Has anyone ever replaced their rear speakers with aftermarket speakers while still using the feedback system? If you did how did you do it? The reason I ask is that I just had to replace one of my front door speakers which gave up on life after ten years (98 SH). I looked around and settled on some Sony speakers mainly because of the mounting depth and the fact that they had universal mounting holes which lined up right on with the original speakers. They weren't my first choice but dimension-wise seemed to be the best fit. Well to sum it up they are a nice improvement over the originals, sound and volume, and for only 70 bucks. This got me thinking about the rears. It actually looks like you could use the speaker wiring that is in place since the harness already has the speaker connections, and it appears that you could remove the feedback microphone from the speaker and just let it hang there.
The possible problems I see are that the system may not work without the microphone attached to the speaker, and its difficult to find 2 ohm speakers, however it would be nice (maybe) to have stereo sound from the rears rather than mono sound. Any input appreciated.
The rear speakers are run from a strictly conventional output from the HU. There's a small box near your back speakers which houses a small amplifier and the AFBS circuitry, and this circuitry receives signals from small microphones implanted into the rear speakers. The signal is adjusted at the amp and sent back to the speakers with no input from the HU at all. This means that you can get an aftermarket HU and still keep AFBS functional, but not aftermarket rear speakers (unless you figured out how to swap in the microphones on your new speakers).
Incidentally, my largest gain in SQ came from swapping in a new HU. If you consider buying even a cheapo alpine unit, you can bypass the AFBS/amp and run 4ohm speakers in the rear, which will open up a large range of speakers. Personally, I'd be surprised if I could pick out the difference between AFBS-modified and straight-through sound, although I'm not really an audiophile either. Hell, I've got my rears disconnected entirely I would guess that the SQ increase from going to an aftermarket HU & rears would far outstrip any gains you're seeing from AFBS.
What's all this talk of AFBS, I've never heard of it?
What I did was swap in a decent set of 6x9s. Then I went crazy with a set of Polk Momo Carbon splits in the front MB Quart splits in the back, Polk Audio subs and a couple of Alpine amps. I mixed those ingredients well, and after cooling, it's served loud and clear.
My bad. I just realized what I described would still only send a mono signal to the rears if AFBS is still used. For anyone who just disconnected the AFBS and used new speakers that were full range what did it sound like? Does the original head unit have enough power to drive new speakers or did you need an amp?
(unless you figured out how to swap in the microphones on your new speakers).
I ended up doing this within the last couple hours and so far the sound seems good, better really, I even put just one after market in and left a stock for now to hear the difference and it is certainly there in the *thump* department.
I took all the wiring from the original speaker including the mic and chip and attached them just as they were on the original to the new Pioneer 4ohm speaker.
Has anyone else ever done this?
What were your results?
Is the stock amp going to be able to work the same with the AFBS as it did before now that the new speakers are in play (4ohm pioneers)
It seemed so simple that it felt like that's what should be done, but everything that I look at says that you have to by-pass the stock amp to use different rear speakers and that the only aftermarket item that will work with the AFBS is a new head unit.
But no one has given a reason as to why it would, or would not work with aftermarket rear speakers.
Another thing that I see said is that the stock set up is mono, only way to get past that when installing new speakers is to bypass the AFBS, but the mono seems to be working fine so far with the stock system, all I'm looking for is a little more thump from my Techno and Trance beats with out having to install subs at the moment, so what's going to be the big difference there either?
I haven't been out to this forum in a few years! djstevo - that's pretty awesome that you were able to swap the microphones; I think the reason you haven't seen any other reports of it is that people felt the gains were minimal and it represented too much of a hassle. Sounds like you got it done pretty easily though! If you could post up pics of the process, it would be very interesting to see and would probably encourage others who are thinking about the swap.
Regarding the stock amp - as you know it's designed to drive a 2ohm load, so it should be totally fine with 4ohms as well. The only thing you might need to do is fade your system towards the front to keep the same balance.
In the stock system, the audio from the rear is mono; I believe that restriction is imposed by the AFBS rather than the head unit. Since the rear 6x9s are largely responsible for lower frequency notes, it makes very little difference if they're in stereo or mono, as bass is generally non-directional; our ears use higher frequencies to determine where sound is coming from.
Since I'm here - what kind of Pioneers did you install? To update my initial post, I think I'm missing a few frequencies on the low end with just a sub and front components and I've thought several times about buying some cheapo 6x9s to get a little fill. I just don't want a 2-way or 3-way system that will introduce the higher notes, and preferrably don't want to deal with rubbing on the trunk springs. I'm interested to hear what you got and see your new setup with transplanted mics!
I just starting noticing my rear 6x9s began cutting out bass at loud volumes. I have an Alpine deck with 5 1/4" JVC front speakers but the rear speakers were stock. I acquired some free cheapy conquest 6x9s from a friend and installed them with no problem. They sound much better than stock with much more bass response. They have a power handling of 500 watts with a giant magnet that fit into the rear deck just fine with no trimming required. I simply plugged the negative and positive from the stock speakers into the new ones without bypassing the Acoustic feedback sytem and hung the microphone with circuit board with a small ziptie to the positive and negative plugs on the new speakers. Ive had no problems and the sound quality is decent. If you want to bypass the 2 ohm stock amp entirely even with an aftermarket deck (Head Unit 45wattsx4channels) you will still need a new amp to power them, as 6x9s are rated for high wattage and its always best to over power a speaker than to under power it. An underpowered speaker will become damaged overtime.
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Best scenario would be to rewire aftermarket front door speakers with new quality wire straight from deck(Head Unit) with aftermarket rear speakers wired to aftermarket amp wired to deck, and junk the stupid acoustic feedback system.
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I would guess that the SQ increase from going to an aftermarket HU & rears would far outstrip any gains you're seeing from AFBS.
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