Thread: Keep the Monsoon amp or no?

If I replace the speakers and HU in my 04, can/should I keep the Monsoon amp? Or is it best at that point to just scrap it all and start over? And if you got rid of it, what's the simplest way to wire up the 5 speakers that I'll have left (3-ways in front/back plus the center on the dash) so that I still retain the basic functionality (fade/balance, etc)? I'm honestly pretty clueless when it comes to car audio.

without the Monsoon amp you will lose the center channel dash speaker, as most other amps are 2 channel or four channel amps, but with a good set of new component speakers that center speaker will not be missed.

I'm definitely not an audiophile, as I spend the most time in my car driving around over lunch breaks, but is the factory amp decent enough? I know I've read enough about people saying to get rid of the Monsoon system, but I'm not really sure if that's geared towards the system as a whole or just specific pieces of it or how it's put together. I'm not actually sure what the specs are on the factory amp, to be honest.

Try and find out the ohms of the amp. The older Regal Monsoons ran at 1ohm. Which made it tough and expensive to find replacement speakers.

They are 2ohm.

That was kind of my opinion from reading all sorts of threads. I'm just trying to figure out if it's necessary to try to budget in a new amp and all the trappings that go with that (which would probably have to include putting in all new speaker wire, right?) or if I can get away with using the Monsoon. Or maybe I should just go find a reputable shop and just have them figure out what I need.

A bit off topic but I find it strange the amp is powered by 16awg wire. I have tried to figure out which wire is the power wire for the amp but they are all the same size. How is that possible?

Originally Posted by 06PONTGP

if you not electrical inclined or have atleast some common knowledge i would consult your local audio store if you plan on upgrading it would be worthless unless done right....i have heard of people using the stock wiring but let me tell you the monsoon audio harness is a monster and a half.......when in doubt go to the people who know at least pick their brains and see if its something u can handle

That's part of my quandary. I can do the speakers and probably even the HU and I think I can figure out how to splice things together to merge the component signals together to work with my 3-ways if I feel ambitious. But, if I do the amp too, I'd plan to just run all new speaker wire and leave all the stock wiring where it is. Which begs the question for me of whether it's worth the work of trying to mess with the stock wiring if I'm going to swap out the Monsoon amp at some point anyways. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm leaning towards just chucking it all and running everything new. I just need to convince myself that it's worth the $$ at this point, since it's not like I have a failed sound system (other than one back speaker which started me down this slippery slope).

I actually have new 6x9s and 6.5"s in my garage. I've just been debating about upgrading the whole system. I lost my ability to play MP3s when I bought this car, so I was thinking of taking the opportunity with the new speakers to upgrade the HU too, but that brought me to the amp question.

Originally Posted by Dipchef

Hey Infinity take it from someonw who has actually repalced every part of the monsoon system....its well worth it to run all new wiring how ever that center channel speaker up from is what completes the sound stage IMO. I actually kept the monsoon amp and im only using it for that cente channel speaker. it would take you literally a days time if planned out properlly and also if u have a clear scheduel....but it is worth it

Thanks for the info! Can I tap your brain on how you have things wired? Initial thoughts are that you can you just leave all the existing stock wiring in place along with the Monsoon amp and then get a harness for the HU to power what amounts to the center speaker and then run a second amp off of the RCA connections to feed the new speaker wiring. I'm not sure if that would work or not.

Cool, thanks for the visual. I'll have to look at my Monsoon again, though. Last time I took a peek at it, it looked like it only had an in and out harness as opposed to the terminal connections on the aftermarket amps, so I'll have to see if I can actually run an RCA connection back to it. One more question. When you say you split the RCA wires, does that mean you sent the rear pair from the HU to the aftermarket amp and spliced into the the front pair so that the HU sends the fronts to both the Monsoon and the aftermarket?

the monsoon amp is rated at 270 watts total power,don't know if that is RMS or peak, either way it's not a lot of power.