wiring up speakers...

[Harvey]

Hi All,

 

Today i've been putting in new front speakers into my Paddy. The speakers come with their own wiring and connections. The connections to the new speakers are actually very different to the size of the connections that were on the OEM speakers. And, the legth of the wires on the new speakers are long enough to feed right through the doors to the actual stereo.

 

Given my scenario above my questions are:

 

1 - do I just cut the new wires that come with the new speakers and join them to the old wires from the OEM speakers?

2 - do I get rid of all the original wires that came with the OEM speakers and buy new connectors to attach to the end of the new wires so they connect to my new head unit?

3 - is there any advantage in number 2 vs. number 1 as far as sound quality is concerned?

 

Thanks all

Harv.

[Harvey]

Can anyone guide me please?

[DavefromOZ]

G'day Harv, if it were me I would run new wires to the head unit, that way you know that the wires are new and there is little chance of there being a problem with it.

[jadm4x4]

hell yeh. always run new wires especialy if running a new head unit aswell. on all parts. this includes power and speaker wires. and put on a noise supresor while youre there just to get rid of the engine noise......if you have a descent set up always use good quality wire. get the crap stuff that usualy comes with them and turf it. well thats my experience and raining aswell. but everyone has different arguments with it all.

[Harvey]

Thanks for your guidance as it is appreciated. For the benefit of others who like me, are brand new at this sort of thing here is what i've learned today:

 

On the ISO lead there are 2 parts to the connection. The black connection part is for hooking the head unit up with the power and earth. The brown part is for connecting the speakers.

 

On the black ISO connector: yellow = battery, red = power, black = earth, blue = remote and orange = illumination

 

On the brown ISO connector: Green and white relate to the left hand side of the car, Grey and Purple relates to the right hand side of the car. *Each colour with the black stripe is the negative wire and the solid colour is the positive.*

 

*Note: this observation appears to be opposite to the audio cable for the speakers themselves with the wire that has the stripe being the positive connection.

 

regards

Harv.

[Harvey]

Just another thought on this for anyone else who's never done anything like this before... before you disconnect the old harness to add the new one, write down what colour wires from the car manufacturer's own wiring loom are attached to the ISO connector because they probably won't be the same colour. For example... whereas the battery wire on the ISO harness is yellow, the battery wire on my vehicle's loom is green with a white stripe.

[JohnMasters]

Harvey, I am going to give you the name of a forum where all of your questions regarding car stereos can be answered. Just be warned, this forum is very addictive and you wont believe how much there actually is to know about car stereos.

 

This is one of my very favorite forums to date...

 

www.diymobileaudio.com

 

Thats the only site you will need to have the best sounding Pathfinder in the UK.