Thread: New Front Speakers, Had To Disable Stock Tweeter?

I bought new Polk 5 inch speakers for my front doors, and got the adapters at best buy. The guy at best buy told me that I would be unable to use my stock tweeter with the new speakers. He was right. The old speaker had 2 pigtails on it, one for the speaker, and one for the tweeter.

Even though the new speakers have a tweeter in them, Id like the stock tweeters working as well, It sounds like I have all rear speakers now. Is their a pigtail I can buy that can make the aftermarket speaker and stock tweeter work? Or can I just splice the tweeter wire in?

just splice the tweeter into the polks.

Originally Posted by gtpinsc

just splice the tweeter into the polks.

This is what I imagined. Just making sure.

Thanks!

no prob, thats what i did with mine.

yeah hook the factory tweeters back up , and tell whoever it was at best buy , tell him he can come to my best buy in roanoke va ... store 434 ... and ill teach him how its done , and take them adapters back , we never use them , just cut and splice

yeah dude i sodered my connections works well good luck =)

Originally Posted by GTPJOE90

yeah dude i sodered my connections works well good luck =)

Joe I may require your awesome saudering capabilities on Sunday or Monday .

The wire that goes up to the stock tweeters has the "crossver" capacitor inline, under some heat shrink tuning. The 98 GTP had aftermarket 2 way Kenwoods in the doors when I got it, and the leads for the stock pillar tweets were hanging. Screw that.

I tested the stock tweets, and they were fine, and since they had the caps in line, I just hooked them back up, and snipped the lead to the Kenwood tweeters. Much better sounding. Leaving the tweeters on the new door speakers operational could cause impedance issues. With the stock head unit the original tweeters are fine.

So I should cut the Polk tweeter leads, then splice the pillar tweeters to the wires going to the + and - leads on the speaker? Also, how do I know what leads are the tweeters in the new speakers?

I apologize in advance, audio is something Im still learning...

Originally Posted by SuperSport

So I should cut the Polk tweeter leads, then splice the pillar tweeters to the wires going to the + and - leads on the speaker? Also, how do I know what leads are the tweeters in the new speakers?

I apologize in advance, audio is something Im still learning...

I would says yay-s. It's not rough.

If iirc, the stock tweet wires are red +/black -, not hard to figure where they go on the main Polk tabs.

While I'm thinking of it, Don't randomly snip a braided wire anywhere on the speaker. That could be.... bad.

I simply snipped a lead on the cap that was Goo'd to the tweeter on the 2-ways. However, on new parts, you might try something reverseable like desoldering the cap or a wire that runs to the tweeter. Just need to open the circuit leading to the lil bastard..

Erm, which Polks did you get?? All I see above is 5" Polks that required an adapter.

Must 5 1/4", but which series? DB? MM? Can't be the SR series. BB.com isn't listing Polk car audio at all right now.

If you can tell me the series or model #, and I can tell you how to dis- the tweets in a non-destructive manner. Alternatively, if you look a the back of the driver and see the tweeter wires coming thru the center of the magnet and up to the terminals, That would be the wire to politely snip, and securely insulate.

Ok this is more ridiculous than I first thought.

I should have just bought one way speakers or factory replacements. I have the db521's i believe and yes they are 5.25. I can hardly hear them all I really hear are the rear 6x9's unless I put my ear near the door.

Im just gonna leave it the way it is. Dont feel like fighting with that door panel again...

Thanks anyway.

Originally Posted by matt5112

A capacitor IS a 6dB/octave crossover...

If you'll note in the earlier post I put the word "crossover" in "quotes"
because an in-line cap is more of a "filter" than what any self-respecting audio enthusiast would refer to as a "crossover".

Originally Posted by matt5112

The stock tweeters are wired in parallel so if you have some 4 ohm mids and some 4 ohm tweets and you wire those in parallel you'll fry most HU's and most non-bridgeable amps.

Horse-pucky. The tweeters of the 2 ways are already wired in parallel to the woofer in DB series Polk 5 1/4" speaker, using our old friend the inline, bi-polar capacitor "filter". If you parallel another tweeter/filter onto it, the worst that will happen is that the amp will see a a drop in impedance above the "crossover" point. Since that tends to be around 5K hz, I sincerely doubt any Head Unit amp will cause A FATAL AUTOMOTIVE FIRE !!! because it has to supply an additional, say, 1-2 watts to an additional tweeter. What's much worse, and a much more grave offense, is that the treble will sound like "poo".

Further more: You Sir, IMO, are a dill-hole. You didn't even bother to read the thread before dispersing your wisdom. Your inclusion of separate amps in this discussion is nonsensical.

Originally Posted by matt5112

To the OP: This thread is already TL DR so I'll say this, read the above line.

To the OP: This matt5112 seems schmuck-like. This thread was 10 posts long. He may have been drinking, didn't read it, then incorrectly decided he knew something.

Originally Posted by Gregorius

If you'll note in the earlier post I put the word "crossover" in "quotes"
because an in-line cap is more of a "filter" than what any self-respecting audio enthusiast would refer to as a "crossover".

Crossover networks are just a series a filters, if the speakers were already rolling off at a rate of 6 dB/octave then adding an inductor or capacitor would effectively create a 12 dB/octave filter. A crossover would imply there is a filter on both sides of the filter point. Which there most likely is seeing as midwoofers have moderate roll-off due to the inductance of its voice coil.

