Does the basic radio have rear speaker outputs?
 

Just doing a few minor upgrades (polk front speakers and an ipod interface) to the basic non-touring audio system. My question is, does the stock head unit have rear speaker audio outputs? The unit has a fader for rear speakers just no rear speakers. So I am wondering if it either has an amplified (ready to connect to speakers) output or a pre amp output that would need to be connected to an amp before connecting to speakers.

Any info you can provide will allow me to plan my up grades in advance.

Many thanks

The stock head unit has rear outputs but the stock wiring harness does not have wires coming out to run to the rear for rear speakers. Meaning you would have to find the 4 slots for the rears and somehow get wire into them and stay and than run new wire to the rear for rear speakers. My advice do not worry about them.

If I understand correctly there is a receptacle or connector of some sort, on the stock head unit but the factory harness doesn't have the corresponding plug or connector needed to complete the connection. Am I getting this right?

THe stock plug, just doesn't have the pins and wire to run to the rears, but as mentioned it's not worth the time to put in rears. You'd be better using that time and money to put in a small amp and sub.

Yea, you're probably right about the amp and sub. Thanks guys.

Ok doesn't look like I'll be doing any rear speakers soon. I am installing the Polk DB6501 6.5" speaker system in place of the stock door and dash speakers. The Polk system comes with its own crossover so I'm guessing that I need to find the audio output as it comes out of the factory head unit and install the crossover directing the crossover's output to the respective speakers. Am I correct?

yep, HU speaker wires into x-over input, then tweeter out goes to tweeter. the woofer outs go to your woofer.

Thanks. I really appreciate the help. It is such a time saver to know in advance what you are up against before you take the car apart.

yah, the biggest headache is getting the wire through the door grommet, i thinks. :)

If you are using the stock head unit you just use the stock wire in the door. If you are running a new head unit and new speakers than run new wire.

I am sitting in the car right now. I've just completed the install of the illuminated door sills and am about to start on the audio system. I am using the stock head unit because I like the way it integrates into the dash and dumping another $1,000.00 into the audio system is simply not an option. I am installing the Polk speakers and I am also installing an ipod/phone interface (as an audio source only, no phone) that I got from Crutchfield. I have a a nice big package of Dynamat Exterme and I will be covering the hatch area and doors wherever possible. I was interested in the rear speaker outputs because they might be of some use in the future, besides something about not using the full potential of the system irritates me. If I could hook them up to a speaker capable of some better bass that would be cool. Installing a full-on sub system would take up too much room and make the car almost useless for the weekend trips that my wife and I plan to take in the Z. The space under the seats might work for a sub (must be affordable), I count on you guys tell me. Super-high volume is not my goal. I want to get rid of the boomy mid bass of the stock system and improve the highs and low bass. The goal is Sports Car first, audio system second. I am eager for your thoughts.

The head unit is out and I'm starting on the ipod/phone cable.

Regarding the speakers, I'm guessing that the smart move is to use the Polk crossover and not just install the new speakers on the existing cables. Does the factory system even have a crossover? Where I'm headed is, must I run new wires to all four speakers or is there a short cut that is just as good and is simpler?

My new ipod/phone cable has a connector that has wires attached to all the pins! If anyone can give me info which pins serve the non existent rear speakers I can tag them now for possible future use.

Context the new crossover to the wires where the offer is than run new wires to the woffer and tweeter

The factory stereo's crossover is the little capacitor on the tweeter. :D

You can house the cross over under the dash and run wires to your TW and through the door gromit to the woofer, or place the crossover inside the door panel, run the tweeter wire through the door gromit and into your tweeter.

Eitherway works but you need to run wires from the cross over through the door gromit at some point because there's not only the crossover for the tweeter, there are choke coils for the woofer's F0.

GL! :)

Ok. Does the factory wiring just "Y" off to each speaker or does it have a separate dedicated output cable for the door speaker and the dash speaker? If if it uses a "Y" I should be able to connect the factory door speaker output cable to the crossover input and then the crossover woofer output to the door speaker and the crossover tweeter output to the tweeter and just abandon the factory tweeter cable. This would allow the crossover to be mounted in the door and piggyback the crossover tweeter output cable on the large factory cable harness serving the door and then to the tweeter. Is this the way to go?

They just y off and the tweeter has a little resistor that they use for cutting out frequency.

Ok, but just to confirm, I CAN use the factory door speaker cable as the source to feed the crossover. The reason I ask is if factory feed for the door speaker is a full-range audio feed I'm good to go, but if it is only a low frequency source I'd new to find a different source for the crossover.

That's a capacitor, not a resistor. :p

Correct!

:owned:

Someone does not know how to build passive crossovers.:icon18:

capacitors store energy I doubt they would use that for blocking frequencies for a tweeter.

Dude look it up.

Passive Crossover Networks

It's your own quoted site. :shakes head:

Shall you now admit you odviously know jack about audio?

Whatever you think man.

Well come on now, your the bigaudiofanat and you don't know caps are used as highpass passive crossover networks. This is basic crossover theory, your the one making write ups about this stuff. What do expect when you say dumb s#*% like capacitors are used for storing energy, capacitors do a ton more than that bro. Get educated about this stuff before stating your wrong opinions again. Google capacitors maybe and you will see what they are used for outside of car audio.

What are you taking in school anyway?

Never wrote a writeup on a crossover and how it is made man. Get your facts straight. You are completely ruining this section of this forum with your annoying comments.

Computer science and networking in school btw.

