Need help for Polk Chrysler T&C upgrade

zidek

I have a virtually mint '94 Chrysler T&C minivan with only 12K miles I recently picked up and want to upgrade the factory INFINITY sound system with POLKS. The system has 2 L/R dash speakers (5.25" I believe), 2 L/R door speakers (not sure of the size, but suspect they're 6X9), and 2 Liftgate units (6X9 also).

I upgraded the AM/FM/CD OEM Inifinity Head with a more powerful later model Infinity OEM AM/FM/CD/TAPE unit. The newer unit seems to have much more output punch but have been unable to ascertain its output RMS Specs.

I would like to keep this head unit but would like to drive replacement POLKS. Problem is that the door and lift gate Infinity units have built-in amplifiers mounted on the speakers. the connector to these speakers have 2 wires for the audio and 2 for the amplifiers each. Do I need to add a set of power amps for those to equalize the ouput level between the dash and door units or will the head have enough for both?

I believe that the dash speakers are mid/highs and the door units are mid/bass and are on the same circuits. the Rear lift gates units are on a seperate circuit.

What are some recommendations on a good setup with Polks all around? I primarily listen to Classical & Jazz and don't need to listen to rickter scale bass nor do I have the room for subs.

What I don't like about the current OEM Infinity set up is the lack of definition, muddled imaging, and narrow soundstage. As a longtime POLK SDA effectionado and owner of such on my home system I am perhaps jadded.

I would like to minimize any original cable splicing or surgery of the minivan's interior if possible and keep it's appearance as stock as possible.

What would work best?

P.S. I wish POLK would produce some SDA car audio technology!

[Deleted User]

The Chrysler OEM headunits have their own on-board amp. Just tap into the audio signal coming into the Infinity "amp". The OEM amps were built to accept a high level input. All the Chrysler headunits will work in any Chrysler "premium" system. I would suggest using the EX3 line because of their high efficiency. They can drop right in to your factory holes. If you like it loud and clean, I would also suggest using a 50x4 watt or higher amplifier to power the system. This is not neccesary, but it takes strain off the small headunit amp so that the signal is not clipped.EX3 round EX3 oval

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from what you're saying, you're looking for a lot of good sound out of not a lot of alterations. --- taking that into account... I've dealt with a lot of chrysler product and I'm very familiar with the OEM systems... I do truly believe anything short of 65 watts x 4 will not be noticeable louder than the factory system. Keeping that in mind, I think what you said indicates you're more into definition and the quality of sound.

I think that the EX3 line is the right reccomendation, however, I would not go with the coax or triaxials in front... in the rear they're fine, but if you want definition up front, I think the EX3 components would be your best bet. If you absolutely are dead set against mounting the tweeter on / in the dash, then you can get little plastic adaptor plates that let you mount the component woofer and tweeter BOTH in the spot where the factory 6x9 was and it all fits in nicely -- Schosche makes these and they're available from sounddomain.com for about 15 bucks or you can make one on u're own out of abs plastic. The reason I recc the components over the coaxial is that the component speakers do truly sound better -- round speakers sound better than ovals and the component tweeter is a more defined musical unit.

if your OEM head is doing 25 x 4 you may be "ok" -- but be careful not to try and crank the volume too much (if you hear a little twitch in the speakers or whatever) -- more speakers are damaged by underpowering them (distortion / clipping) than by over powering them.

zidek

Thanks for the valuable advice Gents!

I well appreciate your cautions: "if your OEM head is doing 25 x 4 you may be "ok" -- but be careful not to try and crank the volume too much (if you hear a little twitch in the speakers or whatever) -- more speakers are damaged by underpowering them (distortion / clipping) than by over powering them."

It's one of the reasons I've got a Carver M1.5t 375WPC power amp connected to my Polk SDA's on my home systems.
I may or may not add on outboard amp after I get the speaker issue sorted out.

Thanks for pointing me to the EX3 line. The direct replacement versus the "component" issue is intriguing however. Have you or anyone else installed the tweets in a Gen2 Chrysler minivan (dash or other area) that is unobstrusive and aesthically pleasing. Would love to see some PICs on how this is done and where they were placed.

The placement of the component set on the door with the tweets as per your suggestion sounds great. However, isn't it good practice to place your tweets higher for better imaging? The OEM door speakers are now essentially covered by the seat with the doors closed.

Might it be a good idea to use woofs on the doors and the component set on the dash? Would I need a low pass filter or special crossovers in such a configuration?

I will try to find a Polk distributer in my area this weekend and will audition the EX's if they have them.

Again, thank you both for your helpful suggestions and valuable advice.

zidek

Thanks for the valuable advice Gents!

I well appreciate your cautions: "if your OEM head is doing 25 x 4 you may be "ok" -- but be careful not to try and crank the volume too much (if you hear a little twitch in the speakers or whatever) -- more speakers are damaged by underpowering them (distortion / clipping) than by over powering them."

It's one of the reasons I've got a Carver M1.5t 375WPC power amp connected to my Polk SDA's on my home systems.
I may or may not add on outboard amp after I get the speaker issue sorted out.

Thanks for pointing me to the EX3 line. The direct replacement versus the "component" issue is intriguing however. Have you or anyone else installed the tweets in a Gen2 Chrysler minivan (dash or other area) that is unobstrusive and aesthically pleasing. Would love to see some PICs on how this is done and where they were placed.

The placement of the component set on the door with the tweets as per your suggestion sounds great. However, isn't it good practice to place your tweets higher for better imaging? The OEM door speakers are now essentially covered by the seat with the doors closed.

Might it be a good idea to use woofs on the doors and the component set on the dash? Would I need a low pass filter or special crossovers in such a configuration?

