mad_trbo

For all of you audio philes out there interested in installing an after market radio you can do so without running one ounce of additional wiring. If you are like me this is critical weight savings at it's best. Of course I am kidding, seriously the distinct advantage of sticking with the cars wiring is I believe it is shielded and it's already there. Simple makes for a cleaner installation especially for you guys who are hacks at pulling the interior trim pieces out and end up with scratches or cracks. Ok I can't point the finger I have cracked or scratched a panel or two in my day .

Anyway, the gray harnes going into the OEM radio houses all the speaker wires and you'll see they are bunched in pairs for a total of four sets of two. Cut these and run your highlevel feed aftermarket front (left & Right ) rear (left & right) right into these.

Then proceed to the trunk and look at the amp. These wires feed the signal to the amp and obviously the amp feeds the signal to the speakers. Cut the feed wires from the deck and those that feed the speakers from the amp and splice them together according to rear and front. Of course there is no feed for the subwoofer coming from the front. So you'll have to add an amp using a highlevel line converter to RCA I won't go into that I have seen enough writeups on how you guys like to do that.

Anyway, just providing another solution to aftermarket radio installs.

Does anyone know if the door tweets have crossovers built in and how they are running with the door mids. Are they in series or parallel? Are they a 4 ohm or 8 ohm speaker? curious to know what the load is from both the front mid and tweet.

Thanks for any feedback.

SoCalSC4

I recently did a nice install on my brother's '94 (Link 13) and similarly used the stock speaker wires to feed the door speakers. My brother's car was the normal 'premium sound' system, and to my knowledge did not use a factory amp.

I ran four pairs of speaker wire from the trunk to behind the new double-DIN Pioneer deck (sitting in Metra's new double-DIN dash kit). With the amps monted in the trunk the new wires supply power up to the dash where I connected them to the factory wire harness with a Toyota/Lexus harness adapter.

This was done at the same time I ran three pairs of RCAs to the trunk (front/rear/sub), 4-gauge power wire, and amp turn-on lead.

Door speakers are Boston 5.25" separates and rear speakers are Boston 4" coaxials, the sub is a Boston G112 12" sub in a 1 cubic foot box (sealed) under the rear deck. Amps are one Pioneer 4 channel for the door speakers and one Pioneer mono amp for the sub.

Car is at paint, so the system hasn't been fired-up yet, but it should sound nice!

The OE Pioneer speakers were 4-ohm and the tweeters appeared to be wired in parallel. No crossovers were present on the tweeters that I could see.

Just running the upgraded speakers with the stock deck yielded a significant improvement in sound quality. The 12" sub in a sealed enclosure should make a HUGE difference over the lousy free-air 10" factory sub. I've never had much success with free-air subs...

Are you doing hi/low converters? Full source/amp upgrade?

mad_trbo

Sounds like a nice system no pun intended.

I upgraded to a DNX8120 by Kenwood, so far that is the only upgrade. I do have amp hardware I plan on installing at a later date and I am not sure what direction I am going to go with the sub. I am not looking for that out of the car pounding.

I do have a question for you, with your front 5.25's did that require considerable modification to make it work? How are you running your tweets with the new system? If they were in parallel and without crossover in the old system. Did you have to run an additional set of wires through the door, how hard was that?

gs300cky

What do you think of the pioneer shallow 10" sw250? I just got one for 100 so im not gonna complain. Also how easy is it to do a single din, amp, and sub? On a scale of i-10 10 being good...
Im justy wanting 2 do this instead of spending 600 to install it
any input is welcome
thanks guys

mad_trbo

What are the specs on the sub, is it a free air. I think a lot of people haven't been having much success as it relates to the free air. Seems the accuracy falls off in the upper register.

As it relates to ease of install, if you are intuitive you can use what is there and the installation will be a breeze. You actually don't have to lay down one bit of extra wiring to acheive your goal. That is if you have a stock system with an amp and you aren't trying to create a competition caliber high wattage system. But you will need a wiring diagram of the stock system or some patience in figuring out what colors lead to what speakers.

I'd call it a 3 if you use stock wiring. I'd call it a seven otherwise considering the care needed when pulling panels and laying down cable and wires.

What I would like to know is if anyone has the specs on what these stock speaker leads can handle wattage wise before it becomes prudent to upgrade to a larger guage.

Good luck!

SharkGTS

iTrader: (1)

I think the intention of the factory sub system is to use the trunk cavity as the enclosure - so technically it would not be a free air sub. lots of volume there if it is reasonably sealed that is. the oem systems are kinda min power (save cost and weight) but cover the spectrum well for most people. the installation is pretty good what i call frame connected which sends bass freq to the chassis of the car. this is better than a separate disconnected box imo.

Today I just dropped in a 12" pioneer compact sub, made a leather covered MDF base, closed cell foam seal. sounds awesome. will post some pix tomorrow.

i pulled the old one without removing the back seat, but i wouldn't recommend it - i was chucking the factory cover anyway.

SharkGTS

iTrader: (1)

Here it is. I'll probably do a partial custom cover for it, maybe get rid of the rubber ring. The exposed sub design fits with the rest of the car, the exhaust outlets and stock door spkrs being same diameter as the aluminum center. goes well with what i am doing to the rest of the interior.