You get your facts straight there, I read a write-up by you in several places and crossovers are right in there. I never said it was good but your the write up guy?

Basic electronic theory teaches capacitance and inductance, if your majoring in what you say then you should have some basic electronic theories no?

Oh well this thread is about rear speakers which you know nothing about anyway.

Place the MTX Re-Q5 near the headunit, buy a cheap small amp run a RCA cable from the Re-Q to the amp if small enough amp under the seat and bob's your uncle. Nice little factory upgrade without blowing the budget.

Throw in some rears too just for kicks and giggles, I know that I have mine at 40%:ughdance:

It's the end of long hot day without a lot to show for it. I goth the illuminated door sills in and they look great. The GTR red starter button is in, it's cool. The head unit and adjacent trims are on the work bench. The ipod interface cable isn't working, Crutchfield says it ought to work, they have a call into the factory-I may get a call on Tuesday. I have, with your help, finally decided on the cabling layout for the speakers. The crossover will be mounted in the door (does the interior of the door see much water when it rains, do I need to put the crossover in a baggie?) I'll be using the factory woofer cable to feed the crossover with a short cable within the door to the woofer and longer cable from the crossover along the door's main wiring harness into the kick panel and then to the tweeter. Running the new tweeter wires through rubber conduit linking the door to the kick panel would be my first choice but it looks tricky, can it be easily done or is the preferred choice to run the tweeter wires along the outside of the rubber conduit I like to take my time on this stuff, I like a clean installation. I was able to install the passenger side tweeter and woofer and Dynamat the door too. The car is immobile and the garage is a mess and I won't be able to do much more on it before Monday.

Sounds like your really given er on the mods nice work, why put the crossover inside the door? Put it in the kick panels down low in the foot well, no matter how you do it you have to run one wire through the door, if you put the crossover in the door then you will have two wires going through the door. One for the tweeter one from the amp, install the crossover in the kickpanel and pull the woofer wire through the door then your done.

I thought you were keeping the factory HU? Oops must have missed that part. Nice to see someone taking on their own car, it's really not that hard when you have a resource like the people on this forum.

Yea, I'm using the stock head unit, no external amp for now, maybe never even. Your suggestion has merit, doing it your way I would use the factory tweeter cable to feed the crossover and then run the cables from the crossover to the speakers. Your way might be better than mine actually.

My first audio mod was to add a rear speaker to my dad's 65 Mustang's AM radio. Later I added a reverb to the rear speaker, in 1966 that was a hot system! It was another couple of years before I could afford to add a Muntz 4 track tape deck with front and rear stereo speakers. Never did get FM on that car. You ever seen a wiring harness on a stock 65 Mustang? Nothing to it! The Z's doors have more technology in them than that entire Mustang had. The stock (transistor!) radio had an antenna lead, a single hot power lead (chassis ground) and two wires to the speaker, now that was a system in May 1964 (most new cards did not come with any radio standard and just an few years earlier tube radios were the norm) when he purchased the car new. You probably figured out by now that I'm a lot older than most of the folks on this forum. Still love cars though.

Guard, you can put the crossovers anywhere you want the best location is as close to the speakers as you can so there is less wire for noise to be picked up. I have put them in the doos I have put them under the dash and I have put them behind kick panels. As long as you run the wires from that to your new speakers you are fine. Sorry to hear about your problems. Crutchfield will get you all straightened out. If you need any help please ask or pm me for my phone number I would be happy to help in any way I can.

Thanks for the offer of help. I'm sure it will get squared away in a few days, I'll keep you posted. All the advice has been very helpful, I really appreciate it.

I was impressed (depressed) at how small the magnets were on the stock speakers. Perhaps that is Nissan's way of suggesting that I should have got the Touring Package. I'm looking forward to putting everything back together in the front of the interior so I can take apart the hatch area and put the Dynamat in there too.

I would not want to install any electronics inside a door, now you have to take your door apart again to get to it should you need to service anything. Recommend using new speaker wire if possible, or not up to you if you keep the same wire no door mods at all if you do. Just pick up the tweeter wire and woofer wire into the crossover, then from the deck to the amp input on the crossover. The factory deck will put out very little power, you may still want that amp to drive your new components.

Ok. I did not put the crossover in the door, it's going in the kick panel to avoid water and for easier future access. I've got family stuff for the rest of the day so the crossover is on the floor for now. Now that I've done one door I expect the other to go a lot faster tomorrow. I gave the new speakers a quick test and the difference is significant. The missing low bass is now back, the boomy mid bass is gone and the high end is brighter. This has been a pain but it is going to be worth it. The system is more than adequate for my purposes but not even a starting point for a heavy metal fan.

I did have a problem identifying the positive speaker lead on the door speaker factory cable (I used this as my source cable). I got what appeared to be identical positive voltage (using a digital volt meter) on both leads when testing to ground. The system is above ground so I would normally expect to see one lead testing positive and one negative. How do you folks normally identify the positive and negative leads? I am trying to avoid phasing issues between the right and left channels.

Time to go back to Car Audio 101...

Actually the output to a speaker has an alternating sign wave from peak positive to peak negative this indicates A/C power so your meter would need to be on A/C to check amp outputs to speakers. The reason your reading the same on both leads is your only reading the positive part of the sign wave, when your meter is on DC voltage. So this won't help you figuring your positive amp output from your negative, unless you have a oscilloscope handy?

Your best option is identify the factory speaker terminals and match them up to the correct wire color. If you can not find a wire harness color code.

But he wrote "Car Audio 101"