Speaker replacement -

[psj1945]

audio options

If any one cares ? I bought some cheap ($50 a pair) Clarions 6 1/2 co-axles and placed them in all four doors with the suppled grilles, as a quick temp upgrade and they fit easily. I went to my local custom audio shop some time later to get a new system and we went with a clarion in dash dvd, cd, etc and a 12'' sub (500 watts power to sub). I wanted to replace the speakers with some high end (ADS, Boston Ac., Etc) seperates with four channel amp but while I was gone they listened to it with the cheapies and stock amp and it sounded so good he said I should keep it the way it is. I tried to spend the money but he woudn't let me. I'm pretty picky about my audio equipment, and I found this to be a really nice sounding system and I like it loud (not that s***y ghetto loud). I hope this saves someone some money ! undefined

 

[chiz45]

psj1945, do you have the model # for those Clarions?

 

[psj1945]

Clarion SRR1627 180 Watts 4 OHM Fit in a 96 fj80 front and rear doors no cuting etc. must use Clarion grile covers.

 

[chiz45]

thanks!

 

[psj1945]

spreakers

Oh, They supply a plastic ring to place behind the door skin, this will be fine to screw the speakers to. I don't have any rattling. PS I used a clarion Pro Audio 50 watt per channel amp tp test the OME amp and found the Clarion amp to be louder but didn't offer any less distortion, even with a pair of A/D/S seperates wich require 50-200 watts ! Another words the amps that come in the truck perform surprisingly well, but a good head unit helps. I believe "Eclipse" makes some of these OME head units (very expensive brand).

 

[dekuiper]

This is bringing up an old thread. When I see the Eclipse 8353 (for the front) on Ebay they are 4.5 inches and the 8243 (for the rear) are 3.5 inches. Are those the stock sizes?

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

I was under the impression that the fronts were 5.25s and the rears were 4s......

Pull up some more old threads, you will find a link to mobileone.com that has them w/ specs

 

[tucker74]

Well - if you go back to the very first post (when I started this thread ages ago) - it gives the dimensions as 5 1/4" and 4" ... don't think time changes that.



Tucker

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Well I installed the Eclipses in the rear doors today. My front ones are due to arrive tomorrow, so I'll give my impressions on those then.

Until today, my system was totally stock.

My first impressions was after getting ONE installed: I set the fader on the head unit to the rear, and then played with the balance from left to right. Even with the factory equalizer set w/ full bass, mid/mid, high treble, and at full volume....

THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE! Bummer. I went forward and installed the second one.

Again, I expect (I really hope) the most notable difference to come from the front speaker install this weekend. My passenger front or dash speaker has a hum and crackling noise. The rear speakers had no deterioration and looked brand new.

A more definitive impression will come after the fronts are installed. My recommendation to people on a budget, however, would be that unless your rear door speakers are proven not to be working right, with a factory head unit you are not going to get an improvement there.

Of course if/when you change head unit or install an amp, I do not doubt the difference between stock and the Eclipses will become much more clearer with the additional power.

 

[Montana Cruiser]

Well I installed the Eclipses in the rear doors today. My front ones are due to arrive tomorrow, so I'll give my impressions on those then.

Until today, my system was totally stock.

My first impressions was after getting ONE installed: I set the fader on the head unit to the rear, and then played with the balance from left to right. Even with the factory equalizer set w/ full bass, mid/mid, high treble, and at full volume....

THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE! Bummer. I went forward and installed the second one.

Again, I expect (I really hope) the most notable difference to come from the front speaker install this weekend. My passenger front or dash speaker has a hum and crackling noise. The rear speakers had no deterioration and looked brand new.

A more definitive impression will come after the fronts are installed. My recommendation to people on a budget, however, would be that unless your rear door speakers are proven not to be working right, with a factory head unit you are not going to get an improvement there.

Of course if/when you change head unit or install an amp, I do not doubt the difference between stock and the Eclipses will become much more clearer with the additional power.

