FINALLY got around to de-ghettofying my rear speakers

[virtuetovice]

The stock 6x9's were shot when I got the car, so I put a in pair of Pioneer's I had sitting in the garage. Nothing super fancy, but they had good sound. For a while they had been wired directly to the back of my head unit with regular old speaker wire going under the seats and all. It was about 90% hidden but that wasn't good enough to be permanent. So today I finally decided to get them properly wired into the car.

 

The stocks that donated the stock harness connectors and those nifty hi-ranges:

 

 

A little bit of solder work on my Pioneer's:

 

One set is the harness connector, the other is a lead that would later power those hi-ranges

 

 

I cut a small notch in the speaker and hi-range plastic frame for the wire:

 

The frame fit perfectly into the body of the speaker:

 

The result: two Pioneer 2-ways upgraded to 3-ways:

 

I was blown away by how much better it sounded

[94 olds vert]

I put a Pioneer in my cutlass too. My driver side rear was blown. I have never gotten around to replacing the other side.

 

They do sound better than stock. I can tell my driver side sounds better than the passenger side.

 

I think you gave me the motivation to do my PS thanks.

Edited September 1, 2010 by 94 olds vert

[virtuetovice]

@94 olds vert: No problem, glad to be an inspiration.

 

I would definitely suggest reusing your hi-range's from your stocks. It only takes about 15 mins to get it all together on both speakers. Trust me bro, it is WORTH THE TIME.

 

Do you know what model your Pioneers are?

Mine are Pioneer TS 692. Old, but they kick some ass though.

Edited September 1, 2010 by virtuetovice

[94 olds vert]

I got them from another cutlass at the junkyard one day. I'm not sure what model they are.

 

I agree using the hi-range is definitely worth the time.

[jrcuttymann]

If you are running the stock speakers in parallel with the Pioneers you have reduced the impedance or ohms of the speaker and is no longer matched to your HU, although they may sound great now you are taxing the output of your HU and you could burnout the finals in the HU. If you are running them in series than you have increased the impedance. If you don't know what I am talking about do some research on your own. An 8 ohm tweeter wired in parallel with a 4 ohm woofer means that the HU is reading it as a 2 ohm speaker. In series it will read as a 12 ohm speaker. its an algebraic equation.

Edited September 1, 2010 by jrcuttymann

[white4d96]

An 8 ohm paralleled with a 4 ohm would give you 6 ohms. I have aftermarket front doors and stock tweets paralled to an amp (both 4 ohm drivers) and I see 2 ohms at the amp per channel.

 

But x2 on low impedance with the HU. Although, how is the factory premium speaker set wired up originally? I couldn't quite tell if it was series or paralleled.

[jrcuttymann]

technically an 8 ohm and a 4 ohm in parallel would be 2.6667 ohms. So I stand corrected.

The calculation is as follows: 1/4(2/8)+1/8=3/8 then take the reciprocal of that, which equals 8/3 or 2.6667 ohms.

 

Read more: How to Design a Multi-Speaker Circuit | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6791836_design-multi_speaker-circuit.html#ixzz0yPWndCy6

[visitor]

Points for creativity! please be careful, and do take heed of what you have been told here.

[Crazy K]

your car has performance sound, right? it would have a gain switch left of the cluster, and the rear speakers have a tweeter mounted in the center of a 6x9, the tweeters are wired to the radio direct, and the 6x9 run off an external amp controlled by the gain switch. This is a different speaker than many later cars with the same system have... and those later speakers have a much harder to remove center tweeter...

[Jonathan_C]

If you are running the stock speakers in parallel with the Pioneers you have reduced the impedance or ohms of the speaker and is no longer matched to your HU, although they may sound great now you are taxing the output of your HU and you could burnout the finals in the HU. If you are running them in series than you have increased the impedance. If you don't know what I am talking about do some research on your own. An 8 ohm tweeter wired in parallel with a 4 ohm woofer means that the HU is reading it as a 2 ohm speaker. In series it will read as a 12 ohm speaker. its an algebraic equation.

 

 

While you have a basic understanding, the actual dynamics of the impedance are a little more complex. The stock tweeter comes with a capacitor. You may know that this component is used to cut the lows and protect the tiny driver. It does this by adding impedance to the low frequencies. Moreover, most of the current (basically wattage since power is current*voltage) is delivered to a driver at lower frequencies. The crutch of this is, the lower impedance will be at high frequencies, and very little current will be increased because most of the musical energy is dedicated to the lower frequencies. It should cause you very little increase in heat at the output stage.

[virtuetovice]

Well it seems to be doing fine. Still pumping out good sound.

 

Yes the gain switch is there, it just doesn't work on the aftermarket head unit.