Forums Music Sound Engineering Fitting Car Speakers

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  • #1050290
    caned_monkey
    Participant

      I want to fit a set of 6×9’s into the parcel shelf of a Ford Ka. The Ka dosent come with rear speakers as standard, so I’m going to have to wire them in myself. This isnt a problem, but I have no idea how to connect the wires up to the head unit. It’s not the standard Ford Ka head unit, I’ve fitted a new Sony (i can find out the model if it helps) head unit, so it does have four channel output.

      The wiring from the head unit for the rear speakers ends in the black plastic connector that connects the cars electrics. Anybody got any idea how I connect the new speakers into this connector or can i bypass it?

      Any help greatly appreciated.

      #1234704
      DaftFader
      Participant

        don’t you need a seperate amp? (i’m not shithot with car sound systems btw so i really not sure at all) …

        I think knowing weather they (either the amp/headunit/speakers) are mosphet (sp?) or not is important somewhat (can’t remeber why as it was years since i tryied learning about car sterio set ups but I think it’s the amp and speakers that have to match). Other then that and that the omage is normaly diferant to hifi speakers there’s not much else i know about car sound systems.

        You might be able to wire them in serise or parallel (you’d have to do one or the other but they effect the omage diferantly) with the correct workings out to get speakers that will work like that using a splitter ect. to achive it, but unless you’ve got the propper working out’s do not attempt it cos they could go kaboom and blow the speakers/amp.#

        (I know this is all vauge info but hopefully it might point you in the right direction of some slightly more usefull info :wink:)

        #1234709
        zidewinder
        Participant

          Hey,

          Its really worth investing in an amp. If its just 2 6x9s that its powering you won’t need to splash out much. £40ish could probably get you a 2nd hand 2 channel amp, or 40-80 for one from the shops, and £20-30 for an all in one wiring kit.

          If you choose that route, I can give you some info on fitting it, earthing, etc, but you’ll find that all on the net anyway.

          If you just want to run them off the head unit, you can hack and split the cable running to the front, but as you mentioned there are wires for rear, best to use them. Snip them and connect speaker wire (solder would work, bullets are far easier long-term). The wire coming out the head unit should be labeled +/- for both left and right. Likewise for the 6x9s.

          Get a second opinion on this, its impossible for me to know without looking or knowing exactly what kit you have, but car audio is normally 4-ohm, and with the small length of the wire, you could probably use 14-16 gauge speaker cable quite happily. Bare in mind your head unit is only going to be putting out about 50w-80w x4 @ 4U, and low-end 6x9s are probably gonna be able to take 250w-300w, so you’re never going to get the most out of them in this setup.

          #1234705
          DaftFader
          Participant

            zide do you know about mosfet? is it something to do with the wireing of the amp? It’s racking my brains but cba to google it as it’ll probably come up with 100 adverts for mosfet amps ect b4 i find the info i want lol.

            #1234710
            zidewinder
            Participant

              Mosfet isn’t massively significant, its to do with the power supply to amps, and mosfet being a good type. Its pretty standard across all car amps afaik.

              On a side note, if you do go with the amp’ing option, be sure it has a high-pass filter – you’ll need it when you inevitably connect up a sub.

              #1234707
              Gylfi Gudbjornsson
              Participant

                if your fitting 6X9’s DO NOT fit a sub of any kind! 6X9’s are bassy enough of a Ka, personally I’d go for some:
                *6X9’s
                *5.6″ door card units
                * tweeters (these are amazing, you get real depth and pitch with them)

                as for an amp, go high than you need I’d say, because then you have loads of power when you want to beef the sounds up as it were…..

                #1234706
                DaftFader
                Participant

                  Don’t get pizzo tweaters tho as they sound crap imo and i’ve heard can damage ears at louder volumes.

                  @Gaz the door speakers at the front of a KA are loud. I don’t think you’d need to replace them imo (I’m assuming that’s what you mean by door card units?) unless you wanna spend more cash and make everything propperly phazed.

                  Allso might be a good idea to find a cheep way of attaching all the parts of the car that may flap/vibrate with high bass pressure to something solid that doesn’t move next to them cos there’s nothing more anoying then the distortion that comes from that. Especialy when you’ve spent a fair bit of effort buying and building it.

                  #1234711
                  caned_monkey
                  Participant

                    A sepreate amp shouldnt be necssary as i think the one in the head unit is more than enough for a car of this size. I used to have all of this kit in a Cavalier, but that already had rear speakers wired in so was simple to fit. I didnt use a seperate amp then and it also had a cavernous boot so sounded wicked.

                    If i cant run new lines into the head unit i may just get rid of the front speakers and wire those directly to the back. I’m not trying to create anything special here, I’ve just got some spare kit and want to use it.

                    #1234703
                    cheeseweasel
                    Participant

                      I don’t know a huge amount about car audio (tho I’m a professional sound/AV engineer), but sounds like what you’re trying to achieve shouldn’t be difficult. You’re trying to install rear speakers, and your head unit has outputs for rear speakers.

                      As I understand it, you have a pair of speakers with bare wires that you want to connect to the wiring harness that goes into the back of the head unit (the big long connector with lots of coloured wires coming out). I’m assuming the car has never had rear speakers before and the rear speaker holes on the wiring harness are empty? (google your head unit model and look at the wiring diagram).

                      To fit wires to these types of connectors is simple, but requires a crimping tool (or thin pliers if you want to bodge it) and crimp pins that click into the connector (I used to make hundreds of connectors like this when I worked at a desk factory). I reckon your best bet is to go into a local garage and ask them to do it – with the proper tools it’s a 5 minute job if you’ve already run the cables to the head unit yourself.

                      #1234712
                      caned_monkey
                      Participant

                        Thanks cheeseweasel, that sounds like the plan to go for.

                        #1234708
                        Gylfi Gudbjornsson
                        Participant

                          @DaftFader 416622 wrote:

                          Don’t get pizzo tweaters tho as they sound crap imo and i’ve heard can damage ears at louder volumes.

                          @Gaz the door speakers at the front of a KA are loud. I don’t think you’d need to replace them imo (I’m assuming that’s what you mean by door card units?) unless you wanna spend more cash and make everything propperly phazed.

                          Allso might be a good idea to find a cheep way of attaching all the parts of the car that may flap/vibrate with high bass pressure to something solid that doesn’t move next to them cos there’s nothing more anoying then the distortion that comes from that. Especialy when you’ve spent a fair bit of effort buying and building it.

                          yeah mate, had to refit a Ka door today actually, the only reason the speaker units are as loud as they are is because the door and door trim are soooo thin, it’s to keep costs down. If you compare the door skin and trim from a Ka to, say, a fiesta, the fiesta door is fookin solid, where as the Ka is really flimsy.

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                        Forums Music Sound Engineering Fitting Car Speakers