Door Connectors And Speaker Wiring.

[steelcityuk]

This isn't a problem just a fish for some info. Has any member had the door connectors in bits? I'm thinking of replacing the wiring to the speakers with some heavier gauge cable (as I've done in my Xantia) so I wondered if it was possible to remove the pins from the connectors and change the wire over. If not then I may look towards adding additional rubber conduit, maybe something from an old ford or such like.

Steve.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Steve

The pins in the door connector are usually the high resistance bit of the door wiring so I do not think that thicker wiring will not make that much difference. As I recall there are no spare pins in the drivers front door plug of a Mk2 to double up the wiring on.

Regards

XMexc

[Peter.N.]

Hi Steve

Thicker wiring will not give you any noticable improvement unless you have a high resistance somewhere in the circuit, maybe the door connector as XMexc says. There is a lot of hype about using thick speaker leads which in most cases is rubbish. The situation when the wiring is carrying a lot of current is on bass notes with a power of several hundred watts, and as your door speakers ar not capable of handling that (unless you have changed them), and the radio isn't capable of delivering that (unless you have changed it), or even if you have changed both, the door panel is such a poor baffle that most of the power would be lost. If you want to check for losses, measure the resistance across the speakers, should be about 8 ohms, and then check the leads the radio end, it should read about the same, if it's within about half an ohm, you won't improve it much.

Peter.N.

[steelcityuk]

I can see what you're saying but to try to feed 125W RMS per channel through the standard wiring will be pushing it, also it means having to break into the existing wiring which never seems satisfactory. I will be installing a nice set of aftermarket components from Brax Helix and a matching amp. As usual the Focal sub will go in the boot. Basically I'm just trying to do the same to the XM as I've done with the Xantia.

Just for info you'll find most car speakers are only 4 Ohms rated (except subs which can be 8 or 4 or 2 or even 1 Ohm, depending on how many voice coils it has and how they are wired). Most household speakers are around 6 to 8 Ohms depending on the frequency that is used to test them, usually 1KHz.

Looks like I'm in for fun and games....

Steve.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Steve

Just a thought. Do your new speakers have to go in the car doors?

XMexc

[Peter.N.]

Sorry 4 ohms!

Apologies for being heavy handed, I appreciate what you are doing now. But I see so many people being ripped off by being told they need 500 amp cable for their speakers, it affects my blood pressure!

Peter.N.

[steelcityuk]

Yes there are numerous 'dealers' that haven't got a clue about Ohms law and how to use it. Having installed commercial sound systems for years I can usually steer clear of such bad advice. I tend to buy a lot of my kit second hand.

I guess I could look at the possibilities of installing the mid bass drivers in custom enclosures in the footwells. But I do like to keep the install looking standard so as to not attract any unwanted attention, which is a good reason for not playing music loud when near home.

There's no prospect of putting in extra rubber conduit without removing the doors, but that said maybe it wouldn't be too bad if I just drop out the pins. One aspect I do like about XM doors compared to Xantias is the amount of depth for speaker mounting which is a good aspect about quarter lights.

I'll post more info as and when I make some decisions.

Thanks for the input.

Steve.

[xmexclusive]

HI Steve

I did wonder about you fixing the new speakers on the floor just under the front seats.

XMexc

[steelcityuk]

Could do but it could have an effect on the soundstage, also assuming that the tweeters were in the dash that could lead to time alignment problems. Worth considering though as a last resort.

Steve.

[jorgy9]

Hi Steve, since you seem to be a sound expert, here's a question I always had but didn't know who to ask:

is a tape player serviceable? Does sound gets distorted with time and does it need periodic readjustment? Does it need any cleaning, ie the head? Do you need to remove it from its place to do any of those? If I do remove it, will an average car audio shop do the "service" for me? What do I tell them to do -ie "please test and tune the sound"?

regards
George

[steelcityuk]

The quick short answer is to get hold of a 'wet' tape head cleaning cassette and stick that through it a few times. At this stage no need to visit a specialist.

Use something like this -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALLSOP-3-CASSETTE-DE...1QQcmdZViewItem

It's important to use a quality wet type because the cheap/dry types clean the heads by abrasion which just wears the head away. Also cheap ones don't clean the capstan and pinch rollers which actually move the tape past the head at a steady speed. If you get one of these be sure to allow the player to dry for 15 minutes after the final cleaning or it could chew any tapes you insert and coat the head with oxides the cleaning solution will dissolve off the inserted tape.

The longer answer/reason is, generally the 'heads' in a tape player become coated in a thin layer of the metal oxides that are used to make the tape magnetic, this is where CD's really score - it's a no contact system. This is usually a bigger problem in cars because of the enviromental changes, cold/damp/baking hot/etc. This kind of enviroment can make the tapes shed it's coating more easily. This usually leads to a dull sound and depending on the amount of oxide deposit can cause the speed of replay to vary leading to slow/long speed variation called 'wow' and high speed/short variation called 'flutter'. Other problems that can cause problems is that the head can wear out due to contact with the tape or the head becomes mis-aligned (Azimuth). Ideally the tape should pass the head at a perfect 90 degree angle if it doesn't the result is a dull sound. This is easily tweaked by anyone with a bit of practical skill, common sense and a know good cassette.

If you need further info about audio equipment just ask.

Steve.

[jorgy9]

Thanks very much Steve!

G

[jorgy9]

BTW, I understand you *do* suggest the one of ebay is good enough, right -I mean, how much cheaper these things can be- ? I take it is a wet type if it has a cardridge?

thanks
G

[steelcityuk]

The allsop 3 cleaning system is as good as you get without taking the top off the deck and doing it manually with cleaning fluid and cotton buds. I'd say it was very cheap, years ago (late 80s) they were about £10.

Some wet types aren't like the Allsop, they just have a white tape (instead of magnetic) that you wet with cleaner, put in the deck and press play. They are slightly better than dry types but not a patch on a Allsop. Basically the Allsop has felt pad that you dampen with cleaner (Isopropyl Alcohol) before putting the cassette into the player/recorder. A gear mechanism moves the head cleaning felt backwards and forwards gently cleaning the head(s), whereas the semi circular red plastic parts you can see also have felt pads (moistened with cleaner), these press against the metal capstan and rubber pinch roller and clean off the oxides.

Bottom line buy it and try it. If that doesn't work it would probably be cheaper to get a replacement than have yours fixed.

Steve.