Monsoon system help
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Monsoon system help Recently I installed a new head unit in my car. After adjusting the equaliser settings and having the stock speakers sounding really good for about 20 minutes.. They all blew lol. Well before realising I actually had the monsoon system and that my speakers were component and not coaxial I ordered replacement speakers which happen to be coaxial (3 way). So my question is how do I go about wiring these if my system is wired for component?
Only replacing front door and rear sails for now.
The speakers I ordered are 4ohm, 50w RMS, 4000Hz crossover frequency.
Additionaly my head unit is a pioneer with the mosfet 50wx4 output so I'm not sure if I should hook these straight up to the head unit or still run them through the monsoon amp? I read elsewhere I believe on here that the amp wasn't that bad just the speakers, while looking for answers to my question.
Only replacing front door and rear sails for now.
The speakers I ordered are 4ohm, 50w RMS, 4000Hz crossover frequency.
Additionaly my head unit is a pioneer with the mosfet 50wx4 output so I'm not sure if I should hook these straight up to the head unit or still run them through the monsoon amp? I read elsewhere I believe on here that the amp wasn't that bad just the speakers, while looking for answers to my question.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,332
Likes: 347
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
I'll assume it's a Camaro since it would be obvious that components are necessary in the doors of a Firebird where the tweeters are mounted separately but not as obvious in a Camaro where the tweeters are mounted in the center of the mid-range speakers.
You can use coaxial speakers in the doors by just connecting the mid-range wiring pair and leaving the factory tweeter wires taped up and not connected. You give up half the available power by only using one channel and half again by using 4-ohm speakers instead of the 2-ohm that came from the factory. But that just means you'll have to turn up the volume more. With ordinary coaxial speakers you could gain some of that back by modifying the speakers a bit - cut the small wires going to the tweeter and connect them to the separate tweeter channel wires, basically converting the coaxial to a component set. I've never tried that with 3-way speakers so I don't know whether it would work (why do people think more is better... 3-way must be better than coaxial?).
Your coaxial speakers will sound like crap in the sail panels if you leave them wired to the Monsoon amp because the amp filters the signal for subs there and the coaxials just won't reproduce that signal cleanly.
Overall, if you want to stay with the 3-way speakers you bought, you're probably better off to rewire and run them directly off the head unit, eliminating the signal filtering and odd impedance of the Monsoon amp, or adding a decent aftermarket amp in its place.
On the other hand, if you can return at least one pair of the speakers then you can get decent sound with a pair of Bazooka subs for the sail panels using the Monsoon amp.
You can use coaxial speakers in the doors by just connecting the mid-range wiring pair and leaving the factory tweeter wires taped up and not connected. You give up half the available power by only using one channel and half again by using 4-ohm speakers instead of the 2-ohm that came from the factory. But that just means you'll have to turn up the volume more. With ordinary coaxial speakers you could gain some of that back by modifying the speakers a bit - cut the small wires going to the tweeter and connect them to the separate tweeter channel wires, basically converting the coaxial to a component set. I've never tried that with 3-way speakers so I don't know whether it would work (why do people think more is better... 3-way must be better than coaxial?).
Your coaxial speakers will sound like crap in the sail panels if you leave them wired to the Monsoon amp because the amp filters the signal for subs there and the coaxials just won't reproduce that signal cleanly.
Overall, if you want to stay with the 3-way speakers you bought, you're probably better off to rewire and run them directly off the head unit, eliminating the signal filtering and odd impedance of the Monsoon amp, or adding a decent aftermarket amp in its place.
On the other hand, if you can return at least one pair of the speakers then you can get decent sound with a pair of Bazooka subs for the sail panels using the Monsoon amp.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
I'll assume it's a Camaro since it would be obvious that components are necessary in the doors of a Firebird where the tweeters are mounted separately but not as obvious in a Camaro where the tweeters are mounted in the center of the mid-range speakers.
You can use coaxial speakers in the doors by just connecting the mid-range wiring pair and leaving the factory tweeter wires taped up and not connected. You give up half the available power by only using one channel and half again by using 4-ohm speakers instead of the 2-ohm that came from the factory. But that just means you'll have to turn up the volume more. With ordinary coaxial speakers you could gain some of that back by modifying the speakers a bit - cut the small wires going to the tweeter and connect them to the separate tweeter channel wires, basically converting the coaxial to a component set. I've never tried that with 3-way speakers so I don't know whether it would work (why do people think more is better... 3-way must be better than coaxial?).
Your coaxial speakers will sound like crap in the sail panels if you leave them wired to the Monsoon amp because the amp filters the signal for subs there and the coaxials just won't reproduce that signal cleanly.
Overall, if you want to stay with the 3-way speakers you bought, you're probably better off to rewire and run them directly off the head unit, eliminating the signal filtering and odd impedance of the Monsoon amp, or adding a decent aftermarket amp in its place.
On the other hand, if you can return at least one pair of the speakers then you can get decent sound with a pair of Bazooka subs for the sail panels using the Monsoon amp.
