Hey there AGLX..............I think that may be one for Nineball or maybe Aquill to answer.
If you dont get a reply pm them.........I'm not sure if there's anything in the FAQ's.........have you looked?

Jim

 

I looked and searched over & over again. Hopefully someone will chime in soon. I installed a sub amp in my 02 X with a Peripheral Hi/Low converter & I had to install a toggle switch that will touches the positive and negative factory sub amp speaker wires together. Without this no signal comes out of the factory sub amp. Only when positive & negative touch will the factory subamp play. I tried to put in serveral calls to Peripheral but who the hell can hold for an hour+ for someone to pick up? My buddy at a local car audio shop said I may have to install resistors but he's not sure which ones and he doesn't have time to hold on either until his shop slows down. I purchased two pairs of PAC 85hz bass blockers and I want to purchase and install two pairs of Blaupunkt GTc652 fromthe Cruthfield websiteto round out my system.

 

i have some thoughts, but answer me these:

are you running a seperate amp for the door speakers?

do you have factorytweeters in the doors, either set?

have you or are you planning on changing the hu?

where did you tap into for the low-level converter?

are you saying that you installed a new amp for the fatory sub setup?

did you have the full factory premium system to begin with?

running any subs other than the factory 6.5"?

what are your end goals?

 

Errrrr there ya go AGLX................someone chiming in. Nineball as I guessed it would be....lol

Havin said that...........you got a shed load of more questions than you started with....lol
I'm sure if you answer them though you'll get the low down on what you need from Nineball

Good luck

Jim

 

Q. are you running a seperate amp for the door speakers?
A. Nope.

Q. do you have factorytweeters in the doors, either set?
A. Yup. All four.

Q. have you or are you planning on changing the hu?
A. Nope. Have factory navi & cassette player (02 X). I do plan to bid on a cd player on ebay and swap it out. The one I'm watching now is from an 03 X w/o navi. My hope is that I can detach the cd player form the a/c controls.

Q. where did you tap into for the low-level converter?
A. I disassembled the rear sub enclosure under the rear deck. Removed the sub & passive radiator and the bottom panel (incl.22 screws) so the bass can come through the rear deck. I tapped into the pos & neg speaker wire goin to the factory sub.

Q. are you saying that you installed a new amp for the fatory sub setup?
A. Yup. I installed a Peripheral Hi/Low converter on the factory amp& used rca cables to go into the amp (MTX TC4001). I tried to use the Hi level inputs on the amp but that didn't go over very well.

Q. did you have the full factory premium system to begin with?
A. Yup.

Q. running any subs other than the factory 6.5"?
A. 10w0 in a ported box. I had this sub installed in my 94 SHO stick with an Eclipse 3522 5 channel amp and it sounded really good. However this thang BANGS!!! on this MTX amp.

Q. what are your end goals?
A.I was considering installing an MTX 4004 and either Kicker 07DS650.2 or Blaupunkt GTc652 in all four doors. I'd prefer to just use the power from the premium head unit since my setup is not like the 04's where u can tap into everything from the rear of the car. Before my rear right speaker blew the system really sounded great so I prefer to install two sets of component speakers that will run well off of the factory power.

Thanks,
Nate

 

So you have removed the factory amp, sub and passive and essentially replaced them with the JL sub in it's own box with it's own amp. I really have no idea why you ned to cross the positive and negative leads to get a signal, maybe Dave can chime in with his thoughts on that. I have never experienced that in all my years of car audio. By doing this you no longer have a left and right channel, which goes against car audio principles. If I would have done it I would have tapped into a line going to a rear door speaker for the JL's input as you are esentailly amplifing the signal twice now (factory amp to your mtx amp) which is never a good thing to do. I personally have an 04 w/o the alpine system and I used a low-level converter directly behind the radio tappinging into the rear left speaker, then ran the rca to the trunk to my aftermarket subs.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the factory setup runs 2 speakers per channel (mid and tweet) so chances are good that they are each 8ohm speakers wired down to 4 ohm. From your posts it seems like you have only installed the blaupunkt mids as you can't get the tweets to fit. Get an ohm meter and test the new setup to see what ohm load it is running now. This could be the problem you are having with the blown speaker. The other possibility would have something to do with crossing those output wires to get your current sub signal. If memory serves the older factory sub input is tapped into one of the rear speakers.

