interesting, but then it's basically in mono not stereo... doesnt that mess up a lot of music? a lot of rock songs will have say a guitar on the right and drums on the left. electronica uses different channels a lot too. not hatin but just not my ideal setup. neither is mine but with just 85 going to the fronts they get loud but i think they can sound better (got ef's). as for the rears cl6x i set teh gain to the lowest

 

you know, i was thinking that too, but I guess it was a typo. he's probably running them in parallel on 2 channels of a 4 channel amp putting those two channels at 2 ohm stereo. that would make more sense than how he originally described it.

Last two channels can be used for a sub in a 3-way setup. I'll be doing this in the wife's Max in a month or so here ...

 

if you knew anything about the amp it's a 2 channel

 

im gonna ask him tomorrow about it. when i bought it i was under the impression of running the fronts off it and leaving the rears off the h/u...that way less spl from them thus more sq. he said when he wired them up i have all 6 speakers off the 2 channel amp and its at 2 ohms. unless i heard him incorrectly (it was like 9 in the morning) thats what he said. to me it makes sense thats it can run all the speakers but not at 2 ohms. but whatever way its running, it gets damn loud for me and im so happy i finally amped my cdts.

 

you are running them 2ohm stereo....nothing wrong with it other that you cant fade front to back

 

You can attenuate by installing an L-Pad on the rear speaker leads. This is a little antiquated, but it does work. A great option for a bridged setup.

 

dang thats so complicated. a 4 ch or 2 ch+ h/u is such a simple diy...and what do you mean 6 speakers? are you talking about the tweets too?...that's only 4 still..anyway how much power does that come out to per channel? i'm thinking no more than 50 im just confused i didnt sleep all night im about to go to sleep right now. i'll wake up tonight and see wahte veryone says gnite

 

exactly! this morning i was testing out the fade and balance and the results are correct. thanks for the clarification manny.

 

100 per channel. 50 split to each side, 25 to tweet, 25 to mid on each side. then 50 to each coaxial in the rear.

 

Doesn't EXACTLY work like that. If your component speakers are using the included passive x-overs, it is more accurate to say that your components are getting 50 watts/side as are your coaxials.

 

well ighetto seemed a touch lost so i helped him out. i do see your point though because of adjustments that can me made on the xovers and such but i was putting it it "laymans" terms.

 

well i'm not lost i just dont see why you didnt make things simple and get a 4 ch. and i'm freakin anxious to throw over a hundred watts to mine, don says the same should be done to the cl's. what kinda xover do you have? i'm thinkin about upgrading to the 560..

 

because at the time i only planned on running the amp at 4 ohms to save some draw on the alt and i didnt want so much power running to the coaxes for a better soundstage and so they wont blow because they are only 40 watts rms. but all in all im very happy with it. i thought about getting the 560 xovers but id like to hear them to see if there actually is a difference and not just BS. don says throw 100 watts to the cl6x's?

 

My advice, if you are going to spend money on crossovers, spend money on active crossovers and enough channels of power to actively cross everything over. It allows for more flexibility, and usually better sound quality.

My crossover is fully adjustable and internal to my headunit. I can adjust slope, crossover point, and essentially gain for each set of speakers since they are all on their own amplifier channel and attenuation is available in the crossover. If I want to add rear speakers later, I can add a small amplifier that gets an input from the bandpass channel of the headunit and adjust gain on the amp itself. The speaker would only receive 1500Hz-80Hz and would actually function as rear fill/mid bass quite well.

 

Another point ... by actively crossing things over, you have more dynamic power to the speaker. The amplifier then has a set output range in which to focus it's wattage, and therefore that range gets more wattage.

75W into a small band of 1500Hz - 80Hz will be louder than 75W into a large band from 20kHz - 80Hz on the same speaker.

 

i know what you maen about the cl6x and wanting not to overpower it. i felt taht way about my avionixx 440.4 but with 85w they're not complainin. when i mentioned don i meant the components...he says all of them really shine with more than a hundred

 

oh and he says to get the 560 xover when running 100+ watts. most users whove made teh upgrade says it does sound better, plus the 456 xover pisses me off cuz i have to trim down all my 12awg wiring to make it fit in the terminals

 

Oh my god. I dont know where to start. I didnt see this thread earlier, I just read every post and I feel dumber reading all the wrong info in here. I think my brain is about to explode.

