Alpine 1" dashboard tweeter replacement
Hi folks,
Now ordinarily I wouldn't stoop to going
"off-topic" on anyone's thread; especially not on one of my own! But in this case I'll make an exception because
(1), it's still related to the 4Runner audio system.
(2) All of my audio system equipment is manufactured by
'Alpine USA', and
(3), a common theme of this thread is focusing on
'ALL Aspects' of audio system wiring; a very fundamental subject but
EXTREMELY demanding that you know it thoroughly!
I've been wanting to start replacing the high/mid-range door and dash speakers for some time now but my plan was to get all of those annoying little anomalies corrected in the sub-bass and bass ranges first... which can be a challenge at best! Now that I think I've got the right hardware established and working as it should (Knock-on-wood), last week I pulled the trigger on a pair of Alpine tweeters to go in the dash. There's a
'HUGE' selection of aftermarket drivers available to choose from these days, and every one of them
'Claims' to be nothing but the best of the best!
So how do you choose which one to buy??? That's a tough one, it really is! Well it helps to understand the audio industry lingo and professional terminology; those fancy words used by the folks in a particular business or trade. Also, it doesn't hurt to learn to read
The Printed 'Spec Sheet'. When you read the product's description, you can count on there being a great deal of
"artistic license" taken, because everyone has the right to express his or her own opinion about a subject or thing... 'tis just life! But where it comes to the written specifications of a product there are boundaries and guidelines to adhere to and no legitimate, reputable company wants to be exposed for 'fudging' the numbers on their printed documents; they'd be laughed out of business in short order!
The best thing (I think) about being familiar with the protocol of the printed spec sheet is, at just one glance you can spot a
"Wish list" pretending to be an official document containing the most sensitive and accurate measurements of the product that the lab could render and publish! That said... I've always found companies like: JL Audio, Alpine, Cerwin-Vega, JBL... just to name a few, to be completely forthright regarding their products because: "those that have nothing to hide, hide nothing"! So a company like that gains your trust by a history of delivering good product, and they have! So I ordered the Alpine 1 inch 'SPS-110TW'. It's not a direct replacement for our 4R's, but they give you enough hardware to allow it to be fitted to anything, anywhere, at anytime! Here's a few pics of how the install went:
"THE O.E.M. (Uninstall)"
In the photo above you see the oem plug connector that joins the 'Driverside' 3 inch tweeter to the Driverside front door speaker. But the new Alpine driver doesn't have a harness connector plug to support that, so some
'Hokus-pokus' will be needed to make the transition! First we'll chop off that multi-feed connector to simplify things.
"HARDWARE PREPARATION"
The
LT GREEN and
BLUE wires are coming from the headunit and feed the tweeter. From there (via a jumper in the speaker harness network), the
PINK and
PURPLE wires go down to feed the door speakers (in parallel: 4ohms divided by 2 = 2ohms).
A QUICK ASSESSMENT OF OUR HARDWARE
Since no paperwork came with the driver kit, I'll have to do a 'visual assessment' to know what does what. There really aren't that many relevant parts in the boxes, just a bunch of make-shift (one size fits all) flanges to make it work!
As you can see I've joined the purple wire, the blue wire and the clear wires w/black stripe together. And the LT Green wire, the PINK wire, and the clear wires together as well. When you're doing the wiring it doesn't really matter which wire you choose to be your POSITIVE (+) or NEGATIVE (-) as long as you choose the same colors on both sides.
NOTE: The colors on opposite sides (driver-passenger) are identical except on the passenger side, they've replaced the PURPLE wire with a YELLOW wire, so... just remember that YELLOW replaces PURPLE on the passenger side when you're doing your tie-in's!
"THE FINALE"
I hope that this project will be helpful to someone who's considering swapping out your oem dashboard tweeters for something new!
Rdgs :yo:
rig (Click here to see front speaker wiring schematic >>>
"Front speaker wiring diagram"
...But at least I remembered to take pictures this time lol!" On the left side (driverside), the LT Green is POSITIVE(+) and the Blue is NEGATIVE(-). On the right side (passenger-side), the Pink is POSITIVE(+) and the Yellow is NEGATIVE(-)
