I am upgrading from the terrible base system (8 speakers) to the mid-level Meridian (19 speakers) system.
The base 8-speaker system has a woofer and tweeter in each of the four doors and no sub-woofer.
For the 19-speaker system, there are three speakers (tweeter, mid-range and bass) in each of the four doors plus one mid-range and one tweeter in the dash and one mid-range and one tweeter on the left and right sides of the rear cargo shelf. Plus a sub-woofer under the front passenger seat.
For the speakers and sub, I bought the factory high end Meridian Signature stuff. Interesting to note the mid-range and bass speakers have a plastic female connector mounted onto their frame. The tweeters however have wires extending away from the tweeter (about 6 inches) to their plastic female connector.
For the amp, I bought a used one one on eBay - BJ32-19C164-BF
After doing a lot of research into how the factory wiring is set up in the car, I spent 3 hours yesterday installing the speakers in all 4 doors.
What I found is that in the front doors, both driver and passenger, the connector for the mid-range (which is not used in the 8-speaker system) is already there. So it's plug and play in the front doors.
In the rear doors the connector for the mid-range speaker is not there. However, if you look at the wiring diagram for this system, for the rear doors only the tweeter and mid-range are spliced together. They do not have individual outputs on the amp. So for the rear doors I connected the existing factory wire harness male tweeter connector to the new mid-range speaker female connector. I then cut off the new tweeter's female connector (remember it's wired to the tweeter about 6" away) off, stripped the wires and soldered the new tweeter wires direct to the terminals on the new mid-range speaker. If you wire it the other way (new tweeter to factory wire harness male tweeter connector) there is nothing to connect the tweeter and mid-range together so you would need to wire in a connection between the two. No big deal but easier to just use the wires from the tweeter to accomplish.
The next day (today) I removed the luggage shelf to see if there was a prewired connector........and there is not. I am going to do a bit more research into the closet connector that carries the wires and then either trace from there or run new wires to either that connector to direct to the amp. Interesting note, as with the rear car door tweeter and mid-range, the rear luggage shelf tweeter and mid-range are spliced together and run from one channel on the amp (in this case the left side). Obviously the same goes for the opposite side of the rear luggage shelf (the right side)......AND the same goes for the front dash tweeter and mid-range. Only the front doors in the car have separate channels (crossovers) for each speaker (tweeter, mid-range and bass) from the amp.
I then decided to swap out the amp under the driver's seat however, I did not get very far. The bolts that secure the seats have a reverse star head which requires a special socket which I do not have. Going to have to find that one. Anyone know where I can buy this socket?
As for the front dash tweeter and mid-range, I did not yet try to install but now assume they will not be prewired and will need to find the closest connector to either trace from there, wire from there or direct to the amp.
As for the subwoofer, since I can't get the seats out at this point I don't know if it's prewired or not.
More to come.
The base 8-speaker system has a woofer and tweeter in each of the four doors and no sub-woofer.
For the 19-speaker system, there are three speakers (tweeter, mid-range and bass) in each of the four doors plus one mid-range and one tweeter in the dash and one mid-range and one tweeter on the left and right sides of the rear cargo shelf. Plus a sub-woofer under the front passenger seat.
For the speakers and sub, I bought the factory high end Meridian Signature stuff. Interesting to note the mid-range and bass speakers have a plastic female connector mounted onto their frame. The tweeters however have wires extending away from the tweeter (about 6 inches) to their plastic female connector.
For the amp, I bought a used one one on eBay - BJ32-19C164-BF
After doing a lot of research into how the factory wiring is set up in the car, I spent 3 hours yesterday installing the speakers in all 4 doors.
What I found is that in the front doors, both driver and passenger, the connector for the mid-range (which is not used in the 8-speaker system) is already there. So it's plug and play in the front doors.
In the rear doors the connector for the mid-range speaker is not there. However, if you look at the wiring diagram for this system, for the rear doors only the tweeter and mid-range are spliced together. They do not have individual outputs on the amp. So for the rear doors I connected the existing factory wire harness male tweeter connector to the new mid-range speaker female connector. I then cut off the new tweeter's female connector (remember it's wired to the tweeter about 6" away) off, stripped the wires and soldered the new tweeter wires direct to the terminals on the new mid-range speaker. If you wire it the other way (new tweeter to factory wire harness male tweeter connector) there is nothing to connect the tweeter and mid-range together so you would need to wire in a connection between the two. No big deal but easier to just use the wires from the tweeter to accomplish.
The next day (today) I removed the luggage shelf to see if there was a prewired connector........and there is not. I am going to do a bit more research into the closet connector that carries the wires and then either trace from there or run new wires to either that connector to direct to the amp. Interesting note, as with the rear car door tweeter and mid-range, the rear luggage shelf tweeter and mid-range are spliced together and run from one channel on the amp (in this case the left side). Obviously the same goes for the opposite side of the rear luggage shelf (the right side)......AND the same goes for the front dash tweeter and mid-range. Only the front doors in the car have separate channels (crossovers) for each speaker (tweeter, mid-range and bass) from the amp.
I then decided to swap out the amp under the driver's seat however, I did not get very far. The bolts that secure the seats have a reverse star head which requires a special socket which I do not have. Going to have to find that one. Anyone know where I can buy this socket?
As for the front dash tweeter and mid-range, I did not yet try to install but now assume they will not be prewired and will need to find the closest connector to either trace from there, wire from there or direct to the amp.
As for the subwoofer, since I can't get the seats out at this point I don't know if it's prewired or not.
More to come.