IML: Speaker Wiring (Caution, FoMoCo Content)

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I recall that Ford used to cross-wire the channels in their stereo radio 
equipped cars. Instead of a dedicated left to right, and front to rear 
adjustment, they conceived it as a front to rear, and then X channel to XY 
channel adjustment by wiring the rear speakers (or front for that matter, it 
really doesn't matter when you take the R/L out of the equation) opposite to 
the front speakers. So, one could say that the speaker arrangement would 
look like this
                                            X          XY
                                                   \ /
                                                   / \
                                            XY       X
 This was done to enhance the tonal quality, as I recall reading in a '73 
Lincoln owner's manual. What I think it actually addressed was the music 
recording industry's older practice of recording in dedicated left and right 
channel. Sometime later in the music industry's development, the channels 
were mixed to enhance the sound imagery. To take an early stereo recording 
and contrast it to a stereo recording of the late 70's, one would hear a 
more distinct left/right stereo seperation in the earlier recording. In a 
later recording, a person could picture more of a range of sound placement, 
or imagery, when the L/R bias was individually adjusted for each 
instrument/singer during the recording process in the recording studio.

It may be that all the auto manufacturers used to wire the early stereo 
systems this way, or not. Its been 25 years since I've had a factory stereo 
equipped Mopar product so I'm a little rusty as to how their 5 speaker 
system was set up. Being that Chrysler, or whoever sourced the stereo 
equipment (Bendix?), went to the trouble of developing a specific L/R 
crossover circuit for the front center speaker, it seems that they did so to 
address this issue by enhancing the sound imagery in the earlier recordings.

Maybe someone will be so good as to pull out an old Sonny & Cher 8-track and 
plug it into their '68 Imperial and fiddle w/the speaker adjustment while 
listening to which channel goes where. Did those 5 speaker Mopar setups have 
both a L-R & Front-Rear adjustment?

Eric
Portland, Oregon 



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