Question about aftermarket install

[cstgrded]

got a couple questions guys... ok

i have a 2001 Alero, Sun & Sounds package with ther monsoon amp in the back trunk. i have read on here and found out i can't use the stock wires going to my 6x9's and that i have to run new ones directly from the amp.. i bought a four channel and wisk to power the stock front speakers with it, can i use the stock wires behind the radio or do i have to run new ones???


thanks guys

[Purple&Black]

A few things first.

Are you still using the stock headunit? So you intend to use the amp to power each of the front four speakers individually and not use the Monsoon amp at all? Or are you still going to use the Monsoon amp for some of the speakers?

When you said 6x9s...those are the rear speakers. Is that what you meant? Cuz then you didn't mention the rear speakers, just the front (4x6s).

Or did you want to power all the speakers off your new amp? Let us know what you're trying to do exactly and we'll letcha know how to do it...

[cstgrded]

Originally posted by Purple&Black@Apr 14 2004, 07:27 PM
A few things first.

Are you still using the stock headunit? So you intend to use the amp to power each of the front four speakers individually?

When you said 6x9s...those are the rear speakers. Is that what you meant? Cuz then you didn't mention the rear speakers, just the front (4x6s).

Or did you want to power all the speakers off your new amp? Let us know what you're trying to do exactly and we'll letcha know how to do it...
ok im trying to power all the speakers with my new amp.. the rear speakers are new and i know i have to run wires directly from the amp to the rear speakers, the front speakers are stock. In the past i would run speakers wires parallel to the RCA going up to the radio and connect the wires coming from the amp to the cars harness, essentially so i can use the stock wiring and not have to run new wires to the door speakers. My question is can i still do that with the front speakers. I have that monsoon amp in the trunk, so i need to know if i can use the factory wiring (with my new amp hooked to it) for the front speakers and will it still work seeing as it will essential run through the stock amp?? am i being clear enough? i dont know if i am saying what i mean clearly enough.. let me know.. Ed

[Purple&Black]

If you go to the harness for the factory amp, E15 and 16 head to the left front 4x6 and F6 and 7 lead to the right front 4x6. Tap those wires and connect the leads from your amp there. Now it gets tricky. Since the Monsoon amp uses separate wires for the midrange and tweeter, you'll have to connect to the tweeter leads as well. This will give you the 2-ohm tweeter and 6-ohm midrange wired in parallel, so you'd get a 4-ohm load on the channel. The only problem is that the tweeter is protected by a crossover built into the Monsoon amp, so the tweeter will be getting the full-range output and will probably sound like poo. You might be able to get away without one, but crossovers aren't my specialty. Maybe someone else can tell you if it would really be necessary. (If there's a crossover on the amp for the front channels, you can keep the bass out of the front and probably be okay, but again...I'm not sure about that.)

So:

amp LF+ to E15 and E13
amp LF- to E16 and E14
amp RF+ to F7 and F2
amp RF- to F6 and F3

This will get all four front speakers going and put a 4-ohm load on each channel of the amp.

If anyone objects, please jump in. I haven't done this myself, but technically I'd say this would be correct. This way makes it so that you don't have to run any wires. If you want to run new wires, just run wires to the midrange in the doors, then connect the midrange + to the tweeter + and midrange - to the tweeter - on each side. That way works too.

Some info and the Monsoon amp pinout here:

http://invision.aleromod.com/index.php?showtopic=2028

[cstgrded]

ok thanks for all the info...

now i got some conflicting info...

on the n-body.net board they were saying that what i have is not a monsoon system but instead a premium system. Only difference is that the premeium sound doesnt power the front, only the back.. have you ever heard this...

Ed

[Purple&Black]

Yeah, it's kind of up in the air. Supposedly, if your headunit doesn't say Monsoon, it's not a Monsoon system. To the best of my knowledge, there isn't any difference in how the system works as long as you've got the Monsoon amp. I think there was a different system, maybe in earlier than 2001 models where the amp was NOT a Monsoon. Can't say what that system did, but I can guarantee you that the front speakers in our cars (we both have 2001's with the Sun & Sound...we've got the same car, basically) are powered by the Monsoon amp.

Maybe it's not totally a Monsoon system, but who cares? All of the technical info about how the Monsoon system works applies to us. As far as I'm concerned, if I have a Monsoon amp in my trunk, I have some sort of Monsoon system. The same as people who have a Monsoon headunit? Maybe not...whatever. :) Basically, all headunits are the same. Speaker leads, remote wire, battery, ground and illumination. Everything else is just bells and whistles (RCAs, AUX jacks, attenuation, dimmer) that's why not all headunits have them. The amp is what's important as far as how to wire your system, and we have a Monsoon amp.

You get my point. When they told you that you didn't have a Monsoon system, did they tell you how to hook your stuff up in a way that they know will work? Did they tell you how the system in YOUR car works? Probably not, right? :)

If the headunit powers the front speakers, then why does the signal go all the way back to the amp and then up front to the speakers?

Really though, you're not going to be using the amp anyway, so who cares what USED to power it.

Sorry if I seem pissed off in this post, it's just that I see lots of conflicting info about audio systems in our cars. People that don't have what we have (model, year, trim level) telling us what we need to do when that won't actually work with what we've got because they don't have all the info about what we have. It's not their fault really, but they say things as though they are the gospel truth when at times it can be like comparing apples and oranges without them knowing it.

