Using 5 1/4 speakers with monsoon hu

[ndawson]

I was wondering if I would be able to put some 5 1/4 speakers in my GA doors without having to get an aftermarket hu. Is there a way to wire the speakers so they work with the monsoon system? I looked on crutchfield to find some speakers and it told me that I needed a different head unit to be able to wire the speakers up, I was just wondering if there was a way around it. Thanks

[b2089]

You should be able to use them but I think you will lose your upper tweeters. The tweeters are crossed over by the woofer in the door.

[ndawson]

I figured I would have to lose those. I was looking at some Boss Audio BL5250 5 1/4" speakers for the doors. They have 3/4" tweeters, so will I be able to just leave the stock tweeters in place and just disconnect them and wire up these speakers? I found them at http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=15895

As you can tell I'm not very good at audio, I'm more of the mechanical type.

[dandragonrage]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooo not Boss

[ndawson]

lol ok, then what 5 1/4 speakers would you guys recommend since I'm just using them on my monsoon system? Are the Infinity Reference 5012i more my alley? But they have a 2-5/16" mounting depth. I'm not sure if they would fit...

[dandragonrage]

I wouldn't recommend Infinity without listening to them first for at least half an hour straight.

I might say Pioneer REV series.

[ndawson]

I like the speakers fizzle showed me, the speaker i asked about here doesn't need talked about anymore

[DFizzle]

I believe the front comps are actually crossed over by the Monsoon amp in the trunk, but iether way it's not a direct replacement situation so if you want 2 way coaxials then any of these (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-OqJVAx8rsfC/cgi-bin/ProdComp.asp?g=51800&c=3&s=0&cc=01&pt2=0&compareitems=107DB525&compareitems=500SPS13C2&compareitems=065S55&x=33&y=5) would be better than those Boss speakers but obviously they're going to cost you more.

[ndawson]

Costing more is ok. I'm going to have to save either way. I like the Polk Audio db 525 you showed me fizzle. The RMS is a little higher than the alpine but the peak power is lower. With just the monsoon system would I be fine with a little lower peak?

[dandragonrage]

Crossover's built into the amp in GAs? I've got Monsoon in my Camaro and the fronts are just bi-wired with a high-pass filter (AKA series capacitor) on the tweeter, and nothing on the woofer. I think my sail panel "subs" have the crossover in the amp module, though.

Quality... Bleh.

[DFizzle]

Peak power is a pretty useless measurement anyway so you'd be fine. I love Polk speakers, I think they'll work well for you as long as you don't have any issues with the Monsoon amp. I would mention that I'm not certain how much sound improvement you're going to notice. Yes, a rounds peaker (5.25) is always going to sound better (more accurate) than an oval speaker (4x6) and give you a bit more bass response but losing you sperate tweet is going to hurt your imaging and high end reproduction. Not trying to talk you out of it, just preparing you. Plus doing anything "part of the way" with the Monsoon generally just makes people more frustrated than happy. I started out with a Monsoon car and just yanked the whole thing out and started fresh after trying to "improve" it a few times. The Monsoon sounds decent to start with but doing any upgrades are almost always a pain. Good luck with whatever you end up doing, hope it goes smoothly for you.

[DFizzle]

Originally posted by dandragonrage
Crossover's built into the amp in GAs? I've got Monsoon in my Camaro and the fronts are just bi-wired with a high-pass filter (AKA series capacitor) on the tweeter, and nothing on the woofer. I think my sail panel "subs" have the crossover in the amp module, though.

Quality... Bleh.
That's how it was explained to me by the two guys I have help me with all of my install. I'm not the end all source of info on that though. I can do basic install but when it comes to stock "premium" audio I deffer to folks with more expertise than I. All I know is that when we hooked up my DB5250s they crossed them over at the amp using the stock wires and polk crossovers and told me that the amp had served as the crossover for the stock speakers. Here are a couple of pics:
Pic 1 (http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/juggleboy720/Car/IMG_0593.jpg)
Pic 2 (http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/juggleboy720/Car/IMG_0594.jpg)

[dandragonrage]

So they bypassed the stock amp, hooked up HU power, and mounted the crossovers at the stock amp location?

I suppose that works. As long as it didn't involve cutting factory wires, I hate that. I've had too many cars with butchered factory wires from stuff that used to be installed.

[b2089]

The monsoon radio powers the front speakers which do indeed have a crossover built onto the woofer that redirects highs away from it to the tweeter. The amp only connects to the rear woofers.