I blew one of the 6.75” “subs” in the B-pillar on my car. I want to replace it with something better, but I’m not totally certain what the best way of doing this is because the stock speakers were not full range. I’ve kinda been away from car audio stuff for a few years, so I’m not totally sure of what I want to do now. The pressing question, is how do I put in a speaker setup that will work okay with the factory crossover, or is it just better/easier to do a new head unit and amp all at once. I’m trying to keep this reasonable, but it really seems like putting a full range speaker in the B-pillar would be a bad idea, and I’d put in just a midbass, or even a small sub (is that even possible without an enclosure?) but I’m afraid that the crossover will totally switch over at the wrong frequency. I’m even half tempted to do a 3 way component speaker in the rear, but it seems kinda wasteful to put so much high frequency stuff in the back of the car. I’m just kinda lost right now, if the stock stereo was more basic or if I was going all out I would have a better idea of what to do, but is there any speaker setup that will work well with the Monsoon Headunit/amp?

BTW-The car is a 2001 Z28, so no tweeters in the front (is there a good place to mount tweeters on these cars?)

 

The thing is is that the stock amp pushes at 2 ohm. and its hard to find 2 ohm speakers. so your best bet is to get a aftermarket HU and even an amp. Put some 3way 6.5s or some componets in there and really liven it up. replace the speakers in the doors and the back. push the hatch speakers off the HU and the other off of a 50X4 or 35X4 amp. it will sound really good and you can do it relativly cheaply. good luck bud

Drew

 

Ugh, this is just annoying... This is exactly how all my projects spiral out of control :-) I wanted to hold off on the head unit for a while, because I really want to use a double din unit, and I was going to wait till I found a good way of getting my coverplate modified for a double din opening (I've seen it done, but have no idea how to do it myself.) It hurts me to say it, but i think I might just end up replaceing it with factory stuff :-(

 

I blew my midbass's too.. i put a pair of infinity kappas in there... at first, connected to the stock amp not getting any highs out of it.. so i found a wiring diagram online somewhere, and tapped the rear speakers and ran wires to the center kappas's.. so basically i had 4 speakers running off the rear channel.. worked out pretty damn good actually.. I replaced the rear 4" speakers with Kappa 5x7's.. i just cut the opening until they fit, and tied em down in there... Looks like **** with the covers off, but who cares.. just slap the grilles on and it sounds awesome.. The stock headunit is great.. I have a pair of the midbass speakers out of my friends 99 SS.. with the felt cover removed (sounds better with it removed).. if you want to buy them.. make an offer and ill see if he wants to sell em..

 

Another option would get a high level to low level inverter, a 2 channel amp and a single 10 DVC in a stealth box wire the sub output of the stock amp to that. Then remove the 4 inch speakers that are in the rear and put some 6.5 inchers in the side panels where the stock subs were. You could get out of it $300-400 and I'm sure youd enjoy the added bass.

I personally replaced everything. Wasn't big on the stock system.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by RTCamaroSS:
<strong>I blew my midbass's too.. i put a pair of infinity kappas in there... at first, connected to the stock amp not getting any highs out of it.. so i found a wiring diagram online somewhere, and tapped the rear speakers and ran wires to the center kappas's.. so basically i had 4 speakers running off the rear channel.. worked out pretty damn good actually.. I replaced the rear 4" speakers with Kappa 5x7's.. i just cut the opening until they fit, and tied em down in there... Looks like **** with the covers off, but who cares.. just slap the grilles on and it sounds awesome.. The stock headunit is great.. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your setup sounds like it's doing what I want to do, but I'm not 100% sure I follow you. I take it the factory amp is 6 channel with the two B-pillar channels only getting low frequencies? How many amps is it? And you are taking the rear channels that normally feed the 4" speakers, and you are running the hatch speakers and the B-pillar (full range) speakers all off of that channel... thereby reducing the aftermarket speakers 4 ohm impedence to the 2 ohm impedence that we need to get the power from the factory amp? What did you tie the factory outputs for the factory "subs" into?

Regards,
Michael Rizzi

PS- thanks a lot for the help, I was worried that I wouldn't get any responses because this is a somewhat basic question... but I couldn't for the life of me find the information I needed.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by LIL SS:
<strong>Another option would get a high level to low level inverter, a 2 channel amp and a single 10 DVC in a stealth box wire the sub output of the stock amp to that. Then remove the 4 inch speakers that are in the rear and put some 6.5 inchers in the side panels where the stock subs were. You could get out of it $300-400 and I'm sure youd enjoy the added bass.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another good option.. Once I get a better idea of what my options are I'll decide for good, but I've planned on getting the stealthbox since before I got the car... Just been having too much fun playing with the speed aspect to start worrying about the stereo yet, but all of a sudden it went from back burner to urgent, and the planning just wasn't done yet. I think it will all come down to what the layout of the factory Amp is. I Tried to find it, but was unsuccessful. I heard it was under the interior trim panels on the passenger side, near the spare tire. Where specifically though? I assumed it was directly below the speaker or so, but I didn't see it. Is it actually in the well, or in front of the Seatbelt mechanism? And roughly how big is it?