To everyone in here, if you want your system to work after its installed, then the only ones to listen to in this thread are BigHam, slickrick, Manny....or Don

No offense everyone else but if you are going to post misinformation, do not post at all. I am not criticizing you for being newbs, we were all newbs at one point, but there are some times when you should sit back, shut up, and let the correct information come out
Do not listen to:
2 Da Max: Bass Frequency has nothing to do with component vs coaxial
adamlee: For gods sake, components are not needed in the rear at all
ighettoboyi: I did slickricks install, it works and sounds great, yes its 2 ohm stereo
maxgirl: Find someone you know to install it, or bring a friend with you who knows what theyre doing, dont let a shop rape you.

That is all
Kevin

 

It had to be done

That being said, Don, please come in here and lock the lies, or at least set it straight


-Kevin

 

I'm doing my best to disspell all the misinformation, Kev. Did I miss anything? Car audio is just one of those things that, until you learn the intricacies of it, you don't even realize there are intracacies. Therefore, everyone thinks they're an expert. I was even guilty of this when I first got into this stuff at 17.

I just hope everyone in here can learn ... and most importantly learn to do research. If you want a good starting point, visit my Car Audio Team's homepage at www.teamrocs.com ... there are some great tech articles and some how-to's. Our team is a collection of some of the most seasoned car audio nuts on the planet and realistically, we have 5 or more people who are literal experts who have done their own tests, and OWN o-scopes, etc

 

wtf did i say all i said was the person we bought them off of and one of the guys at cdt when i called said they recommended over a hundred watts each. did i say anything else? oh and saying that overpowering the cl6x wasnt bad, was taht a mistake?? geez people need to relax

 

I never quite undestood why CDT offers different crossovers for the same set when the drivers remain the same...weird...

Its like telling the consumer that their own 'highly acclaimed 456 crossover network is not good enough for the set they are made for-so spend more money on another passive crossover...'

Not mocking, just dont quite get it.....

 

You did pretty well keeping up with everyone.

Everyone should check out www.bcae1.com to learn, great site.

-Kevin

 

After reading this I have a couple of questions - actually more but I will save them for another thread. Do all components require an amp? If I were to put components up front and coaxials in back could I run the backs off of my Pioneer headunit? Is rewiring required to put in new speakers all around - I mean wiring from the headunit to the door? Thanks for any help!

 

no components require an external amp. but to make them sound to potential they do. i thought my cdts sounded pretty good off my pioneer deck but when i amped them its like a whole new set of components. you can run the coaxes off the h/u just fine. id recommend rewiring from the radio to the speakers...the stock wiring is pretty small.

 

There are very few components, like Alpine type-s (bottom of Alpines line) that you can get away with running off a head unit. If you are spending the money on components, it is well worth it to put an amp to them. And no matter what, even the lower end components which you might think about running off a head unit will sound much better on an amp.

You can run the coaxes off the deck, but why wouldnt you just get a 4 channel amp? Amped speakers are going to be louder and clearer, and when you turn it up loud you coaxes are going to be hurting/possibly distorting off the factory head unit...maybe unless you have a nice head unit with a built in crossover tuned properly. But why go through all that, if you are getting an amp for the fronts anyway, just get a 4 channel and run all your speakers from it.

Here is where I disagree with slickrick above. Running new wires into the door is not required at all. Unless you are going to competitions, you will never notice the difference, and neither will 99.99% of anyone who listens to your car. First of all WarrEagle, I assume by your posts that you arent going to be spending thousands of dollars on your system. Your speakers will never know the difference. Second, it is not worth the hassle at all of running wires through the factory grommet in the door, or having to drill a hole near the grommet to run the wires through. The only times new wires are required is if you are building a custom box in the trunk and mounting the crossovers in the trunk, or if you are going to sound quality competitions like I said.

ighettoboyi, you didnt say anything in particular besides questioning my install in slickrick's car. I wasnt questioning you saying anything about cdt's or whatever. I know you say we all need to calm down but this thread was really out of control with misinformation, which does nothing but create more threads by other first-timers, who have the wrong information posted by everyone in here. It is better to nip it in the bud and help the people who need the help, and provide the right information.

-Kevin

 

only reason i say do rewire is because when i did my system (i pretty much got no help from the org ) my friend who thought he knew car audio did my install for my cdts. he tried using the stock wire and it ended up being a pita to do the xovers, speakers, and tweets with the small stock wiring with the grommet and such. so after i convinced him to use new wiring we just were lazy and drilled holes in the doors and the install took no time after that. check on bcae1.com to see how much power you lose with small wire. youd be amazed. you could run the tiniest wires to a sub and not have to worry about a loss in output. although i still feel people might as well use aftermarket wiring for components because its easier to find which wire is which and so the wire is easier to work with (ie solder, screw into xovers,etc). but in conclusion, new wire is not needed but i recommened it...unless you post on the org and get some help with the stock wiring.

