Two connectors on Factory 6X9's??Why? Use one and new speakers sound like crap!

[Red99SE]

Ok, I looked and didn't see this topic anywhere else. On the factory 6X9's in my 2000 GAGT there were two connectors going to it. One on each side. I just installed some Pioneer 6X9's and got the adapter from Best Buys to use with the aftermarket speakers. With everything installed, the new 6X9's sound like they are all muffled and distorted. My question is this, why does the stock speakers take 2 connectors and all others take one? And, what is the second connector for? Is one of the connectors better to use than the other? I have an aftermarket HU powering them so I think they have at least enough power to where they should be playing clearly. I just am lost on why they sound like crap and am wondering if I have done something wrong or used the wrong connector or something. BTW, I am using the connector that would be on the drivers side of the factory speaker with the square terminal. Please help!!!

[GAGTSCTGuy]

Isn't that a monsoon speaker system? Mine is with the eight speaker system, I could only find 6, and then I noticed that the 6x9's in the back actually look like two speakers on each side, and I think they are(I haven't checked in the trunk yet to confirm this though. I think that might be why there are two connectors.

[daxx]

One of the connections is for the factory "subwoofer", the other for the mid/tweeter. The subwoofer connection runs through an amplifier on the drivers-side of the trunk behind the trim panel. The stock 6x9's have a 2 ohm voice coil for the bass, and the stock amp may not have enough power to drive a 4 ohm aftermarket speaker properly. The other connection on the speaker (passenger side on my 2000) comes directly from the head unit, and is a full-range signal that would be more suited for your new speakers.

[nomojo]

AFAIK, neither of the lines that feed the 6x9's are straight from the HU, they both have crossovers that happen in the monsoon power amp.

Easiest thing to do would be to either A) leave the speakers at factory, or B) rewire the car and bypass the monsoon power amp (assuming you've replaced the HU with an aftermarket one). One side is treble/mid, the other side is bass.

edit: if you put the speakers back to factory but buy an aftermarket HU, you'll have to line-level the outputs off the HU or use the pre-outs and level those to what the power amp expects. Its a PITA.

i guess what i saying, is in this order (of easiest plan to hardest plan):

A) leave HU and speakers alone (at factory)

B) put subs in, use a line leveler tap off the bass side of the 6x9's for your signal feed, and run the standard power wire, and get an ignition volatage by getting an 'add a circuit' fuse thingy and plug it into your wiper fuse. This will give you richer bass without screwing with the stock 6x9's.

C) replace HU with aftermarket, get line levelers, leave speakers at factory, and settle for 'close enough'. Consider how you're going to deal with the door chime and low-gas warning replacement and other crap rumors about the factory HU's function, and also how you feel about losing the steering wheel controls (they have aftermarket interfaces, but your HU has to support it, and they're expensive)

D) replace HU with aftermarket, replace all speakers with aftermarket, and rewire speakers directly to bypass poweramp. Again, consider how to deal with lost warning tones and whatever else missing the stock HU does.

its not exactly a walk in the park if u have a monsoon system.

cheers.

[AmIGrand]

The factory rear speakers have dual voicecoils, one for the mid/highs, the other for the bass signal. I believe - though not 100% sure - that the highs signal is in fact dull range, the sub signal merely augments the lows. If they sound distorted and "muffled", you probably have them connected to the lowpass wires. Try switching to the other set of wires. Worst case is it'll come through clear, but with little or no bass - best case is that they sound like they should - although you probably wont have as much low end as the stockers did.

That said - these guys are right, with the Monsson you have 2 ways to go for the best possible sound. Option #1 - leave everything stock. Disconnect the lowpass signal from the rear speakers (the one I suspect you're using now) and wire it to a line level converter. Use that signal to drive an aftermarket amp and a sub or 2 or 3 or whatever. The Monsoon system doesn't sound horrible, and a little extra bass from a real sub cleans it up more (by reducing the strain on the rear speakers) and gets you the low end punch that the stock "subs" don't quite offer. Option #2 - replace everything, and I mwean everything. The factory speakers are non-standard impedances, so any new speakers change the load on the Monsoon amp. If you attempt to bypass the Monsoon amp with an aftermarket one for teh highs, you run into the weird impedance stock speakers. You could replace the speakers AND the amp, and run the preamp signal from the Monsoon deck to the new amp, but by the time you've done all that you might as well get a new deck, too.

Sorry for the "bad" news, but I hope this puts you in a goosd direction knowing your options....

