Infinity sound system amps

[Diablo]

i have a 91 daytona shelby with the infinity sound system. it sounds decent except for the drivers side door speaker. when hooked up it just kind of crackles somewhat with the music. i tried it on the other door to confirm it was the speaker and not the radio or wirring and it didn't work over there either. the speakers are newer 6x9s and when it is hooked up without the amp to a different source it works. i was wondering if there was any way to check the amp. also i don't know if it makes a difference on these but it is a 4 ohm speaker. could that cause a problem? or maybe the speaker got hooked up pos to neg?

[Hagenator]

What is the amps power rating? And what is the speakers MAX power? Also if possible do you know the amps model number? And the speakers are infinity's right.

[Hagenator]

Also how many channels is the amp? And your only running 4 speakers right.

[Diablo]

everything is stock except for the speakers. they are pioneer 6x9s with 120w max rating. the amp is the factory amp that is screwed onto the back of the factory speakers. someone just screwed it to the back of some new 6x9s. the car has six speakers 2 in dash 2 in door and 2 in rear

[NAJ]

I do not think the amps that are built onto the factory front door speakers are made to come off and be installed on aftermarket replacements.
The infinity sound system is "bi-amplified" with an amp built into the radio and seperate amps on the front door speakers.
Years ago I had a "crackling sound" coming from the door speakers(a couple of month's apart, first L/S then R/S) and the problem was in the Amps, replaced the door speakers with factory replacements and problem gone.
I am not a radio expert so I cannot give you advice on correcting the situation with aftermarket replacements.

[charger R/T]

The factory amp on speaker set up was basicly 4 wires in. 2 speaker and 2 to power the amp. The factory woofer and tweeter were separate from each other (like a modern component speaker just all enclosed) the speaker wires ran straight to the tweeter with out being boosted (that is why when people have infinity problems they usually report just high notes and low volume) the amp was only used for the woofer.

You don't need the amps. A nice aftermarket speaker wired to just the speaker wires will work and sound just fine as long as you don't go get some high power speakers. Any stock replacement speaker for a non infinity car would work fine.

I have popped infinity radios in non infinity cars and nothing changes except the broken radio is not in there and I have replaced many infinity speakers with the amps with stock replacment speakers and all works fine. My 6 speaker van with the infinity system has had 4 of the speakers replaced years ago and it sounds better then the stock setup.

The amped speakers do sound better then the junk they put in non infinity cars but a good aftermarket speaker will sound better then the infinity speaker.
Tim

[Diablo]

i ended up just hooking up the speakers without the amp i it actually sounds better on the drivers side with no amp than on the pass side with the amp. im just going to take that one out too. thanks for the help

[Oklahoma Wolf]

I'm late to this one. The amp on the door speaker has bad solder joints, and due to the potting compound in them they're a real bear to fix. I've done it a few times, and it can be tricky to get them fixed well enough that they stay working.

Easiest thing to do it just bypass them, as you've found.

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The amped speakers do sound better then the junk they put in non infinity cars but a good aftermarket speaker will sound better then the infinity speaker.

You'd be surprised. There are some Chrysler/Infinity 5.25" speakers out there with genuine EMIT tweeters. I've got four of them and a sub in my daily driver - they hold their own with most aftermarket stuff I've used. Gets nice and loud in there too, when I'm in the mood.

Those models can be found in 1988-1989 minivans (dash) and 1988-1989 Lebaron Convertibles (rear). The Lebaron models do bass and midbass better due to a larger woofer magnet and voice coil.

[crusty shadow]

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Originally Posted by Oklahoma Wolf I'm late to this one. The amp on the door speaker has bad solder joints, and due to the potting compound in them they're a real bear to fix. I've done it a few times, and it can be tricky to get them fixed well enough that they stay working. Easiest thing to do it just bypass them, as you've found. You'd be surprised. There are some Chrysler/Infinity 5.25" speakers out there with genuine EMIT tweeters. I've got four of them and a sub in my daily driver - they hold their own with most aftermarket stuff I've used. Gets nice and loud in there too, when I'm in the mood. Those models can be found in 1988-1989 minivans (dash) and 1988-1989 Lebaron Convertibles (rear). The Lebaron models do bass and midbass better due to a larger woofer magnet and voice coil.

you must have been using mostly jensen audiovox or other junk from wal-mart if you think 88 era factory speakers can hold a candle to decent current aftermarket car audio.

