This is very strange; I just purchased a 1997 Honda Prelude SH w/ a factory stereo in it. When I replaced the factory head unit with my Clarion unit, the rear speakers stopped working. I took a look in the trunk and saw that the speakers in the back are actually run off a factory amplifier. Do I need to do a special wiring to get this to work? Should I bypass the amplifier? (How would I do this?).

Ultimately I will be running 2 12" JL Audio W3s w/ a 500 watt JL amplifier; keeping the stock speakers powered by my head unit.

Any ideas?

 

cross over the amp and run without the rear speakers. trust me, you wont be able to hear the difference with that type of bass.

 

I know that the rear speakers in my car (before I swapped them out) had small microphones on them that would adjust the volume of the head unit depending on the noise that they detected. That may be part of your problem too.

I would highly recommend swapping out the rears (and the doors) anyway dude, regardless of what bass package you go with. Really good 6x9's are relatively inexpensive and you could cross them over to just provide mid-fill and some highs if they have a good tweeter set-up.

Here's a tip: I'd tried Eclipse, BA, and I few others before I finally settled on a set of Pioneer Premier's new 5-way 6x9's. Premium quality sound, and 175 watt RMS handling capacity for about $135; you can't beat them.

I have a Phoenix Gold zx400ti amp running a pair of them (full-range for now) and they sound excellent, like I have 2 8" woofers in my deck (which rattles like **** even after Dynomat, but that's another story...)

My set-up (for now) is an Eclipse 5504 HU, 2201 EQ and 3083 8 disc changer, 2 sets of Diamond Audio M5 6.5's in each door in custom fiberglass door panels powered by a Phoenix Gold zx475ti (75 w x 4 channels RMS) and the Premier 6x9's powered by the zx400 (120 w x 2 channels RMS). I'm adding a PG PowerCore capacitor and a zx600 to run a 10 " Diamond sub this fall (after I add power to compensate for all that weight. )

I can take some pics of everything if you want to take a look and post them on Monday, let me know...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by prelude1997 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ultimately I will be running 2 12" JL Audio W3s w/ a 500 watt JL amplifier; keeping the stock speakers powered by my head unit. Any ideas?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Also, why get 2 W3's when you can get 1 W7 that will hit just as hard?!? I heard a set-up of 1 10" W7 and a PG zx600 in the back of a S2000 that I swear sounded like 2 12"s...

 

A single W7 would be more expensive than my setup. But I'm not here to argue... All I know is a got a really powerfull, tight, quality box for $500. Good DEAL.

Your Setup sounds interesting, but I don't want to spend much more money, as I'm leaving this car home when I go to college in August. I would like the get the factory speakers working with the killer system I have. But, I agree... some aftermarket speakers would be nice.

Also, just a hypothesis, but I believe that the microphone would adjust the volume in the amp which is located in the trunk. (Not the head unit). grrr, I love this car... but they made the sound system more complex than I needed.

 

Did you make sure the remote wire(blue wire)was hooked up in your harness? I've gone through about 7 radios in my car and haven't had a problem.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by prelude1997 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A single W7 would be more expensive than my setup. But I'm not here to argue... All I know is a got a really powerfull, tight, quality box for $500. Good DEAL. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Chill dude, I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU, not argue with you. Lighten up, I wasn't aware that you already had that set-up, I thought you were planning on purchasing it. My mistake, chill TFO.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would like the get the factory speakers working with the killer system I have. But, I agree... some aftermarket speakers would be nice.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I'm sorry to break it to you, but 99% of factory speakers in cars under $30k sound like ****, and trying to mask their shitiness with massive bass will make their inequities all that much more apparent with the sheer lack of mid-bass and highs. Swap them out for some mid-level components (or some standalone tweets like ID), or you won't have a killer system, you'll have a vibrating trunk and undecipherable squeaks coming from the cardboard stock components. (pop off the door panel and take a look at them when you get a chance, the tweets might pass muster, but you could get better 6.5's at the flea market)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also, just a hypothesis, but I believe that the microphone would adjust the volume in the amp which is located in the trunk. (Not the head unit).</TD></TR></TABLE> I'm starting to think that we had different factory sound systems, because my system had no "amplifier" in the trunk, just the speakers and their seperate mics on each speaker's brackets. I'm not sure how the system works, but the attenuator is supposed to be in the HU.

 

all the 5th gens have the acoustic feedback system. each rear speaker has a mic on it tagged to a black box right infront of the right rear speaker on the section of rear deck that folds down to meet the top of the back seats.

Honestly you shouldn't have a problem hooking the rear speakers up to an aftermarket radio. The harness that goes into the factory head unit is just a standard 1720 (or 1721 on the ~99 up). My guess is the remote turn-on wire isn't connected, and you'll have to hook that up.

As a side note, you can't just jumper past the amp and run the rear speakers off the head unit. Nearly every headunit has a ohms range of 4~8 ohms, and the rear speakers are 2 ohms. If you bypass the little acoustic feedback "box" and hook the 2 ohm factory speakers up to your headunit you'll run into problems, such as the radio turning off, turning off or cutting out at higher volumes, or the radio just frying its self. Granted some radios might be able to pull it off, just like some amps of the exact same model/brand can do only 4 ohms (which they are rated at) while some can go under slightly without a problem. I wouldn't recommend it at all though.

Oh, and as my edit, about factory systems under $30,000 sounding like ****... some dont' sound that bad, but then again some systems in $50,000 cars sound like ****. And to be truthful, the systems in the $50,000 cars really sound like **** when something goes wrong (such as a bose system amp on one of the speakers going out).. you'll either have to rewire your system for a new speaker and do a pair which is labor and $, or go back to the dealer and pay $700 for a new speaker.

This really sucks for those people who buy a 93 BMW or Mercedez for $13,000 and then run into a problem such as the speakers not working.

 

Ok, my remote turn-on wire is NOT hooked up at all. But, my understanding was that that wire would be connected to my subwoofer amp as there are no unused wires on the wiring harness adaptor. (I used the adaptor out of my 1997 Integra) So, where do I connect this blue remote wire to? Thanks for the information.

-Scott

 

There should be a blue wire on your harness that you connect from the radio into your car. All honda radio harnesses have them. Yes you use the blue wire as a remote wire to turn your amp on for your subs, but also for the amp in the car. You're going to have to splice into the wire to hook it to your amp wire for the subs also

 

you dont need to hook up your remote wire tha doesnt matter unless your putting your amp in now youll have to disconnect the amp and wire around in order for your stock speakers to work its late right now or i would run out and see what wires you reconnect.

 

Yes, thats what I was thinking of doing, but someone said there was a problem doing that bc of the Ohm rating of the speakers...

Also, I have the blue remote wire, but the harness in the prelude has no wire for it to connect to. Every wire in the car's harness is being used.