[Red99SE]

Thanks for the responses guys! I see that I am not the only one with this issue. Only thing is that I don't have the Monsson system. I have a 2000 and I think it's just called the premium sound package. Either way, I think that Best buys gave me the adapters to fit the low side of the speaker and I need to use the wires on the high side. I'm ging to go mess with some wires and see how it turns out. Thanks!

[SC/TGrandAm]

Originally Posted by Red99SE

that Best buys gave me the adapters !

Originally Posted by Red99SE

to go mess with some wires and see how it turns out. Thanks!

haha those are not two good combinations to mix. Best buy installers are clueless, they dont know their a$s from a hole in the ground. And messing with wires when you dont know what your doing hmm.

[AmIGrand]

Hey SC/T - long time no see!

[Red99SE]

Originally Posted by SC/TGrandAm

haha those are not two good combinations to mix. Best buy installers are clueless, they dont know their a$s from a hole in the ground. And messing with wires when you dont know what your doing hmm.

Since when did I say I din't know what I was doing??? This is the first time I had seen the dual connectors. Someobody asks one question on here and suddenly they "don't know what they are doing"??? Yeah ok!

Anyway, I went and hooked the wires from the other connector (which I assume is the connector for the higher frequencies) and it works fine. Thanks for the info...

[AmIGrand]

[GrimSleeper]

Great info in this post... I have a 2002 GAGT w/ monsoon (that I just bought on Saturday - I love it!)
Anyway, the stock monsoon system is pretty good, and with the info in this post I have decided to leave the stock 6x9's (they sound great), but want to replace my 4x6's and tweeters for clairty reasons(I already have new 1/2" polk tweets that I can install).
The info about...

Originally Posted by AmIGrand

The factory speakers are non-standard impedances, so any new speakers change the load on the Monsoon amp.

MY QUESTION IS: Is it okay to replace just the tweets and 4x6's, with the same size speakers, without causing any problems to the Monsoon amp?
I don't need loud, I just want crystal clear - but don't want to harm my amp - and DON'T want to change my stock deck. Just let me know if I should be concerned about damaging my amp if I replace the 4 front speakers.
Thanks in advance!

[AmIGrand]

As I've posted here several times, I would SDTRONGLY recomend leaving the entire Monsoon system alone, save for disconnecting the "sub" input to the rear speakers. Those front 4x6's and tweets can sound good, if you get the thing tuned right. That means setting the EQ in such a way that the bass is set to minimum, and get an aftermarket amp and sub of a size and power to suite your tastes to make up the difference.

[GrimSleeper]

Originally Posted by AmIGrand

As I've posted here several times, I would SDTRONGLY recomend leaving the entire Monsoon system alone, save for disconnecting the "sub" input to the rear speakers. Those front 4x6's and tweets can sound good, if you get the thing tuned right. That means setting the EQ in such a way that the bass is set to minimum, and get an aftermarket amp and sub of a size and power to suite your tastes to make up the difference.

Wow, thanks for the quick reply! As far as bass goes, I certainly feel that the 6x9's are enough as far as bass sound, and I plan to add bass shakers under the driver and passenger seat for the bass feel (which I will run off a separate small amp, and get the signal from tapping into the sub input of the rear speakers with a high level rca adaptor).

But as far as the 4 fronts, I understand that you strongly recommend leaving it alone, but will replacing the tweets and 4x6's in any way damage or harm the stock amp. I never even thought it could, but this thread got me a bit worried. I intend to use nothing out of the ordinary, nothing requiring high wattage. I really want to improve the clarity of the highs and mids in the front, but I don't want to hurt anything. I know my Polk 1/2" or 3/4" inch would be higher quality sounding than the stock (I can't remember which it is? - what size are the stock tweets?)

Please let me know if it would technically be ok to do this. Thanks in advance - I appreciate your help!
Jeff

P.S. my last car had a really sweet aftermarket system (I like clear, not loud), which is why I have an ear for the clarity. But I don't want to go to the trouble of bypassing the Monsoon, since It's a pretty good setup.

[AmIGrand]

If memory serves, the stock tweeters are 8 ohm and the 4x6's are 3 or something weird like that.... Putting a 4 ohm speaker in there could upset the Monsoon amp, I dunno how stable it is.

[Vintalage]

I guess i'm the only one informed on this so I shall clear up all the inaccurate posts made.

