71FirebirdLS1

i've searched a little on here, but still have some questions... here is what i'm wanting to do. i have '71 firebird with an '01 TA dash and monsoon head unit. i want to gut out the backseat of the '71 firebird and put four subs (2-12s and 2-10s all at 2ohms) and power it with a 4-channel amp (rockford fosgate or whatever with 150-200W RMS per channel and low distortion at 2ohms) and keep the monsoon hu. i also bought aftermarket 2ohm speakers to replace the two front '01 speakers.

now the sound doesn't need to be a pacemaker or anything, it's not for compitions, and is mostly for looks, but still needs to sound great. i know i need to get a converter for the rca cables and that the monsoon hu is 500W peak.

1) do i need to worry about the output voltage of the monsoon hu? is this hu pretty decent? is it 15-20 RMS per channel?

2) does the factory '01 amp supply poer to all 10 speakers? can i leave the factory in to run the speakers and also put in the fosgate for the subs?

3) is putting the subs in the backseat not going to be very loud/powerful? is doing a sealed set-up best for this or a bandpass set-up better? i want to keep most of the factory speakers working.

...what i really wanna do is leave the '01 factory system alone, and just add a big amp and 4 subs... how can i do it?

any help would be great!

JDubs

The factory amp powers some, and the HU powers others. You are really getting into a rats nest by retaining the factory system, but its possible.

http://www.houston-f-body.org/tech/monsoon/

The above link should help you identify what is what. You can tap off of one of those leads to get a high level signal, convert it to RCA and run an aftermarket amp for subs or whatever.

JLAudio makes one of the best integration products:

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_c...php?page_id=94

Or check out Audiocontrol for some others:

http://www.mobileaudiocontrol.com/

Or just get a standard high to low converter, but the factory equilization will be present and limit your ability to really make it sound good.

Any of these products should be able to deal with the output voltage of the factory system.

DON'T do bandpass. The best sytem for this application is "ported" or "vented". Sealed would be OK, but you tend to need more amplification, and still don't get the volume you want.

I hope that helps!

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

To clarify a couple of points...if you only moved the dash and head unit from an 01 to your 71 then you don't have the Monsoon amp (the amp was in the back by the spare tire). All you have is an ordinary Delco head unit with a Monsoon label on it. Obviously, the head unit alone puts out nowhere near 500W (peak or otherwise). The low-pass filtering was done by the amp so you have four full-range speaker-level signals coming from the head unit.

The Monsoon systems included an 8-channel external amp. On Camaros the amp powers all eight speakers. On Firebirds the amp powers all except the door tweeters and hatch tweeters which are powered directly from the head unit. This is still eight channels off the amp because the Firebird has DVC subs in the sail panels accounting for two channels each side.

So, when planning your system, just treat what you've got as an ordinary factory radio and do the same things you would do with that.

71FirebirdLS1

thank JDubs, looks like i'll use the one from mobileaudiocontrol since it is more affordable. i didn't even know those were available.

whitebird... i also have the monsoon amp.. wiring and all.

how would i use a line output converter with internal summing for the monsoon hu, the monsoon amp (to power all the '01 speakers), and run an aftermarket amp to power four subs?

JDubs

You might be better aff nixing the amp, as whitebird said, you have four full range channels coming off the head unit.

If you use the (monsoon) amp, identify the sub channels, those wires go into the hi to lo level converter, and the rca out goes to your (aftermarket) amp.