Speaker Wire Colors

[TheGifts]

I'm planning on upgrading all the 6-1/2's in our 2002 EX and was wondering if someone knew the colors of the +/- speaker leads both in the front and rear. I know, I know. Go get speaker adapter harnesses at Wal-Mart, etc. I've read the posts. However, just in case our Wal-Mart doesn't have any, I'm going to use T-connectors instead. My educated guess is that any red, gren, blue or otherwise brighter color would be positive and any black, gray, tan, etc. would be negative.

Thanks!

[adam1991]

well, in case your Wal-Mart doesn't have them, go to your local Best Buy. Whatever you do, spend the extra few moments to acquire the adapters to take the Honda plug out to standard plugs to aftermarket speakers.

Here's an interesting page:

http://integra.cyberglobe.net/caraudio/diagrams/wiring/

[KaliOdy]

Great site Adam. Sounds pretty accurate to me. I used to splice the wires during my younger car stereo install years, but buying the harness is such a convenience. The job looks cleaner and it's so much easier to install. Just my two cents.


Good luck on your speaker install. Just out of curiosity, what speakers did you end up buying?

[redrockody]

Wire colors,
Right rear (+): red/yel
Left rear (+): blu/yel
Right front (+): red/grn (both speaker and tweeter)
Left front (+): blu/grn (both speaker and tweeter)

You can also take off the plastic plugs and expose the metal clips, which can then slip onto your new speakers. Use plastic tubing or electrical tape to cover the connections if you desire. My theory is the less connections, connectors and splices, the better.

[shinjohn]

Originally posted by adam1991
well, in case your Wal-Mart doesn't have them, go to your local Best Buy. Whatever you do, spend the extra few moments to acquire the adapters to take the Honda plug out to standard plugs to aftermarket speakers.

Here's an interesting page:

http://integra.cyberglobe.net/caraudio/diagrams/wiring/

Note that this page applies to older generation Hondas/Acuras. If you have a pre-'99 Ody, you will see something like the picture there.

If you own a '99 and up Ody, the connector is different.... Here's the skinny from the Helm ETM on '99 and up:

http://ourworld.cs.com/shnjhn/ody/au...rness_code.jpg

The new connector looks more squarish in comparison, with 20 pins instead of 16.

Just FYI..

[dlh2]

SJ Where do the wires to the factory tweeters actually parallel on to the front door speaker wires? At the connector? I didn't think to look when I was replacing the head unit.

[TheGifts]

Well, I got the speakers in the Ody last night. After looking at several models (including the Pioneer 1667 and 1767) I decided upon the Boston Acoustics Rally Series Coaxial RX67. The fit was quite tight. The back and last 1/4" of the rain shield had to be cut out as well as did some of the trim inside the larger Ø5-1/2" opening. This last trimming was to make room for the spade terminals on the back of the speakers. Even after all the trimming it was definately a press fit. I was very surprised the front windows even went down. I couldn't make any of the factory screw holes line up either. So, using an awl, I simply poked small holes through the rigid plastic side panel (using the speaker screw hole locations as a guide) and used the supplied pan head machine screws to fasten the speaker down in all six of the holes in the flange of the speaker. Without over tightening, the fit is nice and tight. If the supplied screws were to strip out the side panel I would have just run up to the hardware store and bought some larger non-zinc plated pan heads with larger threads. However, that wasn't necessary.

The back speakers were even simpler. Just had to drill three new Ø1/8" mounting holes through the steel panel under the speaker flange and use the supplied screws. Again, nice and tight. The grilles in back barely clear the tweets. You can push the grilles in about 1/8" before bottoming out on the face of the tweeter.

The sound of the Boston Rally's are very good. A little sharper than the Infinity 62.5i's, and much fuller than the Pioneer 1667's and even the Boston FX6's. The rear sond stage is awsome. However, the front is still rather bright. Probably because I still have the tweets in the dash hooked up. My wife likes them. I think it's a bit much. However, after getting a new head unit in this weekend we'll see how everything sounds and then will probably disconnect the factor tweets.

