02 GA Help Upgrade Front door speakrs to 6 1/2" Infinity Kappa

[Chiprazor]

Okay I just purchased a pair of Infinity Kappa 62.7i 6 1/2" 2-Way Speakers. I read that the factory speakers are 2 ohms and thats why I decided on these for replacments.

Specs:

Sensitivity: 95 dB
Frequency Response: 45 - 25,000 Hz
Recommended RMS Power: 75W
Peak Power Handling: 225W
Impedance: 2 ohms


I also have an adapter to fit these new speakers to the old 4X6 mounts. The adapter was found on ebay however the seller also sells them from a website. I can provide the link if it is okay to provide links from non suporting companys. They cost $16 + shipping.

These will be installed in a 2002 GAGT with factory monsoon HU and monsoon amp.

A few questions before I tear into this project.

1. Will these speakers be a direct wire replacment from the front stock speakers?

2. Will these be underpowered by the stock system, and if so could any damage to the speaker from just a straight install?

3. Are the factory tweaters affected by this new speaker install?
If so, should I keep the pillar tweaters or dissconect them all together?

4. Should these new 6 1/2" be amped and how to go about doing that off the factory deck.


If I missed anything or somone has some suggestions before I tear off the door skins for an afternoon please post.

Thanks

[OpTiMaTeZ]

6.5's is a upcoming project of mine, what is the website you got them from so i can get the bracket? I have searched around and i havnt found a really good walkthrough on house to install the 6.5's, everyone has a different story/way of doing it. But i havnt done it yet so i have no answers to your questions. good luck and let me know how the project goes so i will know what to look for on mine.

[MantaGreen97]

I don't think the link/website for the adapters is going to be a problem, so I'd say go ahead and post it.

As for your questions, here's what I can tell you...

1. No. No aftermarket speakers will ever have the same harness connector as a factory speaker, because every automaker uses different connectors and even different ones on different models. So you'll just have blade-terminals on the new speakers. You have two choices of what to do from there. Simply cut the factory harness connector off (with enough wire on it in case you ever want to replace it) and then splice the new wire on to the end of that. Aftermarket speakers almost always come with a bit of speaker wire, with the female-end matching terminals for the speakers already on them. You'll just need about a couple inches of that (on the connector side of the wire) and then you just have to splice that into the factory wiring. You should be able to find out the factory +/- colour coding from somewhere in the FAQ on these forums ;)

Alternately you can actually buy matching adapters so you can just plug into the factory harness connector, but these are hard to find and a waste of money in general. It's much easier to just solder/heatshrink the end bit of the wiring to connect the aftermarket speaker.

I would recommend you do use solder/heatshrink for those wires, particularly on the door speakers because if you use crimps the moisture/water in the door will corrode the crimps over time. also, tape up the connectors on the speakers well because they will also corrode in the door over time. The taping of the terminals and wire ends will help to prevent this.

2. I'm not sure about whether they would be underpowered or not, but at 2-ohms that factory amp should be producing some amount of power--are you sure they are 2-ohms though? If the factory speakers have a higher impedance you may burn out the amp. I doubt you would damage the speakers though, just be sure you don't run them into distortion and you'll be fine. If you need more power, use a separate amp (highly recommended anyway but if you don't have the funds or don't want to I think you'll be okay).

3. You might... Because you're going to be driving two sets of tweeters at this point. I'm not sure about how the monsoon system is wired exactly. Are the fronts biamped (meaning the tweeter is driven by a separate amp channel) or is it like non-Monsoon GAs where the tweeter is just crossed over using an inline cap? If it's just the inline cap, then you'll be having two tweeters running which may overload/overheat the amp, but probably won't. But you'll get a bit too much high-end gain I'm thinking. If the tweeter wires are "cuttable"/disconnectable on the Kappas, and the factory set up uses the inline cap on the tweeter, then I would cut the tweeters on the Kappas and just use the factory tweeters instead.

If the system is biamped then, the door speaker will not be getting any of the high end anyway (it'll be crossed over at the amp), so it's not necessary to cut the tweeter--it will give some signal but it will be attenuated so not a big deal there.

Alternately if you don't like the sail-panel tweeter position or if you don't like the factory tweeters, you can just disconnect them in the former case. However if they are biamped in the latter case, then you can't disconnect them because you will lose all your high-end that way.

4. Pretty much covered in #1 and #2. I would highly recommend using a separate aftermarket amp, but you don't have to. It will sound noticeably better and give you more headroom.

If you're confused as to the issue of the factory amp bi-amping or not, I can take a look at the Monsoon diagram later (I'm sure one is posted here) and make sure for you...

[Chiprazor]

Thanks for the info, I haven't started this project yet. My laptop LCD screen cracked and I've been dealing with that for the last week.

Here is the link for the adapter that I bought, I haven't tested them for a proper fit yet so order at your own risk!

I will post my results when the project is complete, hopefully in the next 2 weeks.


cheers!

Speaker Adapters Various Cars Main Page (http://www.mjmautoinnovations.com/speakeradapters.htm)


1999 - 2004 6 1/2" Speakers Grand Am Front Doors (http://www.mjmautoinnovations.com/saksct65.htm)


1999 - 2004 5 1/4" Speakers Grand Am Front Doors (http://www.mjmautoinnovations.com/saksct525.htm)

[cardude007617]

what happened to a search? this has been covered 1000s of times, pbly even on the first car audio/video page