Car audio repair question: am I being BS'ed by the shop?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Vehicle in question: 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe with Monsoon sound system.

About a month ago I noticed the right front tweeter sounding static-y and distorted, like maybe the speaker was cracked. So I took it in to a local car audio place and had them replace the tweeters in the doors. (He advised replacing both and I agreed. It was only about $60 for the pair of speakers + installation.)

About halfway home from the audio shop, I heard it doing the same thing again. So I came to the obvious conclusion that it was not the speakers that are the problem, but something in the stereo itself. I took it back to the shop a couple weeks later and had them take another look at it.

What the guy is telling me now is that the amplifier (which sits under the passenger seat) is going bad. He explained that on sound systems like the Monsoon system in my car, the radio and amp are essentially engineered as a single unit, so he couldn’t replace just the amp, he would have to replace both the radio and amp (or just the radio and bypass the amp). That may be BS but at least sounds plausible to me.

Here is what is pinging my BS meter. He is also telling me that all of the speakers need to be replaced - the two in the bottom of the front doors, and the two in the back - because if I replace the radio and use the existing speakers, they aren’t “matched” and could wind up damaging either the radio or the speakers. The reason this sounds like BS to me is that when he replaced the tweeters he didn’t say anything about needing any special speakers, and as far as I know he just used a pair of off-the-shelf stock tweeters.

He’s quoting me $400 to replace the radio and all speakers, or $250 if I don’t replace the rear speakers. This would be with his bottom-of-the-line unit and no amp, and obviously we go up from there if I want to include an amp and/or upgrade to a nicer radio.

So is this guy being straight with me or feeding me a line of BS so I sink money I don’t have into audio gear I don’t need?

2

I never understood it, but something about ohms and impedance. Look into that. It’s important with speakers.

3

I think one of the connections to your speaker is loose, but that’s just me.

4

the door speakers may be lower impedance than the usual 4 ohms. you can safely replace lower impedance speakers with higher impedance ones, they just won’t likely play as loud.

5

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2003-06-Hyundai-Santa-Fe-radio-amp-audio-amplifier-96390-26700-/281744369829?hash=item419945e8a5&vxp=mtr

50 bucks.

6

I’ll admit that the installer’s suggestion sounded like BS to me at first. But a few minutes of googling shed some light to where I think he’s being straight with you. I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Astro has your cheap solution but the installer might not be interested in swapping the amps for you and I don’t really blame him for a couple of reasons such as profit/reputation/liability. So you might be looking at finding another willing installer or DIY if you go that route. I have no idea how hard it is to get at the amp under your front seat - it might be easy or for all I know you might have to pull the seat to get at it for replacement. If you don’t want to try it yourself or have a competent friend that can help, this might not be a solution for you.

Anyhow, from what I’ve read about Monsoon and based on your OP, it sounds like the issue is that it is an 8-channel amp with active crossovers and the speaker drivers are probably 2 ohm. I don’t recall reading whether the x-over happens in the head unit or the amp.

Not knowing how familiar you are with what that means, the x-overs are what make sure that the highs go to the tweeters and the lows go to the mid/bass drivers. Active happens before the amp stage and passive happens at the speakers. With active x-overs like you have, it’s a bi-amped system for each channel where every single driver (all 4 tweeters and all 4 mid/bass) have their own amp. All this creates a number of problems when trying to upgrade or repair.

Car audio systems tend to want to “see” a 4 ohm load. Hooking up the existing 2 ohm speakers could draw too much current through the new amp (basically twice the draw of a 4 ohm load) and damage it. That’s what he meant by “damage the radio”.

Also, since the the existing speakers have no passive x-overs you don’t want to hook them up to a new amp that doesn’t have active x-overs. While the mid/bass driver will not be damaged, there will be a mid to high frequency hump in the sound because that driver would be producing sound it shouldn’t.

A bigger problem is that you’d be sending bass signals to a tweeter. That is something that will fry the tweeter in short order. That’s what he meant by “damage the speakers”.

Of course there are a few potential work arounds depending on what you’re willing to live with and how much you want to spend. A replacement 8-channel amp with active x-over (as Astro suggests) is one. Two 4-channel amps with active x-overs is another. Two 4-channel amps with no active x-overs but adding passive x-overs at the speaker is another. Tie the front/back of each speaker type (tweeter vs. mid/bass) in series so each amp would “see” a 4 ohm load, but then you give up the ability to use the fade between front and back is another. Add resistors to each driver to make it a high enough load for things to work safely with a 4-channel amp, frequency response be damned, is another, as long as you make sure bass doesn’t get to the tweeters.

ETA: Or use a 4-channel amp and only hook the front or back speakers.

Lots of options but, from what I can tell, your installer doesn’t seem to be BSing you. In a car that old I would try Astro’s suggestion if possible and if not I would just disconnect that tweeter and live with it. (My vehicle is older and my basic stock system is in worse shape than yours.)

Apologies if I’ve messed something up in my haste to go get some lunch and also home audio is more my thing anyways but hopefully I’m not too far off the mark.

7

Do you really want to spend $400 on a 12 YO vehicle? I’m a Hyundai and Kia fan, but you might be better off saving that $400 for a new(er) vehicle. BTW: factory sound systems are pretty good now days with HD radio, Bluetooth, IPod controls, aux inputs and even USB connections. I have a 16 GB flash drive full of MP3s to listen to.

8

Yes, that is definitely correct. I study electronic engineering and can vouch that you have to use speakers with the same impedance as what the amplifier is designed to feed. Otherwise you could end up damaging speakers or the amplifier.

For example, if your amplifier is expecting an 8 ohm load (speaker), but you only put a 4 ohm speaker on it, you’re going to have problems with current and blowing up parts in your amplifier.

9

You’ve basically got the principle spot on. If your amp requires a 4 ohm load but you only give it 2 ohms, you’re going to draw more current and thus damage your amplifier.

10

Yes, that is a big part of it. This is a 12 year old vehicle and I don’t know how many more years I’m going to have it. On the other hand, there is always the possibility that I might wind up giving it or selling it to a family member, so that is some incentive to have it fixed (even if it is a cheap fix).

astro’s idea might be worth looking into. If I went with this solution I would try to do it myself rather than asking the shop to do it, and I’m sure I would have to take the passenger seat out to get to it.

sich_hinaufwinden thanks for the detailed information. Very helpful!

11

I’ll guess that there’s some degree of BS going on here only because car audio repair is one of those things where they can easily BS most customers and make a good portion of their profit by doing so.

12

I can add that I owned a Nissan Pathfinder that had a premium Bose sound system in it. Upon researching I found that you have to replace everything at the same time with these as well (unless you use OEM Bose replacements). They have separate auxiliary amps for each set of speakers (along with the main in-dash unit) and the speakers were all a different ohm rating so you couldn’t mix non-Bose dash units and/or speakers with each other.

So no, I don’t think the installer is BSing you. I little online research should confirm this.