Thaddeus

So... how have people wired these puppies up?

Do the 2 in the front act as 1?

Directions to a FAQ would be appreciated.

Also, what's the consensus on the easiest CD reciever to install?

thx

Thaddeus

Shane

Mine have 8 speakers each!

Shane

Next to the Passenger seat is a cover that you can pull that hides the factory amp.

Try here for a FAQ: http://nichols.nu/tips.htm

Thaddeus

I just bought an 86. 8 speakers?

Holy toledo. How do you wire up a stereo??

bd0nalds0n

The front speakers in the doors are component speakers, with a crossover sending the high frequencies to the tweeter, while the lower frequencies stay at the mid-bass. Each component pair represents one channel.

The rear speakers located near the passenger seats are either 2-way (e.g., the mid-bass and tweeter are combined into one unit), or also component, depending on the model year and, I think, option codes.

The far rear speakers, which in my car are 4-inch, are pretty much useless. When I replaced and upgraded my speakers, I took the 4" rear hatch speakers out of the loop entirely. I am sure they don't contribute much, other than muddying the imaging.

In this way, I am still running 4 channels. Alternatively, you could run the backseat speakers and hatch speakers either in parallel (from the amp's rear +/- terminals, run two sets of speaker wire from the +/- to each of the 4 speakers) or in series (Run the positive lead from the amp to the first left speaker, run the negative lead from that speaker to the second speaker's positive lead, run the negative lead from the second speaker to the amplifier's rear negative lead, repeat the process on the right side). Running in parallel changes the impedance that the amp sees, so depending on what kind of impedance the speakers you're replacing have will determine whether you want to run these in parallel or series, should you choose to run 6 different speakers out of a 4 channel amp.

Rufus Sanders

I have the Sony "wireless" CD changer that pumps the sound throught your radio FM. Not the greatest, but easy to wire and remove.-

Also, remember tht the battery is in the back, where you would put a CD changer, so getting power to it is really easy. Ruf

bd0nalds0n

I should have clarified: Running in parallel or series has either a halving or doubling effect on the impedence, so depending on whether your speakers are 4 ohm or 8 ohm will determine which way will be most complementary to your particular amplifier. 2-ohm loads on an amp (2 4-ohm speakers run in parallel) can make it very hot and could also cause damage, so be careful.

bd0nalds0n

Actually, the 8-speaker business is a bit of a marketing fraud. If you have three-way home speakers, comprised of a bass driver, midrange, and tweeter, most people would consider this to be "one speaker with three drivers" However, in the world of twisted marketing, your front left "speaker, " comprised of two separate components, is touted as "two speakers." It doesn't take long for this sort of double math to add up, and it's not particularly representative of reality, nor does it make speaker wiring/fading a particularly daunting task.

Thaddeus

Crutchfield has a Clarion that looks 928-apprpriate, it's rated as 'EZ' to install, but when I go to check out, they are trying to sell me a PAC OEM-2 interface unit (whatever that is) to adapt it to the wiring for 29 bucks. Has anybody else installed this sort of thing?

thanks

Thaddeus
86 Shark

Jim_H

Brian,
Thank you for the basic schooling on speaker/amp set-up.

Thaddeus,
You are not alone in your confuson.

heinrich

Fronts are fronts, rears are rears, left is left and right is right. 4 channels.

How you split them is your business. These days amps have 4 channels and a subwoofer channel. Subwoofer is either uninstalled or in the spare wheel well or wherever you want it, but it usually needs its own amp.

Front speakers would be a midrange and a tweeter, off the same channel Left and Right respectively. With a crossover or choke which keeps high and low frequencies appropriately channeled. So, if you just connected both left-fronts to one channel and no crossover, you'd be wasting all the power it takes to drive frequencies there, that the speakers can't use.

For the rear, you are soooo limited with size in the middle set, that not a lot will fit unless you make boxes, and I am not a proponent of those. But either way, they run off the same channels as the other rear speakers, Left-rear and Right-rear. This is similar to the setup up front, where you have to make sure you get only the frequencies to the speakers, that they can actually use. If that means you have the same freq range speakers middle and far back, then no clossover is needed.

On top of all this, this is a very basic installation, and usually good stereo guys will customise and set it all up how they want or how you want, including adding more speakers (sometimes midbass drivers in the door and some good tweeters) etc......

JE928Sx4.

8. The tweeters in the front and mids in the very rear are slaved to the mids in the front and the woofers in the rear respectively. A factory stereo system actually does a good job of putting out sound unless you want the rest of the world to hear it like many people are doing today.

Thaddeus

I want to play CD's.

Is that kit Crutchfield is hawking a necessity?

Flint

Don't the later models with the, what, 8 speakers (10 if you count all woofers and tweters seaparately) have a 6-channel amp?

JE928Sx4.

Find a Porsche CD-1 or CD-2 and it will pug right in if you still have the factory cassette player installed. I have a CD-2 in my S4. Otherwise, if the wiring hasn't been molested, if you hook the new stereo to the speakers you are running it through the original AMP. Many people rewire the car, some slave the speakers like the original. Depends on how much power you want from your system. The 10 speaker 6 channel amp didn't come out until the GT was introduced IIRC.