Cruisin' - I did the Eclipse install last week, front and rear, everything else is stock and I really like it. The Eclipse are much "cleaner" sounding then the stock speakers, and although I can turn it up to a higher volume without distortion, I wouldnt say the stereo is any "louder". I agree thats its going to take a new headunit or new amps before things sound significantly better. Atleast now you will have good sound and the speakers will be ready to go when you make the next stereo upgrade. I think my next will be dealing with the sub in the back and I have some Rockford Fosgate pods with mids and tweets I would like to install up by the crappy tweets in the headliner out back. Lets us know what you think once the fronts are in.

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Ok further thoughts......(for the inexperienced, this is the only contribution I can make to FAQ at this point, so lifers go easy!)

As stated above, due to availability, I received and installed the rear Eclipses only. I wasn't all that impressed, but my stock speakers were in good condition.

Installation on my 94 went fairly smoothly, pop off the grill, take speaker out of door, release from bracket with screw on back, and cut out the bracket w/ Dremel to accept new. I actually wanted to seal the speaker to the bracket, and bracket to door, so I used a combo of double sided tape to MOMENTARILY hold it in place, and actually Glued them together to form a seal. I also used some adhesion putty for a chaulking type seal around the edges.

Sorry, I took a pic of the mod required to the bracket, and final install, but they were lost:

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

On to the front Eclipse install.....

Door panel removal is easy, just go slow and be gentle. Tape up the end of a large blade screwdriver, and pry up the front-most edge of the window/door lock control. Unplug. Do the same for the leather arm rest. Remove the screw from the top of the handle, and the two holding the armrest on. Take of (1 small screw) the door release bezel. Go aroung the edge of the door and pull on each clip until all are loose, and lift the panel up until it releases from top of door (It just hangs there).

I thought about using the rubber hose method to install, but then read about Ary's use of the Eclipse grill turned backwards. I wanted to get a good seal to the door, as the thought of a speaker suspended with gaps around the edges shown by the rubber hose method didn't really appeal to me. Ary's idea worked better for me, but there is still about an 1/8" gap between the speaker and grill piece, and turning around the grill piece (it is beveled) meant only slight contact with the door surface. So I fabricated 2 gaskets per side out of cardboard, sprayed them with polyurethane, and started the install.

Biggest problem I encountered was that the stock screws will not fit through the eclipse bracket, and are not big enough to grind out. The four holes in the grill do not align with the four nutserts in the door. (Maybe at an angle with the robber hose method)

So I drilled one hole (actually four, but did not use the other three) into the grill/bracket, and hung the speaker from the top one to hold it in place. I then used a drill bit and drilled 4 holes to match the diameter of the Eclipse provided screws using the bracket as a guide.

Attached are pics of the order of install, showing the gaskets I made, and the Dynamat install on the door panels.

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Impressions- As I stated, I was not impressed with the rear speaker only install. But they are a modest investment for future improvements.

After I installed one of the front ones, the difference started to become much clearer. With Dynamat installed, BUT NOT THE DOOR PANEL YET, bass response was about the same between it and the stock side. But with the volume halfway up, the stock speaker started getting muddy and distorted quickly. The Eclipses are much "brighter", but that is to be expected.

I re-installed installed the door panel, and WOW! The difference continued to grow. I have no way of telling what additional effect the dynamat has, but since I took so much time doing that and getting the speaker sealed to the door as much as possible, I'd like to think it was well worth the time and money.

The stock head unit really pushes those front speakers, they are busy at higher volume.

I will RE-stress what others have said before-DISCONNECT THOSE DASH tweeters!! I'm no expert, but if they are wired parallel I can only guess they are robbing power from where you need them. Plus the sound from them is weak. DO NOT try and pry that fabric cover loose, you have to drop the panels to disconnect. I removed mine completely, but did separate the little speaker from the bracket, and reinstalled that bracket for possible future use.....I used scraps from the Dynamat door panel kit and plugged up the holes. This is very quick and I think adds just as much to the final product as any other aspect.