The 1999-2000 Grand ams were availabe with a 6 speaker premium audio system. It puts out 25wx2 to the rear woofers. The rear speakers were simply coaxials with dedicated inputs. The rear woofers were used to put out midrange and bass frequencies while the tweeters on the coaxials were used for high frequencies. The premium amp was used only for the rear woofers while the HU pushed the rest of the speakers. That includes the front speakers and rear tweeters.

The 2001+ models were available with a new HU and amp. Monsoon. The monsoon amp pushes 240w (according to delphi) to all speakers. Despite the new system, the rear speakers are setup similar to the old Premium system. Coaxial speakers. The rear woofers put out the midrange and bass frequecies while the tweets put out the high frequencies. The only difference, once again, is that the Monsoon Amp powers all speakers unlike the Premium amp.

Now, i've used the Premium system in a '99 Grand am GT1 and the bass is significantly louder and deeper than the one in the '01+ Grand ams. This is due in part to the frequency sliders on the HU. On the '01+ models, all it has is Bass, Mid, Treble. You can equalize the frequencies much better on the Premium system than you can with the Monsoon.

I hope I cleared all this up. I've had to do this too many times.

[GrimSleeper]

That makes sense, as the 98 my mom used to have had much deeper bass.

I guess I will try to replace my tweeters and 4x6's (with the same size speakers), and take the risk, hoping the amp can handle it (if it can't handle it, would it just take a toll over time, or would it shut down completely?).

I think I am going to run a seperate thread to see if anyone is running aftermarket speakers with their stock HU and stock amp. (this thread is no longer discussing what it says in the title - so I don't know if others will see this).

Thanks,
Jeff

I guess worst case scenario - I could always disconnect my 4 fronts, and have the monsoon run only the rear 6x9's. I could then install a new 2 channel amp (I have a sony 50x2) and rewire the 4 fronts with passive crossovers. Can you do that - run the monsoon only to the 6x9's? Is it okay to run 2 separate sets of high level adaptors (one for the bass shaker amp, and the other for the fronts)? It's just for signal, so I guess it's fine.

[GrimSleeper]

Hey AmIGrand... I have been reading up on this, and talked to some people, and you're right (of course )

These are my plans, and I want to know if this is okay to do... I have decided to leave the Monsoon setup as-is, and not screw with the above average quality system that comes with the car. I will, however, be adding a sub or two for additional bass.
My question is... I will be tapping into the sub wires of the 6x9's wires for signal, to create my pre-amp out (just in front of the speakers). While I will be tapping into them for signal, I will still have them hooked up. I will then hook up the new amp, subs, and have the entire system of 8 speakers (ten if you count the 6x9's as 2 each).

There are no technical problems with this set up, are there? Of course I will be running a new power wire directly from the battery (with a fuse up there), and will ground it in the trunk. Also, can I tap into the remote turn-on wire (or whatever you call it) at the Monsoon amp, or should I do it behind the Head unit?

Thanks in advance!
Jeff

[Vintalage]

Originally Posted by GrimSleeper

Hey AmIGrand... I have been reading up on this, and talked to some people, and you're right (of course )

These are my plans, and I want to know if this is okay to do... I have decided to leave the Monsoon setup as-is, and not screw with the above average quality system that comes with the car. I will, however, be adding a sub or two for additional bass.
My question is... I will be tapping into the sub wires of the 6x9's wires for signal, to create my pre-amp out (just in front of the speakers). While I will be tapping into them for signal, I will still have them hooked up. I will then hook up the new amp, subs, and have the entire system of 8 speakers (ten if you count the 6x9's as 2 each).

There are no technical problems with this set up, are there? Of course I will be running a new power wire directly from the battery (with a fuse up there), and will ground it in the trunk. Also, can I tap into the remote turn-on wire (or whatever you call it) at the Monsoon amp, or should I do it behind the Head unit?

Thanks in advance!
Jeff

You want to tap the signal coming from the HU before it goes into the Monsoon amp.

[GrimSleeper]

Thanks for the pic... Why do you tap into it just before the amp for signal? (I guess that makes sense, you don't need the signal to be amplified). Does the amp split the rears into the "Subs" and "Mids/Highs"? Or does the HU actually send out wires for 4 different speakers (the stock 6x9's).

Exactly which wires (which colors) do I tap into for left and right signal, and then which for the remote turn-on? I have seen the chart showing exactly which wire is, but I understand that is based on the clip behind the HU. I suppose I could just match the colors with those in the chart.

Thanks!

[Vintalage]

Yes, the amp has built in crossovers and does the spliting. The wires coming from the HU are full range signals.

Monsoon System Pinouts

That link should help you out. All those wires are accessible on the harness in the picture I posted.