You can use coaxial speakers in the doors by just connecting the mid-range wiring pair and leaving the factory tweeter wires taped up and not connected. You give up half the available power by only using one channel and half again by using 4-ohm speakers instead of the 2-ohm that came from the factory. But that just means you'll have to turn up the volume more. With ordinary coaxial speakers you could gain some of that back by modifying the speakers a bit - cut the small wires going to the tweeter and connect them to the separate tweeter channel wires, basically converting the coaxial to a component set. I've never tried that with 3-way speakers so I don't know whether it would work (why do people think more is better... 3-way must be better than coaxial?).
Your coaxial speakers will sound like crap in the sail panels if you leave them wired to the Monsoon amp because the amp filters the signal for subs there and the coaxials just won't reproduce that signal cleanly.
Overall, if you want to stay with the 3-way speakers you bought, you're probably better off to rewire and run them directly off the head unit, eliminating the signal filtering and odd impedance of the Monsoon amp, or adding a decent aftermarket amp in its place.
On the other hand, if you can return at least one pair of the speakers then you can get decent sound with a pair of Bazooka subs for the sail panels using the Monsoon amp.
As for people thinking anything more than a 2 way is better I couldn't tell you. I got these based on reviews and the deal I got them for.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,332
Likes: 347
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
Okay, well a Firebird gives you some better options. Assuming the factory door tweeters are still okay (they seldom go bad), you can leave them connected and put your new speakers in place of the mids and just use the the existing wiring there. The signal to the door mids is full-range (unfiltered) so that should sound fine. Don't use the tweeter wires for full-range speakers because it has high pass filtered signal and will sound terrible. If it's too bright because of the doubled up tweeter count (original tweeters plus the tweeters in the new speakers), you can probably cut out the connection to the tweeters in the 3-way speakers by simply cutting the leads between the speaker's connection terminals and the tweeter itself.
That still leaves the sail panels. A Firebird Monsoon system has dual voice coil subs there which use two channels each from the amp, so aside from the fact that the 3-ways won't handle the low pass filtered signal well, you give up a lot more power there than a Camaro would. Yes, you can pull the signal wires from the hatch speakers (the 4" mids) forward to the sail panels and run those speakers that way. That signal is full-range so it will drive your 3-ways quite well. It does tend to move the sound stage toward the rear of the car but some people like the "surround sound" aspect - it's a matter of personal preference. The use of subs in the sail panels is preferred because low frequencies aren't as directional so you don't notice where the sound is coming from as much as with full-range speakers.
That still leaves the sail panels. A Firebird Monsoon system has dual voice coil subs there which use two channels each from the amp, so aside from the fact that the 3-ways won't handle the low pass filtered signal well, you give up a lot more power there than a Camaro would. Yes, you can pull the signal wires from the hatch speakers (the 4" mids) forward to the sail panels and run those speakers that way. That signal is full-range so it will drive your 3-ways quite well. It does tend to move the sound stage toward the rear of the car but some people like the "surround sound" aspect - it's a matter of personal preference. The use of subs in the sail panels is preferred because low frequencies aren't as directional so you don't notice where the sound is coming from as much as with full-range speakers.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Okay, well a Firebird gives you some better options. Assuming the factory door tweeters are still okay (they seldom go bad), you can leave them connected and put your new speakers in place of the mids and just use the the existing wiring there. The signal to the door mids is full-range (unfiltered) so that should sound fine. Don't use the tweeter wires for full-range speakers because it has high pass filtered signal and will sound terrible. If it's too bright because of the doubled up tweeter count (original tweeters plus the tweeters in the new speakers), you can probably cut out the connection to the tweeters in the 3-way speakers by simply cutting the leads between the speaker's connection terminals and the tweeter itself.
That still leaves the sail panels. A Firebird Monsoon system has dual voice coil subs there which use two channels each from the amp, so aside from the fact that the 3-ways won't handle the low pass filtered signal well, you give up a lot more power there than a Camaro would. Yes, you can pull the signal wires from the hatch speakers (the 4" mids) forward to the sail panels and run those speakers that way. That signal is full-range so it will drive your 3-ways quite well. It does tend to move the sound stage toward the rear of the car but some people like the "surround sound" aspect - it's a matter of personal preference. The use of subs in the sail panels is preferred because low frequencies aren't as directional so you don't notice where the sound is coming from as much as with full-range speakers.
That still leaves the sail panels. A Firebird Monsoon system has dual voice coil subs there which use two channels each from the amp, so aside from the fact that the 3-ways won't handle the low pass filtered signal well, you give up a lot more power there than a Camaro would. Yes, you can pull the signal wires from the hatch speakers (the 4" mids) forward to the sail panels and run those speakers that way. That signal is full-range so it will drive your 3-ways quite well. It does tend to move the sound stage toward the rear of the car but some people like the "surround sound" aspect - it's a matter of personal preference. The use of subs in the sail panels is preferred because low frequencies aren't as directional so you don't notice where the sound is coming from as much as with full-range speakers.
Awesome. Thanks again for the response and info. Seems simple enough now. May post back with results after the speakers arrive. They're currently on the way from Florida trying to outrun those hurricanes lol.
