Complicate audio system...need help...
 

Actually I already post this thread at audio session, but I post here to get more suggestions.

I bought 91 n/a about a month ago and I really like the ride.^_^
First off, I am a really newbee when car and audio comes.^_^ and I searched for 4 days but I could not find answer. So....
Here story goes....
When I got mine, audio head unit was already changed to aftermarket product(JVC, KD-SX8250) but all speaker were broken. So I went to junk yard to find speakers and got 4 of stock speakers. Actually sound quality was ok.... but it was not good enough...you know what i mean. ;-)
So I decide to change to aftermarket speakers. I finally got4 of speakers( 2 of TS-A1090, pioneer and 2 of polk....???) in good condition from junk yard and I replaced with stock ones...
But for somehow, The quality of sound was so bad that I can not even compare w/ sotck ones..
So I searched again... and found some people mentioned about positive and negative charge. I tried both side changing lines. But still no luck... So I went back to stock ones now....

Manual of JVC CD receiver states that "Maximum input of the speakers should be no more than 50W at the rear and 50W at the front, with an impedance of 4 to 8 ohme."
Behind of speaker states that "50W MAX. MUSIC POWER, 10W NOM. POWER, 4 OHME IMPEDANCE."

It seems like to me that it is impossible to change speakers except stock ones...

Any suggestion will be appreciated.....
Thanks.
Have a nice day.

I have found that most electrical work done by individuals and shops is pathetic. I would start by rewiring the speakers...Run new speaker wire from your head unit/amp to the new speakers, keeping polarity in mind. Be sure to bypass the stock amps if not already done. DO NOT CRIMP. Solder, then heat shrink.

Getting good sound out of the FC is tricky because of the rear hatch (large glass surface area), also the trunk of most cars acts as a bass box. You're going to have to experiment with different combinations. What seems right in theory may not apply to our situation. Right now I've got 6.5 coaxials in the doors and the stock junk in the strut towers (I had coaxials in there but I couldn't dial my head unit in to sound decent). Next move is to put two 8" drivers and the crossover from a home audio speaker (most home audio stuff usually has good sensitivity and 8 ohm impedence) in the rear shock towers. Problems arise because you get a lot of vibrations that are hard to isolate from the rear hatch area. The way I look at it, I'm marginally interested in a good stereo, I just want some decent sonics, and my engine is my main audible enjoyment.

Aaron Cake's advice is good, do all the wiring straight from the head unit back that way you know it's done right.

Well you should also make sure that your deck is tuned properly. Don't try to get sound that the deck and/or the speakers can't handle. Also, I would suggest buying brand new speakers. The reason for this is that with new speakers you know they haven't been abused by a previous owner. Depending on where you buy your speakers from, you might be able to get a store warranty on top of the manufacturer warranty.

if you want good sound, and have some money get 4 new speakers and a good 4 channel amp.

buy some 6.5" components for the front. stick the 6.5's in the doors, should go right in. and then make mounts for the tweaters. ditch the dash speakers. unplug them or remove them. then get some 6.5" coxials for the back. cut the circle in the stock metal plate bigger and they will fit in. wire them all up the the 4 channel amp with new 16 gauge speaker wire. and run a good RCA to the deck.

you might want to high pass cross over them at the amp. around 50 to 80Hz. it will alow you to crank it alot louder without bad sounds and car vibrations. but your low end bass will be gone (not that speakers have any anyways)

after that look into a 2nd amp and a sub box. which should be low pass crossed over at the same Hz as your speakers. probably 80-100 once you have subs

I think the speaker locations in the FC suck. I'm poor so this is what I did. Went to checker auto and picked up two electra speaker boxes, the total was like 17 something including tax, they look nice and sound great. I ran wire from the shock towers to the rear carpet and set them up there, I need to velcro them down, but they don't like slide around unless I turn real sharp. You might want to look into them, each box had one tweeter, one midrange, and one subwoofer. Electra also has a new sub box out, that looks decent, probably like 30 bucks.