 

XJGPN,
I personaly (And most of the others) will tell you the factory amp is junk compared to any halfway desent aftermarket amp. To me there is a huge difference between a loud distortion generator (Factory system) and a good clean sounding system. I'm going a little extreme calling the factory system a distortion generator but I think yhou get my point.
The factory claims these amps push 500 watts. Have you ever looked and felt a 500 watt RMS amp (Not doubting you here)? You would then realize the little junk box of an amp we got in the back behind the spare tire is a joke (Please excuse my rant here).
Remember that splicing 2 sets of speakers into the rear outputs is going to change the whole resistance of the rear channels. The fronts and rear 2 sets will not be matching any more. The rears will either be in 2 ohm or 8 ohm and the fronts would be in 4..

Personally the only way I would think about keeping the stock amp would be to convert the high output to low input for the subs running a single 10 in a stealth box, 86 the rear 4 inch speakers running that wiring to the 6.5in sub locations putting in a full range 6.5, and upgrade your fronts. You still will be lacking some sound quality but it should sound much better than stock.

Sorry for the rant on the stock system guys..

 

I'm not to big on stereos, I tryed replcing the 6.75(center) w/some 2way 6.5 kenwwods(they where sitting the garage) and it sounded like crap. I also have 5x7's for the back. If I try what you are talking about they will sound good?? Did you guys cut off the stock wiring concetions? They look so neat I didnt want to cut'em. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Sad]" src="gr_sad.gif" />

 

It seems like both of you are thinking right along the same lines as I am... I'm going to price out that JL stealth box and figure out what amp I would want to power it, then just use that in lieu of the stock "subs". That would then allow me to upgrade the other stuff in the future as budget/planning allows... What Impedence are the door speakers and rear hatch speakers? Are they standard 4ohm, or are they 2 ohm like the rear "subs"?

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by LIL SS:
<strong>XJGPN,
I personaly (And most of the others) will tell you the factory amp is junk compared to any halfway desent aftermarket amp. To me there is a huge difference between a loud distortion generator (Factory system) and a good clean sounding system. I'm going a little extreme calling the factory system a distortion generator but I think yhou get my point.
The factory claims these amps push 500 watts. Have you ever looked and felt a 500 watt RMS amp (Not doubting you here)? You would then realize the little junk box of an amp we got in the back behind the spare tire is a joke (Please excuse my rant here).
Remember that splicing 2 sets of speakers into the rear outputs is going to change the whole resistance of the rear channels. The fronts and rear 2 sets will not be matching any more. The rears will either be in 2 ohm or 8 ohm and the fronts would be in 4..

Personally the only way I would think about keeping the stock amp would be to convert the high output to low input for the subs running a single 10 in a stealth box, 86 the rear 4 inch speakers running that wiring to the 6.5in sub locations putting in a full range 6.5, and upgrade your fronts. You still will be lacking some sound quality but it should sound much better than stock.

Sorry for the rant on the stock system guys..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by XJGPN:
<strong>It seems like both of you are thinking right along the same lines as I am... I'm going to price out that JL stealth box and figure out what amp I would want to power it, then just use that in lieu of the stock "subs". That would then allow me to upgrade the other stuff in the future as budget/planning allows... What Impedence are the door speakers and rear hatch speakers? Are they standard 4ohm, or are they 2 ohm like the rear "subs"?

They are in 4ohm. The subs are in 2ohm. Why GM did it this way, I don't know..
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by LIL SS:
<strong>XJGPN,
I personaly (And most of the others) will tell you the factory amp is junk compared to any halfway desent aftermarket amp. To me there is a huge difference between a loud distortion generator (Factory system) and a good clean sounding system. I'm going a little extreme calling the factory system a distortion generator but I think yhou get my point.
The factory claims these amps push 500 watts. Have you ever looked and felt a 500 watt RMS amp (Not doubting you here)? You would then realize the little junk box of an amp we got in the back behind the spare tire is a joke (Please excuse my rant here).
Remember that splicing 2 sets of speakers into the rear outputs is going to change the whole resistance of the rear channels. The fronts and rear 2 sets will not be matching any more. The rears will either be in 2 ohm or 8 ohm and the fronts would be in 4..

Personally the only way I would think about keeping the stock amp would be to convert the high output to low input for the subs running a single 10 in a stealth box, 86 the rear 4 inch speakers running that wiring to the 6.5in sub locations putting in a full range 6.5, and upgrade your fronts. You still will be lacking some sound quality but it should sound much better than stock.

Sorry for the rant on the stock system guys..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

 

Okay, this is bad, my mind is starting to wander towards more exotic/expensive options. I'm going to start looking at speakers and other items, We'll see how this goes. I'm worried about adding too much weight to the car, but at the same time, this was never meant to be a "racecar".... so... we'll see...

 

Correct, i have the center and rear speakers running off the same channels. 2 speakers per channel running off of the rear channels.. The output that used to go to the factory subs i used as the input to my amp for my 2 10's... It may not be the best way to do it.. But it certainly sounds badass. I beleive the factory amp is 8 channel.. 2 rear, 2 center, 2 front, and also 2 more front channels for the tweeters on the door speakers.. But the factory may just have a crossover at the door instead of 2 extra channels on the amp.. Not sure..

 

The 'subs' are only $40ea from GM. One place had them in stock. Could be a cheaper route. <img border="0" alt="[fight]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_punch.gif" />