[cstgrded]

thanks for the awesome reply, now im getting kida discouraged, i wish i never got the premium sound.. seems like a whoe bunch of un-needed wiring for the front speakers... ok how bout this i just use the monsoon amp for the front and buy just a 2 channel amp for the rear 6x9's.. will that work?


hey... thanks for all you help man, your a liesaver!!!

if you have aim and wouldnt mind chatting instead my aim is cstgrded


Ed

[Purple&Black]

I thought you already had a four-channel amp? But yeah, you could do that. That's kinda what I did. I left the Monsoon amp powering the front and then ran my aftermarket 6x9s off my aftermarket deck (I just tapped the rear speaker leads heading TO the amp and ran wires over to the speakers in the rear deck). I've two subs running off their own amp, so I didn't need to get much out of the 6x9s...just a bit of rear fill.

I have heard that the Monsoon amp will introduce a lot of distortion. Unfortunately, it's one of those things where it might be hard to tell without some comparison. Same way where you think your stock speakers sound okay, but then you upgrade them and can't stop giggling. You don't realize what you were missing. If you haven't bought an amp yet...do you know someone who will let you borrow theirs for a little bit? Hook up their amp to power the fronts and see if it sounds better. Maybe then you'll know if you want to use the Monsoon amp at all.

Oh yeah...cheap speakers hide distortion. If you ever get good speakers in the front, the distortion from the Monsoon will probably become more obvious since the good speakers will just recreate exactly what they're given much better than the stock ones do.

[cstgrded]

wait................ so if i splice the wires coming from the monsoon amp i wouldnt even have to run any speaker wires up front right, i can wire the 4 channel in the trunk.. so i would hook up the 6x9's directly up to the amp... then slice the monsoon amp wires and tie into them with the way you wrote before, then im done right????

Ed


well im buying the amp tommorow, in my first post i just said that i had already bought it becasue i thought it was pretty much a done deal..

[mikegett]

You have brought up some good questions. I was searching for the pinout of our monsoon amp (this forum is a life saver in time and labor) to hook up my components. The thing that I am curious about is if the amp runs off of low level input (RCA line) or high level input (speaker wire). I am a technician at a radio factory for Toyota and most of our premium radios are low level going to a amp. We do have a older model Saturn amp that we produce that uses the high level. Thanks and good luck to cstgrded on your instal.

[Purple&Black]

The amp runs off high level. The stock headunits don't even have RCA outputs. To the best of my knowledge, the Monsoon amp doesn't have any kind of anything on it. I didn't take it out of the trunk, but I felt around on it and I didn't find anything but the one harness that has the high-level inputs and other control wires from the headunit and the speaker lead outputs.

[mikegett]

I am sorry, I guess I should have clarified. Factory stereos that use a low level input run the signal via a positive and negative wire just as your high levels are ran. I doubt that you would ever find one of these amps with the rca cable used. This adds noise into the sytem but saves the factory money on the rca cables. You can go to radio shack and buy the rca ends to solder on and connect to a aftermarket amp. The problem is that you will want to be very carefull on determining if it is low level or high level. The ground for a rca low level line is not common ground. If you try to ground it with the rest of the radio then it will get toasted. I am going to assume that the premium radio is high level concidering that some people have the same radio with and without a amp. This may be the difference between the true monsoon system and the premium system that most of us have. The radios that say monsoon may be running low level lines. The thing that would be interesting to see is if the amp is the same (part number) in those cars as in the aleros with a premium system. When installing the amp into your car, did you have to use a line inverter. This would be needed if the radio was high level. I guess that since I now have the pinout I can just ohm out the connections and see for myself. But you can never be too carefull when dealing with electronics. Thanks.

[bdyman]

ok why is he wasting his time go out by a aftermarket radio new speakers and just wire in the new system
:blink: :eek:

[Purple&Black]

Originally posted by mikegett+Apr 16 2004, 09:27 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (mikegett @ Apr 16 2004, 09:27 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I am going to assume that the premium radio is high level concidering that some people have the same radio with and without a amp.Â;-) Â;-) This may be the difference between the true monsoon system and the premium system that most of us have.Â;-) Â;-) The radios that say monsoon may be running low level lines.
[/b]

The true Monsoon headunits have high-level outputs also. I've seen numbers that say it's about 15W.

<!--QuoteBegin-mikegett@Apr 16 2004, 09:27 AM

When installing the amp into your car, did you have to use a line inverter.Â;-) This would be needed if the radio was high level.[/quote]

Line level converters are required to add an amp with either system in the Alero (unless your amp has high-level inputs of course). Unless you're replacing the headunit as well...then you'll have RCA jacks which is what we all probably used. But stock headunit and an additional amp will need line level converters.

And I still agree with bdyman...go aftermarket.

[bdyman]

^^^ya really dude he`s just making more prob`s for himself but hey who ami to say anything
[SIZE=1]aftermarket products
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[mikegett]

That will be the plan. I currently have the amp and the speakers from my previous vehicles. I am going to be putting them in while I collect the money for the head unit. I will either be getting the eclipse double din navigation or the fold out 5.1 unit. I work for fujitsu that makes eclipse so we get the great prices. The only draw back is that since the units come out new this year they are on back order and we get our oders filled after the stores. We haven't even got all of the prices yet. Most likely that will be in a few weeks. I am going to say that it will be around july before I place the order. In the mean time, it is nice weather and I would like to put my amp in the car. I have enjoyed doing car audio for nearly seven years now. It is not a burdon but a hobby. This is, however, my first new car and I would prefer not to hack it up until needed.