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JohnM

Dash speaker wiring question

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Evening everybody.

 

I have just collected my new GT86 and have a query regards to the speaker wiring in the dash. The UK model appears to only have the tweeters fitted and not the 3.5 speakers in the US models even though there is the mounting points for them. Does anybody know if the wiring for these speakers is tucked away somewhere in the dash or would i have to rewire from the head unit if i wanted to fit these speakers. I know i can buy an adaptor to use the existing connector on the stock tweeter but this would mean changing the tweeters, which I dont want to do just yet. Thanks in advance.

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27 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Evening everybody.

 

I have just collected my new GT86 and have a query regards to the speaker wiring in the dash. The UK model appears to only have the tweeters fitted and not the 3.5 speakers in the US models even though there is the mounting points for them. Does anybody know if the wiring for these speakers is tucked away somewhere in the dash or would i have to rewire from the head unit if i wanted to fit these speakers. I know i can buy an adaptor to use the existing connector on the stock tweeter but this would mean changing the tweeters, which I dont want to do just yet. Thanks in advance.

If you know of an adaptor for the stock tweeter connector, could you tell me where I could get a pair of these?

Regards,

Matt.

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Guest 86guns

I’ve had mine to bits to fit the Focal direct replacements and I never found any wiring for the vacant 3.5” speakers.

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1 hour ago, Fenhopper said:

If you know of an adaptor for the stock tweeter connector, could you tell me where I could get a pair of these?

Regards,

Matt.

 

From ebay - ct55-ty02 speaker adapter lead harness

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I'm not sure about running three different size speakers off a single amp channel without some kind of crossover or DSP. The mids and tweeters are going to overlap frequency responses big time. Might be hard to make them behave well together.

The head unit has four channels out, but the second two are running to the rear "speakers" via whatever route. If you cannibalise those, you end up with fader controls impacting mid versus high+low which is interesting if not useful.

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1 hour ago, nerdstrike said:

I'm not sure about running three different size speakers off a single amp channel without some kind of crossover or DSP. The mids and tweeters are going to overlap frequency responses big time. Might be hard to make them behave well together.

The head unit has four channels out, but the second two are running to the rear "speakers" via whatever route. If you cannibalise those, you end up with fader controls impacting mid versus high+low which is interesting if not useful.

Thanks for the advice. I might just upgrade the 6.5 and the tweeters and see what results that gives. I actually like the stock head unit so i dont want to change it out just yet. Slow and steady wins the race with this one I think.

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FYI the OEM tweeters (at least in UK cars) are pretty pants, and the OEM woofers feel like they've been built with the damp cardboard. The rear mids are so hilariously bad that their best use is plugging the speaker hole in the rear quarter trim.

The only way is up!

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Happy to report that the adapters worked a treat, just make sure that the replacement tweeters have a cross over to incorporate the woofers. Replaced the stock setup with a set of fli 6.5 component speakers and added some sound deadening. Whilst they wont win any sound awards they are not a bad upgrade for just shy of £45 for everything.

Defiantly no wiring in the dash for the 3.5" speakers even though there is the cutout and mounting holes for them. At least that has saved me £35 on adding these. Next on the list is upgrade the rear speakers to 4" or use the wiring from the back of the stereo for the rear speakers and wire in an amp & sub, but that is next months project.

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3 hours ago, JohnM said:

Happy to report that the adapters worked a treat, just make sure that the replacement tweeters have a cross over to incorporate the woofers. Replaced the stock setup with a set of fli 6.5 component speakers and added some sound deadening. Whilst they wont win any sound awards they are not a bad upgrade for just shy of £45 for everything.

Defiantly no wiring in the dash for the 3.5" speakers even though there is the cutout and mounting holes for them. At least that has saved me £35 on adding these. Next on the list is upgrade the rear speakers to 4" or use the wiring from the back of the stereo for the rear speakers and wire in an amp & sub, but that is next months project.

Glad to know they fit OK. Mine arrived today.

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On 2/6/2019 at 8:34 PM, JohnM said:

Happy to report that the adapters worked a treat, just make sure that the replacement tweeters have a cross over to incorporate the woofers. Replaced the stock setup with a set of fli 6.5 component speakers and added some sound deadening. Whilst they wont win any sound awards they are not a bad upgrade for just shy of £45 for everything.

Defiantly no wiring in the dash for the 3.5" speakers even though there is the cutout and mounting holes for them. At least that has saved me £35 on adding these. Next on the list is upgrade the rear speakers to 4" or use the wiring from the back of the stereo for the rear speakers and wire in an amp & sub, but that is next months project.

Hi there, how's the system doing? I'm just wondering if the aftermarket harness you've used can support a 3.5" speaker and the tweeter as well? Just I look at the image of it and there are two pairs of wiring coming off each "plug". Or am I being a bit simple? Noob here.

Thanks.

