speaker wiring/8 speaker system
01-02-2002, 01:24 AM
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speaker wiring/8 speaker system
I've got the 8 speaker system in my 86.5.
When I remove the rear 6.5, it has wires soldered in parallel to a second
bracket to which the wires for the rear hatch speakers are attached. The
green (positive?) line has a cylindrical device wired into the circuit
between the brackets. I'm trying to figure out what this does, is it a
filter, crossover, some sort of power regulator, etc..? It's about the size of a AA
battery, bronze in color, and is marked "WEGO, ELKO glatt 15 VAC, 33
F10S."
What I want to do (and this may make no sense as I'm brand spankin new to
the car stereo scene) is unhook the lines at the far rear speakers to feed
the sound to my new Bazooka amplified bass tube. Hence, my need to know
what that little round thingy is doing in there. Sure, Curcuit City would
have done it for free, but what fun would that have been?
If the device is going to mess up the feed to the Bazooka, what effect
would it have on my rear 6.5's if I just take the device out of the
circuit?
Assuming that the above scheme is going to fly, should I be putting some
sort of filter in before the sub to keep the higher ranges out, and if so,
where do I find such a thing?
Thanks for whatever help you can give me.
When I remove the rear 6.5, it has wires soldered in parallel to a second
bracket to which the wires for the rear hatch speakers are attached. The
green (positive?) line has a cylindrical device wired into the circuit
between the brackets. I'm trying to figure out what this does, is it a
filter, crossover, some sort of power regulator, etc..? It's about the size of a AA
battery, bronze in color, and is marked "WEGO, ELKO glatt 15 VAC, 33
F10S."
What I want to do (and this may make no sense as I'm brand spankin new to
the car stereo scene) is unhook the lines at the far rear speakers to feed
the sound to my new Bazooka amplified bass tube. Hence, my need to know
what that little round thingy is doing in there. Sure, Curcuit City would
have done it for free, but what fun would that have been?
If the device is going to mess up the feed to the Bazooka, what effect
would it have on my rear 6.5's if I just take the device out of the
circuit?
Assuming that the above scheme is going to fly, should I be putting some
sort of filter in before the sub to keep the higher ranges out, and if so,
where do I find such a thing?
Thanks for whatever help you can give me.
01-02-2002, 02:32 AM
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Burning Brakes
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TJ,
With the markings you give, I believe what you have found is a capacitor. This would be used as a cross-over.
My sound system is a completely rewired affair, so I'm afraid I can't give you a specific answer. But, I can give you some generalities based on what I've seen of the multi-speaker factory unit.
If you are looking to add bass, since the bass tube thingy that you are installing has an integral amp, you might want to leave ALL of the speakers alone.
You could instead, tap into the pre-amp outputs from the head unit (radio) before it gets to the factory amplifier. There are several technical reasons why this is better, suffice to say, it is far better for sound quality to start with a pre-amp level signal, rather than a line level signal. It is also far less likely to fry your existing factory amp by imposing a load that it wasn't designed for.
Look for the wires going into the factory amp, (cover your eyes stereo purists) and then get a couple of splice connectors to attach the input for the Bazooka to the output from the radio before it enters the amp. You will retain all your factory speakers, and will get a cleaner sound from the bass tube.
I would imagine the tube has an integral crossover, so that you shouldn't have to buy one.
HTH,
Greg
With the markings you give, I believe what you have found is a capacitor. This would be used as a cross-over.
My sound system is a completely rewired affair, so I'm afraid I can't give you a specific answer. But, I can give you some generalities based on what I've seen of the multi-speaker factory unit.
If you are looking to add bass, since the bass tube thingy that you are installing has an integral amp, you might want to leave ALL of the speakers alone.
You could instead, tap into the pre-amp outputs from the head unit (radio) before it gets to the factory amplifier. There are several technical reasons why this is better, suffice to say, it is far better for sound quality to start with a pre-amp level signal, rather than a line level signal. It is also far less likely to fry your existing factory amp by imposing a load that it wasn't designed for.
Look for the wires going into the factory amp, (cover your eyes stereo purists) and then get a couple of splice connectors to attach the input for the Bazooka to the output from the radio before it enters the amp. You will retain all your factory speakers, and will get a cleaner sound from the bass tube.
I would imagine the tube has an integral crossover, so that you shouldn't have to buy one.
HTH,
Greg
01-02-2002, 09:46 PM
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Another question has come up as I've been doing a little basic learning about car audio: I've seen references to speakers being wired in both parallel and in series, when would you chose one vs. the other?
