SilverBullet98

I want to hook up two sets of tweeters in my car. I have a Pioneer Head Unit, Bose front speakers ( which I would like to replace ) Pioneer rear speakers and two 10's in the trunk, what would I need to hook up the tweets ???

Ryan93SE

iTrader: (1)

you will need an amp and crossovers.....however i know one guy that just spliced his factory wires and ran them to the tweets

Surge Diesal

I never reccomend hooking up any speakers to the deck, but if you do you will want to check out the connections on the back of the deck, did you or the shop hook the deck up?
If you had the BOSE system aren't their tweeters already in there, in which case you can just connect those to the tweets.
If your deck is 40wx4 or something like that and those connections are already tooken up by the 6x9s and the mids then you may want to splice off the connection from the mids run, run the wires through the door, and put the tweets in the corner of the door. This would be nice since the bose speakers can't handle grips of power.
Need more info on the amps and such.

SilverBullet98

I got a new set of front speakers and some Bass blockers for them...can I just splice the wires from the front speakers and run the tweeters from them ???

jmax

Can you? Yes. Will it sound good? No. Tweeters need a crossover, base blocker won't do it unless it's set at 3-4kHz. Then you have the issue of lowering the impedance that the headunit sees, causing it to overheat, clip or both. If it clips and you don't have a good crossover the tweets will blow, or at least sound like **** till you throw them away. To really do it right I would get a small two channel amp and high pass the new tweets at 4kHz. Or a 4 channel amp and run two channels to the full range and two to the tweets. High pass the 6's at 80-100 Hz and the tweets - where the manufacturer recomends or higher.

Nismo

iTrader: (18)

will anything mess up if spliced from the front speakers?

SilverBullet98

OK...heres my situation...I have a Pioneer 40x4 deck, Pioneer 6x9's in the rear, two 10's in the trunk hooked up to a Sony Amp...I thinks it's 1000 watts or something. I just bought new Polk EX Series 2's for the front and I also picked up matching Tweets. I ordered the Bass Blockers from Crutchfield for the front speaks. I want to hook up the tweets. Can I just splice into the wires for the front speakers since I have the Bass BLockers on them ??? Any help would be great !! I have a very limited budget so I keep that in mind when making sugestions.....

jsmiam

Did you get a Crossover too, with the Polk System? That's the question everyone's asking. You have to have one, or else the tweeter will sooner or later fry itself.

A crossover splits the sound signal to send only high frequencies to the tweeter, and low frequencies to the woofer. Without a crossover, the tweeter will try to produce bass, and die shortly.

This is a separate, but related issue to your bass blockers. Your Bass Blockers keep the woofer in your system from trying to reproduce the very low bass, since your Sub is doing that for you. The principle is related, but more important with the tweeters. If they try to produce midbass or low bass, they'll fry. (In other words, the bass blockers still won't protect the tweeters)

I browsed Crutchfield, and I can see where you might have potentially bought the speaker drivers themselves without the crossover.

If that is the case, then as jmax said, you could get an amplifier with multiple channels and either a builtin or separate crossover, and amplify the woofer and tweeter separately, with the crossover taking place via the amplifier/crossover.

I suppose (because of your tight budget comment) you could also get a much less expensive speaker level crossover at Radio Shack, which won't sound as good (not designed specifically for those specific speakers) but would at least protect the tweeters somewhat. If you do that, just remember it's a temporary interim solution, and you'll need the proper crossovers to do your speakers justice. You'd be better off returning the speakers if you can, and buying a component set with the crossovers.

SilverBullet98

So all I need to get is a crossover for the tweeters ?? I can pick up a crossover with some left over christmas money...So if I got that I would be set ???

jmax

But you still have the issue of running the headunit at 2 ohms. Most headunits get hot running at 4 ohms and two ohms could cause some real problems.

SilverBullet98

I called Crutchfield and they told me that all I would need to do is get a pair of in-line crossovers for the tweets and then run them right to the speaker wires ?? Is this right, can somebody tell me what I need to do...I have heard 50 different things and I'm getting really confused !!

