Stock Subs Wired Incorrectly from Factory!

[MY SRM GXP]

I'll give it a try!

[J Wikoff]

Maybe this will help check to see if it's wired right before cutting or soldering.

Hmm. Looking at my stock subs on the shelf, the yellow wire is soldered to the + post, and green to the - post.

So (if those are labeled and wired right), for the right rear, the dark green is + and should connect to the yellow wire, and the light blue with black stripe should be - and connected to the green wire.

For the left rear, the dark blue with white stripe is +, connected to the yellow wire. And the light green with black stripe is - and should be connected to the green wire.

For me to know if mine were right, I'd have to take the rear deck off because I left the stock baffles are still in place with the point, where the yellow/green are connected to the other wires, is stuck to the sides.

You can save yourself the trouble of cutting or soldering just to test it if you have a multimeter. Probe what should be the matching pins at the amp connector and posts of the subs. There will be 2 ohm resistave continuity between the sub posts, so the pin and the post it is wired to will have a few ohms resistance less than between the same pin and the opposite post.

[travis gore]

Thanks Brad I will have to look at mine tonight.

[firstdue]

I just did each sub...switched wires. I was able to turn my amp back to the middle notch and my bass settings to +3. (I had my amp almost to max and my bass at +4 before) Its hard to tell right now how much of a difference until i can get it out on the road and listen ....sitting in the garage seems to have different acoustics. It does appear to be clearer....less distortion when turned up, i was into the 30's and 40's with very little distortion. It could be my imagination but i seem to hear a little more bass from the door speakers now. Hopefully it'll dry up here soon so i can get her out on the road and really listen.

[djerickd]

this man is a genius! thank you so much Brad!!

[firstdue]

I just had mine out for a drive. I always thought it sounded ok with the windows up at volumes between 20-30...but roll the windows down and turn the volume up a little more and the sound became what another member best described as "muddy". Now at driving speeds with windows down...volumes between 30-40 the system sounds great. I turned my amp back to the mid-level so i don't have any "thumping" or any rattles what so ever (never had any rattles to begin with). Cd's and my mp3 player still seem to be the best audio source but XM and the FM radio seem to be much improved as well.

[edfiero]

I'd really like to know if there is some way to test for this problem in my car, before I resolder the wires. I put the ohm meter on the wires last night, and couldn't tell any difference in the reading. Didn't seem like any resistance on either terminal to either plug connection (D-BU/WH or L-GR/BK). So since I was in trunk already, I tried turning up the sub amp last night since I've seen so many people talk about how great that mod is and to me sounds like crap turned up. I even backed off the bass setting in the head unit, and it was still vibrating the hell out of everything with the volumn less than 20. I put it back to the original setting.

Also asked on the "other" board but never clearly answered was whether or not both speakers were wired wrong or only 1. Generally "Out of Phase" would mean that one is wrong while the other is right. Or is the issue that Each Sub is out of Phase with the Door Speakers? So left sub out of phase with left door and, right sub out of phase with right door??? Again - how do we test for this?

[Eidolon]

I'd really like to know if there is some way to test for this problem in my car, before I resolder the wires. I put the ohm meter on the wires last night, and couldn't tell any difference in the reading.

This thread really needs to be retitled. SO let me say this in bold...

THE SUBS ARE NOT WIRED INCORRECTLY.

The way the subs are hooked up is entirely correct by all rules of wiring and circuitry. Your multimeter will read no differently regardless of how you connect it. It may even read no resistance because a speaker is what is called an "inductive" load. It has a resistance to AC current, but little or none to DC.

The way the system is installed in our cars, however, the system is not tuned. What does this mean? This means that the bass from your front speakers stands to cancel out or interfere with the bass from your subwoofers. See the Interference article at Wikipedia for the explanation on wave interference.

Rewiring the subs as the OP has suggested inverts the phase of the subwoofers. To get technical, it shifts it by 180 degrees. This changes the way in which it interacts with the front speakers and, as it so happens in this car, it seems to result in an improvement.

Mind, it still won't be perfect. The only way to get it perfect is to get a specific EQ or tuning box, run ALL of the channels through that, and specifically adjust the delays at each speaker so that the waveform from each hits your listening space at the exact same time.

[Eidolon]

By the way, I actually recommend checking out the same thread over at G8Board. They've got a longer thread going with some more tests and details.

http://www.g8board.com/forums/showth...ght=stock+subs

[J Wikoff]

The way the subs are hooked up is entirely correct by all rules of wiring and circuitry. Your multimeter will read no differently regardless of how you connect it. It may even read no resistance because a speaker is what is called an "inductive" load. It has a resistance to AC current, but little or none to DC.

I got curious and tested my subs last night. I got 2.6 ohms across the terminals of both stock subs.