2 or 3 way crossover? and failed tweeter

[Sidewaze Samm]

As I managed to screw up the CD player in the standard Business CD unit, I'm replacing it this weekend with a Kenwood unit that also has DAB and Bluetooth.

The set up notes for this tell me to choose whether my system is two way crossover or three way crossover. I haven't got a clue what it's talking about.

I've just got the basic system in the zed and assumed using the relevant adapter harness would fix everything.
But as the Kenwood set up notes warn selecting the wrong option can damage things, I'm a bit concerned.

Any advice from those in the know about car audio would be gratefully received.

Cheers

 

[Magicarcher]

Need more information because what you are describing doesn't make a lot of sense. Good start would be what head unit is it? then could you post an image of the manual where it says this. Generally on most aftermarket units apart from high end ones the HU has 4 speaker outputs FL, FR, RL, RR these would feed into a passive crossover, it shouldn't make any difference weather his passive crossover is 2 way or 3 way. The exception would be if the HU has some form of active equilisation with multiple channels.

 

[ph001]

I think that would only make sense if has multi channel output. Link to manual needed as Magicarcher suggests.

 

[Sidewaze Samm]

Need more information because what you are describing doesn't make a lot of sense. Good start would be what head unit is it? then could you post an image of the manual where it says this. Generally on most aftermarket units apart from high end ones the HU has 4 speaker outputs FL, FR, RL, RR these would feed into a passive crossover, it shouldn't make any difference weather his passive crossover is 2 way or 3 way. The exception would be if the HU has some form of active equilisation with multiple channels.

HU is Kenwood KDC-BT710DAB
Maybe I'm worrying needlessly, as I'm yet to connect the power - but I just don't want to screw this one up as well!
I have the ISO connector harness adapter, which appears to include connections for 4 speakers (see final pic). This refers to 3-way crossover. I just haven't got a clue what is meant by crossover - no matter how many ways it is.


Hope my query makes a little more sense now.

cheers

 

[Sidewaze Samm]

I think that would only make sense if has multi channel output. Link to manual needed as Magicarcher suggests.

link on this page - http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/rec/dab/KDC-BT710DAB/?view=support

cheers

 

[ph001]

Wow, they certainly know how to confuse people! There is no way you can do any damage at all though so don't worry about that. In your case you just want full range output on all channels so don't select 2-way cross over at all. If it insists on you making a selection just select the biggest speaker size available and "none" for everything else. The x-over settings will then be disabled.

Oh - and crossover just means the separation of low bass frequencies out from higher mid and tweeter frequencies. So you can send just the low frequencies to bass drivers, midrange frequencies to mids and high frequencies to tweeters without using any kind of passive crossover on the speaker itself.

In your case, the tweeters already have the crossover (in the form of a small capacitor) attached to them so you can pretty much disregard it all.

 

[Sidewaze Samm]

Wow, they certainly know how to confuse people!

You said it! I'm glad I wasn't just being completely dumb. It seems intructions these days are either simple enough for a primary school kiddy, or assume 'a certain level of familiarity'. Just a basic bit of proofreading by someone who is non-technical could avoid so much frustration.
Anyway, thanks for the input - certainly reassuring. I'm looking forward to some music again next week.
Now to figure out how to remove the sun visor to get the A-pillar trim off, and run the cable through the dash to mount the DAB aerial...

cheers

 

[ph001]

Now to figure out how to remove the sun visor to get the A-pillar trim off,

Fortunately that one is quite simple... You need to remove the 4 screws that hold the sun visors down from the overhead trim piece. Pop out the center light assembly, disconnect the wiring connector and then pull out this trim piece.

Then you can remove the side trim pieces by pulling upwards.

 

[Sidewaze Samm]

Now to figure out how to remove the sun visor to get the A-pillar trim off,

Fortunately that one is quite simple... You need to remove the 4 screws that hold the sun visors down from the overhead trim piece. Pop out the center light assembly, disconnect the wiring connector and then pull out this trim piece.

Then you can remove the side trim pieces by pulling upwards.

If I just want to remove one A-pillar, do I need to remove the complete overhead piece, or just loosen one side?
And how do I get the covers off the sun visor screws - simply prise them off, or any little trick required?

cheers

 

[Sidewaze Samm]

er yep found the screws for the sunvisors now
I couldn't see them when I looked before - cos I was being blinded by the sun!!!

Stereo is now fitted with microphone but not yet DAB aerial. Works fine, but the tweeter on driver's door is silent. Not obvious until you know it's not working, then it's annoying!

I'll check the connections when I take the unit out to fit the DAB aerial - but if the fault is with the car, where's the best place to look?

And what's the best way to remove the trim/tweeter from the door?

cheers

 

[Magicarcher]

Wow, they certainly know how to confuse people!

I am with you, I thought I was quite good with car audio, I am now doubting myself. So it appears that the conventional 4 speaker pairs B1 to B8 can be repurposed to drive individual component speakers which are then controlled with inbuilt equilisation, all good so far. What I am not getting is how 8 wires can feed 3 pairs of component speakers, that needs 12 wires to my mind

 

[ph001]

The tweeter enclosure just pulls away and up from its location, its on about 3 or 4 clips from memory. You can then unplug the wire.

Its quite rare for the tweeter to fail though, i’d suspect a connection or wiring problem first.