Re: Biggest stereo bang for the buck mod
Well, I recently realized I can a bone-head at times...the connector that connects the mid/woofers to the amplifier is accessible from the little panel at the front middle area of the door panel...so no need to remove the entire door panel! You can get to what you need through this panel.
I estimate that this will take about 30 minutes per door. What you are doing is installing a 220uF capacitor (a 150uF, 200uF or 270uF would work as well) in series with the mid-woofer. This capacitor creates a high-pass filter that filters out frequencies that are about less than 200 hertz to the mid-woofer, thereby reducing the amount of bass coming from these speakers. This allows the bass control to be raised by about five to seven increments to get the bass from the subs at a higher volume while not overloading the mid/woofs. As I stated before, this little modification does wonders to the low frequency through the lower midrange frequency band. It was enough of an improvement for me to not go out and purchase an entirely new system. Since it will cost less than $5 and only about an hour total, it really is a great modification. You can purchase the caps (2) at Radio Shack for less than $2 apiece.
This is the procedure:
1. Pop off the panel with a screwdriver.
----> Use a small flathead screwdriver and with a little finesse, the panel will pop right out.
2. Reach in and disconnect the rear connector (the one with two wires, not five!).
----> Squeeze in the two tabs on each side, and pull the connector downwards. When it disconnects, there is enough play in the wire to pull it out of the door panel several inches. You will have to pull back the black cloth sleeve that protects the wires inside.
3. Install the capacitor.
----> I have two different procedures for this. Cut one wire and splice in the capacitor using either 1) wire nuts or 2) crimp connectors.
----> The capacitor can be wired in series with either the red or the black wire. It doesn't matter.
----> Capacitor values in this range are usually polarized. This means that one end has to be connected to the more positive voltage side of the circuit. In our case, this is a don't care and it doesn't matter which way the cap is oriented. This is because there is no DC voltage level at the amplifier output (actually there is always a few millivolts of DC, but never enough to worry about).
----> In summary, the capacitor is put into series with either the black wire or the red wire, and it doesn't matter which way the cap is "pointing" in this series connection.
4. Reconnect the plug and pop the panel back into the door. Done! Enjoy your great "new" stereo!
For my tastes, Before the mod, I usually had the bass control set at -7, -8 (or sometimes even -9) to prevent the front speakers from over loading and distorting from too much bass. After the mod, the bass can be put all the way up to around -5 to about +2, depending on the material.
I will state that however easy and safe this procedure is, I am not responsible for any damage incurred by anybody performing this to their Crossfire, either to their person or to their vehicle and/or other property.
Good Luck and have fun!
Last edited by pelked1; Oct 17, 2006 at 03:05 AM.