Sorry to hijack ur thread, but my RX-7 speakers and headunit is all ripped out because most of the stuff got destroyed by a battery expolision. How would I be able to bypass the Stock Amp?

Re: Complicate audio system...need help...
 

You do know that, that means the head unit only puts out about 15 watts RMS.

with 15 watts and junk yard speakers with will be difficult to get good sound quality in the RX-7

Re: Re: Complicate audio system...need help...
 

4x50RMS sounded nice...before someone did a little weight reduction for me...

like Icemark said, you are basically wasting your time with the equipment you have listed. You have to figure out what you want first. There are so many levls of performance in car audio, set a budget and sound quality goal and than shop around.


To get good sound you will most likely need to make new door panels or make do with the stock 4.25 front location. (I think factory CD cars had speakers in the doors not sure though) Crutchfield makes adapter rings to fit 6.5 in the rear shock towers

Thanks guys...
the speaker on the doors does not work. I do not know why. So now only 2 of front and 2 of rear speaker are working. I got rx7 repair manual(?) from this site. To change door speaker It seems like I need to disassemble whole door...so I do not think I can fix it myself...

Although I spend a lot of time to understand repair manual, it looked vary difficult for me... ^_^

I guess I start w/ wrong button...
As Aron and other guys said I had to start from bottom...
I just though that changing speakers(front, rear) should make better sound quality than old stock ones. But obiviously it was not....

I guess I may need to go car audio shop or just stick w/ stock speakers.

By the way, this was my first time I unscrewd bolt on cars in my life... It was good experience... I wish I could have skills like you guys have...
Thanks guys...

Have a nice day.

Removing the door speakers is easy. The door panel has some screws that you remove and voila, the panel comes off. The service manual should have a diagram showing where the screws are located. Run new speaker wire from the head unit DIRECTLY to the speakers. Don't use the factory amplifiers with your new speakers.

Run new wire from the head unit directly to each speaker.

Like this: Head unit ---> Speakers


Stock setup: Head unit ---> Stock amps ---> speakers

Belly--it sounds like you do not have the knowledge to do an install like this by yourself. Please dont think I am insulting you--no one has the know how until they learn, so we all have been there. Here's the thing--IMHO, if you're going to get audio components, you are usually better off getting new ones instead of going to the boneyard, especially speakers. I am sure there are exceptions, but in my experiences, it never seems to work out. Go to www.crutchfield.com. You can list your yr, make and model, and they will help you find exactly what will fit your car. ALSO--the prices are good and they will include any mounting hardware or wiring harnesses FREE. Then when you get the stuff, look at the instruction sheet they provide. You can also call them toll free if you get stuck in the middle of installing everything. I just took out the factory 4" speakers in the rear of mine and put in 6 1/2" Kenwood speakers. I ran all new wiring, and put in a new Kenwood stereo. (I also put in the Sirius Satellite radio too--I like the extra toys!) I still have the factory 4" ones in front, but only til next payday. I don't have a lot of bass--not yet anyway--but that will also be fixed in the next week. Putting in a pair of 10" subs.

Also--question for you guys who know better than I do.....do the S4's have the cutouts in the doors to mount speakers behind the panel?? I have an 86 GXL and would be interested in putting a pair in there

no, 6.5 will not fit in the door of your 86 GXL. Although, I just put some in my 86 GXL. It is fairly involved, I made new sections to the stock GXL door panel, than I cut out adequate space out of the metal on the door. Smooth the edges so u don't muck up the spaekers, and put some sound sheet on the door. The sound sheets really make a difference in terms of rattles. I will try to find pics for you. Took a saturday afternoon to complete. BTW air sheers help out huge!!