Unless Dave chimes in with the specs, I would also suggest you take a multimeter and test the output of the factory head unit (power and ohms)and use that to match up to your new interior speakers. I would bet it is going to be a relatively low output, probably around 20-25rms per channel. The blaupunkts are rated at 50rms, so it shouldn't be a problem *assuming of course you install both the mid and the tweet in each door. The best solution you have is to use a surface mount for the rear doors, and in the front you can install them in the small panel at the front where the window meets the door. There is a thread on this board with detailed pics on how someone did it with theirs. This is not a perfect setup due to the distance between the mid and tweet, but it's the best you can do without making some fiberglass kick panels.

If you do end up replacing all interior speakers and getting a 4 channel amp, well that is a whole other can of worms. We will cross that bridge when and if we need to. I am still baffled by the need to cross those input lines to achieve a signal...

 

Nineball,

Thanks for your input. The factory amp is still in place inside the rear shelf sub enclosure. I tapped into the pos & neg output that would normally go to the sub. The tapping of the pos & neg is done very quickly and then the connection is broken. The don't stay connected for long. Without tapping them together the factory amp does not play. Weird!

 

Very. How does the input get to the factory amp? Would it be possible to tap there?

 

There's a cable that connects to the outside of the sub box which has a special connection so the best connection is to use the speaker leads from the factory amp to go to the hi/low converter than use rca cables from there to go into the input of the MTX amp. I installed a toggle switch and ran speaker wire to the driver seat to I can quickly flip on then off to get the factory amp to play when the car is on.

 

Does the factory amp in your case power all the interior speakers?

 

From the sounds of it the factory amp works it is the speaker that have the problem but I'm not for sure. Hey agl I can get pretty good deals on mb quart components if you were wanting components. I'll have to check my book and see...I know I can get their lower line of 5.25's for like 40 bucks. Pretty sure the esa 213 is the model that I get for like 40...link for the set...

I forget how the speakers are powered on the alpine system...isn't there an amp somewhere for them, they can't just be powered by the headunit alone, right?

 

Q. Does the factory amp in your case power all the interior speakers?
A. Yup.

 

Q. I forget how the speakers are powered on the alpine system...isn't there an amp somewhere for them, they can't just be powered by the headunit alone, right?
A. I believe they are powered by the head unit and not an external amp. Speaker wise I am leaning more toward the Kicker 07DS650.2 from Onlinecarstereo.com. They don't require much power and the tweets are 3/4 inch (19mm) so they should fit no problem in the factory location. Can you get me an even better deal on the Kickers? lol

Nate

 

Again, I may be wrong and will ask Dave to be sure, but I believe the pre-2004 alpine systems only had the sub powered by the amp and the interior were off the hu. I will find out.

 

Hi Agl,

The pre-2004 systems are powered by the head unit. The amp is connected off a spur between the speakers and the head unitto get the inputs for FR, FL, RR and RL, but as far as I am aware it only outputs to the subs. I can't see how it would work otherwise.

As to why you need to take the sub output to ground, there could be a couple of reasons. The fact that you only need to do it to start the system up suggests that the amp is geared for a lower resistance and the new amp you are driving from it has too high a resistance, causing nothing to flow. You could check by measuring the resistance and voltagebetween the two sub wires when starting without the new amp or old subs connected, with the subs connected, and with the new amp connected instead. There is an input from the head unit on pin 2 of the OEM amp connector that goes +12V when the audio system is activated, and goes to 0V when the system is switched off (i.e. a wakeup signal). You could use that to make a simple electrical switch when it rises, by replacing your toggle switch with a suitable capacitor, resistor and a small relay in place of the factory sub.You do need to find out why you are having to do that first though.

 

XDave,

Thanks for chiming in. I will give this info to my buddy over at the local stereo shop as he too said I may just need to add a resistor but he wanted to contact Peripheral first to see if the now what level resistor works best for the X.

btw, I order two pairs of PAC 85hz bass blockers and wanted to know if I'd be okay to use them on all four door componenet speakers? Or would that mess something up in the hu since that's the source of power for my 02 X?

Thanks.

 

Why do you want the bass blockers any component set you get should have the crossover with it which separates the signal...the mb quarts only take 35 rms...Good luck worse comes to worse add a 4channel amp to power the speakers with. You'll notice a huge difference if you do add a 4 channel amp especially if the speakers aren't amplified by an external amp...my brothers sport trac door speakers sound really good with the factory amp but the sub is kind of weak...