Took some digging to find this - CF carries most of the harnesses but doesn't explain them very well. And it seems worse than you thought. The woofers on each speaker are amped separately from the tweeters, so I'm not sure there is an easy way to connect them even if you ran new wire to them.
According to Metra's site, their harness requires RCA outputs on the HU, so if your selected HU doesn't offer these, you need a Line-Output Converter (LOC). I ASSuME this harness does the trick for you. (Although the numbers don't match).
Here is the wiring info for your car, and it looks like one amp feeds both front woofers in parallel and another amp feeds the rear woofers in parallel, and either the red plug on the harness goes to the front and the white to the rear or vice versa.
So to do this right, I think you would really need to send the right side (RED) RCA output from your HU through a Y-adapter and then back through a Y-adapter and the same with the left (WHITE) RCA, or else you would just get left channel bass from the front and right channel bass from the rear.
Like this:
except instead of SS (soundstorm - from an older thread) it would go to the harness adapter.
2002 Ford Focus Sony CDX-GT410u Sony XT-100HD HD Tuner Stock speakers, no amp, no subs
narbig666:I ordered the part mentioned above and have a Jensen vm9312 coming in and up a little confused about wiring.
What part is confusing you. It's scary, but I think I actually understand what's going on with this now, if I can explain anything to you. I think it will be clear when you get the harness and see how the plugs are set up on the car.
Actually, writing and looking into this, I see why Metra took so long to release a Harness and CF for so long recommended ditching the system and running new speakers and wiring.
The diagram above is not totally right. (Worked out better now that I thought it through some). (The diagram above works for one set of pre-amp outputs, but you won't be able to fade the bass front to rear, so if your stereo has only one pair of pre-outs, you would really want a LOC for the front channels)
The confusing part to me is the RCA jack connection. Your stereo has front and rear pre-outputs, which is good. The problem is the harness has a single pair of pre-amp outputs one for the rear, and one for the front and expects both sides (L and R) to be fed to the single RCA.
What you need is a pair of these 2M-1F Y-adapters. Connect one adapter to the front pre-outs and one adapter to the rear pre-outs on the HU. Then plug the Y-adapters into the CF harness. I don't know whether the red plug is front or rear, so you'll just have to try it and swap them around if the bass goes to the rear when you fade to the front.
Hope This Helps!!!
I recently talked to a CF advisor and they told me that the harness they send will hook right up to the cd player and all amps and speakers will work as if it was still the stock HU, if it actually works is yet to be seen.
So if I dont use the y adapter the only problem will be that I MIGHT notice a difference in sound quality with the bass, correct? Everything will still be usable and sound quality will not suffer much??
narbig666:So if I dont use the y adapter the only problem will be that I MIGHT notice a difference in sound quality with the bass, correct? Everything will still be usable and sound quality will not suffer much??
Basically, yes - but keep in mind the factory system sent bass from both channels to both woofers, and bass is only omni-directional in the low-frequency range - there isn't a true cutoff point, but most people agree that above 100 Hz it can be localized. I can't say for sure, but I think the Mustang has 6x8 woofers in the rear and either 6.5's or 6x8's in the door also. I doubt that Ford cut those woofers off at 100 Hz and relied on the tweeters to play down to that low - a cutoff around 1,000 Hz would be more appropriate, if not higher. So I think you will get weird sound.
Actually, given that most HU's if they have pre-outs have stereo (L and R) pre-outs, I think Metra really should have saved you the trouble and included 4 pre-outs instead of two on the adapter, but I didn't design it, and at this point I'm glad it's finally available b/c for a long time you really didn't have any options.
I was reading another forum and it said to use bass blockers and a Low-pass crossover. So that you wouldnt have high frequencies come out of the woofers and low frequencies come out of the tweeters. Do the 2 Y-Adapters eliminate the need of a bass blocker and Low-pass crossover?
If it doesnt eliminate the need for them, are they worth buying?
and my item still hasnt come in yet, I ordered from Ebay to save some money, but its taking quite a while to ship. ETA - Nov 26.
Thanks.
narbig666:I was reading another forum and it said to use bass blockers and a Low-pass crossover. So that you wouldnt have high frequencies come out of the woofers and low frequencies come out of the tweeters. Do the 2 Y-Adapters eliminate the need of a bass blocker and Low-pass crossover? If it doesnt eliminate the need for them, are they worth buying?
The Y-adapters won't eliminate this - all they do is feed both channels (right and left to the amp). However, the only time I think you would NEED LPF and Bass Blockers (BB) is if the signal is crossed-over in the HU, which you are replacing. If there are external x-overs built-in, or it is crossed-over at the factory amp, you shouldn't need them, but I don't know this.
OTOH, they can't hurt and are cheap insurance.
Does anyone else have any info on where the speaker output is crossed over in the factory system.
I didn't find exactly where the sound is crossed over, but I did find some helpful information. In this Mach 460 system, there are two amplifiers present. The first amp powers the two front subwoofers (wired together in parallel) and the second amp powers the two rear subwoofers (also wired together in parallel). The front and rear tweeters are powered by the factory stereo directly. So, we know that it is not at the speaker, but most likely in the receiver itself.
Can anyone confirm?
http://www.crutchfield.com/bio/Paul
That seems correct, Paul. After installing my new headunit it seems as though there is too much bass going to the tweeters causing it to crackle, which is most likely because the crossover was in the receiver.
I'm almost done with my installation but one problem I am having is a lack of bass and power from my woofers as though the amp is not working. I did not use a Y adapter so i only have 2 rcas. the amp turn ons are powered to the ignition and i think i am doing everything right. Does any one know what I might be missing?
Even without the Y-adapters, the woofers should still be playing - you would just be getting right channel sound from both fronts and left channel from both rears or vice-versa.
I don't know what the problem would be - anyone?