Speaker upgrade - looking for some advice (1 Viewer)

[lumbee1]

Same here. I did the same thing at the back however I did trim the sheet metal inside the door to mount a 6.5" speaker and added a 1/2" spacer. I've got some rattling that occurs with the rear speakers and I need to pull them apart and add some sound deadening.

I installed the spacer many years ago with the Polks but didn't bother checking if the Infinity's required the same spacer. I'm going to see what the absolute slimmest spacer is that I can fit without the speakers contacting structure on the inside of the door.

 

[bart0]

Howdy all. I received my speakers and have begun the front door speaker install. There are two sets of wires coming thought the door jamb, one set (red black) goes to the motor for the window, the second thinner set (blue green) goes to an unused connector. Can someone please confirm this is the surplus door speaker wire before I cut and connect it to the new speakers? I’ve tried stuffing wires attached to the speaker into the connector but can’t get sound (not sure if the wires are making their way far enough into the connector)

For reference, the set of wires going to the dash speaker is brown orange and of similar gauge.

Cheers!

UPDATE: While I was waiting for a response I started on the drivers side dash speaker and saw the same green-blue wire that is in the passenger door. Possible that the previous owner added his own orange-brown wire to the passenger dash speaker?

UPDATE 2: I pulled the connector from the passenger door to expose the bare blue and green wires, looks like no power signal is coming through. Perhaps not connected to the OE radio/amp from factory?

UPDATE 3: My curiosity was getting to me so I got under the front kick panel to find where the front door speaker cables run to and if they were connected. Found the large multi-pin connecter and where the green-blue cables run in to, and there were no cables running out from the corresponding sockets on the other side of the connector — the door speaker wires terminated into the connector and went no further. I confirmed this by temporarily wiring the dash speaker wires into the empty door speaker locations on the connector and go sound coming through the door wires. I now have a plan on how to wire the door speakers with the dash speaker wires for a 4x front and rear door speaker solution.

 

[bart0]

Update: Finally got around to installing 4x Infinity speakers!
- 2x Infinity REF 6532EX in the front doors
- 2x Infinity REF 6532IX in the rear doors

Apologies for not taking progress pics (except for one) Hopefully my description paints a good picture.

Front speakers:
As mentioned by others, the blue/green speaker wires were there in the door but they terminated at the harness plug and did not go further into the radio/head unit. I disconnected the 4" dash speakers and extended those two wires into the harness plug, in the holes that corresponded to the green/blue wires coming out the other side. Tested it and it worked.

As everyone says, you need the shallow mount speakers (EX) in the front and I used the 3mm thick plastic bracket that comes with the speakers to make it clear the window. I used a hacksaw and bench grinder to reduce the diameter of the bracket so it would fit into the speaker recess that exists on the door, being careful not to grind too much away near the smaller screw holes so there's enough 'meat' to reduce cracking when screwed in. I pre-drilled and fastened the bracket to the steel with some sheet metal screws, and pre-drilled the small speaker-fastener holes through the sheet metal to stop the long screws bottoming out on the metal.

I measured the centre of the speaker hole against two trim plugs holes so I could cut the 130mm circle hole door card correctly. Definitely a measure thrice cut once situation To cut the door card I drew my 130mm circle and used a Stanley knife to carefully go round with many, many passes. Probably took 10mins of cutting. I didn't want to use a jigsaw because I wanted to keep the door card vinyl/fabric as clean as possible.

To locate the positions of the plastic bracket's speaker screw holes on the door card, I first screwed the 4x longer screws that come with the speakers backwards into the bracket so they were pointing out of the door. Then I reinstalled the door card and firmly pressed it against the protruding screws to make little indents into the masonite. I drilled these out from the inside of the door card. Wasn't a prefect match but was pretty good - all screws screws felt like they went into the the right holes in the plastic bracket.

The final speaker position is quite forward on the door and the side off the dash blocks off about 30% of the speaker. The clearance is tight but the speaker does not touch the side of the dash, at least in my case. I can slide 5 sheets off paper between the speaker grille and the dash without any trouble. Will try to remember not to slam the door too hard tho

Rear speakers:
The IX, regular depth speaker fit in the back but just barely. Without the included bracket I could hear the back of the speaker cone magnet touch the window when it moved down. With the bracket, there was no noise but it must still be pretty close. I'd probably recommend using the shallow mount EX speakers here as well for peace of mind. I will monitor so see if anything changes over time and replace with shallow mount if needed.

I needed to cut a larger hole in the rear doors to fit the 125mm cones through. I did this with a Dremel and small cut-off wheel. I finished off with a Dremel sanding bit and some galvanised spray paint on a q-tip on the cut edges to prevent/slow down rust. The existing speaker recess in the door is way too small to fit the plastic bracket in so I just attached it to the door without any grinding to reduce the diameter. I used the same reverse-screw positioning system as the front speakers top locate the speaker screw holes. '

Conclusion:
The whole precess took me probably 8-10 hours. I was going slowly and methodically. I was measuring many times beefed cutting and drilling to be extra safe.
The sound is, well, amazing! I posted on the forums recently about my upgraded Blaupunkt head unit, and the whole system sounds really good. The difference of the 6.5" front door speakers over the in-dash 4" Infinity REF 4032CFX speakers is night and day! (I left the 4" speakers in the dash in case I go down the amp + proper wiring route in the future). I have a subwoofer installed but have it turned down pretty low. The head unit + speakers give off enough bass to sounds great, at least in my garage. Will experiment with driving noise to see if this needs adjustment.

Aesthetically the speakers look sharp. The little bronze accent and the relatively plain speaker grille give the speakers a premium vibe. Much better than the 2000's era Pioneer speakers they replaced I will consider spraying and colour matching the grilles and mounts in the future, but for the moment I'm quite happy with the way they look. The trim and speakers are much closer in tone than the photos suggest.

Hole in rear door left by previous owner for Pioneer 6" speaker. Black marker line that I had to cut to fit the non-shallow depth IX speaker cone. ~125–130mm diameter.