 

The guy who did your install did it pretty ghetto. I have my crossovers in the kick panels. I have the 4 sets of speaker wire from the amp running to the back of the radio, so from there it runs through factory wiring. My crossovers for the fronts are in the kick panels. You can cut the factory wire at the kick panel, and this will give you your input for the crossover and your output to the mid in the door. Now the only thing you have to do is mount the tweeter and run the tweeter wire right down below to the crossover. And you are done. This is the most effective, easiest, simplest, and fastest way, and you wont notice any difference in sound.

-Kevin

 

For the record ... running wires through factory grommets in the Maxima is far from difficult. Using stock wiring makes it that much harder to turn the car back to stock. When I go back to stock ... It will be plug and play ... no soldering.

 

Big Ham, I am a little confused by your post. Are you recommending new wiring or not?

kpr10is, the reason I would run coaxials in the rear is because my headunit (Pioneer DEH-P5500MP) only has 2 preamp outputs. They are front and rear/sub. I am currently using 1 pair of outputs for my sub. Since this is the case, how would I get a signal to the rear components using my current headunit?

 

UH OH I disagree with Joel on something !!! lol

Try running wires through the front door grommet in a 5th gen. They are a harness, there 0 room at all, its physically impossibly unless you take apart the entire harness inside that grommet.

Having done a ton of these...and having b!tchy customers at Circuit city want them ripped out over and over, I can honestly say I can do it much faster if factory wire is used. Even on my personal reinstall, everything will be plug and play except for the 2 wires on each side which will take 2 min to solder. I tap into the plug for the speakers in the door, so its not cut, and there will be no speaker wires to uninstall besides ones you would be doing anyway...i.e. ones going to the deck and to the battery.

Different strokes for different folks

[hijack]Joel you going to the meet in Feb? I gotta remember to request off from work and then ill be there[/hijack]

-Kevin

 

and if you made this post PRIOR to november 2003 i would have done this. but this was like taking me and putting me into an ER room and peforming a liver transplant with no experience. if i could do it all over again im sure the install would be cake, minus the door grommet because i actually know how to take off a maxima doorpanel, tap into wires, etc.

 

WarrEagle, then you can either use Y-adapters on the RCAs, or run the rears off the deck.....or get a new deck.

It sounds to me like, yes, Joel is recommending running new wires since its easier on a 4th gen than a 5th gen.

My opinion still stands

-Kevin

 

If I bought a really good set of coaxials, would I still suffer from poor sound in the rear. Do all component speakers have tweaters? If so, where would I mount them in the rear?

 

imo, i'd just get a good set of coaxials for the rear and comps up front.

front speakers > rear speakers

 

I have a slightly different problem. I have gutted the bose system and I want to use my polk audio 6 ½ components and tweeters. I have my amps in the truck and I spliced into the factory wire harness coming off the factory bose amp, to get sound to the speakers. But seems like the original front 6 ½ and the tweeters that are in the front columns splice off somewhere. So now I don’t know where to put the crossover box for my components. Does anyone have more info on this?

 

1st, You want grab your signal for your amp BEFORE the stock amps. The wires you're using now are already amplified and will not provide a good signal to your new amp.

2nd, If you're using the stock headunit (which it definitely sounds like you are), you will want to pull the headunit and cut the speaker wires for the front speakers from the harness and tap in/solder the wire from there if you don't want to run all new speaker wires to your doors.

 

I should have been clearer. I’m using a Kenwood HU and two Fosgate amps in the truck. I’m using one amp for the speakers on the doors. Right now I have the speakers on the doors working but I don’t know where the tweeter wire and 6 ½ speaker wire split off at.

 

As far as I remember, they don't split off anywhere. The tweeter in the stock system has a built in capacitor to cut low frequencies from it. I would think there's a tweeter lead to the stock harness, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

I don't have a pinout for the stock harness available, but it's worth checking to see if I'm right or wrong. If I'm wrong, it would probably split behind the kickpanel somewhere. A guess, but probably a good one. Otherwise, just run 2 fresh speaker wires through the door/pillar grommet on each side, run them to the crossover (behind the kick is a great place for the external x-over too) and then run a single wire back to your amp. That is a real PITA to get the wires run into the door properly, but it's worth it once done, as you will know it was done correctly the first time.

 

Yes the tweet does have a capacitor on. I was just hoping this was going to be easy. *sigh* Thanks anyway.