hit wrong key I'm sure, but cute anyway :

 

You are right Mr M. I will do that right away!!

 

I may be a day late and a dollar short here, but in order to run the tweeters directly from the head unit, you are going to have to wire the factory amp to be driven by RCA outputs on the head unit. This will require some wiring modifications to the factory amp wiring, and while you are there you may as well seperate the front and rear inputs and use both sets of RCA outputs to tailor the sound even more to your taste. Its not difficult, just a bit time consuming.
The way I did it was just get a set of RCA cables that was made for connecting a 4 channel amp to a 4 channel deck. I clipped one end of the connectors off and wired that directly to the factory amp after tracing the wiring, using the same diagram I believe Max posted up earlier. Then just take the front speaker output from the deck and run new wires to your tweeters in the doors. Disconnect the factory wiring to those speakers so you don't have 2 sources trying to power at the same time. It may be a real pain in the butt trying to get the staging/fading adjusted properly that way though. Remember the factory amp has speed adjusting volume, so the door speakers and the factory subs will get louder the faster you go, while the tweeters will not.

Another option is to wire the Kappa speaker and tweeter in series, thereby increasing its ohms value. It will require modifying the factory wiring, but shouldn't be hard to accomplishmat all. Its fairly easy once you understand the concept. You will take the factory positive input and connect it to the positive side of the Kappa woofer. You will take the factory negative input and connect it to the negative side of the new tweeter. You will take a new, seperate wire and connect it from the negative side of the woofer to the positive side of the tweeter. Bam, wire in series, bringing ohms up to probably 8. System is happy, you are happy, minimal mods speed volume adjustment works on all speakers. Easily reversible too.

 

Where were you, Moparfreak. I now feel like a first-class fool for forgetting about the speed sensitive aspect of the PA. DUH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Change all my posts to what MoparFreak said.

 

I was wondering about wiring in a series.. but not being sure of speaker ohm values and "happy land" value for the amp I didn't suggest it.
I would think Crutchfield would have suggested this if it was a valid option?

 

I'm wondering about just what the impedance of the speakers really is. And with them in series, crossover design is problematic as well.

What do you guys who do this all the time DO? I can speak in theory about impedance, power transfer, ohm's law, crossovers, etc. but I don't set up these systems, so my PRACTICAL knowledge is weak.

 

If wire in series like I described the crossover ('filter') "should" only affect the tweeter as theory goes that power flows from positive to negative. According to theory the power should flow through the woofer before going through the tweeter. Speakers operated on pulsating DC current so power only flows one direction.

Theory says anyway.....

As far as impedance values, I am only throwing out a guess, but generally amplifiers can handle more resistance than spec better than less resistance than spec (ie. 8ohm rated amp will run 16ohms fine versus having problems running 4ohms). This is only a general guidline and varies based on specific amp circuits.

 

You are no dummy, you sure saved me on the speed-sensitive thing above, but this is wrong. Speakers are fed AC current. Always. Never an exception. There SOMETIMES is a DC bias voltage there, but what makes the speaker cone go in and out is AC. One polarity of the AC causes the cone to go out, the opposite polarity causes it to go in.


Well, that is true. But for maximum power transfer, you want the load impedance to match the source impedance. Which, of course, can't happen at all audio frequencies because the speaker is only "8" or "4" or whatever ohms at a specific frequency. Above that frequency, the speaker tends to be inductive, but at almost all frequencies, a speaker presents a rather complex impedance, both resistive and reactive.

And the amount of air restriction behind the cone (because it limits the cone's travel) will cause the impedance of the coil to change as well. The limits on travel cause, as does the travel itself, interaction between the voice coil's magnetic field and the magnetism of the cone's material as they move in relation to one another.

But a lower impedance than the amp is designed for IS considered "too much of a load" because the lower impedance causes more current to flow - the the amp certainly won't like that. Also, this increased current means more heat dissipated in the output circuit of the amp (current flowing thru resistance means heat, more current, more heat.)

 

Guess I should have taken that nap I wanted earlier, you are dead on Pizza! Guess I need to get a woofer and tweeter out and hook them up to an amp and see if a crossover affects both or only one.
There is the possibility of doing a series/parallel connection, but thats when things get craaaaaazy!

 

i just read through this thread....

...i no longer want to replace my speakers..


LOL

 

Rockford Fosgate PP8-T Punch Pro 1-1/2" tweeter with 8-ohm voice coil at Crutchfield.com

Easy fix for this.. 8 ohm tweeter?

Half price sale.. LOL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROCKFORD-FOS...-/330912463078

 

Well, the most successful audio mods are done by those who replace the head, amp, most/all wiring and speakers.

In other words, they start over from scratch with a total new design and system.



My problem is I have never modded my sound (other than running the GMRS radio thru the sounds system for the Dragon, using the Telephone mute/audio jacks on the NAV head). I have little business advising anyone - as my forgetting about the speed-sensitive amplifier feature testifies to.

 

Wow, I still have 2 pages to go, oops lol.

 

Yea, I am kind of thinking the same thing and can you believe it, I am the OP who started this whole thread. Once the big boys hit the thread they lost me at page 2!

Mr Miati: Hold onto those cites you provided that just may be my easy way out of this quagmire that keeps building and building and buil.....................

 

Hey...., exactly WHAT Kappas are you running?

If they are two-way and have a small tweeter and crossover - the door tweeters are kinda overkill. I'd just disconnect the door tweeters and see how it sounds.
I ask cause SOME Kappa models have a nice tweeter in them already.

I ask this becuase I found a set I like that have tiny tweeters and are 2 ohm -you don't want to put ANYTHING in there with those, as your impedance would be well below 2 ohms and the amp can't possibly like THAT. I'd bet the ones I found would out perform what is in my car now, which is factory.

 

I need help as well. After about a month of reading the forums, I decided to replace my 2 blown door speakers In my 2004 Crossfire. I left factory everything and from suggestions I have read here, I bought kappas. After installing them my battery would no longer start my car even after I would jump the battery and run the car for awhile. So I bought a new battery and car starts fine. But now I noticed my front speakers will just cut out while the rear factory subs stay on. Than I shut the head unit off than back on and I have sound back for maybe 5 minutes depending on how it feels. Do I need a bigger amp or what is wrong? I love the new kappas sound great when they work ty.

 

Btw they are the 62.9i kappas sorry I forgot

 

Man I am glad to see I am not the only one who is having problems with these Kappas. I unhooked the kicker tweeters and now all I have is the Kappa door speakers hooked up to the factory amp, with the stock subs in the back. I no longer get a shut off of the sound and so that is fixed, but now everytime I turn the volume up past half way I get a clipping and staticky sound. When Iturn the volume down it is not there.

I called Crutchfield and they said the factory amp is underpowering the Kappas, or the Kappas are too powerful for the amp, and when the amp is overloaded it sends out the clipping. they recomended I buy a more powerful amp, of course.

Can any one else chime in on this and let me know if I really need to get a more powerful amp or am I experiencing some other problem Thanks