Speaker / Amp / Wiring

[MiD 0]

Be patient with me as Im not used to anything related to ICE, in fact it took me a bit of time to work out what it actually meant.

 

The terms tweeter, sub woofer, pre amp etc. is about as relevant to me as Swahili. In my STDT I run the original Clarion cassette player with the oe speakers front and rear, always found that to be okay for my needs especially when plugging in my MP3 player on long trips to Scotland. Always reluctant to use the cassette player as it gets quite hot in that area which tape doesnt particularly like.

 

My recently purchased GTi has a Panasonic CD player, a Kenwood PS 200T Amp in the back, 2 9X6 speakers on the parcel shelf, oe front speakers and tweeters on the door mirror inserts, not sure if the oe rear speakers are still there.

 

I have managed to download the instruction manual for the CD player and now know how to tune the wireless, took me ages to figure out where the CD went though prior to downloading the manual.

 

The parcel shelf speakers are not right as I think one has blown anything with bass sounds terrible unless I balance disproportionately it to the near side.

 

The front speakers give nothing, some time I receive a micro second blast of sound but noting else. I have managed to remove the door card without removing speakers fronts and put my hand up and around the speaker but nothing happened. The reason I couldnt get the speaker front of is I presume it is a torx head and now need to find one the right size, if its not torx then it is a rounded Phillips head.

 

Nothing from the tweeters at all. I have used the various controls on the head unit to see if that makes a difference but nought.

 

Have taken the head unit out and there is a red and white female plug one taped up hanging from the unit, at the back in the mass of wiring are two loose red and white female plugs which look like oe wiring.

 

On the amp is two purple plugs which can fit into four possible sockets Ive tried various combinations and worked out which ones power the speakers, or should that be my one decent rear speaker.

 

So, where do I start? I presume I need the correct size torx to get the speaker grills out to get the speakers off but all I can really look for is loose wiring as I would not know what Im doing, Ive no meters to check whether current is getting to anything.

 

Advice or pointers where to go would be appreciated, does any one have an easy to understand manual for the Kenwood amp.

 

Ive gone through most of the forum but at this stage it is baffling.

[aeinstein 0]

alright?

 

i've had a couple of pints so couldn't possibly concentrate long enough to answer your entire post, and without seeing it, its difficult to diagnose, but i'll try...

 

the red and whites behind the headunit are rca cables, which send signal to your amp, if its a high end head unit, there may be 2 or 3 sets, if they are all loose behind the headunit, then the amp appears not to be wired up. it sounds like the tweeters may not be wired up either if they do nothing, and its a waste of time putting tweeters on oe front speakers anyway, cos they'd need crossovers (to filter out inappropriate frequencies) or else they'd just sound cack.

 

what might not be a bad idea, (which i would probly do in your situation) is go to your local audio dealer, and ask them to check the amp is working, unless you have a friend with a similar setup, and ask him to put your amp into his car and test it.

 

then it might be a good idea to buy a multimeter and amp wiring kit (either 2 or 4 channel) and rewire the whole amp. also, get the speaker grills off and check them and replace as necessary. it might cost you a few quid but at least you'll be learning as you go! the 205 isn't a bad car to play with audio in, cos its quite straightforward to pull it to bits and replace again.

 

hth

 

al

 

edit: just read it back and thought, turn the levels down on the amp as if they are up to max, all kinds of odd noises will come from the speakers!

Edited January 2, 2007 by aeinstein