Topic: Which door speakers?

[Sly Bob]

I know that a lot of you have upgraded your door speakers and was wondering what everyone's experience has been.

[TomatoSoup]

I have Alpine Type-R SPR-17S component speakers in mine and they sound perfectly fine & are reasonably priced.  Thing is, you need to decide what your price range is first, 'cos there's folks out there who spend insane amounts on speakers (though how you can hear the difference between 'good' and 'insane' speakers in an open top roadster at speed (ahem) I don't know).

Biggest problem I find with the doors is that my knee and lower leg naturally rest against the speaker grill and cut the sound and imaging off.  I may do one of those major fiberglass efforts one of these days to move/point the speaker out and avoid the issue. Agh!

[Sly Bob]

That's an issue that I hadn't thought about. Should I get just the door speakers or a component system that includes the tweeters like you did TS? I don't want to spend any more than necessary (nothing like stating the obvious) but I of course want decent performance.

I guess I should add that I have a Kenwood DNX9960 headunit on the stock Monsoon sound system with all stock components.

[IBDRINKEN]

I bought infinity kappa perfects many years ago..

[Go-N Def]

I have Alpine Type-R SPR-17S component speakers in mine and they sound perfectly fine & are reasonably priced.  Thing is, you need to decide what your price range is first, 'cos there's folks out there who spend insane amounts on speakers (though how you can hear the difference between 'good' and 'insane' speakers in an open top roadster at speed (ahem) I don't know).

The difference is in the reliability.  Even a crappy speaker at full volume can sound good once... Once!

[Helios]

I have the non-Monsoon system in Gwyneth. It is less than desirable. I will upgrade the sound system at some point in time. I have had great results with Polk audio 6.5s (x4) and tweeters (x2) and a small MTX amp and 10" sub with a Pioneer head unit in my '02 Saturn VUE. I've sold that SUV, but the sound system was definitely nice. I may end up going with 2 - 8" subs in Gwyneth, but keep the rest of my brand and size selection that I had in the VUE. I will probably use the Polk DB6501 6.5s. I may not even need a subwoofer by the reviews I've read about them.

[Sly Bob]

So what everyone is saying is that the component and not just the speakers alone is the way to go?

[sirmeili]

Personally when I do mine, I will be doing component (maybe not in the back?). I figure we already have component's in the car, why not replace with a same style system just with better pieces. I'm curious as to the experience everyone has had replacing the tweeters, but I can always start another thread for that

[TomatoSoup]

With my Alpine's I was able to mount both the tweeters and mid-woofers in the same mounting positions as the stock speakers.  I had to dremel a couple of shallow slots in the sides of the tweeters to fit the stock clips, but that was it.  You cannot tell I have replaced the speakers - which is how I like it.  It's does however seem a shame to throw away the cool Alpine adjustable tweeter mounts that came with the set

The bigger issue is wiring.  Since I had non-Monsoon but added my own amp, all the speaker wires came from the head unit and I rewired everything with decent (not excessive) speaker wires back to the rear bulkhead where the new amp was (same position as Monsoon amp would've been).  Most was easy, except it's quite a pain to run new (thick) speaker wires into the doors.  The crossovers I velcro'd in up in the dash above and on the outside side of each footwell.

If you have the Monsoon amp, you could get away with re-using the factory wiring (though that's pretty nasty/thin stuff) and cut off - or adapt - the factory speaker connectors.

[sallysky]

I replaced the factory with Infinity Reference and they are excellent. Like TS I had to use a Drexel on the pillars to fit the new tweeters but it was not all that hard to do. I had the monsoon and used the factory wiring.

[Sly Bob]

So if you have the Monsoon, you don't need the crossovers and can use the existing wiring in the car I would assume?

[TomatoSoup]

So if you have the Monsoon, you don't need the crossovers and can use the existing wiring in the car I would assume?

Unfortunately, no.  From what I understand (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) there's no electronic crossover in the Monsoon amp.  Just relies on blocker caps on the tweeters.  Plus, even if there IS a crossover inside the amp, the crossover point  and rolloff is probably not correct for the new speakers.  So, better to use just the door speaker channels and split using the kit crossovers. 

HOWEVER,  you could mount the crossovers near the amp behind the waterfall and thus still take advantage of the factory wiring if you so wish.

[TomatoSoup]

Like TS I had to use a Drexel on the pillars to fit the new tweeters but it was not all that hard to do.

Not quite the same thing as I did, Joyce.  I didn't modify the factory pillars at all, just a slight mod to the tweeters themselves to fit in the factory mounts.