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The harness is only really for the tweeters and 6.5" in the door. I did end up adding some 3.5" speakers in the dash though. I have wired them directly though the dash, down the centre console to an amp in the boot. It does make a huge difference having those speakers fitted in the dashboard though.

The total install has been done using the stock stereo. The 6.5 speakers and tweeters are run off the stereo and the rest of the speakers (3.5 in the dash and 4" in the rears) and a 10" sub is run through a 4 channel amplifier wired off the stock stereo using a line out converter. 

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Ah I see. So far I have upgraded the head unit and the 6.5" doors. As I have the empty spaces in the dash, I'm just wondering if there is a way to add 3.5" as well as upgrade the tweeters without the addition of an Amp. I do know that the tweeters and the doors are connected in series so will this be a problem?

At the moment I'm getting pretty shrill high end coming out of those tweeters - it's quite uncomfortable at higher volumes!

Any advice appreciated.

 

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Replace the tweeters - they suck and distort all over the place. The simplest solution for three speaker pairs is a 3-way amp, but only you know if you have one of those. If you repurpose the rear cabling, your fader controls will be weird but could act as a ghetto equaliser. It is probably a bad idea to have two mid-high range speakers on a single wire as they'll double up in a large cross-over range. A discrete crossover to blend them together would help.

The standard two-way setup in the car has large gap in the soundstage which sounds weird in some music. Mids might help with that, but a high quality two-way is enjoyable if you want to keep the wiring simple.

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Thanks nerdstrike. What tweeters do you recommend getting? Also, how does one repurpose the rear speaker wires? Is there enough power to drive a pair of 3.5" at the front? I have the stock amp in the car at the moment, that seems to power the Pioneer 6.5s in the doors quite well.

Thanks 

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I think it's safe to say that quite a few people here are Focal fanpeople. You get what you pay for from reputable speaker manufacturers (at least with drivers, cabinets is another matter). It might make sense to brand match your Pioneers.

As for power, only you can say how loud it needs to be. Some people complain that it's not enough. If you're happy with the 6.5s output at the moment (with bassy music) then you've probably got all the muscle you need. You lose the bass punch first when power is short.

It might not be worth the effort of extracting the wiring that runs to the rears. Lots of trim to come off. If you did, you could run those wires to 3.5's and cut them to length.

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The point with more powerful setups is that one can listen at same loudness but with less distortion. There are not that many people that upgrade audio setup with loudness in mind .. imho more often it's better sound quality. The point of focals - very good price/performance.

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I think it's safe to say that quite a few people here are Focal fanpeople. You get what you pay for from reputable speaker manufacturers (at least with drivers, cabinets is another matter). It might make sense to brand match your Pioneers.
As for power, only you can say how loud it needs to be. Some people complain that it's not enough. If you're happy with the 6.5s output at the moment (with bassy music) then you've probably got all the muscle you need. You lose the bass punch first when power is short.
It might not be worth the effort of extracting the wiring that runs to the rears. Lots of trim to come off. If you did, you could run those wires to 3.5's and cut them to length.
Yeah, I got two burnt out wires on my focals.
This running on a standard h/u.

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

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13 hours ago, jruss said:

Ah I see. So far I have upgraded the head unit and the 6.5" doors. As I have the empty spaces in the dash, I'm just wondering if there is a way to add 3.5" as well as upgrade the tweeters without the addition of an Amp. I do know that the tweeters and the doors are connected in series so will this be a problem?

At the moment I'm getting pretty shrill high end coming out of those tweeters - it's quite uncomfortable at higher volumes!

Any advice appreciated.

 

I tried this route and ended up changing them to a set of component speakers which include the tweeters rather than a stand alone set of 6.5" as it sounded worse than stock. If you have fitted an aftermarket stereo you could splice into the rear speaker wires directly from the back of the stereo and run the wiring through the dash to power the 3.5" in the dash if you so wish but be aware if the sound is sounding high now it will only increase by fitting the dash speakers or you could get rid of the tweeters entirely and just fit the 3.5". You could even fit a 4" speaker in the dash if you are losing the tweeters. But doing this will change the fader balance from the head unit. Mine were high and it took longer to tweek the settings on the amplifer than it took to install the speakers. 

Concentrate of improving the sound quality rather than making it loud. Your ears will thank you later especially in a car as small as ours. 

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agree with most of the comments,I have xtron head unit TD619G with no dash speakers so have decided to get rid of the crap speakers in rear by removing the wires in ISO block and using the block to wire in 4" dash speakers so I will have the 2 door 6" speakers with dash tweeters and pair of 4" dash speakers do you think that will work O.K. Cheers clive

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yea when i had the 88 firebird engine harness in my 88 with the org dash it worked fine, but the dash wiring was nasty from the car sitting all the years ago, mice and stuff, when i got my 87 i took the dash out because i did a 91-92 TPI and dash swop so i wanted to use the dash from the 87. I know that org carb carbs might have had some different wiring i just wanted to make sure if it would work or not.

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