Speaker wiring

[tanny]

Just bought an Alpine CD player and am installing it in the 240. Only putting in two speakers in the back(no fronts) and was wondering how to wire the speakers: do you combine the wires for the front and rear speakers or do you just ignore the front speaker wires. The manual has no instructions regarding a two speaker system. Thanks, Victor.

[carguyinok]

I would wire it up with the rear only.

It's hard without seeing the CD player but alot of the higher end units (yes like Alpine) put more power to the rear speakers. So crossing front and rear could be a big no no

[PrOxLaMuS©]

just put in new wiring...

when I was installing my speakers last week, i realized how simple it is to just weave new speaker wire in and out of the metal.

Took me about an hour to do, and it sounds great.

[tttz]

i'm planning on installing a new stereo in the future, so i'd appreciate it if you could comment on how the installation goes (or went), and any advice you could give.

Thanks,

ty

[PrOxLaMuS©]

oh yeh sorry, just leave the front speaker connections alone, and just connect the rear speakers up.

It will sound much better, and you won't run the risk of overloading the speakers or anything.

Maybe sometime in the future you can go out and buy some new speakers for the front.

[tanny]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to ask: Is there a way to wire the stock electric antenna on my 73 240 to the antenna wire( the switching wire from the radio, not the antenna reception feed wire) from the radio so that the antenna will raise and lower automatically when you turn the radio on and off? Or is the only option to wire it to the stock momentary switch? The instructions that came with this Alpine are the most incomplete I've ever seen. They obviously want you to have a pro install it. Thanks, Victor.

[PrOxLaMuS©]

when i had my headunit installed in my car professionally because the original owner did a shotty job on a CB radio install...

i asked them if they could hook my antenna like that but they said it couldnt be done for a few reasons. I forgot what they were, but from what they said, it can't be done.

[zed240au]

easier to hook antenna up to igintion so it goes up when you turn the car on you could use the same wire your running to the cd unit to power it if its switched by the ignition switch

Mick

[Inf]

The previous owner installed some cheap Jensen CD deck and wired up the antenna to go up when the deck was turned on and down when it goes off.

I plan on installing some sort of new cd mp3 deck after I get around to getting an alarm or some other theft detterent installed. I will try and take note of how the previous owner wired it up and if anyone is interested I will try my best to report back here with what I find when I get around to that stage.

I think I may just wire up a switch and mount it someplace like the ashtray in my console for the antenna since I really never listen to the radio except maybe once every few months. I mainly stick to CDs and having that antenna sticking up kinda ruins the lines of the car IMHO. :cheeky:

[tanny]

Thanks for the info. Zed240au: if you hook the antenna up to the ignition, how do you get the antenna to stop trying to continually extend(in other words, you'd have to shut off the ignition power) and then how do you switch the power to the other wire to get the antenna to retract? This same problem would occur with the antenna power wire from the cd player. I think I'll just hook up the manual switch for now and maybe mess with the automatic antenna later. The only real reason I was going to try the automatic route was so that I wouldn't forget to lower the antenna when parked. There always seems to be someone who gets a great deal of stimulation by pretzeling extended antennas. Victor.

[240ZX]

Tanny,

If you are going to run new wires for the rear speakers, use large gauge multi-strand wires. Doing this will insure better high frequency responce. The small gauge stuff that is typically used in a long run to a speaker will degrade the higher frequency responce. ( The longer the run, the more the degradation). That one reason why MONSTER CABLE uses such a big cable. Just some food for thought!!!

[tanny]

I worked too fast. It's already wired with the small stuff. I kind of thought that wire was too scrawny, but put it in anyway. Does sound good anyway though, and with all the high frequency squeaks and rattles this old z has, I probably couldn't tell any difference except when parked with a wench on Lover's Lane listening to Johnny Mathis(maybe 30 years ago if I'm lucky). Thanks for the advice. Victor.