What can these speakers do?

[No_Skillz]

This weekend I went to go work on my power windows and I found these in both doors:

http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=1193

I know absolutely nothing about audio products, so:
1. Are these things any good?
2. What are those boxes?
3. I have these running off a pioneer headunit. Good/bad/upgradeable?
4. What would you do with these?
5. Any additional info appreciated.

I'll have to check what speakers I have in the rear when it's daylight out tomorrow.

They seem expensive.
Thanks in advance.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

Those are good, considering they are not stock

Also better that they are a component system, and the previous owner didn't get those 2 or 3way speakers.

Components, as you can see have a separate midrange speaker for the mid hz sounds, and the tweeters for the higher hz sounds. The box you see there are the crossovers which separate the 2 so it feeds the necessary signal to the speakers.

What I would do with these is keep them, again they should sound good, but they probably don't because you are running them off your head unit. Most aftermarket speakers will show their true potential amped.

Now what I'm curious to know is how the previous owner installed them. Where are the crossovers, and check the dash speakers to see if he installed the included tweeters. Hell your tweeters/dash speakers might not even be working because you have an aftermarket headunit, and most if not all the time, 2g owners I see with upgraded headunits without an aftermarket amp, have lost their dash speakers.

The proper way to install components on a 2g would have to be the output signal wires from the deck directly to the crossover, and from the crossover the midrange to the speaker leads to the door speakers, and the tweeters to the speaker leads to the dash speakers. Of course this would take not using those plug and play wire harnesses (unless he hacked it up), and running new wires to the door and dash, or hacking up the stock amp harness because the speaker leads are there. And I highly doubt he did either. Excuse me for not being optimistic, its not very common practice in the DSM world, and going through all that trouble, you might as well hook up an aftermarket amp.

 

[No_Skillz]

The crossovers are just sitting in the door panel. The tweeters and the speakers work. I don't know if my stock dash speakers work.

Speaking of wiring harness being all hacked up, when I first bought the car I spent about a day re-soldering and taping together a new harness so I could put in a headunit. Basically what you've said is helping me make sense as to what the original owner did. What do you suggest I do from here? Should I invest in an amp? I think they sound fine. But then again I'm not a big audio guy.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

So he mounted the tweeters on the door? USually people put the tweeters in the location of the stock dash speaker location.

I think he connected the speaker leads from the stock door speakers to crossover, then from the crossover to the new midrange speaker, and tweeter that he mounted on the door (assuming)

If thats what he did, then maybe the dash speakers work, maybe they do not, depending on what you did after you got the vehicle.

So you do have an aftermarket headunit? You said you resoldered some wires together, exactly what harness did you make? Did you make a new stock harness because the previous owner cut it up? And when you finished doing that, you bought that wiring harness so you can plug and play it to your new head unit?

If the above is true, your factory amp is no longer in use, and your dash speakers are not working, and your new deck is powering all your speakers.

If you are satisfied with the sound, then your set to go. Just don't go listening to a 2g that has a system with speakers amped, it might make you change your mind.

The funny thing, I was like you too a while back. I wasn't a big car audio guy, I even made a thread here when I was a n00b saying I was satisfied with the stock sound. Now here I am, 2 DSMs, both not having anything stock about the car stereo.

So my suggestion is listen to a car that has all amped speakers, properly tuned and setup. If you are concerned about the weight of the car by adding subs. A nice component midrange speaker amped can produce some good lows that will satisfy a lot of guys who are not big audio guys. Just the addition of a 2 or 4 channel amp does not add to much weight for sound difference that is night and day. And you already have the components and deck, your only an amp away. So close..

 

[No_Skillz]

Tweeters are mounted on the door. Setup of wires is exactly how you describe it. I made the stock harness so I could plug in my headunit. Is there a way to use my factory amp with my current setup? Or at least a way to remove it to save dead weight? Just to clarify, what I have is a component midrange speaker and tweeters, right? What is a quality amp that doesn't cost too much? How do the rear speakers factor into all of this?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, this is a whole new world to me.

Looks like the money pit is truly bottomless...

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

Yes there is a way to use your factory amp with your current setup:

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But because of the components you already have. You will have a very weird setup. In the stock system, the stock amp under the seat is like a 4 channel amp, and the stock speakers up front (doors/dash) are like components, but the crossovers are built into the stock amp. So if you do get the mitah adapter, your dash speakers will work once again, but because those components are hooked up how they are hooked up now--all the external xover from your aftermarket components are seeing is the already split signal that the factory amp and its xover is sending it.

What you can do, is move the tweeters that are from that component set to the dash, remove the xover that came with it, and hook up the midrange driver like stock. This way it will all work out. But no one knows at what frequencies the stock amp is doing the x-ing over at. And the xovers included in components vary and are specifically designed for the speakers they come with.

If you get the mitah adapter, the only connections you need to make from the deck is the RED (power), BLACK (ground), YELLOW (memory), and BLUE (remote). The same as if you were installing an aftermarket amp. I personally, think any amp (Even stock) sounds better than any deck powering speakers. You can listen for yourself, let your ears decide, and not the receipt that shows the price of the aftermarket deck.

If you don't plan to go that route, then get a cheap amp. I bought a cheap roadmaster vr3 4 channel amp for my beater 95 gsx. It's 50watt rms x 4. It's a cheap amp, and its not respected at all, but I gaurantee you my car sounds a lot better using cheap crappy brand products compared to people here who claim their expensive deck powering expensive speakers

If you don't really care about car audio, dont ask people who are into car audio. Most if not all the time they are biased towards what they have, or what people think other people respect and won't hate on. Which tends to be expensive items. What you can do is go to a store, and listen to a few amps that are cheap. Make sure you don't let salespeople sway your decision. PErsonally, if its something I'm not really trying to go all out on, I just get the cheapest one thats good enough for me (has the specs I want).

As far as the rear, they serve as rear fill, they should never over power the front. If you get subwoofers in the future, you won't even really hear them. I personally think the enclosures for the 6x9s in the 2g suck and are limited. I wouldn't spend too much time or money on them.. after doing 3 2g setups. If you plan to get a sub in the future, dont worry about them too much, and save your money and just get a 2 channel amp to power the fronts (if you do decide to amp them). But if you don't plan to get a sub, and want to rely on the rear speakers to give you some extra bass, well good luck on that, I havn't tried.

 

[No_Skillz]

Thanks for the info. This is invaluable information to a newbie like me.