Monsoon Speaker Wire Colors

[alessa]

I installed new tweeters in mids in the dash, and new speakers in the doors this past weekend. I did not use harnesses and instead soldered the wires to normal connectors. I'm getting sound from all of them which is great, but I started doing some reading on speaker polarity after the fact. From what I've read, it doesn't really matter if the positive wire is actually connected to the positive speaker terminal, so long as all the speakers are connected in the same manner.

Since the wiring for the door speakers (orange w/ green stripe and I think red w/ green stripe) if different colors from the wiring for the dash speakers (solid black and black w/ green stripe) I was hoping someone could tell me which is positive and which is negative so that I don't have to take it all apart and measure the voltages myself (Really wish I would've done that in the first place!)

Thanks!

Below are the details of my wiring for those who would like more information.

Well I know I connected the tweeters and mids in the dash all the same. That is, I treated the black wire with the green stripe as negative and the solid black wire as positive. However, the door speakers have different colors; an orange w/ green stripe and I think red w/ green stripe (correct me if I'm wrong). The orange w/ green I treated as negative and the other color as positive.

[NewBeetleMechanic]

Usually any wire that the main color is red, is a +. So a red with a green stripe would most likely be a +.

You can test it with a test light, you will have to turn the radio up most of the way to get enough power to light the test light. The light it will emit will be less then if you hooked it directly to the battery, it will flicker with the beat of the music.

The only thing you might notice is a distorted sound coming from a mis-wired speaker.

[alessa]

That's good news; sounds like I may have connected it all the same. I could use a voltmeter to test is also, right?

Thanks for your help!

[NewBeetleMechanic]

Originally Posted by alessa

That's good news; sounds like I may have connected it all the same. I could use a voltmeter to test is also, right?

Thanks for your help!

A fast rate meter will work or a analog.

[jbremount]

Originally Posted by alessa

I installed new tweeters in mids in the dash, and new speakers in the doors this past weekend. I did not use harnesses and instead soldered the wires to normal connectors. I'm getting sound from all of them which is great, but I started doing some reading on speaker polarity after the fact. From what I've read, it doesn't really matter if the positive wire is actually connected to the positive speaker terminal, so long as all the speakers are connected in the same manner.

Since the wiring for the door speakers (orange w/ green stripe and I think red w/ green stripe) if different colors from the wiring for the dash speakers (solid black and black w/ green stripe) I was hoping someone could tell me which is positive and which is negative so that I don't have to take it all apart and measure the voltages myself (Really wish I would've done that in the first place!)

Thanks!

Below are the details of my wiring for those who would like more information.

Well I know I connected the tweeters and mids in the dash all the same. That is, I treated the black wire with the green stripe as negative and the solid black wire as positive. However, the door speakers have different colors; an orange w/ green stripe and I think red w/ green stripe (correct me if I'm wrong). The orange w/ green I treated as negative and the other color as positive.

I need to get speakers also. Where did you get your speakers?

[alessa]

Originally Posted by jbremount

I need to get speakers also. Where did you get your speakers?

Do you have the Monsoon system? It seems there is quite a difference between the two.

[jbremount]

Originally Posted by alessa

Do you have the Monsoon system? It seems there is quite a difference between the two.

I must admit my ignorance, I am a VW Newbie and don't know what the Monsoon system is. Please explain the Monsoon system to me. The car is a 2000 VW New Beetle with the 1.8turbo. It has the factory AM/fM cassette radio with the 6 disk CD changer in the trunk. The car has six speakers. The doors each have one speaker/ right and left speakers. The rear passenger compartment has right and left speakers. There are also small speakers on the right and left forward vertical dashboard panel area. I can include a picture of the radio if it helps.

picture of car radio:

[alessa]

The Monsoon system is the factory upgrade for the stereo and is designated by having the word Monsoon written on the head unit. I'm not positive on the earlier models, but in MY 2005 the Monsoon consisted of 10 speakers: 1" tweeter and 3.5" mid on each side of the dash, 8" sub in each door and 6.5" (mid I suppose?) and 1" tweeter on each side of the rear.

I'm not entirely sure on what the measurements are for the non-Monsoon speakers. Your best bet is to go to Crutchfield: LCD TV, Car Stereo, Home Theater, Speakers, Digital Cameras and see what they recommend for your car. You just enter your vehicle's parameters and it lets you know what is available to change out; it's quite helpful.

After looking at what Crutchfield recommends, you can probably find the speakers cheaper on something like Amazon. However, from what I know Crutchfield does include speaker harnesses/adapters to connect new speakers (meaning you won't have to cut the wires), so it's up to you which route you want to take. Pay probably 30-40% more with Crutchfield, but have support available + everything needed for the install, or purchase the speakers from a cheaper source and hope you do everything correctly

One last thing to consider. If your speakers aren't busted and you're looking for better sound, you'd probably be better off just getting a new headunit. After changing out the speakers on the MY 05 Monsoon, I did not notice any significant improvement over sound, but I did install a headunit on a non-Monsoon Beetle (MY 03 or 04) and that definitely was a noticeable improvement!