Advice Needed on Low Power Speakers

[TomO]

I would like some advice on where to find/what to get in regard to a pair of cheap, small, low power speakers -- preferably with their own enclosures.

Here's the situation. I have an '89 GM that's my daily driver -- pretty nice car, but I don't want to spend any more than I absolutely have to on it, and I don't have a lot of time to play around with it. The sound system is pretty much at the bottom of my list too, as far as priorities -- I just would like to have a simple radio that I can listen to.

The car has a stock premium sound system with a power amp, six speakers. The radio went bad. I've spent way too much time already trying to put a newer system in the car with no luck getting it to work right. Luckily, that radio was given to me from another car that's in storage. I gave it back because I couldn't get it to work.

I have an older Kraco electronic car stereo that's been in my closet for years. In fact, it's the same age as the car. It's in great shape because it was only used for a few months in a truck, then put in my closet.

This radio is a stereo, 5 watts nominal per channel, for speaker impedance 4 to 8 ohm. I think the stock speakers are WAY too big for this radio to drive.

So, my plan is to get two small speakers, mount them under the dash, wire them directly to the Kraco and be done with it.

Long story short -- I've looked somewhat but all the speakers I've seen seem to be designed for these huge systems pushing 100 times the power of the little Kraco.

Where do I find what I need, and what are some suggestions as to the brand/type speakers I should look for?

Thanks very much for any input.

[85crownHPP]

You can run the OEM speakers with that just fine, there's no such thing as 'too much speaker' for a stereo, if anything you just wont be able to work the speakers to thier full potential, but they should still sound good.
If the Krako wiring will let you, get rid of the common ground, and you'll want to hard wire them to the stereo, unless you want to buy the premium sound bypass harness.

[Mad MAx]

prolly pick up a boom box out of the dumpster, or a free radio on craigslist ()or free speakers for that matter. check goodwill if you want to spend money. canabilize some shit youve got sitting around the house. make some sort of preamp audio connection to a std aux cable and plug your ipod directly into the amp.

[gadget73]

Just run new wires to the stock speakers. They're fairly sensitive and will work fine at that power level.

[zoomie]

all you need is a switched power wire, which is easy to find with a test light, hard wire your main power wire to batt, then ground to chassis and viloa you now have a working radio, then run all new wires to speakers and now you have a perfectly working system again. so installing a new stereo is not so hard to do.

[TomO]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I had purchased a Scosche connector kit from Walmart that has the two 1x8 connectors (one for the power and the other for the speakers). So, getting power to the radio is no problem -- in fact I already did that and tried it out. The radio is getting power and seems to be functioning normally (the scan works and stops on known stations, etc.), but there is no sound from the speakers. So, that's why I'm thinking there's some sort of problem with the speakers. My hunch is that the car's 1x8 speaker connector under the dash is not hooked up to the speakers because the car had the premium sound system and used the small, square 2x4 pin connector.

So, I think I'm going to take a shot at running new speaker wiring. Obviously, the rear deck speakers would be easiest to get at, since they are easily accessed through the trunk. I'm assuming that the best way to run the wires to the rear speakers is behind the interior plastic door edge molding (?)

My real concern would be -- how to access the front speakers without tearing the dash apart. I guess I could always just use the two rear speakers by themselves, but it would nice to have some in front.

Thanks again for any help.

[85crownHPP]

The top of the dash comes right off with a handful of screws, you'll be able to get to them.

[TomO]

The top of the dash comes right off with a handful of screws, you'll be able to get to them.

OK -- I just took the dash pad off and took the driver's side dash speaker out. I still need to get a super-low pro screw driver in order to get the pass. speaker out. I noticed that the speaker has four wires going to it, which seems weird. A pair of a first color and a pair of a second color. But, there are only two contacts on the connector. Maybe two are from the amp and to go to the driver's door speaker. Anyway . . .

I'm assuming that the best way to rewire the speakers is to cut off the stock connector, leaving a few inches of wire -- then splice the new wire to the stock connector. Correct?

[zoomie]

OK -- I just took the dash pad off and took the driver's side dash speaker out. I still need to get a super-low pro screw driver in order to get the pass. speaker out. I noticed that the speaker has four wires going to it, which seems weird. A pair of a first color and a pair of a second color. But, there are only two contacts on the connector. Maybe two are from the amp and to go to the driver's door speaker. Anyway . . .

I'm assuming that the best way to rewire the speakers is to cut off the stock connector, leaving a few inches of wire -- then splice the new wire to the stock connector. Correct?

<----YES lol

most box panthers have whats called a common ground, if you wire your speakers in and actually get the factiory amp to work ima garuntee you that it will blow up quick, made that mistake witha 200 dollar deck anyway take my advice, run only your switched and batt power to the deck and hardwire the speakers to the deck, the four wires is going from speaker in front to speaker in door just run wires from front speaker to door speakers in parrelel should get you 8 ohms, im not sure exactly what the ohmage was on the stock stuff it been awhile. or just wire in the door speakers and the 6x9 in the rear it will work just fine.

[TomO]

Zoomie -- I'm not planning on using the amp, I'm just going to run wires directly between the speakers and radio like you suggest.

I just thought of something else -- how do I know which terminal on the speakers is positive and which is negative? They're not marked and I'm thinking that I do not want to wire the speakers out of phase, right?

[zoomie]

Zoomie -- I'm not planning on using the amp, I'm just going to run wires directly between the speakers and radio like you suggest.

I just thought of something else -- how do I know which terminal on the speakers is positive and which is negative? They're not marked and I'm thinking that I do not want to wire the speakers out of phase, right?

if you look at the back of the terminal usually the neg is on the left side but i think the little micro board has a - or + stamped or painted on it

[TomO]

Well, I got the radio harness wired in -- including running new wires to the speakers. Hooked up the radio to the harness and to my surprise, it worked. By trial and error, I was luckily able to splice into the dash board speakers so that the door speakers also work. I don't know if it's just me, but the door speakers seem to have more of a bass response while the dash speakers have more of a treble response. So, I'm glad I got all four working to give a fuller sound. I didn't mess with running wire to the rear speakers because it would have involved a lot more work and I'm getting a pretty good sound with just the front 4 anyway. Besides, the radio doesn't have a fade control -- only balance. All I have to do now is mount the radio in the dash (which will require fabricating some brackets) and putting the dash pad back on.

I'm glad to have a radio now. Thanks to everyone for the advice -- it helped a lot.

[gadget73]

Thats to be expected. Larger speakers will naturally tend to favor the low frequency range.

[TomO]

Thats to be expected. Larger speakers will naturally tend to favor the low frequency range.

I was assuming that they were the same size, but now I guess the door speakers are larger (?)

[Mad MAx]

I was assuming that they were the same size, but now I guess the door speakers are larger (?)

door speakers are typically (in my experience 6'' and rear deck something like 5x9 or 4x8 or w/e some oval shite. dash speakers idk what like 3?

as far as power goes its not relative to teh size or shape, but the quality of the speaker.

example, you could have some hige end tweters that are just like the size of an half dollar that could likely handle more power then some stock speakers