HELP...... couldnt leave well enough alone/ STEREO.. LONG!

[PRE-H20]

I only worked on the driver side.

I did not touch the Passenger side.

I have verified BOTH the tweeter and speaker work.

I hooked them both up to a stereo I had laying around and BOTH speaker and tweeter work.

[stevej37]

I don't think it's a problem with your speakers...no need to test them.
It's something in your install connections.

[PRE-H20]

I agree.... I only tested them to be 100% sure that they actually work.

I hope its the install connection too.

BUT.... it was pretty simple/basic. The were 2 wires, that's it.

I followed each wire closely and made sure the new ones were connected EXACTLY like the old ones were connected. I labeled things exactly how they were previously connected, BEFORE I TOOK ANYTHING APART OR DISCONNECTED ANY WIRES.

I connected the new ones exactly as the old ones were.

I'm not sure how I could have messed that up. I probably did though.

I'll post a couple of pictures.

[PRE-H20]

couple of shot as a point of reference.....

The Cross Over inside the door is labeled..... The Tweeter connections are marked and the two to the right of the picture. (I have no idea about cross overs or why the wires are connected where they are or why, I just labeled and connected as they were previously)

The 2 wires at the far left are the wires coming from the deck to the door.... those wires are connected directly to the crossover (obviously) I did not disconnect the wires coming from the deck (the 2 wires to the far left of the crossover)

[PRE-H20]

(as I'm looking at the pictures, I'm thinking that part of the problem are the dirty connections, BUT just prior to changing the car battery, BOTH driver and passenger door speakers were working beautifully, so I dont think that is the actual problem)

[PRE-H20]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/46ZutwqZowioazof8

This is what the deck is doing...... front no sound, rear are subs only.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by PRE-H20

s.[*]Verified the deck is set to operate as a 3-way (just a button to set)



Pre-H20

The deck should be configured as follows:

2-way operation- the deck should be splitting the signal two ways- mid and high out through the speaker outputs which you have plugged to that little alpine xover box in the last pic, and sub bass through the dedicated "SUB OUT"-RCA on the deck goes to your sub amp. This is done by configuring the deck as 2 way, not 3.

Reason being is the signal is split into it's 3rd output (tweeters) by the little alpine xover box, not the deck. A 3 way config out of the deck means you have a dedicated amp running the tweeters, which in this case you do not- they are running off a shared signal with mids and powered by the deck itself.

The high power / speaker level wiring OUT of the alpine deck goes to speaker input on the passive alpine xovers- that box that the deck, tweeter and mid are all hooked to should see mid and high signal only out of the deck. From that little box it sorts the signal so tweets get what they need, and mids get what they need.


Ensure the deck is configured as 2 way, and you have anything that refers to "IC chip" in the deck as turned on.

PS whatever you do, do NOT try to unplug the tweeter and run signal to it by itself, you'll trash the tweeter. Always leave it wired to the little passive xover box like you do now. You will know you have the decks set up correctly since the mids and tweets will start playing with little bass.

[RANDY P]

PS list the exact Alpine deck...

[Grog]

I think Randy kind of covered what I was going to say. Check your head unit settings, you might have reset them when you disconnected your battery.

[RANDY P]

I think I used to have that model Alpine- a 9857, it's a rare, highly sought after beast since it does 3 way passive. I don't remember the exact model details, but it's a complicated MFer.

I believe it also has a switch at the top to go between 2 way and 3 way, and you can turn off the Power IC chip, which will kill your speaker outputs.

Turn on the Power IC chip...

[PRE-H20]

HUMMMM.... ok ok I will check and make sure it is set to 2 way.

Yes, after reading the owners manual a million times, there is a IC setting and I know how to get to it.... will do.

The deck is an ALPINE CDA 9853

[stevej37]

You've got the right guy helping you now.
The tunes will be back very soon.

[RANDY P]

Subwoofer = ON
Power IC = ON

That should do it....

[PRE-H20]

Randy I noticed in my own picture that the labelled connections do not lineup with the connections on the cross over Box, I did not notice that last night when I was labelling But when I posted the picture on this thread I noticed that the positive and negative

[PRE-H20]

Did not correspond to the crossover Box itself.

[PRE-H20]

IM when 100% positive that the way I labelled the connections was the way it waz connected previously. I took great care to make sure it waz exact.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by PRE-H20

Randy I noticed in my own picture that the labelled connections do not lineup with the connections on the cross over Box, I did not notice that last night when I was labelling But when I posted the picture on this thread I noticed that the positive and negative

It technically won't hurt anything, BUT if you don't have the polarities correct between the left and right speakers (the polarities don't match properly coming out of the deck) it will sound weird and flat.

Just make sure you have the polarities consistent between and right going into the little mb quart box.

How to test this: Disconnect the speaker wires going from the deck to the MB Quart box, and then take a household battery whatever you have, tape some speaker wire (one wire taped to (-) on bat, the other to (+) note the polarities at the top of the battery and tap the wires terminal wires going INTO the crossover box. One wire to the known positive the other wire on the known negative. you will hear a scratching and see the midrange speaker move.

If you have the polarities matched properly on the little MB Quart box, tapping (+) and (-) on the input side of the box will cause the MIDRANGE speaker to move out. If it's backwards it will go the other way. If that happens, reverse the wires going to the mid.

On aftermarket stereo gear, solid wires are typically always positive, striped are typically negative. MB quart Tweets should have Red = (+) and black = (-)

I typically use a AA battery with a wire taped to the negative side, and another wire to the positive side to "Pop" speakers to ensure polarity is correct.

[911 Rod]

Maybe take the head unit power at the battery off and see if you get spark by attaching it by hand.
This will tell you if it is drawing power.

Edit. This won't matter as the head unit works. Must be settings.

[PRE-H20]

Randy, IC on Subwoofer on.... thats NOT it. Tried that already. 100% sure.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by PRE-H20

Randy I noticed in my own picture that the labelled connections do not lineup with the connections on the cross over Box, I did not notice that last night when I was labelling But when I posted the picture on this thread I noticed that the positive and negative

On that MB Quart box, the TWEETER will have several terminals to choose from- the terminal you choose will determine how loud the tweeter plays in relation to the rest of the system. For the tweeters, one wire should be labeled as (-), and you should have 3 choices for (+) 0, (-3), (-6). Hook the tweeter negative to negative, and the tweeter positive to 0, -3, or -6 or the lowest of the three choices.

All I can say on that subject, is to make sure that tweet is hooked to -6 DB otherwise you'll go deaf.