01-02-2002, 10:53 PM
#4
Greg,
While you are on the topic:
1. The coil next to the factory amp. > is it a suppressor?
2. When I bypass the factory amp. can I also bypass the suppressor, if thats what it is?
3.On the existing Bamburg Radio/Cassette there are two (2) ant.s both are 2 wire block connectors, if they are indeed ant.s as marked on the back of the set what is the large gray cable going into the right upper rear of the set? It has a thick multiple bundle of individual wires(not insulated) and multiple individual 2 wire sets(insulated) surrounding the large central core? After peeling back the heavy gray insulation about 1-3" from the body of the unit all of the multiple 2 wire surrounding sets seem to be joined and soldered together. Kind of curious as to what this cable does, and why there would be two smaller ant. slots? Which of these would power up the ant. motor? I guess I could just jump and power each of the three sets to find the motor power source and figure everything out by the elimination method if you don't know.
4. I know the universal recommendation is to replace or bypass the existing faders (drivers/passanger sides). Would you recommend clipping, then just jumping past the fader or replacing the speaker wire front to rear? Since the existing speakers are mounted sub surface on those compound curves hump along side the rear pass. seats and this is a leather surface that looks like a bear to get at I was wondering if there was an 'EASIER WAY'?
To the Purist's the Bamburgh unit has two rebuild stickers on it, one fro 84' the next from late 86'. Either the PO was ham fisted, or, this unit was never very reliable, I'll keep it but won't rebuild it!
thanks for any advise in advance.
Keep em' rolling
John S. 82' Weissach, Auto., 'Pattycakes'
While you are on the topic:
1. The coil next to the factory amp. > is it a suppressor?
2. When I bypass the factory amp. can I also bypass the suppressor, if thats what it is?
3.On the existing Bamburg Radio/Cassette there are two (2) ant.s both are 2 wire block connectors, if they are indeed ant.s as marked on the back of the set what is the large gray cable going into the right upper rear of the set? It has a thick multiple bundle of individual wires(not insulated) and multiple individual 2 wire sets(insulated) surrounding the large central core? After peeling back the heavy gray insulation about 1-3" from the body of the unit all of the multiple 2 wire surrounding sets seem to be joined and soldered together. Kind of curious as to what this cable does, and why there would be two smaller ant. slots? Which of these would power up the ant. motor? I guess I could just jump and power each of the three sets to find the motor power source and figure everything out by the elimination method if you don't know.
4. I know the universal recommendation is to replace or bypass the existing faders (drivers/passanger sides). Would you recommend clipping, then just jumping past the fader or replacing the speaker wire front to rear? Since the existing speakers are mounted sub surface on those compound curves hump along side the rear pass. seats and this is a leather surface that looks like a bear to get at I was wondering if there was an 'EASIER WAY'?
To the Purist's the Bamburgh unit has two rebuild stickers on it, one fro 84' the next from late 86'. Either the PO was ham fisted, or, this unit was never very reliable, I'll keep it but won't rebuild it!
thanks for any advise in advance.
Keep em' rolling
John S. 82' Weissach, Auto., 'Pattycakes'
01-03-2002, 12:07 AM
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Burning Brakes
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While I was looking for an old Blau radio for another 928 owner, I came across an original Blaupaunkt graphic Equalizer/Amplifier. It is dated 1985. Check out the picture.
Maybe you want to add this while you are working on your sound system.
Maybe you want to add this while you are working on your sound system.
01-03-2002, 02:26 AM
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TJ,
As far as series v. parallel wiring goes it depends on the function of the speaker.
Think of it like xmas lights - the ones wired in series are all fed in a chain from the same wire. Parallel wiring makes each light (or speaker) a single circuit, pulling power from a common source.
Most stereo 4 channel (RF,LF,RR,LR) speaker installs will have a single two wire cable feed to each corner. Now, if you have 2 speakers in each corner (a high and a low range) then you want each one of the speaker elements in that corner to get the feed from the amp for that corner. So, the wires will go into some sort of device near at that speaker corner to "crossover" sending the highs to the tweeter and the lows to the bass/midrange speaker.
As to series or parallel, it is a question of "load" in given in ohms. Not exactly the same as ohms of resistance, but close enough in some ways. The more load (FEWER ohms) you have on an amp, the harder it has to work. (sounds counter-intuitive, but true). As I recall (since I have never wired speakers in series) you end up with a much higher load on your amp than if you wire in parallel. And you are passing everything that goes to the second speaker directly through the first. If you were to have 3 speakers in series, then everything that goes to the third speaker has to pass through the second and the first. There are instances in the world of soon to be deaf children and their car stereos, where this might make sense. But in the non-competition stereo, it probably doesn't.
