New door speakers found

[poppy walnut]

Well, sorta, they won't fit behind the factory grille. They are the new(ish?) Polk DXI650

Same mounting dimensions of the DB651, and the grille is a little slimmer (15/16 vs 1 1/8). I just prefer the look of a mesh grille instead of the spiders and daggers.

Just installed my Alpine HU last night, along with the rear door speakers (Pioneer G1643R 6.5's) I had in the garage. Thanks to mud for all the write ups on door installs! It was very helpful!

I searched the forum and couldn't find any info on this speaker, so maybe noone has tried these yet?

I will post up pics when they are in!

 

[autobon7]

What model Alpine HU did you install?

 

[poppy walnut]

Nothing special. Just a cda9886 I had laying around from another
car I sold.

 

[poppy walnut]

Finished! Wow huge difference! Altho I was comparing them to blown speakers. Either way, they sound awesome.

Here is what I was starting with. Notice the door handle insert is busted up from PO trying to manhandle it.

Pulled the panel which is super easy. Found that the speakers had been replaced at some point (I could tell they were not stock thru the grille. They are Panasonic CJ-RC161. Yet another speaker that fits behind the stock grille. Not sure if they are still available, altho I don't know if I would seek them out. The Pioneer or Eclipse seems to be a better option. But hey, they are out there.

Here are the Panasonics mounted. They just used some self tappers and mounted it thru the sheet metal.

Pulled out the speaker and the voice coil was smoked. Big surprise why they sounded like hot garbage.

Used the supplied adapter/spacer ring to well, make a spacer. Cut off all the extra tabs that were molded in. I believe these were to adapt to 6.75" in some Euro cars. I was happy to see the holes lined up to all 4 stock holes! Well, if you do that and then mount the speaker in the mounting holes, it sits crooked. Ask me how I know. You can still go this route, and drill new holes to mount the speaker in the ring. Problem with that is it puts it right on the edge which will like to split.

So what I did was line it up straight and used 4 Tek screws in the sheet metal. I used it on the INSIDE of the door panel. It fits perfectly to fill up the gap between the recess and the panel.

Now that it is mounted solid, I replaced the door panel. The intended speaker mounts are behind the factory panel. I left the bottom of the panel loose so I could line stuff up. That way I wasn't just guessing where the holes were. I started out on the small side just to know I was in the ballpark. Then got a bigger bit to make it large enough to get the screws in.

Being that I am a little on the overkill side, I decided to swap out the provided sheetmetal screws to longer Tek screws (love these things!). That way it was secured thru the ring into the sheetmetal behind. No way these things are going to come loose. Polk also supplied a foam ring with the speaker so you can make an airtight seal. Cool.

Popped on the grilles and checked all my clearances. It just clears the window run. All the hardware clears, and the grille clears the dash by about a pinky width. Fired it up and enjoyed having decent sound in the rig finally! Sorry I don't have more pics, my sd card was left in the pc and had to use the internal memory, which isn't much. I'm thinking about painting them to match the panel. I was just impatient and couldn't find anything that I liked yet.

 

[poppy walnut]

No comments? Good, bad and ugly? Thoughts on color matching vs leaving black? I guess door speakers have been beat to death these days.

 

[stonemasoncruiser]

I think sound quality impressions might invoke more response at this point in the door
speaker game. Whadaya think?? Definitely like the looks of them.

 

[Midlifer]

I just finished installing these in my front doors yesterday. The stock speakers were toast. I also pulled out the rears and have thus far installed one Pioneer, the ones everyone seems to like. I will say that I may pull those out and install two more Polks, much better speaker. The PO had put in a new Alpine HU and it sounded like s**t before speakers were installed, was not impressed. After putting in the new Polks, WOW, huge huge difference. The Alpine will remain the same since the speakers fixed the issue. I also found out why my passenger mirror has not been working, the PO forgot to plug it back in. I guess I should have checked that years ago but figured it couldn't be that simple.

 

[poppy walnut]

They rock! You should hear them on a 50x4 amp. By far the best $100 speakers I've heard.

I have the Pioneer's in the rear also. They are ok, for sure an upgrade over stock. But you are comparing $30 to $100. Also in the rear door there just isn't as much sound as up front. Not to say it won't be an improvement, just not as much so as the front.

 

[Midlifer]

I wondering now if I could cut away enough sheet metal to fit a pair in the rear doors. And black is fine with me, not much on my cruiser is stock anyways.

I'm also considering a sub, have not figured that out yet. Seems I need a five channel amp to get four speakers and a sub.

Thanks for posting on the Polks, would not have found them otherwise.

 

[poppy walnut]

Sure thing!

Yep, they will fit in the rear I'm pretty certain. I think there is a thread where a guy mounted the db speakers in the rear and the DXi are the same dimensions. I found tin snips work real well in trimming the sheet metal.

I've looked at the JL 6" sub. Haven't taken anything apart yet to make any measurements to see what I would have to do to make it fit.

edit: had it bookmarked https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/329297-rear-door-speaker-upgrade.html

 

[jlg32281]

I would paint them if I already had the paint, but I wouldn't buy paint just for this.