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Audio in '98 Legacy L wagon

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Anyone used the stock location of four speakers in all four doors to make a pretty good sounding system in there Roo? The stock 80W tape deck in my '98 L wagon is crackling everytime I turn it up now. I think the stock head unit is about to go?

The crackling is most likely coming from the speaker cone(s) and not the amp. If you get some new speakers one thing that will make an improvement is to get some tweeters that mount to the pillars.

I would go with 6.5 coaxials in the back and some components in the front. That is 6.4 in the door with crossover and tweeter mounted either on the pilar or (my personal trick) behind the rearview mirror. It bounces off the glass and isn't so "directional" if you know what I mean. I have done this trick for many high dolar installs and haven't had one complaint. Hell...I even did it on Cecil Fielder's sons car. Someone needs to teach that boy to drive. His dad bought him 19 inch Racing Hart rims and he cracked one in less than a week. Spoiled brat.

  • Author
The crackling is most likely coming from the speaker cone(s) and not the amp. If you get some new speakers one thing that will make an improvement is to get some tweeters that mount to the pillars.

Cougar you think the speakers are shorting through the stock set-up??? I guess i better adress that first, hun. The speaker short could fry the aftermarket headunit!!

grab yourself a new deck and some pioneer speakers, amp and sub, and some tweets, 6.5''s all around yo.

 

 

 

 

~Josh~

The crackle you hear in the speaker I think is just the cone rubbing most likely. I don't think you have a short in the speaker causing this. This problem shouldn't cause any damage to the amp but it can be hard to listen to.

That crackle is probably a dirty volume knob potentiometer. If you pull the radio, you should be able to open it up and spray some contact cleaner inside the the pot.

  • Author

I know allot of cheap stock radios use to do this over many years. Anyone else have this happen to there Roos stock audio? It does it more when the car is cold inside and you first turn the radio on.

  • Author

What size speakers does the '98 Legacy L wagon have in the four doors??

If the crackle is heard while adjusting the volume control then yes, it is a dirty pot. If it is heard while no adjustments are being made then it is the speaker at fault. Since you state that it does it more when cold then I would say the speaker is at fault.

 

Josh, in post #5 stated that they are all 6.5" speakers. You may need some shallow depth ones for the front speakers. I would measure them before buying anything or check with Crutchfield.com. They will know what you need.

  • Author

No, the crackle is ONLY heard when adjusting the volume. So I guess the pot is shot. Most of teh aftermarkets have volume buttons instead of the knob on the stock unit. Is the buttons also prone to this problem?

The digital button types can have different problems, but they won't distort the audio like an analog pot can. Since the audio signal is passed through the pot connection, a dirty pot will make that noise as the wiper of the pot passes over the dirty connection. If the pot has an opening to the contacts, using a spray contact cleaner will usually clear that problem up or replace the pot. If you really don't want to replace the radio I would try that.

  • Author

Well I have to take the rtadio out to get to the leaking heatercore anyways. And a CD player would be nice. So will just replace the head unit. But when I put the stock back in when I sell this Roo with 200k on it I don't want the stock radio doing that so I will try to clean the contacts.

  • 3 weeks later...

i've had my pioneer for about 3 yrs now(gonna have to fix that) and only prob is

a dead battery in my remote.though if you go aftermarket i'd change speakers to ones that'll handle more wattage,i've blown a couple speakers with my 200w radio:grin: .i'm working on a new system now-involves same radio for now,a 250w sony explode amp and a dual bandpass sub box with jensons in it.hope it sounds decent.

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