Location: "This is not a psychotic episode, but a cleansing moment of clarity."
Gorillas, Door Panels and Audio Question
Cautionary tale... Don't ever let a gorilla remove your door panels. In other words, don't ever let me remove your door panels.
I removed them today to replace my Bose twiddler in my C5 with a set of Infinity reference 3.5" speakers and when I got the first door panel off, I thought "huh, that was sure easy!". Then I noticed that three of the pins were still in the door and I had snapped off the plastic slotted horseshoe shaped pieces that are a part of the door panel that are suppose to retain the pins.
I tried to be a lot more careful on the other side and still managed to snap one of the slotted "covers" off. WTF??!! So now, I've left the door panels off while I allow the Liquid Nails to set up and hopefully repair the damage so I can get the door panels back on and have them fiit correctly. Really pissed me off that I did that. I won't be fitting the door panels until tomorrow, which leads me to another comment, then question:
I'm a little underwhelmed with the Infinity Reference replacements. They're okay, but don't represent a major improvement in sound quality, IMHO. Yes, they have a bit nicer imaging and transparency, but not as much as I had hoped. My expectations were obviously too high. It seems like the Infinity magnets weigh a little less than the Bose twiddlers as well.
Now the question that may or may not have a bearing on the sound...
I noticed when I pulled the twiddlers, that the small connector is fitted to the positive side and the larger connector is fitted to the negative side. This is just the opposite configuration of the Infinity speakers, which have the wider blade terminal for the positive and the narrower one for the negative. So for the time being (since I had no spade connectors handy), I have the new speakers wired backwards as far as polarity.
They sound okay, but does it really make a difference? If so, I will buy the connectors I need and connect them up positive to positive and negative to negative. TIA.
Location: "This is not a psychotic episode, but a cleansing moment of clarity."
Didn't have trouble with the white pins breaking, but the plastic on the door panel that keeps them on!!!!!! I did have one female piece that pulled from the door as well. And that's what I did, glued it back on with some Liquid Nails.
What about the speaker connections? I'd like to know soon because I don't want to remove the door panels again once I put them back on if I can help it.
When you swapped the positive and negative terminals it puts those speakers out of phase with the rest of your speakers. Which means when the other speakers are pushing out, those speakers will be going back. Depending on any particular set up I've heard of people doing that on purpose to help with time correction when you don't have that feature on your deck. With stock speaker locations I'm pretty sure you want them in phase.
If you can bear to pull the doors off again, do a test by swapping the connectors back. You can probably just stick them partially on, close the doors and see if it sounds better. You will probably need to get the proper connectors.
Location: "This is not a psychotic episode, but a cleansing moment of clarity."
Thanks, Dog. The door panels are still off (the glue is still setting up on the repaired pin retaining pockets or whatever you want to call them...
I'll swing by the auto parts store in awhile and pick up some connectors so I can do the polarity swap and see if that makes any difference in sound before I button things back up. Thanks.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but liquid nais will not hold. Epoxy might hold till you pull on them. The only way to fix it is to plastic weld, which is pretty easy with a large(watts) soldering iron and you might need some spare ABS plastic. Or you could try the sludge method in the audio faq in the faceplate mod. I would proly use the ol soldering iron. Good luck, adown
Now the question that may or may not have a bearing on the sound...
I noticed when I pulled the twiddlers, that the small connector is fitted to the positive side and the larger connector is fitted to the negative side. This is just the opposite configuration of the Infinity speakers, which have the wider blade terminal for the positive and the narrower one for the negative. So for the time being (since I had no spade connectors handy), I have the new speakers wired backwards as far as polarity.
They sound okay, but does it really make a difference? If so, I will buy the connectors I need and connect them up positive to positive and negative to negative. TIA.
Yes switch them to the correct polarity, it should sound better
Location: "This is not a psychotic episode, but a cleansing moment of clarity."
All right, thanks everybody. I'll do the old plastic welding thing with the soldering iron before I button everything back up. I bought the audio speaker connectors this afternoon, so I'll make the swap.
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Gorillas, Door Panels and Audio Question
I won't be fitting the door panels until tomorrow, which leads me to another comment, then question:
