I'm changing my seats to '85 seats. I need to change the speakers. I was wondering what kind of speakers you thnk are the best for the seats. Also does anyone have a wiring diagram for the speakers
[This message has been edited by notwohorns (edited 11-30-2013).]
I'm changing my seats to '85 seats. I need to change the speakers. I was wondering what kind of speakers you thnk are the best for the seats. Also does anyone have a wiring diagram for the speakers
The wiring is going to differ based on the ohm rating of whatever speaker you use. They are 3.5" speakers so any 3.5" should work although you may have to trim some of the foam depending on how big the basket and magnet is. Personal prefrence, I would look at Polk. However, there are many brands out there and everyone has their own tastes. Maybe somewhere local (such as Best Buy) will have a sound board where you can listen to several different brands and see which you like the most.
the deal with the wiring is this... the factory used 10 ohm speakers such that when they are wired in parallel (2 lefts and 2 rights) they will be 5 ohms. After market 10 ohms speakers are rare to non-existent. Most are going to be 4 ohms which when wired in parallel results in a 2 ohm load which will probably fry the delco head unit. Some aftermarket radios are stable with 2 ohm load...some are not.
Factory wiring:
Another alternative is to wire the 2 lefts and 2 rights in series. Common 4 ohm speakers will be increased to 8 ohms and more compatible with the 10 ohm speakers in front.
Series wiring:
If you are running aftermarket and you know your amp is 2 ohm stable then just use the factory wiring and forget about it.
Nice diagrams jscotts. That's why I said wiring will depend upon the ohms of the speakers he chooses. If he get's 8 ohm, they can be wired up like stock with the final ohm rating being 4 ohm versus the 5 ohm stock. 4 ohm should be fine with the headunit. If he gets 4 ohm speakers, then he will want to wire them in series as you state. That will show the radio an 8 ohm load, which again the radio shouldn't have a problem handling. They will be slightly quieter than the stock speakers because the 8 ohm load will result in less power being produced by the radio, but not so much that you will most likely ever notice. Either way, just about any stock or aftermarket stereo will handle 4 or 8 ohm loads. As you state though, some aftermarket stereos will handle a 2 ohm load and most aftermarket amplifiers (if he is using one) will handle a 2 ohm load also. I'm going to save those diagrams for the next time this topic comes up. That way if I see it before they are posted, I can post them to be more helpful .
Thanks guus. Yes I have an 97 Pontiac CD radio and that's some information I did not know. I wonder how much quieter when wire in series compared to the dash speakers. Are the headrest speaker controled by the fade function? Thanks for your help
The difference in volume won't be that noticeable. Think of it like I usually listen to my radio at 28, but since I've changed to 8 ohm speakers I listen to it at 30. Unless you listen to your stereo maxed on the volume knob all the time, it probably won't make any difference except you turn your knob a sixteenth of a turn higher. The fader works with the seat speakers as they were hooked up to the rear outputs on the stereo. The cars that had seat speakers, well they were the only rear speakers in those cars. Are you planning to keep the stock rears and use the seat speakers? If so that will again change the wiring configuration if you are hooking all three speakers to the same rear speaker output. Balance still works, but the seat speakers have a right and left in each seat for stereo sound. If not each seat would be mono to the ears that are right there in them. Hope that answers your questions.
when I did the 85 seat conversion I just spliced them together with the wires going to the B piller speaker, sounded great.
I saw your thread in the archives...people gave you grief for hooking it up that way. Basically you had left channel in the driver's seat and right channel in the passenger seat. I would never do it that way.
The two drawings I posted both have left and right in both the driver and passenger seat. There is no difference in terms of imaging between the two drawings for balance and fader function ..only volume as khw pointed out.
Having mono in each chair diminishes the whole point of seat speakers in my opinion. you say it sounds great, but maybe you have never heard what seat speakers are supposed to sound like? It's more like headphones where you are immersed in the sound verses just hearing it behind your head.
when I did the 85 seat conversion I just spliced them together with the wires going to the B piller speaker, sounded great.
And while I'm not sure what the ohms of the B pillar speaker is, but if the headrest speakers are paralleled you present a 5 ohm load there. If the B pillar is 10 ohm, you end up with a 3.33 ohm load paralelling them in, if it's 16 ohm you end up with a 3.8. I doubt the headunit was rated for under 4 ohms, so you are more likely to burn up your headunits ICamp with extended listening or high volume. Does that mean you will? No, just that it's more likely to happen. That's why you have to pay attention to how things are wired up. Tell ya what, go out and replace all those speakers with aftermarket 4 ohm units and see what happens...
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 12-02-2013).]
And while I'm not sure what the ohms of the B pillar speaker is, but if the headrest speakers are paralleled you present a 5 ohm load there. If the B pillar is 10 ohm, you end up with a 3.33 ohm load paralelling them in, if it's 16 ohm you end up with a 3.8. I doubt the headunit was rated for under 4 ohms, so you are more likely to burn up your headunits ICamp with extended listening or high volume. Does that mean you will? No, just that it's more likely to happen. That's why you have to pay attention to how things are wired up. Tell ya what, go out and replace all those speakers with aftermarket 4 ohm units and see what happens...
Lol that car is long gone anyway... Really don't know where it ended up last place I heard was California.
If, like me... you're looking for the wiring diagram ... specifically to tell you positive and negative for the seat wires in the 84-85 seats... I found this from E.Furgal in a post he made several year ago. Reposting it to this post...
Left Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): Tan Left Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): Gray Right Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): Light Green Right Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): Dark Green Left Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Brown Left Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Yellow Right Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Dark Blue Right Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Light Blue
Note, the wire colors matched up perfectly to this. I wanted to make sure I wired my headrest speakers in the correct phase (and not backwards).
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