I just finished wiring in the high pass crossovers to my speakers. Sight member( Pelked1) was right. Sounds Awesome!! I used the 300HZ crossover. A package of two cost me under $11.00 at a stereo shop. Installation is Sooooo Easy anyone can do this!!! 10 to 15 minutes per door. Only tool needed is a pocket knife. Only parts needed is 4 very small wire nuts or crimp the wires if you perfer. Procedure> Disconnect the negative cable from the battery. You'll see a pop out service pannel just above the door pannels large speaker (((Only when the door is OPEN))) !!! Lightly pry the pannel off. You will then see two seperate wiring harness with connectors. The red and black wires wrapped with black braided sheathing can be seen running from the speaker to the harness plug disconnect. Squeeze the connector then pull apart. The speaker wires are long enough to pull through the removed pannel opening. Pick at the black braided sheathing until you can pull out about an inch loop of the black wire. Then cut the black wire into and strip back each end enough to wire in the crossover between the now cut speaker wire. I connected with crimp terminal ends. Crimp,wirenut or solder. Whatever turns you on. Would be a good idea to use good grade tape to fasten the crossover to the door pannel inside so not to rattle. Pop the service pannel back on,Connect the negetive battery cable,Reset the base and treble settings then JAM !!

 

I could not find the post with the instructions for installing the capacitor. I am a good DIY. Is the modification done at the speakers or at the stereo. Many thanks

 

OK, post #21. That's the one with pictures.

addendums:

#25, #28 and others.

I installed about 20 of these for other folks on the Forum, but I used 270uF 65V caps. It, in my opinion gives the best balance of base and clarity from the doors. I found that with a lower value they started to sound "tinny".

Others seem to like them.

 

Is it OK to trim the wires on the ends of the capacitor? I ordered two off of amazon and the wires are extremely long. Makes it a pain to try to mount inside the door. I noticed when I turn on the CD player that before the CD starts to play there is noise that comes from both front woofers. I'm going to try to get a better connection tonight.

 

Yup, mine where long as well and I trimmed them. Works great.

 

I did this mod yesterday. I used the 220uf because Radio Shack had them. (they have no clue if they're polarized or not but thanks to Maxcichon I knew it didn't matter) They cost $1.69 each. I have to agree that the change is noticeable and an improvement. However, I'm going looking for the 270uf. I think the 220's cut a tad too much bass to the front speakers. I'd recommend adding wire length to the capacitor beforehand so you have more slack to make the connections. (as suggested by others) The access panel is tiny and there is little room to work with.

All said and done, thanks to all that have contributed to this thread for a simple, dirt cheap way to improve the sound of the stock system.

Les

 

Max says the 270uf sounds the best.
I ended up using the 330uf to keep the bass a little stronger.
It is certainly an individual choice and the caps are cheap so try until you get the sound that best satisfies you.

Got mine here

Valk

 

Reading this thread, I'm just confused as to why Infinity made the stereo muddy and not to its fullest potential already...

 

I wired in a pair of 330uf caps last week. To my ear still a little too bassy in the doors. So today I went hunting, first to Radio Shlack,no help. Wound up at Best Buy and they had a set of 199uf/100volt for under 12.00.Talked to one of the stereo installers and explained what I was doing and he said these should be ideal,so far sounds better than the 330's, can feel the rear bass much better will do a road test ride this weekend.
This is such an easy fix,anyone can do it
Ride on .......

 

i did a little research:

assuming we do actually have 2-ohm speakers here is the attached chart of filtered frequencies

aftermarket fullranges are good down to about 125-150 Hz, so for factory speakers we should be looking at about 175-275Hz filter. This corresponds to a capacitor should be around 289-455uF. this agrees with Max using 270uF to filter alot of audible bass, and others who have used 330 uF, which filters below 235Hz. But i think its important to say the crutchfield bass blockers are a waste because they are rated for 4 (and 8) ohm speakers down to 150Hz @ 4 ohms, so for us thats filtering 300Hz and below, they are 265uF even lower than max's. which seems like it will cut alot of the bass to me. I'm gonna try something closer to 400uF shooting for a 200Hz crossover.

 

you lost me on that last sentence sorry im terrible with stereo stuff but did you just say that getting the bass blocker is a waste of money because it will filter out 300Hz and below and thats to much bass out? or was your last sentence saying cutting all that bass out is a good thing cause isnt that what we are trying to do?

 

Let me just jump in for a comment?

When I tested a number of different cap values, I was using an audio tet disc with monotone frequencies. I did this to see just where a certain value would audibly change the sounds coming from the door speakers. Then I listened to some of my favorite music-George Thorogood-to make sure I liked what I had done. GT and the Destroyers is a good test disc because it is complex and has good bass runs.
It is a personal preference-not everyone would be happy with a single value.
I did notice that with too high a value (330 and up) the door speakers started to sound tinny. There was a noticable gap in frequency response.
I figure I'll eventually spring for a pair of high-end 6.5"ers for the doors in the future-Infinity Kappas probably- for their ability to reproduce mid-low freqs better than the OEM's. $100 isn't too bad for the added pleasure.

JMHO, ya' know?

 

yeah the infinity kappa perfects are nice i had them in my camaro

 

Im not sure what tinny means exactly.

If you go higher than 330uF you should be letting more bass go to the door speakers.

Your testing does prove what works best in real life, so 270 might be the best value

 

You are absolutely right. My mistake! With values below 220uF they weren't reproducing frequencies in the mid-bass range. Only higher freq's. By "tinny" I meant to say like a transistor radio-no bass at all. A noticable gap in range. Does that make sense?

And if I recall, values above 370uF made little or no difference. At least using the audio test CD.

If you look WAY back in this thread, I recall explaining it better. My memory isn't what it used to be.

And my memory isn't what it used to be.

 

I recall when looking at the block diagram for the factory amp connections that the speakers were labeled as 2ohm, which would make the calculations incorrect up to now. That being said, from everything I've read 270-300uf caps seem to sound the best (as reported here) so that's what I'm looking for at Frys. I work in Silicon Valley where there's all kinds of electronics bits and pieces stores, so if Frys doesn't have them someone around here will.

Are the tweeters cap'd or are they also running full range?

I wonder if a good two way mid/tweeter crossover wouldn't be the way to go, but good luck finding one for 2ohm speakers. Orion made some awesome 2 ohm component speakers with a supurb crossover network some years ago (I have a set, and their incredible). Unfortunately the crossover is probably as large as our OEM amp, so it would be difficult to install, and it's one crossover box for the mids and tweeters, not one box for each side, adding to the complexity of the install.

 

PS - Being that the amp is 2ohms, if you change the door speakers to 4ohm speakers and keep the factory amp, you've lost half of the power to the door speakers (although the amp will be happy doing half the work

 

That's a very valid point. One will have to consider if the OEM amp will provide the sound levels one wants before a replacement speaker is chosen.

Thanks for the dose of reality!

 

I started with the 220uF caps and was not fully happy with it. last month I swapped them out for some 330uF ones which to me was a big improvement. A fuller, yet not too bassy sound from the fronts now.

 

i did this mod on my base model it really makes the banjo tones spring to life.