Building a Pioneer DEH-P960MP system for '91 Q45

[dsagers]

Need some direction to make sure I don’t buy more parts than I need, but get the most for my money from this stereo system.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I’ll be a replacing the Bose HU in my 1991 Q45 with a Pioneer DEH-P960MP.

The Bose system has already been upgraded with an Audiobahn A4004T 4x100 amp, and four decent aftermarket speakers – two in the front doors, and two in the rear package shelf. The 10 disc CD changer in the trunk will be coming out. Eventually I want to add a DVD audio player, but am waiting for the prices to come down.

The Bose HU has 4 RCA cables coming out the back that run to the amp, and the power line from the battery to the amp looks like something from the local electrical utility company.

In addition to adding the DEH-P960MP, I want to also add a 10” sub in the rear.

A pair of tweeters in the A-pillers - 1” Infinity Kappa 10.7t MMD tweeters, power handling, RMS: 90 Watts Power Handling, Peak: 270 Watts w/supplied crossover, Sensitivity: 94dB, Frequency Response: 3.5kHz - 25kHz.

Another plus of Memphis 4” coaxial midrange & tweeters, w/crossovers, surface mounted down in the foot wells on the center console. These are bi-ampable with separate midrange and tweeter inputs at the rear of the speakers. – Not sure what bi-ampable means…?

The Pioneer HU also has a line level output for the sub, so I’ll need run another RCA cable and buy another amplifier just for the sub.

My questions are, since the Pioneer HU has both line level (6.5v) and amplified speaker outputs (22 watts RMS), can I used both of these, or do I have to choose between the amplified outputs and non-amplified outputs?

What I would like to do is use the 2 pair of line level outputs to feed the Audiobahn for the front door and rear speakers, then use the amplified out puts for the pair of 1” Infinity Kappa, and the pair of Memphis 4” speakers.

Will four tweeters on two channels be a problem?

If this doesn’t work, should I buy a three channel amp for the tweeters and sub?

The Audiobahn has a line out connection. Is this designed to feed into another amp, or is it to run tweeters?

The crossovers that come with the 4 tweeters don’t appear to be very robust, would I be better off with an active crossover?

Also, is there any real advantage in this mild of a system to using the active crossover to amplify only the frequency needed for the speakers being powered, instead of amplifying the entire frequency range, then cutting out all but the narrow frequency needed for the tweeters, and the sub?

[Ni2s4s0aSnX]

Yes you cna use both of the inputs. And you shoudl run the door and rear speakers from the head unit. You'll probably need to buy a 3 or 4 channel amp and hook up the 1" and 4" speakers and your 10" subwoofer up to it. The line out on the amp is most likely for another amp. And I also have one question. Why do you have 4 RCA cables running out of the head unit, you only need 2?

[dsagers]

And I also have one question. Why do you have 4 RCA cables running out of the head unit, you only need 2?

From the labels on the amp inputs, the four are front right, front left, rear right and rear left.

[audtatious]

A pair of tweeters in the A-pillers - 1” Infinity Kappa 10.7t MMD tweeters, power handling, RMS: 90 Watts Power Handling, Peak: 270 Watts w/supplied crossover, Sensitivity: 94dB, Frequency Response: 3.5kHz - 25kHz.

While tweeters in the A-pillars will bring the sound up, it can also overpower everything else. Make sure you play around with tweeter positioning to get the best imaging possible.

Another plus of Memphis 4” coaxial midrange & tweeters, w/crossovers, surface mounted down in the foot wells on the center console. These are bi-ampable with separate midrange and tweeter inputs at the rear of the speakers. – Not sure what bi-ampable means…?

If you do this, I would only adjust them to play loud enough to enhance left-right speration. Having them too loud will throw off the left-right staging. bi-amp means you have the capability of running seperate amp channels to the mid and tweeter, or you can single-amp them as a co-ax.

My questions are, since the Pioneer HU has both line level (6.5v) and amplified speaker outputs (22 watts RMS), can I used both of these, or do I have to choose between the amplified outputs and non-amplified outputs?

Most HU's allow both. I have seen some where you can run either/or/or both based on a switch setting.

What I would like to do is use the 2 pair of line level outputs to feed the Audiobahn for the front door and rear speakers, then use the amplified out puts for the pair of 1” Infinity Kappa, and the pair of Memphis 4” speakers.

May work. Personally, I would get a true external amp for this. Lower-powered 4x amps are not that expensive.

Will four tweeters on two channels be a problem?

That would probably be a problem if run off the HU speaker-level outputs. You are probably looking at 4ohm tweeters which would give a 2ohm load and is not supported by the HU unless you run them in series at 8ohm which will lower your power output by 1/2. An external amp should have no issues with it in parallel.

If this doesn’t work, should I buy a three channel amp for the tweeters and sub?

A 4-channel with bridging capabilities would work too.

The Audiobahn has a line out connection. Is this designed to feed into another amp, or is it to run tweeters?

Probably a direct-path out to run another amp.

The crossovers that come with the 4 tweeters don’t appear to be very robust, would I be better off with an active crossover?

Even with an active X-over, you _should_ still run the passives on the tweeters. I never do, but that is the proper answer at least. You can always get a better set of passives off ebay.

Also, is there any real advantage in this mild of a system to using the active crossover to amplify only the frequency needed for the speakers being powered, instead of amplifying the entire frequency range, then cutting out all but the narrow frequency needed for the tweeters, and the sub?

As noted above, the proper answer would be to use both. If you can get amps that include internal Xover functonality, it is far better than adding a seperate out-board active Xover. The least number of powered components = lower chances for injecting system noise.