infinity speakers that come with the amped system in our cars are 2 ohm speakers. the amps are designed to play into that load to make all thier power. if you connect an aftermarket speaker to them they are almost always 4 ohm- you get half the power out of em, and they just wont sound very good- the only exception is infinity ( go figure) they went to a 2.65 ohm coil in all of thier full range speakers 2 years ago.

if you want to replace them with aftermarket speakers, i would definately bypass the amps- 2 ways to do it.
cut the plug that goes into the amp off of the amp and use the 2 middle wires- those are the signal wires from the headunit, the outer 2 are power and ground for the amp itself.
or you can just buy adaper plugs- metra makes them- plugs right into the factory harness and give you the 2 speaker leads marked for correct polarity.

if you really want that car to sound GOOD id replace the front speakers with a 5 1/4 in component set( bostons rock, alpine, jl audio and jbl also sound good- not too expensive either). mount the woofers in the facotry locations, get some dynamat, and apply it to the doors- that stuff really works. mount the tweeters in the factory location. use the crossovers that come with the component set. do not mount crossovers in the doors- they dont like to be slammed when you close the door. use the wiring behind the radio to go into the doors for the woofers, run wires from the tweeters down to the crossover and then run wires back to the amp

replace the rears with a good quality pair of 6x9's- dynamat the rear deck too. and run the whole setup on a 4 channel amp- alpine makes a nice one thats 45x4 can be had for under 200.00 and has a really clean sound quality

do a single 12" sub sealed, about 300 watts of power, firing back against the trunk wall.

set crossovers on 4 ch at around 100hz, low pass the sub at around 75 hz.
you'll be flat out amazed at the sound- you'll never want to listen to factory systems again.

if you shop carefully and choose wisely you can spend under a grand and have a killer system that brings a smile to your face every time you crank the volume

i was a proffesional certified installer for over 10 years, ive done countless setups like this and they always sound good.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by crusty shadow you must have been using mostly jensen audiovox or other junk from wal-mart if you think 88 era factory speakers can hold a candle to decent current aftermarket car audio.

Clif Designs, Sony, Kenwood, Alpine. I have a background in pro audio and have been an electronics tech for 20 years.

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infinity speakers that come with the amped system in our cars are 2 ohm speakers.

Incorrect, they are 4 ohm. At least, all the older ones are (I think they've changed that since 2000 though). If you look up the specs on the power amp chip on any amp on speaker Chrysler/Infinity before 2000, you will find them to be unable to drive a 2 ohm load.

This isn't the first time I've heard this myth, however - it actually came about due to confusion with the factory Bose systems out there, which do run at very low impedances.

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the amps are designed to play into that load to make all thier power. if you connect an aftermarket speaker to them they are almost always 4 ohm- you get half the power out of em, and they just wont sound very good

The NEC PC1230H2 power amp chip is rated for 20W at 4 ohms, which is how they're implemented in Chrysler/Infinity systems.

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if you shop carefully and choose wisely you can spend under a grand and have a killer system that brings a smile to your face every time you crank the volume

Did it in the New Yorker for less than $300. Most of it's in the sub. I spent $10 for my four 5.25" Chrysler/Infinitys with EMIT tweeters - there is nothing else around for even close to that price I would rather listen to. Sure, if you hand me perhaps 5x that amount I could find something I like better, but I love the challenge of good sound for cheap. Call me crazy

The only part I'm disappointed with right now is the sub. Visonik V126S4, powered by a Visonik V217SX I got off eBay and repaired. It sounds sloppy as heck... can't even hold its own in accuracy with the Chrsyler/Infinitys. That sub needs upgrading bad.

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i was a proffesional certified installer for over 10 years, ive done countless setups like this and they always sound good.

I don't doubt it. But I do have some experience here too, and I'm asking you to respect and at least consider my opinion, rather than dismissing it out of hand.

