HELP! Car speaker confusion:

speeder · speeder's Garage

Trying to get the stereo into the old Mercedes from previous thread and I’m stuck. I bought some cheap Alpine speakers online and they came w no instructions or markings for + or -

They have small tweeters w their own little harnesses, it’s obvious enough that they plug into bigger speakers and then to the speaker wire. The problem is not knowing positive and negative. Believe it or not, I’ve had no luck searching for instructions or a manual online, including Alpine’s site.

Here are some photos, does anyone know the color scheme they use? The two wires are solid blue and black/blue. TIA as always.

stevej37 · 03-01-2020, 11:38 AM

Sooner or later · 11:41 AM

Are the female connectors from the tweeter different sizes? The smaller one should be negative.

It looks like you have two different size males on the 6 1/2" for the tweeter to plug in.

john70t · 11:45 AM

On house plugs, the big one is negative-return.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-determine-which-speaker-wire-is-positive
Briefly touch the bare ends of the speaker wires to the terminals on a 1.5 volt AA battery. Hold the wire marked with a stripe on the positive cap and the other wire on the negative flat end.

Watch the reaction of the woofer when the wires touch the battery. If the woofer pushed forward, then the polarity is proper. In that case, the wire touching the positive battery cap is the positive wire. If the woofer recoils back, then the polarity is in reverse; the positive wire is touching the negative battery terminal. Mark the positive wire for accurate connection to the amp.

Ayles · 03-01-2020, 11:44 AM

No crossover? Usually separates like that will have a crossover included in the package.

Sooner or later · 03-01-2020, 11:55 AM

I think they have an inline capacitor for the tweeters. I think I can see one in the wad of speaker wire.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

I think they have an inline capacitor for the tweeters. I think I can see one in the wad of speaker wire.

Yep. These are as cheap as it gets.

CalPersFatCat · 03-01-2020, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

Yep. These are as cheap as it gets.

But they are components. I bet that you will be shocked at how good they sound, assuming that the factory amp has any power at all and assuming that the tweeter angle is anything close to acceptable (or is dispersing from the windshield).

DL

speeder · speeder's Garage

Thanks a million, you guys came through as always. The larger spade connector, (solid blue), is positive fwiw.

It is really a buttload of work to install these, I’m almost in over my head.

astrochex · 03-01-2020, 01:50 PM

Can you mount the tweeter above the midrange?

Cajundaddy · Cajundaddy's Garage

+/- doesn't matter as long as you connect all of the speakers the same way so the polarity is the same. You can decide either L/R pole is positive and just go with it.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrochex

Can you mount the tweeter above the midrange?

Possibly higher on the same panel but there is nowhere higher on the car to put it. It's a 1970 Mercedes-Benz.

Will it not sound good where I have it?

herr_oberst · 03-01-2020, 07:09 PM

I've put tweeters on the "A" pillars before. Just a thought.

astrochex · 03-02-2020, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

Possibly higher on the same panel but there is nowhere higher on the car to put it. It's a 1970 Mercedes-Benz.

Will it not sound good where I have it?

Its not optimal, I suspect they would get muffled firing into the seat and footwell.

If you have the wiring connected to the source you could move the tweeter around and see what sounds best to you.

javadog · 03-02-2020, 05:08 AM

It will sound like crap, if you put the tweeter down low, pointing at your ankles. Put it as high as you can on the panel, find a pair of angles mounts to angle it slightly up and towards the rear.

speeder · speeder's Garage

There is nowhere else on the panel it can go due to factory sheet metal cut-ours. I would mount it higher but where on a 1970 MB could it go? Duct tape it to the pillar?

javadog · 03-02-2020, 01:07 PM

I cannot tell exactly where you intend to put the tweeters because your photos are less than informative. It appears that you cut (hacked?) a hole near the woofers, for the tweeters...

Two points:

The tweeters can be surface mounted and don't need a hole in the sheet metal behind them, so you can put them anywhere on the panel that it makes sense. Run the wire behind the upholstered door panel.

Buy some angled mounts for the tweeters and point the left one at the passenger's left ear and the right one at the driver's right ear. This should give decent results.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Thanks. The holes that you see in the metal were already there, actually. I think that I’ve found a better solution for the tweeters, thanks to your comment. I’ll post a photo soon and see what you think.

908/930 · 908/930's Garage

The other place you could consider mounting the tweeter is in the front corner of the door window using a small bracket, above where the door latch is. From pics I cant scale how large the tweeter vs that space.

speeder · speeder's Garage

I wound up Velcro-ing them to the dash. Sounds about as good as it’s going to, I think. Pretty decent on the kind of music I listen to, not so much for newer stuff w lots of bass. They are decent/mediocre speakers but they were cheeeeeap.