Thought I'd start a new one for this as it could get a bit pic heavy. Basically, I fitted some JBL tweeters to the car not so long ago, but one blew after a couple of days. I later found out why. The standard 406 tweeters:
Have a capacitor built into them so that they don't receive any of the bassier sounds & blow. The JBL tweeters are a different set up. On the back of the JBL units it actually states that it is a MEDIUM TW (mid & tweeter) & to look at they are like a miniature coaxial speaker. These are fitted with an identical capacitor to the standard Harman tweeters, but this is fitted between the mid part & the tweeter to protect the tweeter dome. There is nothing fitted to protect the mid part. This is because these are supposed to receive their signal from the JBL amplifier which has built in low & high pass filters to prevent the bass being sent to the top of the dash where the tweeters are fitted.
Here are the JBL tweeters:
First thing I did was obliterate my broken standard Harman tweeter to get at the capacitor & find out what type it was. This isn't really something that can be undone as most of what I took apart won't go back together so it's just as well I'm using the broken ones to experiment with.
Once you've prised out the tweeters from the dash (no screws in there, they just pop out) you end up with this:
If you then grip the speaker at the back & twist it clockwise from the grill part, you end up with this:
If you do the same with the speaker that came out, you'll also find that this pops out of it's housing too leaving you with 3 pieces:
I then went to work with the small screwdriver. If you look at the back of the tweeter you see 2 little metal strips going into the rectangular box on the back (not the bit where the plug goes) & this is where the capacitor is. After a bit of stabbing & lifting:
I got the bugger out & here it is:
Unfortunately, this is the exact same as the capacitor that is fitted between the 2 parts of the JBL speaker. You could still use it, but then you find that you use both parts as the tweeter dome & this isn't what I wanted to do (although I will be using it on the blown one to practise my soldering & check that it all works). After trying to work out what rating capacitor I needed using an online calculator I came to the conclusion that I'm not an electronics whizz, I don't know what ohm rating these speakers are & that it would be easier to cheat.
I went in to the shed & found an old set of Sony 6x9 3 way speakers & had a look-see underneath the mid part of that. Result - a 6uf capacitor. That gave me the figure I (hopefully) need. Closest I can find to that are these 6.8uf on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MKT-Plastic-Foil- ... 5882a24ef4
& if you look at the pic below you'll see 2 pieces of metal which were attached by a wire - this is where I plan to fit the 6.8uf capacitor:
Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
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- waue1978
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Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
2000/X Peugeot 406 110 HDi LX Family 93k to 2000/W BMW 530D SE Auto 84k to 2003/03 Peugeot Partner Hdi Escapade 98k to 2003/53 Vauxhall Zafira DTi Elegance 74k
- waue1978
- HDi don't believe it!
- Posts: 2341
- Joined: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:56 pm
- Location: Andover, Hampshire
Re: Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
Got busy with the soldering iron & the capacitor from the knackered tweeter & ended up with this:
You do need to be careful with this as the higher part (in the picture) where I soldered it in (which is actually the bottom of the speaker) is the other end of one of the contacts for the plugs in the car. I only found out because when I couldn't plug it into the car I looked inside where the plug goes & found that I had bent it out of whack. Wasn't the end of the world though as it soon bent back into shape with some persuasion from a small screwdriver.
Plugged it in, turned on the stereo and result - no bass coming through at all, but the speaker working. Next step is to get hold of the 6.8uf capacitors to see if it'll let a little bit more mid range through without letting so much through that the speaker starts farting again!
You do need to be careful with this as the higher part (in the picture) where I soldered it in (which is actually the bottom of the speaker) is the other end of one of the contacts for the plugs in the car. I only found out because when I couldn't plug it into the car I looked inside where the plug goes & found that I had bent it out of whack. Wasn't the end of the world though as it soon bent back into shape with some persuasion from a small screwdriver.
Plugged it in, turned on the stereo and result - no bass coming through at all, but the speaker working. Next step is to get hold of the 6.8uf capacitors to see if it'll let a little bit more mid range through without letting so much through that the speaker starts farting again!
2000/X Peugeot 406 110 HDi LX Family 93k to 2000/W BMW 530D SE Auto 84k to 2003/03 Peugeot Partner Hdi Escapade 98k to 2003/53 Vauxhall Zafira DTi Elegance 74k
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Re: Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
Hi is there any progress mith those mids? I have a set of JBL ones too and i'll be fitting them at the end of the week.
Re: Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
isnt this the reason that with jbl you need there amp as it is matched to all componets?
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Re: Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
No, the amp isn't really something special and would be a downgrade to my system. The speakers on the other hand are very nice and the difference between them and the oem tweeters on the saloon is audible right away. Today i tried them using the built in High pass filter of the Pioneer and they work just fine. I will put a capacitor with smaller capaciy just in case. I bought several ones and will try different combinations.
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Re: Fitting JBL Tweeters With No JBL Amplifier
Problem solved. I soldered a NON POLARIZED capacitor 30 uF (32 measured with the multimeter) on the cable going to the mid section (right after the connector on the "+" line ) like this:
This should be equal to around 1200 Hz cutoff frequency.
It worked just fine. Very balanced sound, the music isn't coming from somewhere in my feet, it fills up the whole car! One of my best upgrades - these tweeters!
This should be equal to around 1200 Hz cutoff frequency.
It worked just fine. Very balanced sound, the music isn't coming from somewhere in my feet, it fills up the whole car! One of my best upgrades - these tweeters!