front speakers

[etlsport]

i havent decided about the amp yet, for now the speakers sound really nice, so im not worried about it yet, when i get the rears done i'll see how it sounds and make my decision from there, but i will definately be running my own wires for the rears so i dont have to take off the rear panels again.

I am getting a lot of highs with a 2 way in the front door, i think it makes everything sound a little crisper.. didnt notice any difference in the sound coming from the stock tweeter though

next project up is 6-1/2's in the rear speaker locations too, just waiting on my torx bit so i can remove the rear panels completely

[biju]

etlsport,

I found that my rear location could only fit 5.5's comfortably (with some metal fab on the speaker housing).

You might have to do some serious work to get 6.5's if the magnets are large.

Just a heads up...

-biju.

p.s. - I agree with above >>> install larger speaker wire in the doors.

[VehiGAZ]

2-way coax's in the doors may change the sound of the upper tweeters because....

1) Amps don't push power into the speakers - speakers draw power from the amp based on their impedance (ohm) rating. A speaker with a 2 ohm impedance will draw twice as much power from an amp as a speaker with a 4 ohm rating. This concept is critical to understanding sound systems. Learn it, love it, live it.

2) A 2-way coax speaker will generally have a lower impedance than a single speaker, beacuse there are two speakers in the circuit sucking up the power (rather than one).

3) All speakers in the circuit are affected similarly, depending on how they are wired (i.e., in series vs. in parallel - but don't worry about that for the purpose of this conversation).

So, let's say you have two 4-ohm speakers wired in parallel (one in the door and one in the dash) and you replace the one in the door with a 2-way coax with a TOTAL impedence of 2 ohms. In this configuration, the new coaxes will suck up a larger proportion of the power than the 4 ohm in the dash, and so you will actually reduce the amount of power running to the one in the dash, making it less loud. (Hotsauce, I don't have the time to reorient myself with the formulas and to do the math, but I am pretty sure the new setup will lower the power to the original dash tweeters.)

That said, the tweeter in a coax doesn't really have 4 ohm impedence rating, so the simplistic math suggesting that the 2-way coax has a total 2 ohm impedence is inaccurate. The true rating of the 2-way coax is probably closer to 3.2 ohms, which means that the power being drawn by the original 4 ohm speaker in the dash will be reduced only in slightly, so there will be barely any difference in how it sounds.

Once you throw passive crossovers into the 2-way speaker circuit, it gets a whole order of magnitude more complicated, but that's another topic altogether. I'll just add that MB Quart's crossovers used to be notorious for their inefficiency, making the speakers quiter at a given power level than other brands, so be careful of that when choosing speakers, and NEVER MIX. :-)

EVERYTHING is ALWAYS more complicated.

[etlsport]

vehigaz, all makes sense, but as you said, there isnt a significant change in how it sounds, so im not too worried about it, but definately am trying to keep everything the same, all my speakers are going to be rockford fosgate, i got a kenwood head unit now, but just ordered a rockford fosgate DVD/mp3/cd player and will be returning the kenwood

biju, thanks for the heads up, i had heard something about clearance issues, so i made sure to order low profile speakers made for doors, hopefully that will help. when you say metal fab, did you have to add to the housings? or just trim away to make room for the new speakers? any photos/tips? i plan on taking lots of pictures and hopefully writing a how-to when im done, so if you have anything you think i should add in please let me know

anyone else who has upped the size of their rear speakers (i know spazz and a few others have) any tips/suggestions would be appreciated for when i do it or for the how-to

[VehiGAZ]

Man, now this thread has me thinking about why my rear speakers have so much more presence than my fronts, and maybe it's time to open 'er up and take a look at what's going on inside (maybe a previous owner replaced one set or the other?).

Can someone give me a quickie lesson on how to get at each set of speakers before I start breaking retainer clips all over the place?

[etlsport]

rowhard has a great howto that explains how to remove the door panel, thats the only way to get to the fronts
http://www.vehicross.info/modules.ph...warticle&id=22
the only thing i'd add to it is to put the door panel back in can be kind of a pain, when you set it down over the top of the door, make sure it is lower than the little metal piece you screw the tweeter pod into (there should end up being like 1/8-1/4" below the metal piece and the top of the door panel when you go to push the door clips into place, you shouldnt need to apply any kind of hard force or 'stretch' the door to make any clips reach, it should just set over and snap into place with minimal effort

ill post on the back later when i can get outside and take a couple pics of my progress

i found that using this tool covered in e-tape to protect the paint worked wonders for removing the door panels and rear panels got it at advanced auto, made by ampro
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...tnumber=T70606

[etlsport]

ok so i got the rear panels completely free except for the seat belt bolt.. i have the T50 torx bit in my socket wrench, and cant get it to turn for the life of me, also tried the air ratchet, it turned maybe a quarter turn and stuck.. is there something im missing? like does it turn opposite? HELP! (thanks)