scottwhite98 Posted October 31, 2013 Report Share Posted October 31, 2013 Hello all-- '94 Cutlass Supreme convertible with factory radio with cd player. Previous owner replaced the rear 6.5" speakers with something unknown and "better"... They must use up more juice because it doesn't seem balanced unless I have the radio controls heavily to the rear. Even so, with the top up I need to have the volume up 3/4 of the way for it to sound adequate. The sound quality is iffy at best and the CD player doesn't work. It definately needs to go. Limitations: Based on posts I've read here, I understand the factory alternator will not tolerate more than a 500W amp. I don't intend on getting into any bass competitions and I don't need to wake up the neighbors. I just want to be able to hear the radio and have decent sound quality. It's the 3.4DOHC and I also understand that alternator replacement is not easy...I don't want to get into that right now. What I have to work with: Years ago I bought a sound system I intended on putting into another vehicle and never got around to it. It includes two 10" Pioneer subwoofers, two Rockford-Fosgate T142C 4" cones, two pioneer 6x9 TSA6980R rear speakers, a Aiwa CDC X504MP deck and a 1000W Pioneer GM5000T amp. I was thinking of using the amp and one of the subwoofers for this setup. Not sure what the front speaker size is....obviously the 6x9's won't work. Should I piece something together out of this mess? Or, can someone reccomend a respectable setup that won't break the bank (or fry my alternator)? Thanks all, Scotty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l67ss Posted October 31, 2013 Report Share Posted October 31, 2013 Get a capaciter. As to the 6×9s, theyll work if you arent worried about originallity. You just have to do a little trimming. Hello all-- '94 Cutlass Supreme convertible with factory radio with cd player. Previous owner replaced the rear 6.5" speakers with something unknown and "better"... They must use up more juice because it doesn't seem balanced unless I have the radio controls heavily to the rear. Even so, with the top up I need to have the volume up 3/4 of the way for it to sound adequate. The sound quality is iffy at best and the CD player doesn't work. It definately needs to go. Limitations: Based on posts I've read here, I understand the factory alternator will not tolerate more than a 500W amp. I don't intend on getting into any bass competitions and I don't need to wake up the neighbors. I just want to be able to hear the radio and have decent sound quality. It's the 3.4DOHC and I also understand that alternator replacement is not easy...I don't want to get into that right now. What I have to work with: Years ago I bought a sound system I intended on putting into another vehicle and never got around to it. It includes two 10" Pioneer subwoofers, two Rockford-Fosgate T142C 4" cones, two pioneer 6x9 TSA6980R rear speakers, a Aiwa CDC X504MP deck and a 1000W Pioneer GM5000T amp. I was thinking of using the amp and one of the subwoofers for this setup. Not sure what the front speaker size is....obviously the 6x9's won't work. Should I piece something together out of this mess? Or, can someone reccomend a respectable setup that won't break the bank (or fry my alternator)? Thanks all, Scotty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted October 31, 2013 Report Share Posted October 31, 2013 The dash speakers are 4in. Before you cut up the rear side panels to fit the 6X9s I will trade you some that are already trimmed for 6X9s. Door speakers from a coupe help a lot. I have a set of door panels from a coupe as well as factory speakers ,brackets and hardware. All panels are Graphite. Some say the wiring is already in the doors, some have had only one side wired. Mine had non. I have a four channel amp for the dash and door speakers and a two channel amp for the rear side panel speakers. All speakers are after market with very good sound quality even with the factory deck. The the volume is more than adequate, but I plan to add a 10in sub, well, because more is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas Escobar Posted October 31, 2013 Report Share Posted October 31, 2013 I used to have 10" in my Cutlass. With the top down, they are barely noticeable. A better option would be to get 12's. You may be able to make the 10"s work in a ported enclosure. Do you know how much watts RMS the subs can handle? As far as the amp, I've never heard of that being bad for the alternator. I have a Sony 1100 watt amp (600 watts RMS at 2ohms) and it hasn't fried the alternator. If anything, this system you're considering building may be very weak for the car, considering that our CSC's don't have much area to pressurize. Your amp may claim high power, but at a continous power (rms), you're putting out 125 watts per sub. Nowadays, that's how much watts normal door speakers need. I can't really see this working out for you with the top down. With the top up, I'll give it to you, you might get some enjoyment out of it, but with the top down, all pressure inside the cabin is lost at those wattages. I had 2 12" Alpine Type E's in my CSC and with the top down, it sounded very decent. Not extremely loud, and I kept my balance of lows and highs. Usually with convertibles, it's hard to get the lows. Before that, I had 2 10" Audiobahns in my CSC powered by the same amplifier and with the top down, I thought my amp had cut off. Those were getting 150 watts each. Here's the site with the specs for your amp.. http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/archive/GM-5000T/page.html For comparison, here's my amp. I'm not trying to sell you anything but I speak from experience since I had a system in my Cutlass (before my subs blew) http://www.crutchfield.com/S-c7A8JAl3yz4/p_158ZZR3301/Sony-Xpl-d-XM-ZZR3301.html#details-tab I'm also not sure how much your subs need, but if it's more than 125 watts, then you'll manage to ruin the subs because you're not feeding enough power to them. What happens next is that the audio feed gets clipped and ruins the voice coils. To be honest, I feel you should simply keep the head, use the 4" cones in the dash, and sell the rest. I would use Alpine SPE6000s in the 6 1/2 holes. They're not bad speakers at all and cost $60. You could probably find them on ebay or somewhere else for new cheaper than that. Or you can get Kicker CS series for $70. I like the clarity on them, and I would use that Pioneer amp to power those speakers instead and get either a Sony or a Kenwood amp that puts out 300rms at 4 ohms for the subs instead. You can get either or for less than $150 online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottwhite98 Posted November 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2013 O.K. guys... gonna have to slow down to my speed a bit. Channels are speaker outputs. You have an amp to amplify the deck signal to four front speakers and a separate two channel amp to run your two rears. Am I right in guessing you'd need a third amp (or an amp with more channels) to run a subwoofer? I think the issue with big amps is when you're drawing a lot of power at idle...you outstrip the ability of the alternator and you start drawing off the battery, causing a voltage drop and overworking the alternator. I'm just regurgitating what I've read...no expert here. Thanks for the help guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted November 2, 2013 Report Share Posted November 2, 2013 You would be correct. When I add the sub I will add another amp. A cap or capacitor is a short term storage battery that adds extra power on bass hits and charges up in between. Anyone know how to size a cap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottwhite98 Posted November 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2013 Whew! Where do you put all this stuff? My amp isn't small (physically)... and I think it weighs ten pounds! I'll probably use the subs in another (hardtop) vehicle. I already went to the effort of building enclosures for them. I'm a little confuesed about how to wire up speakers & amps. You need to run a line off the battery (with an inline fuse) to the amp...but then you need to get the amp in between the output of the head and the speakers. So am I right that you'll have to cut apart your speaker wiring and extend it to your amp and then run lines back to the speakers? Sounds like things get messy in a hurry. Scotty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottwhite98 Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Don't you need to run hot wires from the battery for each amp? That's gotta be a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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