rear speakers in back doors

[rfoxden]

Just bought new speakers for our back doors since the others rattled and seemed to only play bass. After hooking up the new 3-ways, we still only get bass out of them. The ones above, built into the walls, seem to be mid-range. Any thoughts? The wires to the ones above and in the doors are different colors. I'm stumped and this is my first speaker replacement in a vehicle. We replaced the stock radio with a Pioneer cd player and had no problems doing that. Thanks for any help, Kim

[drew300]

You've got the better speaker system that GM had. Not having worked on that system, what you have is like in a home type speaker. There must be a "crossover" network in the system to put the highs in the small speaker, and the lows to the big one. Where to find the crossover? I'd have to trace back the wires from from both speakers (one side) to a "box" that will have 2 wires going into it from the radio. Hopefully, that will be near the back, as they probably use the same wires as a cheaper, single speaker installation.
You would run the wires from the radio to your new speaker, elimating the crossover "box", and the small speaker. Be careful to observe the polarity of the wires and the speaker terminals. You know about that, right?

[rfoxden]

Unfortunately I don't. I thought it'd be a matter of unplugging the old ones and putting the new ones in. That totally makes sense what you said about the wiring, though. Not one person I"ve talked to about it has mentioned that and I'm sure that's what's up. So, where do I run the new speaker wires from the stereo to the back doors...under the carpet? I might be taking on more than I should Although I wired all the outlets in our house, do all the electronic connections and put the new receiver in the van, so I"m not totally in the blue. Thanks for responding. You were definately more help than anyone else I"ve talked to, including BestBuy service where I bought the speakers from!!!

[drew300]

Well, thanks for the vote of confidence...
Again, I haven't worked on this system, but...
I'd try to re-use the GM wires.
You replaced the door spkrs. I assume there was only the 2 wires. Follow them back, thru the door. That'll take you towards the upper small spkr I think. You should find that crossover "box" enroute. 2 wires go to the small spkr.I'm guessing on 6 wires, 2 input, 4 output. You want to connect the 2 input wires to the new spkr. That's some leg work, but simple electronics.
Polarity: since you've done house wiring, and home sterios,this should be simple, with a hot and a neutral. The spkrs will have "+" or something similar "(red mark) on 1 terminal.The GM color code will be non-standard, so hopefully you'll find a "hot" marked on the crossover somehow. (obviously the other is "cold" or neutral).
If you can't find the marking, when connected nothing blows up, it just doesn't sound as good as it can. Connected properly, all the spkr cones push into the car at the same time, (in phase), giving the most bass. (ignore the highs). I would start with only the front spkrs on. Check the bass on a favorite song. Add the rears.(fader control) This should add more bass. If it subtracts, you're out of phase. A mono source is best to troubleshoot, as each spkr get the same signal. You should also try left/right, to make sure you don't loose bass (if 1 spkr was out of phase). If you loose bass, you have (at least) 1 spkr out of phase, so reverse the wires to the suspected spkr, and try again. Keep notes if need be.
Hope this helps.

[rfoxden]

So, that explains why the speakers in the doors rattled so much. At Best Buy they said the one was shot, though, so bought the new Kenwoods. I've printed off what you wrote and will go see what I can do. Thanks lots, you rock I'll post, hopefully, saying problem solved!

[drew300]

Maybe something more
When you're listening to your favourite bass passage,to check the spkr phase, use low to medium volume. Our ears compress high sound levels and it will be difficult to hear an out of phase spkr at high levels.

[rfoxden]

Thanks again, haven't gotten to the van yet, am adding supports to our kitchen cabinets that are suspended over our sink. Always something!

[rfoxden]

Looked at it again, and I can't figure anything out. Hate to admit I can't do it, but about ready to hire it done. All the wires are different colors so nothing matches up. There's even duct tape wrapped around some of the wires in the wall where the back speaker sits. Seems odd to me.

[drew300]

I knew the GM wiring colors wouldn't make sense. I was hoping you'd find that "crossover box", and sort it from there.
A suggestion: If you returned those speakers, and bought just a bass spkr, you'd still use the top ones for the highs, and the new ones just for bass.
Having the highs from high up (physically) is good if you leave the seats in. Bass will fill in from anywhere.
This would solve your wiring problem.

[rfoxden]

We have thought about that. Best Buy didn't have any bass speakers that would fit there, none that we saw anyway. Maybe we'll just mount the 3 ways downs there til we can figure something else out. I"m about ready to humble myself to go to Sound N Logic in town to have them install them, even though we didn't buy them there Lessons learned the hard way is still a lesson learned! Thanks

[falcontech]

Don't worry about crossover,the speaker in door will always output bass and the speaker on the column will always output highs no matter what speaker you replace them with. To get better bass out of the door speaker, you can add a 500uf capacitor to the negative side of the speaker (good car audio shop will know about this).2-way,3-way speaker doesn't mean much to the back of the astro, unless you want to spend a lot of time and money having an EQ added to the vehicle.