And also remove the rear tweeters! Someone said getting to them is hard, and had to remove part of the headliner?, but on my 94 it couldn't have been easier. Grills are surface mounted with tension clips, just pop it off, 2 screws drops the speaker, cut the wires. I also separated the little speakers from the metal bracket, and reinstalled just in case.

Again, I'm no expert, but it takes so little extra time I'd certainly recommend getting all door speakers sealed to the door as much as possible, dynamat the fronts (I would have done the rears, but you don't have to take that panel off....will do those once/if I ever go in) and disconnect all four tweeters.

Excellent "bang" for the buck!! Surprising sound from what was there. Nothing like a custom system, or even today's higher end factory installs like my former Nissan/Bose or VW Monsoon, but tons better than what 1994 had to offer.

Now off to figure out the rear sub possibilities......

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Just a couple of other suggestions: If you choose to do the Dynamat, after you cut the two strips to fit one side, do yourself a favor and flip them over upside down to mark and cut for the other door.....

And if I had to do it again, I'd probably consider applying it to the inside of the door trim panel instead of to the door skin for better ease inside the panel once/if I ever need to go in for window issues...

Quick question: how to take of the trim panel where the sub is located? No visible screws.......

And hopefully Cary can answer this (couldn't find it in other speaker threads): Anyone know how much power the stock sub amp puts out? Only reason I'm asking is that I was really surprised at the head unit's output when the more efficient Eclipses were installed.....Makes me think that with some good soundproofing of the sub area, and an efficient small sub, that area could be improved pretty good using the same theory as well.......I know nothing will beat another amp and boxes or custom side enclosures, but I'd bet some good gains for the buck could be had without sacrificing money for a custom enclosure or space for a BassLink or box...

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Disregard, I search using dif parameters, just so for those that haven't, there is evidently NO WAY for the stock sub amp to power anything good back there....

Still need some advice on how to get the back panel off.....I am about to start pulling, don't want to break it.

 

[sea2skydad]

Just get your fingers in behind the panel and start pulling. Gently! It's just plastic clips into plastic plugs. FWIW, I built an enclousure for the stock sub out of MDF and I noticed an appreciable difference in bass response. I'm still planning on adding a sub and amp in the future, but I will use the same enclosure. I agree with you on the Eclipses, they are great bang for the buck. HTH, Greg.

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

Greg,

Have you posted the nfo on your enclosure before? I don't want to wear you out, but what did you do? Have dimensions for the box? Pics? Hints?

I just haven't seen many here that were totally stock looking.

 

[concretejungle]

Cruisin, did you put your dynamat behind the plastic "vapor guard" or on top of it? I am a huge fan of dynamat and have dynamated my center console, front floor boards and my rear wheel wells. I was going to dynamat the doors when i buy speakers, but when looking i couldn't decide the best approach with the dynamat, on top or below the plastic.

Thanks
Alex

 

[Cruisin'Carolina]

I put the mat on the plastic, which was still sealed well. Not that the dynamat would be a problem when exposed to moisture, but I thought the vapor barrier there should'nt be messed with.

I guess when I have to go inside the door, I might try and pull off both at the same time.

That's one of the reasons I was wondering out loud about dynamat"ing" the actual door panels instead......that way it would never have to be messed with no matter how many times you go in.

Since you're local, I will tell you that Freeman's had the rear doors speakers in stock, they are on back-order from mobileone.com, where I bought the fronts.....just have to get them to match the price.

 

[concretejungle]

Thanks, good info. Some idiot PO that had my cruiser installed some crappy kenwood speakers in the door. Problem is that he butchered the plastic vapor barrier while putting them in. I have fixed it sort of for the mean time, but while it was torn, during a hard rain i would literally have water coming through the door panel. So you made a wise decision to leave the plastic alone! I think i will apply my dynamat on top of the plastic as well.