

6. No, not enough air flow there. Your best bet is to mount them someplace in the back. You could make an amp rack to fit along the back wall of the t-top storage area.

 

Hey thanks for all these answers! Ok I have a LOC. I want to use the Monsoon location and wire harness to save rewiring the speakers. Unless this is a total waste of time I want to build a connector to plug into the Monsoon harness to feed the Amps. Others have done this to bypass the monsoon amp. I was wondering if there is something strange about the wiring to prevent this. This makes even more sense if I take your back wall tip, the wires are already in the back. I like that idea. There should still be room for the TTops I see.

OK I will search around to figure this out. So 4 ohm from each channel from the Amp is 2 ohm at the speaker or 8? I will see if the MBQuart DSC2150 2 channel is switchable. The Kicker is 4 Ohm. (600 x 1 @ 4Ohm Bridged, I am good on the bridge)

Yes, it was subtle, I missed it the first time I looked. I have to trim the top.

Hmmm this HU only seems to have the one wire and it says to trip the antenna and amp(s) with this. I hope it can trip all three.

It's a MBQuart DSC 480. I will check it out to see if I can set 2 ohm or maybe it will detect. (Yes! it has 2 Ohm)

I like it especially if my Monsoon hack works. And I can daisy chain the pre-amp from on to the other.

One other question. Is mismatching the impedance just a volume thing or does a mismatch damage the speaker or amp?

(Final conclusion on the Amp/speaker combo fits quite by accident)

 

amps arent gonna fit under seat and if they do i would be concerned about air flow

trying to use oem wiring and line out converters and the what not is just a total waste. just run the new wiring trust me. you will spend more time for crappy results using the oem ****

 

Assuming your new HU has pre-amp output (I don't know of any that don't), you will get much better results using that rather than taking the speaker level output and using a LOC to step it back down again to pre-amp level. You're introducing two possible sources of distortion - the internal amp of the HU and the LOC. It's not worth it just to save the time required to run RCA cables to the back of the car. I don't recommend it but I suppose you could run the new amp's output to the Monsoon connector for routing to the speakers but don't do the amp input that way.

That MB Quart amp is bridgeable. It's rated 600 watts into one channel at 4-ohms when bridged.

The HU should have a blue wire and a blue with white stripe wire. The power antenna wire is the solid blue and the remote turn on is the blue with white stripe. If it doesn't have both those wires then you can use the power antenna wire to control the amp. Just be sure to go into the system setup menu and set the power antenna to be always on regardless of music source.

That four channel amp is 2-ohm stable - it is rated 160 watts into 2-ohms across four channels.

Mismatching the impedance works only one way. You can always run higher impedance speakers than the amp calls for although it will reduce your output power. Each doubling of the impedance cuts the power in half. However, half the power doesn't mean half the volume - it reduces volume by 3dB... enough to be noticeable but not all that significant.

Don't ever run an amp with speakers that have a lower impedance than the amp is rated to handle. The increased current flow will likely fry the output section of the amp.

 

I see your point on the Amp input. My HU has 4 preamp outputs. I will relent and use them. But i will give the Monsoon connector a try. Next I will get a second mortgage on the house to get some dynamat.

I got lucky on my amp choices. But I may wind up selling the Pioneer minisubs and the Infinity 2 ohm Kappas. They will make some other Monsoon owner happy. But just upgrading the speakers didn't do it for me.

I will need to tame my exhaust now so I can hear this stuff better. I wish there was a high flow semi quiet catback. I am a fan of fast quiet cars.

 

I am convinced about skipping the LOC and the back wall location for the amps. But I am just being lazy about the wiring. I think it will be fun if i try to build a Monsoon connector. But I might just hack the wires. And in the end I might just rewire. Wouldn't it be nice if OEM sound equipment wasn't total crap.

 

i made a plug-in harness that connects to the factory wiring harness, then i just connected all my speaker wires to it. clean and neat. i will post some pictures of the adapter i made. it beat tearing the car apart to run all the new speaker wires. the wires in my hand are the plug side i made.

 

Yes, that is what was thinking! Where did you find the other half of that harness plug? Did you hack a dead Monsoon Amp? Also where did you find the Firebird Monsoon plug wire diagram?

Did you replace the stock subs in the sails with components? I had the dual voice subs in my '97 TA.

(edit) I just took my 1/2 dead Monsoon Amp apart. Nothing in there, no wonder it is so lame! If I use this plug it will be all soldering.

 

One other question from a beginner. At what level amp do you need a second battery? My Amp choice was moderate so I hope do not need this. Should I do anything to upgrade the charging system?

 

The Monsoon amp pinout diagram is in the Monsoon FAQ sticky.

 

As long as you have a healthy battery you should be fine (dont have to have an optima)

Look into the big3

this alone should be plenty for most systems. Unless you are way in excess of 1500rms (not max) i wouldnt even worry at all. Had a buddy running 4x100rms to speakers, and 2400 rms to subs. On an autozone battery with the big3 and at full tilt had some dimming but nothing huge

 

Thanks guys. I will search. Now to find the other end of that plug not hardwired into the monsoon.

 

Been trying to come up with a part number for the monsoon connector. I can see PED 4 and 3-0 on the wire harness and PED 2 on the monsoon end of the connector. I did find the part number for the Jetta Monsoon connector, but this is a 24 pin versus our 32 pin.