I will try to find a Polk distributer in my area this weekend and will audition the EX's if they have them.

Again, thank you both for your helpful suggestions and valuable advice.

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I'm drooling over the carver amp dude -- since i've been 15 i've wanted a carver tuner / preamp / amp with a mitsubishi equilizer ... various towers depending on my mood that day ... and two cerwin vega dual 12 inch powered subs.


back to car audio tho ---lol...

regarding the comps in teh doors... well... yes, you're very right.. the tweeter up higher (dash level) with the woofer in the door is the "ideal"... however, considering youre really stuck on keeping the OEM look, doing them in the door would give you teh same imaging as if you did a 6x9, but it will simply be a nicer sounding speaker, with better tone and clarity, and maybe a little better power handling.

as far as putting the tweet up on the dash -- well its not that hard, i mean they have two kinds of mounting cups for the tweeter when u buy the set --- you can either make them sit up on top of the dash in something that looks like a golf ball, or you can cut a 2 inch (about) diameter hole in the dash and sink this little "soup dish" lookin thing into there... the tweeter mounts inside the little dish. so its "surface mounted" and then flush to the dash.

if you want to be sneaky about it and make it look like OEM, then you can (even tho I'm not a big fan of it) mount the tweeter under the dashboard speaker grilles (know the two spots u got with like 4 inch speakers in teh top of the dash -- well pull those out and then make something small out of plastic or whatever so u can wiggle the tweeter there... then put the dash back together and it'll look like the same as it did before)... the only problem with this is that then you're bouncing the tweeter's soudn off of the front glass -- and i really don't know how that will sound. it mgiht be allright.. it might not... personally i have my tweets at "chin" level to the driver and just a tiny bit lower on the passenger side (my dashboard is higher on one end)... so they're SCREAMING right in my face -- but when i did my girlfriend's car she hated it that way and wanted me to mount the tweeters the same as they were in my truck except instead of firing them at the driver / passenger, she wanted them fired straight up --- it kind of took a little edge off the trebble, and smoothed things out in her car --- i don't like it, but she loves it... what id do is see if u can demo a set of comps -- circuit city sometimes lets ppl install a set of speakers in their car, listen to them for a day, and then decide of they want them -- they may not let u do the polks, but any component set should give u an idea of speaker placement and what not --- once u decide if u want comps / coax / whatever, then u can actuallly make the purchase of the EX3's.

regarding "woofers in thedoors" --- u mean like an 8 inch midbass woofer driver (a subwoofer with a response from 30/40 - 225/250 hertz like the polk dx 8) in u're door? i would NOT reccomend that... that would require a LOT of work, including but not limited to reinforcement of the door, building a sealed enclosure for the speaker that could fit between the panelsof the door, and just a LOT of work on your part. you'd also probably ahve to cut out the interior door cloth / vinyl / whatever panel so that when the woofer excurted, it did not hit the panel of the door. It's a "do-able" thing, but its really a waste of time and money unless you've got so much subwoofer bass and so much trebble that you find u're lacking some "meat" in the 100 - 200 hertz range. And even then... I probably wouldn't bother.

zidek

Yeah, thanks about the Carver. It's front-ended by a Yamaha C-80 preamp/control unit with parameteric equalizer. Connected to it are a Nakamichi Dragon Tape Deck, Carver TX-11 tuner, Yamaha CD Unit, and a B&O TX-1 linear tracking turntable. The Carver M1.5t drives two original and mint condition SDA-1's slightly modified to enhance the SDA effect. I've found little in new equipment except for digital convenience do-dahs to enhance the quality and musicality of the system.

Anyhow that stuff should go to another thread.......

"Woofer in the Doors".....No, after opening the door panels found out that the current Infinity door speakers are actually 7X5's and act as the bass/mid speakers and the dash units are 5.25 mid/high speakers.

I didn't mean sub-woofs in the doors plus there's no room. Don't really think I could get an 8 inch unit in there even with surgery.

Also seems there are no adaptors available for 7X5's. Thus I'm I'm stuck with EX357s for the doors and EX352 fullranges or EX3550 composites for the the dash.

Bad combination? Two full ranges per channel or one fullrange and one composite?

Auditioned in store both the EX full range and composites this weekend and they sound terrific, particularly the composites, but as you know speakers sound different in store setups (lack of bass, etc) than in a car. Plus I couldn't get them to connect up both of the 5.25 and 7X5's full ranges or fullrange/composite combination simultaneously to fully assess imaging & overall sound quality, etc.

Perhaps as a first step I'll buy some cheapo used EBAY EX352's and try them on the dash as a first step and later try composites on the dash per your instructions with the tweets.

That leaves the doors. Who makes a 5X7 bass/mid commensurate with the qualities and characteristics of a Polk?

Only other solution might be to remove or de-activate the door units and custom build a center console unit that fits between the front leather seats to house a sub.

For the rears, I've already ordered EX369's.

Again, Thanks for your advice!

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5x7??? ewwww... lee I. accoca (spelling) must of been smoking something funny the day they put 5x7's in there.

re - midbass 5x7's...

alpine type R 5x7's have a nice low end response, but they're coaxial, so they've got the tweeter as well. HOWEVER, they are bi-amp able -- this means you can wire them up so that just the woofer is producing sound while the tweeter is "dead". it's just a matter of leaving the tweeter input "unhooked", and does not involve surgery.

kenwood excelon line is a nice speaker as well, not sure of sizes though.

you know you can always just buy a little piece of abs plastic from the hardware store and cut your own adaptor plates -- i mean that's all those pre-made ones are constructed of anyway.