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2167953


here is the door panel I made out of sheet metal

All series4 RX-7s have the cutout on the door's sheet metal for a 6.5 inch speaker. To use those holes, you need the adapter that came on some cars with speakers there but Im sure you can fab something up to mount them without the adapters. After you have the speaker installed, you can either find some door panels with the speaker hole or make a hole on your existing door panels.

not true wan, maybe in the U.S. On My 86 GXl it did not have holes at all for any type of speaker. Neither did my 87 sport, but when I replaced one of the doors on the 87, the replacement door had a cutout for a speaker in it. The doors were copletely different in that area. the rest is the same. I think it was the cd player option.

I stand corrected :p:

All the doors I've seen here in the states have had the cutout for the speaker in them. All these cars have ranged from base models all the way up to TurboIIs. My turboII has them, my bros tII has them, my GXL had them, my base models had them too. Even convertables have them.

I installed 6 1/2s in my '88 doors with a little work. They did not protrude out from in front of the door panels since they couldn't. I had manual windows. There is tons of room in the doors but nothing is just bolt in.

Don't ever EVER judge how something will sound but what specs ae printed on the box or the back of the speaker. Specs mean nothing!!! I was an installer for 8 years trust me on this. If you don't believe me then go look at a radio that says 45w X 4 that has a tuner, cd player, fold down faceplate, crazy graphics type of display, etc. Then go compare this to a 45 or 50W X 4 amplifier. Which is bigger? The amp. WAY bigger. How the hell can you put all that crap into a head unit and still fit any amp at all let alone one that makes almost 200 watts? You can't. They just know that the average Joe will go into the store and buy the one that "says" it has more power. It is a marketing trick and nothing else.

Sorry to ramble. Like the others have said, go re-wire your system. If you can't do it yourself then go spend the money and have someone else do it. If it still doesn't work they will at least tell you why at this point.

88 GXL

mine don't... :ret:

Mid-88 model year they started phasing in the front lower speaker hole metal cut out, but all earlier ones had a speaker hole metal cut out just above the middle of the arm rest.

My Jan production 88 GTU (RIP) had the drivers door with the lower cut out, but the passengers door didn't. Yet both doors had the above the arm rest cut out.

thats weird, that is now just the opposite of my 87. But it doesn't even have front speakers installed.

I was in a similar situation when I got mine a little while back. I didn't have the funds to get a pro install (I did just buy a car, afterall) but I needed better sound. The wiring in the car was just bad, 12 year old stock stereo wiring doesn't do much for speaker quality, although I have no idea how rewire everything directly from the head unit to the speaker mounts.

Instead, what I did was I just got an inexpensive but nice Kenwood amp. Most aftermarket head units have a standard RCA out for the amps, and it's easy enough to run the cable under the plastic trim under the door so that the cable is nearly invisible. Then the amp is hooked directly to the speakers in the back. The amp can give the speakers MUCH better sound quality, even if you don't plan on cranking the music very loud. I'm using 6 1/2's in the shock towers, and a boxed sub in the back hooked to the amp. Front speakers are still hooked into the head unit using the regular wiring, I didn't feel like messing with that.

So, that made the sound 10x better, and it was something that a novice like myself could do without tearing the RX7 apart. It also helps that in the back, there are lots of separate carpet pieces that can lift up and out, it's great for hiding speaker wire so everything looks stock.

Ok guys, Thanks guys for lots of information.
You guys encourage me a lot, so I decide to do new-wiring before going to car audio shop.^_^


I checked service manual again, but it just shows how does it work. I need more detail information (ie, which parts should be apart or what sequence should I follow ^_^) or pictures???

One more question,
once again, my head unit is JVC (KD-SX8250) and states that 200W, 50W x 4 channel, 4-8 ohm. After reading this thread, my understanding is I can use virtually any kind of speakers but it will be only operated w/ my head unit's capacity?? Or I have to choose speakers w/ Max50W w/ 4-8 ohm???

How much(long) wire do I need to change both 2 front and 2 rear speakers?


Once again, HELP ME!, I want to try re-wiring before going to shop!!!^_^
Thanks

Have a nice day