SilverBullet98

Nevermind.....the tweeters came with a crossover built into the wires...so I'm fine !! Thanks for all the help though, I really appreciate it !!!

jmax

As I have said two times, No. Unless those tweeter X-overs are set up with more than 4 ohms resistance(there are many 8 ohm tweeters) you will likely blow them or burn up the headunit. Parallel wireing resistance = 1/(1/r1 + 1/r2 + 1/rn). Check your headunit owners manual to see what should be the lowest speaker impedance. Don't go below this because a headunit does not have a high quality amp like in seperates. They also don't have as much heat sink surface area. Once it clips the tweets - all 4 at this point - will be subjected to large amounts of low frequency distortion.

jsmiam

My guess is the wiring instructions are to attach the tweeters to the woofers, therby wiring in series, and preventing any low impedance problems (but, potentially creating a new, less serious high impedance problem)

This solution will work OK, but will not be as good as a true crossover. The woofer will be attempting to reproduce the same treble frequencies as the tweeters, meaning that imaging won't be as good as it might be (two sources for some of the treble). And, the overall average load will be 8 ohms, I believe, at least for the high frequencies. I do think this setup, wired in series, will sound "pretty good". Just not as good or as loud as using the real crossover, such as the one that would come if you bought the Polk EX Component set (woofer, tweeter, crossover)

(With a real crossover, the impedance would still average 4 ohms, because the frequencies would not be overlapping, except near the crossover point. Also, with a real crossover, it would be designed specifically for the particular drivers, and the overlap frequencies would be addressed too, either by design or by additional circuitry in the crossover)

Crossovers are highly complex, and homegrown crossovers are for people who like to tinker. Few amateurs could match what an Electrical Engineer at a manufacturer could do. That's why even a "real" crossover from Radio Shack still won't be the perfect solution to your crossover problem. And that's why even serious hobbyists usually just buy a speaker with a great reputation, and use it as it was designed by the manufacturer, or use an elecronic crossover and amplify the drivers separately.

Anyway... like I said... it'll still sound pretty good... If you decide to get **** about it, I bet you could contact Polk Audio, and beg and plead for them to sell you the real crossovers for a modest price.

jmax

No. You see he/she wants to hook up the Polk tweets and the stock speakers to his/her Pioneer head unit. That's why I keep saying that the tweets will blow. I think they have the Polk x-over. That's not the problem. The problem is wiring two sets of speakers to the front output of the Pioneer headunit. Secondary to this wiring problem is the fact that the Polk tweets will be getting as much power as the entire other set of speakers and there is no good way to attenuate the tweets, even if the Polk x-over has a modest level adjustment feature.

jsmiam

Black90SE said this, above, so I believe he does have the Polk mids and tweeters... His original statement didn't say this, though... Perhaps he'll straighten us out on this one.

If he wires in series, it'll avoid any low impedance problems. Like I said, this will sound "good", as in, not as good as with the proper crossover, but probably a bit better than the factory speakers alone would be. It is an acceptable compromise for the person just buying the pair of tweeters, but certainly not an ideal situation, though.

DamageR

I have put a set of Alpine tweets in my other Nissan and all i had to do was run an inline crossover like said. More specificly a 22mf capacitor.

SilverBullet98

I have the Polk EX series 2 speakers ( normal speakers ) and the Polk EX series 2 tweets. The tweets have an in line crossover built into them. I bought Bass Blockers from Crutchfield for the front speakers...I'm doing the install this weekend, ( well Saturday because I gotta watch my Giants kick the crap out of the Eagles on Sunday ) So weather permitting I will do it on Saturday and let you guys know how it came out !

Bassinyourface

Hi guys.
I am looking for some help with my car sound.
I currently have inmy Toyota Tazz:
JVC 50wx4 Front loader
Pioneer 6x9's (260w) in my backboard
Kenwood 4" 120 W in the front, in the only place where fron spekaers can go in a tazz (ie: not in the door, but int he actual front console of car)
12" Sony Xplod Sub
Calibra 1400W 4 channel Amp
Sony Xplod 250W 2 channel Amp

Now 2 channels of the Calibra Amp are powering my 6x9's. The other 2 channels havebeen bridged and are powering my sub.
The 2 channel Sony Amp are powering my front Kenwood 4" speakers.

Problem, I cant hear the 4" much, as the bass form the sub and 6x9's are far louder. Im sure if there wee no speakers in the front, the sound would be worse. Its good at the moment, but not great.

I am thinking of buying some tweeters and simply wiring them to the deck. Tazz's do not have any place for tweeters, which is a problem. So here are my questions.
Do I simply get the tweeters, wire them to my deck, andmount them on my dash?
Will they be worth it, do you think I will hear a diffrence with the tweeters there?
Most Tweeters come with built in crossovers right? Im looking at getting the Calibra Cyclops 300w Tweeters (60W RMS). Not keen to spend big numbers on my tweeters but hink the Calibras are a good blend between cost and quality.

Any suggestions guys?