FWIW, Chrysler/Infinity stuff after about 1995 or so really does suck. Bad. Paper coned woofers, cone tweeters... blech. They started going cheap, and it shows :(

[Torrle101]

I know this isn’t exactly about this subject but I thought since this was up I would post. I posted a thread about this already but there was no success, I have a 93 Dodge Daytona IROC 3.0L auto which has the Infinity set up, four wires for each speaker except for the dash tweeters and the two ground wires behind the head unit. The problem is all speakers are only producing the highs there is no bass, THE ONBOARD AMPS WORK so that is not an issue, I know it could be a possible wiring problem but there are other things that I think it may be. I was told there’s a relay and speaker choke that controls the onboard amps, and the speaker choke is supposed to be located above the radio? the only thing above the radio are the climate controls and the heater ducts, there is also a spot up under the drivers side kick panel the houses a bunch of relays, the fuse panel cover says that one of them is for AMP TURN ON the number specified for that particular relay is not there, and there are no metal plugs even in the slot for the relay to plug into. If these to items are located elsewhere, I have no idea where they are, I’m not using an aftermarket head unit so I don’t have that issue with the ground wire not hooked up correctly or not being hooked up at all, and for those of you who are going to say why stick with the stock system it sounds like crap, I happen to like the way it sounds and I’m going to use it end of story. Any info would be greatly appreciated thanks to all!

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Strange that it has Infinity but that relay isn't there. Must be somewhere else in the car.

At any rate, your problem is the amps aren't turning on. The relay is fed from the power antenna wire at the head unit, and the relay ground is a single wire with a female spade connector on it that grounds out behind the radio to the radio case somewhere. First thing I would check is fuses (the amps are usually on a different circuit to the head unit), second thing would be to make sure that spade connector is grounded. If that doesn't do it, measure the power antenna feed wire on the head unit to see if it's providing 12V when powered on. The wire will be on the black connector, and is the one on the end opposite the notch on the connector.

After that, we'll need to locate that relay (my notes say under left side of dash, relay block) and make sure it's there and working. Odds are very slim the choke would go out... I've never seen that happen. It's possible though. The choke looks like a big transformer - it might be beside the steering wheel column under the dash.

Hope that helps.

[charger R/T]

Were the infinity speakers in the car and previously work?

Both my 92 and 93 Iroc R/T's have the 4 wires at the connectors for the speakers but only one was factory infinity. The 92 which was not does not have the fuse or connectors in the fuse box for that missing fuse.

If you added the infinity speakers you will have to go into the dash and complete the missing circuit. If the speakers were in there and there are no contacts in the fuse box for that fuse could someone before you have completed that circuit and you possible need to look for an aftermarket fuse holder?
Tim

[Torrle101]

All fuses are good; I actually replaced all of the fuses four times just to make sure, still nothing. There is no power antenna just a factory non retractable black metal antenna, and the speakers were tested, my friends mother has a 90s minivan and it has the stock Infinity system in it and I asked her if it was ok if I test them to see if they still work, and they do indeed work, bass and all. The 5x7 speakers came with the car when I bought it, as for the front door speakers they were two way aftermarket Infinity replacements with frozen woofers, and the dash tweeters are original. Do you think the Ohm mix up might have something to do with it being the speaker choke? The dash tweeters are two Ohms and the aftermarket speakers were four Ohms so that makes six right? Ether way the Impendence changes one way or another. As for the spade connector it is definitely stock it you can tell buy the way it’s wrapped up in the tape from the factory, the ribbon ground wire is there to as well as the grey and black connectors, the color of the spade connector wire is black with a green line going down the wire indicating ground.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

The tweeters should be four ohms. All the dash tweeters in my collection are, and I disturbingly have a lot of them. The readings may be off due to the attenuation resistors soldered to them, but they are four ohms. If they were two ohms, they'd actually fry the factory Infinity head units just because of the way they wired the systems back then (the deck powers the tweeters directly, with amp chips that don't like two ohm loads). The door speakers and rear woofers are invisible to the head unit due to the booster amp on the back for the woofer, and thus don't affect the impedance seen by the head unit.

You say the spade connector was wrapped up in the harness... was it taped back along the wire like it had never been used before? Chrysler often did that when they pre-wired for Infinity but instead put the low end stuff in instead. If this is the case, you'll need to wire in a relay to power the amps on, or drop in the stock relay. Should work without needing the choke too, but hard to be sure.

One of my 88 New Yorkers came to me with no Infinity. It was wired for it, and had a place for a relay, but no relay. Had to install it, but the connections for the relay were there. I didn't bother with the choke - it worked without it.

The speaker choke goes in the 12V feed line to the amps... all it does is filter out ignition noise. Has nothing to do with the audio side of it.