Questioni have an 01 grand am...monsoon stereo system. i saw your ansr for another guys question regarding the aftermarket 6x9...how can i hook the four wires up to a 6x9 that has only two hook ups?
AnswerHi Kyle,
The short answer is, you can't connect the four Monsoon speaker wires to a 6x9 with only two terminals. Your options are to use only one pair of factory wires, to modify the speaker so that you can connect both sets of wires to separate inputs, or to bypass the Monsoon amplifier and run the new speakers directly from the head unit.
The first option is to use only one set of factory wires. The Monsoon system uses one pair of outputs for bass, and the other pair for treble. If you connect only the bass pair, then you won't hear treble from your new speakers; if you connect only the treble pair, you won't hear any bass. (You have to use one or the other; you can't mix them). You might try connecting only the bass wires, relying on your front speakers to give you the high frequencies, and using the rear only for bass reinforcement. In this case, you'd want to connect the dark green (+) and light blue/black (-) wires on the right speaker, and the dark blue/white (+) and light green/black (-) wires on the left speaker.
The second option is to modify the new speakers. This is not possible with all 6x9's. If you look closely at the new speaker terminals, you might see separate wires coming from the tweeter pod and soldered to the terminal block. Sometimes these wires run up to the center of the magnet, where they're routed through the pole piece and into the tweeter pod. If your speakers are built this way, you can cut the tweeter pod wires away from the terminal block and connect them directly to the factory treble wires. These are white (+) and yellow (-) on the right, and red (+) and violet (-) on the left. Of course, you'll instantly void your speakers' warranty by doing this. Also, there's no guarantee how well the speakers' crossover design will match the Monsoon amplifier's built-in crossover. In other words, you won't know how it will sound until you've tried it. I've had good results when I've done this, but there's no way to be sure.
The third option is to bypass the Monsoon amp. It's located under the liner on the driver's side of the trunk, behind the wheel well. In this particular Monsoon system, the stock head unit actually produces enough power to drive speakers on its own, without the amplifier. You can find the rear speaker channel inputs at the amplifier, cut them away from the amp input plug, and connect them directly to your new speakers instead of using the Monsoon outputs. The input wires from the head unit carry the full audio signal; they're not separated into bass and treble wires until after the Monsoon amp. The wire colors are brown (+) and yellow (-) for the left channel, and dark blue (+) and light blue (-) for the right. Using these wires will let you play a full-range sound through the new speakers, but you'll lose the built-in EQ and extra power provided by the Monsoon amp.
Hope this helps!
Brian