John,
Ack. Yes it appears to be the supressor, the wiring diagram shows one each for the radio and amp. Sure you could bypass it, I would if the new unit came with a supressor.
As to the Bamburg block, the factory diagram is a bit vague as is my memory. The other inputs marked "antenna" MAY be for MW or SW radio inputs - which is not unusual on euro spec radios. Blau may have been using a "multi radio chassis" ie, saving some dmarks, hence the bonus pieces. The big gray wire in the middle should be your US spec antenna input.
As to the multiwire thing, I think what you are looking at is the DIN output plug, which Blaupunkt often had on the head unit - kindof an all-in-one output plug (speakers and all) and well as the redundancy of the familiar connector block.
To some extant I am speculating/relying on my foggy memory of Bamburgs - the manuals ain't helpin' and I haven't seen one of those in years.
If I were going to the trouble to wire speakers, I would definately just run new lines and bypass the complete factory wiring harness and that power wasting fader. As to how to wire it all - look down low (under the carpet is easy to get to). Then look at the spaces along the sides of the panels. If you start looking around in the interior, you will probably see the opportunities to slide wires under/over and through things - just like the factory did.
The only thing that may be a PITA is the door speakers. Not bad, but you probably have to pull the door panel on yours (just like mine) and that takes about 20 minutes (once you get some practice at it...)
Oops, just noticed you still are sub-surface on the rear panels too. This is also a PITA, but once again, not rocket science. Just a bunch of screws and some time.
Good luck
Greg
As far as series v. parallel wiring goes it depends on the function of the speaker.
Think of it like xmas lights - the ones wired in series are all fed in a chain from the same wire. Parallel wiring makes each light (or speaker) a single circuit, pulling power from a common source.
Most stereo 4 channel (RF,LF,RR,LR) speaker installs will have a single two wire cable feed to each corner. Now, if you have 2 speakers in each corner (a high and a low range) then you want each one of the speaker elements in that corner to get the feed from the amp for that corner. So, the wires will go into some sort of device near at that speaker corner to "crossover" sending the highs to the tweeter and the lows to the bass/midrange speaker.
As to series or parallel, it is a question of "load" in given in ohms. Not exactly the same as ohms of resistance, but close enough in some ways. The more load (FEWER ohms) you have on an amp, the harder it has to work. (sounds counter-intuitive, but true). As I recall (since I have never wired speakers in series) you end up with a much higher load on your amp than if you wire in parallel. And you are passing everything that goes to the second speaker directly through the first. If you were to have 3 speakers in series, then everything that goes to the third speaker has to pass through the second and the first. There are instances in the world of soon to be deaf children and their car stereos, where this might make sense. But in the non-competition stereo, it probably doesn't.
John,
Ack. Yes it appears to be the supressor, the wiring diagram shows one each for the radio and amp. Sure you could bypass it, I would if the new unit came with a supressor.
As to the Bamburg block, the factory diagram is a bit vague as is my memory. The other inputs marked "antenna" MAY be for MW or SW radio inputs - which is not unusual on euro spec radios. Blau may have been using a "multi radio chassis" ie, saving some dmarks, hence the bonus pieces. The big gray wire in the middle should be your US spec antenna input.
As to the multiwire thing, I think what you are looking at is the DIN output plug, which Blaupunkt often had on the head unit - kindof an all-in-one output plug (speakers and all) and well as the redundancy of the familiar connector block.
To some extant I am speculating/relying on my foggy memory of Bamburgs - the manuals ain't helpin' and I haven't seen one of those in years.
If I were going to the trouble to wire speakers, I would definately just run new lines and bypass the complete factory wiring harness and that power wasting fader. As to how to wire it all - look down low (under the carpet is easy to get to). Then look at the spaces along the sides of the panels. If you start looking around in the interior, you will probably see the opportunities to slide wires under/over and through things - just like the factory did.
The only thing that may be a PITA is the door speakers. Not bad, but you probably have to pull the door panel on yours (just like mine) and that takes about 20 minutes (once you get some practice at it...)
Oops, just noticed you still are sub-surface on the rear panels too. This is also a PITA, but once again, not rocket science. Just a bunch of screws and some time.
Good luck
Greg
