So, we all know of the short comings of the Monsoon stereo in our verts. At one time, I replaced all four of my factory speakers with (4) Infinity 6002i in the past, rewiring the speaker as needed, etc. I had the opportunity to hear a co-workers vert, with the stock system and i was surprised on how much fuller, deeper and more balanced the sound was versus my system. Mine sounded bright in comparison. Now I know about the 2 vs 4 ohm debate and since my degree is in electronics I sacrificed "distorted" power for cheaper and better overall speakers.

I understand that the head unit BY ITSELF expects a 4 ohm load which teh Monsoon amp gladly obliges, but I was wondering if anyone has expermented with by-passing the Monsoon amp altogether?

That is, looped the inputs to the speaker outputs at the amp connector providing a direct HU to speaker connection. I am not sure of the
power output of the HU but it would eliminate at least on high level of distortion and provide the correct impedence match to aftermarket speakers.

Has anyone done this before and am I missing something?

K.

 

I have heard of it being done, but people are usually putting in a new aftermrket head unit. There is even a cable you can buy to bypass the amp.

 

It will work (although the prewired bypass harness is easier to work with) but you'll have to provide your own crossover since it was built-in on the Monsoon amp.

 

I have the 6002i speakers in my car (99 vert).

In the vert the doors speakers we know are as follows:

4 ohm Tweeter (High Freq from Monsoon AMP)
2 ohm midrange (Midrange Freq from Monsoon AMP)

In the rear Sail Panels:

4 ohm Tweeter (High Freq from Monsoon AMP)
4 ohm Subwoofer (low freq, only from Monsoon AMP)

Infinity 6002i:

4 ohm Tweeter
4 ohm Midrange

Thus, I bet you are not getting anything out of the midrange part of the speaker that are in the sail panels. This, and the fact that the door midrange part of the speaker does not have enough power (2 ohm vs. 4 ohm) makes the sound brite and not as full as the stock setup.

You can splice into the wires coming out of the Monsoon AMP that are going to the 6002i door midranges and run these additional wires to the 6002i midrange part of the sail panels (run the midrange part of the speakers in parallel). This will then give a 2 ohm load on both the door and sail panel midrange part of the speaker and may give you a fuller sound.

Or just us the head unit power like was mentioned above.

I ran awhile with the splice theory and it was ok. I then bought a 4 channel amp and this really woke up the 6002i. Putting 50 watts to each speaker. Trust me, get an amp. With the top down at highway speeds, I can hear the stereo and not the wind noise.

 

Actually, I removed the 6002i from the sailpanel and re-installed the original Monsoom speakers. According to
schematic I have, the front doors are the woofers and the
rear sails are the midranges. Remember this is a vert. So I
now have the 6002i in the doors along with the Monsoon tweeters and the original Monsoon sail panel speakers. I need to adjust the fader because at the center, the rear "midrange"
speakers overpower (read: louder) the front 6002i (4 ohm) speakers. when adjusted with bias towards the front, it sounds good, but not as warm as the OEM. I am not associating loudness with warm here..it is a different sound.
While I do not regret my original decision to replace the front door speakers (result of failure and my refusal to pay for teh OEM replacement), the OEM sound really wasn't that bad..at least at the volumes that I was listening to. I temporarily fixed the lack of bass problem with an Infinity BassLink..but I moved that to my daily driver for now. I will live with it for now

 

I started my vert conversion with those speakers and while they sounded incredible at the store they were lousy compared to the stock Monsoon speakers which blew my mind. You are correct about the lack of warmth. After hearing the raves about them I couldn't figure it out. Mind you I was connecting them up just to the mid range leads in the door. I then tried one door with the 6002i powered off my Sony H/U with the other door from the H/U through the Monsoon amp to the stock speaker. I was amazed to find the Monsoon was better. The big caveat was that if I tried to play any real bass through the stock speakers they sounded horrible. I used my H/U high pass filter to cut off the bass and now run a 10" powered sub in the trunk and the whole system sounds great. In my case none of my stock speakers are blown and probably won't now that the bass is taken away from them.

