Topic: A budget friendly cure to the non monsoon system

[Gentleman Jack]

There are thousands of choices for each item on this list.  Pick a brand and price point you are comfortable with.  For me, the goal was  to stay below 800$ and to be able to hear the music on the freeway ( something i couldn't do with the base system.  OK, i could hear it, but it sounded terrible, so i usually had the radio off.)

OK,here are the details:

Head unit:Pioneer P8000-BT

Speakers: Pioneer 6.5 and 3.5. 
6.5's are TS-A1674R
3.5's are TS-A878

Sub:JL Audio 8" 8W1V2-4

Amp : Boston Acoustics GTA704

The total,with the adapters for the antenna, steering wheel controls and the wire harness came in at $812.32.
I ordered the wrong dash adapter the first time, and the wrong antenna adapter.  I'm not sure how, with 400 stereo install write ups on this forum alone, but Amazon took them back free of charge.

All in all, i am very pleased with the set up.  I am still in the tweaking phase, trying to find a little more mid range.  The sub / amp combo puts out way more bass than I need and can rattle the windows with clarity.  I have the amp powering the 6.5's as the front channels and the sub bridged from the rear channel.  If you already have the monsoon, I'm not sure how much of a jump this will be for you,but if like me you have the base system,this is a huge improvement.


no pictures are necessary as you have all seen a solstice or sky a million times.  Everything is in the stock locations with the sub mounted behind the drivers seat on the wall.  The sub went in to a stock sub enclosure I bought two years ago for this project.  It was not modified at all,but the sub did get a .5" spacer for clearance.  My rear wall did not have an opening for the sub, so I cut a whole in it.  I will be finishing that off at a later date, but overall it looks good.  The basket hides my edges and the sub just pokes its face thru the hole.  Other than the head unit being a little different,everything looks like a stock Solstice, which is just how I wanted it.

One final note: I have to thank my Brother for his unwavering patience and persistence.  I might have lit the car on fire a few times if it were not for him.  Thanks also go out to DBG for laughing at me and being available for long phone chats during some difficult times.  Lastly, the best write up I could find for trouble shooting the steering wheel controls was Morfious' install thread which is somewhere on this forum.

For my fight with the AXXESS SWC adapter, see here

http://www.kappaperformance.com/forum/index.php/topic,8332.0.html

[TomatoSoup]

Yay GJ!  An actual mod ON YOUR OWN CAR for a change

What you did sounds very similar to what I did, except I stayed with the GM (USB) head unit.  So, I assume you powered the rear 3.5" speakers direct from the head unit?

I would like to see photos of the finished sub-hole in the waterfall though...

[Sly Bob]

Great post Steve. Ya' really don't have to spend a fortune for good sound. Heck, I'm still running the stock speakers although I hope to change that this year. Not sure what speakers I'm going to get yet but I do know I won't be spending a fortune on them. The stock speakers that I have in the doors sound pretty good to these old (ish) ears.   

[Carbon Sky]

I was originally not planning on replacing the 3.5" speakers behind the seats, and instead was simply going to run Alpine APR-60C components (6.5" with a component tweeter).  But since I'm going to be using my Alpine MRV-540 to power the Aura bass shaker tactile transducers I'm going to put in the driver seat, I have 2 unused channels at 80W, that I was thinking of powering the stock rear 3.5" speakers.

For those of you that have experimented with and without the rear 3.5" speakers, did you think it was worth keeping them?

[TomatoSoup]

I changed out my 3.5's but they are still powered by the head unit and so are almost inaudible in comparison.  I have to say I don't miss them at all and had I known, would not've bothered changing them out.

[Critterman]

Polk makes a good speaker that isn't expensive. I replaced the ones in my truck with them, and the rears were 4.5's which is close.

[Gentleman Jack]

I can hear mine a bit, if for no other reason than it helps balance the noise from the doors. I also powered my 3.5s from the head unit. More than enough power for the little guys.  I changed them out because I had the whole thing torn out anyway and the new ones were only about 30 bucks.

[Carbon Sky]

I can hear mine a bit, if for no other reason than it helps balance the noise from the doors. I also powered my 3.5s from the head unit. More than enough power for the little guys.  I changed them out because I had the whole thing torn out anyway and the new ones were only about 30 bucks.

Did you notice a difference between the stock 3.5s and the aftermarket?

[Gentleman Jack]

Yes, I can actually hear them now!  Before, they didn't seem to make any difference.  I think they add to the highs that come thru.  The other reason I did them is I didn't have separate tweeters on the a pillar with the base system, so to compensate i did 3 ways in the door and new 3.5s

[Carbon Sky]

Yes, I can actually hear them now!  Before, they didn't seem to make any difference.  I think they add to the highs that come thru.  The other reason I did them is I didn't have separate tweeters on the a pillar with the base system, so to compensate i did 3 ways in the door and new 3.5s

Interesting.  Well I'm a big fan of the sound you tend to get with 6.5 components, with the separate tweeter.  And that's what I went with.  I'm not 100% sure where I want to put the tweeter yet.  I was thinking I might try the tweeter out in a few places before final positioning.  I have a feeling I will like them on the door just in front of the door pull.  If not there, I have a feeling they'll sound great in the stock location as well, and I do get a little adjustment from the swivel base which could come in handy.