Originally Posted by Gregorius

Horse-pucky. The tweeters of the 2 ways are already wired in parallel to the woofer in DB series Polk 5 1/4" speaker, using our old friend the inline, bi-polar capacitor "filter". If you parallel another tweeter/filter onto it, the worst that will happen is that the amp will see a a drop in impedance above the "crossover" point. Since that tends to be around 5K hz, I sincerely doubt any Head Unit amp will cause A FATAL AUTOMOTIVE FIRE !!! because it has to supply an additional, say, 1-2 watts to an additional tweeter. What's much worse, and a much more grave offense, is that the treble will sound like "poo".

If you're crossing over your tweeters at 5kHz then you're expecting too much out of your midrange driver. If you add a 4 ohm speaker to another 4 ohm speaker in parallel you net a 2 ohm load which means the "crossover" will become useless as the crossover point on the tweeter will change. This will only get worse if you add tweeters with their own inline caps.

Also, does not anyone have issues running 2 ohm stable amps at 1 ohm? Its a theoretical problem which shouldn't be ignored. You're putting stress on a device that it wasn't designed to deal with. By your logic, its impossible to destroy an amp by clipping it at a current rating it wasn't designed to put out. And in real life, its the exact opposite. When you lower the impedance of the load you're driving the amp will also increase the number of amps it draws. So if you blow the fuse on your amp (which should never happen unless you short it out), this will be why.

What are the chances of it happening? Very small, should you be concerned? Probably not. Is there a smarter way of doing this? Very much so.

Originally Posted by Gregorius

Further more: You Sir, IMO, are a dill-hole. You didn't even bother to read the thread before dispersing your wisdom. Your inclusion of separate amps in this discussion is nonsensical.

If the question is how to disable the tweeters then its simple, unplug them. Why was there 10 posts if its as simple as unplugging them? But no, the OP changed his mind between writing the Subject title and the OP. If the replacements are wired in parallel that means the replacements are 8 ohms each which means wiring the stock tweeters in wouldn't be an issue.

Originally Posted by Gregorius

To the OP: This matt5112 seems schmuck-like. This thread was 10 posts long. He may have been drinking, didn't read it, then incorrectly decided he knew something.

Show me the V=IR and 1/Rtot=1/R1+1/R2...1/Rn calculations that say you're correct.

Quick example: 12V going to HU which draws 10 A which means it draws 120 watts. Now lets assume its a class AB amp which limits its efficiency to 50 % this means only 50% of that 120 W is availible as power to the speakers (I'll even ignore that these things need power to run the other plethora of things jammed into them). This means you have 60 watts for four channels. If you divide that by 4 you arrive at 15 watts. All HU's I've seen are rated at 22 W RMS @ 4 ohms at 14.4V input which is still bull**** because they can only put out 18 if they're class AB.

So you've got your 4 ohm stock tweeter, 8 ohm new tweeter and 8 ohm new mid. If the tweeters are wired in parallel to each other then that circuit is wired in parallel to the mid you net a 2 Ohm load. If you wire the stock tweeter in parallel with the new parallel system then you have a 1.6 ohm nominal load.

Consider that the HU was putting out 18 watts with 14.4 V input at 4 ohms. Using P=I^2*R you get I to be 2.1 A which means you have 8.5 V output using V=IR. Since amps are voltage driven devices, they will attempt to double the current instead of lowering the voltage when attempting to drive a load of half the impedance.

Lets explore that possibility:

Again using P=I^2*R and assuming double the current and the new 2 ohm load you arrive at 35 W. 35W times four is 140 W of output. If you then multiply this by the inverse of 0.5 you arrive at 280 W of input power. This IS misleading because I assumed you were doing this on four channels instead of two, but you can still see the point: If you do this, the amp will attempt to draw twice the current. Most likely it will only attempt 1.5 its rated current as most amps are designed for that low impedance load. Even then, the heat build up will cause premature failure as the enemy of all electrical components is heat. Ever run an engine too hot for too long? Ever idle an engine with 2 ranges too hot plugs with low coolant and no cooling fans in the desert?

*Edit* Before you attempt to call bull**** on this concept merely read the following link:

http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/amps/139718.pdf

Amps rarely "double down" (double amperage) when halving the load resistance.

Originally Posted by matt5112

If the question is how to disable the tweeters then its simple, unplug them. Why was there 10 posts if its as simple as unplugging them? But no, the OP changed his mind between writing the Subject title and the OP.

The subject line translates to why did I have to disable stock tweeters...I never changed the title. I wanted to reconnect the tweeters to my new polks. But since it seems the last 2 posts are way over my head, and I dont want to turn my car into an atom bomb by reconnecting stock tweeters to new speakers, Im just gonna them how they are...where the only sound seems to be coming from the 6x9's.

Hey guys. I know this an old post but pretty much any post I come across that inspires me to do something new is usually a couple years old. Let's just all consider GTP/ GP modding info a timeless thing, huh? After a while back hooking up some big 6x9's behind the doors I left the stock little window corner tweeters unhooked. Been a few years. Spent an hour or so connecting them back up using the parallel method (solder a speaker wire to appropriate +/- spots on the speaker terminals then run each of the ends of the other side of the wire to the appropriate +/- wires running off the stock tweeter after cutting the line before the special connector). Just make sure to use a 5-6' length of speaker wire then strategically hide it/ tuck it under & behind the door as ur popping the tree fasteners back in before finishing up. It'll make it easier in the future if u ever go to take the door off again. You'll need some length to be able to conveniently remove the door & move it aside with that little tweeter still connceted with the splice you'll have to make about a foot down the wires from the tweeter. I gotta say I didn't think they would make any difference upon analyzing them before connecting them but I stand corrected. They DO add a significant amount of treble to kind of finish off & polish the sound making a solid sound system even better. It's not a HUGE difference but it is DEFINITELY worth the effort & research.