Just what I found.

 

The rear sail panel in a vert are the subwoofer, the doors are the midrange (I have a SS vert) and I have done this. This is why when you put the original sail panel speakers back in they sounded better. Trust me, you can keep the stock HU and replace the Monsoon (Monsuck) amp with a 4 channel for the 4 6002i speakers. Get a LOC to convert to RCAs for the amp.

 

Damn, I wish I knew about that 2 years ago. I removed the connector from the moonson amp and made a dongle that tied each channel direct from the HU to the speaker. Pain in the ***, but nicer than cutting up the harness.

 

A quick question if I may.

This string says that the rear speakers are ran at 4ohms. The "convertible thread" and the long speaker replacement thread states the Monsoon runs at 2ohms with the tweeters pulling power from the HU at 4ohms for a coupe/t-top and everything off the Monsoon for a Vert...

I've been searching and searching for 2ohms speakers for the rear primarily but now I've incluided upgrading the fronts, so I've looked high and low for 2ohm fronts. The only thing that came close was ther Focals at a 3ohm load.

Now I read that they are run at 4/2ohm front and 4/4ohm rear.

So here's the deal, I've asked a couple of times for help over at "Convertible Speaker" and there seems to be a real lack of interest in follow-ups to questions. With respect to this board, what I was willing to do was when completed, document the entire process with alternative strategies and installation descriptions with documentation. I think I would owe this board that and I don't mind helping others at all.

Come on guys, give me a hand over there and I'll do my part documenting a 98-2002 Camaro Convertible upgrade. Promise.


Rick.

 

According to the GM service manual, the convertible has front component speakers consisting of 4-ohm tweeters and 2-ohm midrange as well as rear quarter component speakers consisting of 4-ohm tweeters and 2-ohm woofers. All are powered from the amp (unlike the coupes which have the tweeters powered by the head unit). I haven't actually looked at them but the diagram shows these speakers are more like coaxial speakers than separate components but the wiring for the woofers is separate from the wiring for the tweeters. This is similar to the difference between the front speakers in Firebirds and Camaros - Firebirds have separate components while Camaros have "coaxial" components.

 

Somebody please just pull one of the rear sail panel speakers out so we can clear this up. On the magent it will read the OHMs.

If I remember correctly on my 'vert SS the sail panel speakers read 4ohm/4ohm.

 

I guess I can do that later this week.

I *have* listened to some of the advice here on subs and have come up with my own game plan.

I have a Kenwood KSC-SW1 powered sub-woofer on the way, due here tomorrow. The overall input was sub-woofer, fiberglass enclosure, use the trunk...

Something that I did not want to do as there practically no trunk space already. This powered sub is something like 18 x 9.5 and only 3 inchs deep. Perfect from a sizing perspective.

This falls in line with my original goals, low impact, low cost but still maximize sound upgrade/quality. I'll use the suggested replacement speakers in the front doors, I may give them an amp, (I have an Alpine Flex 432 amp from another car. Or this can be used for the rear speakers.) Which now do not have to be a sub-woofer/tweeter combo with the sub-woofer now in the mix.

It's still not that simple but I'm getting there. Please keep reading and advising.

Rick

 

I just looked at mine which are already out of the car. You are correct - 4/4ohms.

 

4 ohms here.

 

Not to dredge up an ancient thread, but can i get confirmation that the front vert speakers are 4ohm-tweeter/2ohm-mid and the rears are 4ohm-tweeter/4ohm-sub with each sub/tweeter having it's own lead wires (ie, not integrated like a coaxial)?

Thanks

 

Is that 4ohm/4ohm refer to the tweeter/woofer coil specs? Or are the woofers DVC like in the Firebird/Trans Am Monsoon system?

With all these different configurations, it makes me wonder if GM has ever even heard of the term "Industry Standards". lol

BTW: I did find some 2-ohm speakers that look good on paper.

See this thread: https://ls1tech.com/forums/wiring-stereo-electronics/382878-image-dynamics-2-ohm-speakers.html