Just had to take the Bostons for a road test this morning before coming to work. Made like I needed to get gas or something. So far, I am very pleased.

FYI, the cost on the Rally RX67's were on sale for 99.99/pr marked down from 149.99/pr at Ultimate Electronics. So, I actually saved a little coin for a change.

And, because I know someone will ask, we have a new Blaupunkt MP3000 with <fanfare> free wireless remote coming in from Crutchfield today. Good German engineering. We are pretty excited. We are going to surface mount either female RCA's or a female 1/8" stereo mini-plug to the dash somewhere and run that to the aux input on the head. That way we can plug in a portable MP3 player, portable DVD player, laptop, etc. I've wanted that feature for years.

[Phace]

Originally posted by TheGifts
We are going to surface mount either female RCA's or a female 1/8" stereo mini-plug to the dash somewhere and run that to the aux input on the head. That way we can plug in a portable MP3 player, portable DVD player, laptop, etc. I've wanted that feature for years.

There ya go. I'd be interested in seeing where you decide to mount that and how solid those connections are. In the environment in the vehicle, I think it would be hard to have a secure mounting which will withstand repeated plugging and unplugging without loosening.

Do the Alpine systems we were talking about in another thread have RCA inputs?

[shinjohn]

Originally posted by dlh2
SJ Where do the wires to the factory tweeters actually parallel on to the front door speaker wires? At the connector? I didn't think to look when I was replacing the head unit.

They parallel off somewhere behind the dash, not at the connector. Makes it a bit more difficult to install component tweeters with an external x-over using the factory wiring.....

Uh-oh, is Dohrn playing again? (hee,hee)

[shinjohn]

Originally posted by Phace

Do the Alpine systems we were talking about in another thread have RCA inputs?

Yes, they do. you do however, need to buy an interface cable to add this function to the Alpine head units. I think Robert (rlpenny) has one, paid ~$15 for it, IIRC....

[adam1991]

Originally posted by TheGifts
And, because I know someone will ask, we have a new Blaupunkt MP3000 with <fanfare> free wireless remote coming in from Crutchfield today. Good German engineering. We are pretty excited. We are going to surface mount either female RCA's or a female 1/8" stereo mini-plug to the dash somewhere and run that to the aux input on the head. That way we can plug in a portable MP3 player, portable DVD player, laptop, etc. I've wanted that feature for years.

I just put a Blau Heidelberg into the Jetta, and also installed the aux in. I did just what you're thinking of: I went to Rat Shack and bought a couple panel mount 1/8" jacks and a small project box and wired them together and mounted them into the box. I mounted the box discreetly, and plugged the aux in plug from the Blau into this box, leaving a jack handy for aux sources. And all this because the Blau aux plug is a plug; they expect you to leave the plug and all its wire hanging loose in your passenger compartment. Naw, not me. I want to UNplug it when I'm not using it.

I agree--aux in for a head unit is mandatory in my book now.

A word of warning to those doing an aux in: my Blau had two options, Aux-1 and Aux-2. The Aux-1 input would plug into the head where the CD changer would plug in, so you couldn't have both Aux-1 and CD changer. Aux-2 was by itself. I ordered the head and also Aux-1 cable, not thinking anything about it. When I got the Blau and read the manual, the specs said that Aux-1 was a 2v input! I saw that and said to myself, of course! that's for the CD changer. But I'm going to plug in a portable minidisc player, with a MUCH lower output level. What do you know, Aux-2 was 600mv input or some such thing.

I immediately called Crutchfield and informed them of this--it wasn't mentioned in their catalog or on the web site--and the guy swapped me out, no problem.

So, check the sensitivity of your aux input. If they're simply adapting the CD changer input to a simple jack, you may be unhappily surprised at the results. Make sure you can get the sensitivity you need for the devices you'll be plugging in.