I think I'm gonna start by powering the stock 3.5s.  My pops just had the same SPR-60Cs put into a Matrix with an Alpine INA-301, with an MRV-F300 (50W x 4), with stock rear speakers, and nothing else, and it sounds amazing!  I'm gonna hit mine with a Soundstream Reference 500 at 250W x 2, and an Alpine MRV-540 powering the stock rears at 90W x 2, with 90W x 2 from the MRV-F540 as well powering 2 Aura Bass Shakers I'm putting into the driver's seat, and a Rockford Fosgate 800a2 with a 936W x 1 birth sheet going to the 10 Alpine SWR-T10 thin sub.  Considering the cabin in a fraction the size (Matrix vs a Saturn Sky), and I'm throwing so much more power at everything, and putting in a bunch of Second Skin Spectrum, and a sub (so I can cross the mids up a little higher), so I'm thinking it'll be more than enough power.  I guess I can always do the 3.5s later like I said.  I've already picked up most of the stuff, just gotta wait for warmer weather   It's so hard to be sitting on all this car audio, and not have the time/weather to install it

My MRV-F540 is a bit of overkill for my application, so I was thinking I'd give it to my pops and use his MRV-F300 instead.  I'm sure he'll love his Alpine Type-R 6.5" components even more.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[TomatoSoup]

Interesting.  Well I'm a big fan of the sound you tend to get with 6.5 components, with the separate tweeter.  And that's what I went with.  I'm not 100% sure where I want to put the tweeter yet.  I was thinking I might try the tweeter out in a few places before final positioning.  I have a feeling I will like them on the door just in front of the door pull.  If not there, I have a feeling they'll sound great in the stock location as well, and I do get a little adjustment from the swivel base which could come in handy.

I have the Alpine SPR-17S component speakers in mine.  Looks like it has the same, or very similar, tweeters as yours.  I was able to take my tweeters out of the Alpine mounts and then mount the core tweeter drivers in the stock A-pillar positions.  I just had to file some slots (very little work) in the rims of the tweeters for the A-pillar clips to  hold on to.  You can't tell that I have aftermarket's there (or in the doors for that matter).

You may or may not want to do this, but just sayin' it can be done.

[Carbon Sky]

I have the Alpine SPR-17S component speakers in mine.  Looks like it has the same, or very similar, tweeters as yours.  I was able to take my tweeters out of the Alpine mounts and then mount the core tweeter drivers in the stock A-pillar positions.  I just had to file some slots (very little work) in the rims of the tweeters for the A-pillar clips to  hold on to.  You can't tell that I have aftermarket's there (or in the doors for that matter).

You may or may not want to do this, but just sayin' it can be done.

I'm assuming you mean that you unscrewed the tweeter from the swivel mount.  Did you mount the tweeter behind the stock tweeter grill, or in front of it?  Any pics?  How do you like their position sound-wise?

[TomatoSoup]

I'm assuming you mean that you unscrewed the tweeter from the swivel mount.  Did you mount the tweeter behind the stock tweeter grill, or in front of it?  Any pics?  How do you like their position sound-wise?

Yes and Yes (behind).  They sound just fine (I figger that there was at least some audio design effort put into the stock positions simply because they point in an odd direction, slightly angled toward the windshield.)  Sorry no photos 'in progress', and after install they look stock.

The thing I hate with the Sol (and Sky too I'd guess) is the position of the door speakers.  My calf naturally falls across the speaker and mutes it most of the time while driving.  If I pull my knees together (calf away from the door) the sound becomes so much better.  I really need to either move the door speaker position, or build out an angled 'mount' for it.  No easy task.

[Carbon Sky]

Yes and Yes (behind).  They sound just fine (I figger that there was at least some audio design effort put into the stock positions simply because they point in an odd direction, slightly angled toward the windshield.)  Sorry no photos 'in progress', and after install they look stock.

The thing I hate with the Sol (and Sky too I'd guess) is the position of the door speakers.  My calf naturally falls across the speaker and mutes it most of the time while driving.  If I pull my knees together (calf away from the door) the sound becomes so much better.  I really need to either move the door speaker position, or build out an angled 'mount' for it.  No easy task.

Actually, I've bee thinking that since I was going to replace the stock door speakers with 6.5" woofers, I'd make a mount out of a few 3/4" rings of MDF stacked on top of each other.  And since I'll be doing that, I might as well try to get some angling of the woofer.  I'll probably achieve this through offset cutting a few of the rings.  Essentially at the 10 'o' clock position, dip the speaker closer to the door, with maybe about 1" of MDF between the speaker and the door, and at the 4 'o' clock position, pull it outwards maybe an inch or two.  That should give the tilt/swivel I'm looking for.  My concern then is, it won't be easy to make it aesthetically pleasing.  For example, if the speaker were level, I could just use a some thing 1/4" mdf or something and make an aesthetic ring around the edge of the speaker up against the door.   But with the offset, even if I oval off the ring, I will have to make portions that extend outwards from the door at the 4 'o' clock position of the speaker, and something that dips inwards from the door at the 10 'o' position.  That portion of work won't be nearly as easy.  I will probably end up making those portions either out of MDF, or fibreglass.

My ideal solution would be to mount the speaker higher on the door, like under the door latch.  The only problem is, that area is very convoluted and partially covered by the vinyl. 

[TomatoSoup]

Yay!  Go for it and post a thread!  I remember seeing a thread some time ago of someone (forget who) who did a fiberglass dual speaker mount for the door.  Looked good, but too much effort for me.

[UPDATE: did a search and foundit - it was cartmann/Trax: http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f61/custom-fiberglass-dual-speaker-door-pods-65253/ ]

[Carbon Sky]

I'm thinking, I'm either going to do something similar to the carmann/trax put, with an MDF mount to the inner door, with the front aesthetic part being entirely aesthetic, and not actually mounted to the speaker in any way.

If not thought, a full pod.  I'd basically trim some of the inner door metal a bit, and then make an entire pod that just sits into it.  I think I'll get better performance out of the speakers this way, and will definitely protect the speaker from moisture better, but it's a heck of a lot more work, and is far less reverseable.