Car audio question

[ElementDO]

The previous owner did this wiring under the front pass seat where the amp used to be. Any idea why? He did put some speakers in the front doors. I plan on adding an amp for my highs and was going to tap in this spot as well for my rear speakers splice. Did he just bypass the amp? Whats up with the red things? Look like a small capacitor in there? Bass blocker?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[Ozone302]

Looks like resistors. I have no idea why though.. My guess is a cheap way of bypassing the amp

 

[TrevorS]

I have a '90 and I replaced the OE audio with Kenwood cassette/radio and Kenwood CD (plus judicious speaker replacements). The sound quality works well for my listening and I don't need an outboard amplifier. Your OE audio gear really doesn't lock you into anything, it simply provides a baseline for comparison. Don't worry about what others like, focus on what works for you ! If you need different (as did I), then evaluate the options that are different! You're beholden to you, no-one else!

 

[greengoblin2011]

I agree, looks like resistors to me. He bypassed the amp and the resistors are there to either keep high frequencies out of speakers he wanted bass from or low frequencies out of speakers he wanted only highs from. That's what it appears to be anyway. See if you can find a wiring diagram and find out whatspeaker leads those are. Or you could probly just cut those out and splice just the wire together then it probly wont matter any.

 

[PXHero]

Looks like he bypassed the amp. If they are resistors, it's wrong. Get them out. Most likely they are capacitors going to the factory tweeter wiring. If you're going to be running an amplifier, then you should be able to set the crossover points, and you won't need those little caps.

When placed in line with a speaker, a capacitor will act as a passive crossover and only allow frequencies over a certain level to pass through, usually something beyond the 1K Hz range. A resistor in line will cause your audio source (amplifier or radio) to see too much impedance, and either go into a protect mode, or burn up. Especially since a car audio voice coil typically rests at 2 Ohms (some factory amplified systems), 4 Ohms (industry standard), or 8 Ohms (some factory amplified systems). When the coil moves the impedance changes, if you have something in there (resistance wise) that doesn't change, it screws with your whole system. i.e. Sometimes when a speaker blows (causing too much, or too little impedance), an amp will stop outputting.

Conversely, if you want bass with no highs you need to use an inductor. This has the opposite effect of a capacitor, in that it allows only frequencies below a certain level to pass through. You won't see these much on their own, but they're a crucial part of every passive crossover network that you should get with any decent set of component speakers.