What the best brand and wattage to upgrade the front door and rear deck speakers without having to mod installation.

 

What?
"mod installation"? do you mean actually have to do something, ones that bolt right in?
bose OEM replacements, with bose HU.

do you want real speakers? Talking brands is like talking politics. having said that, I prefer Infinity Kappas.

 

You can get 6.5 speaker pods (for the front) on ebay (I think) that will expand selection and quality to thousands of different speakers. The 4x6's that came in it are not the best for sound. But if you upgrade speakers, you'll have to (or want to) upgrade the Head unit as well.

 

I upgraded my rears. What a major PITA to get at those rear speakers. the rear speaker covers are permanently attached to the rear panel. took complete removal of the rear seat to get at them. While i was at it, i ran new speaker wires, as that built in amp for the rears is a joke...makes it sound like a blender on a 2x4. Anyways, I checked around for sales, walmart, etc..., and i thought I'd buy a good brand name and got a set of JBLs for $50 on sale, regular $100. Well, they're made in China and they look bling-ey, but I think they're probably the same as the $20 ones from Walmart. My stock speakers are Clarion and were crap, so anything is probably an improvement. And I also replaced the head unit. I was very happy to see it mount so easily in the existing brackets/mount with the side screws.

 

I dropped my rears out the bottom on the 3rd gen.

 

Hey How much are the speaker pods on Ebay. I was looking to upgrade my speakers up front to 6.5. I bought a pair and ended up taking them back bacause the front doors only had a 4.6 inch speaker mounting.

 

will 4x6s bolt to the metal top where the amp housing bolts to? I find it wasted space if you're just going to take out the amps anyways. could have sworn I've seen this done before

 

i dunno those clarion oem amps ,when working properly, sounds good.
i have a a set of 6.5 speaker's in the rear rated at 1 ohm.
some people find it crazy but i did a bose swap.

i recently found a bose amp at my job.
paid $2 for it has a sub output and the sound is so clear and "theaterlike".
bass hit's nice which i'm kinda shocked.

but i prefer pioneer though.

 

I was thinking that, too. It takes like 10 minutes to swap in new 6x9s and use the existing wires.

like so:





To the OP:

You didn't specify if you had Bose or non-Bose, but really it's the same if you are buying aftermarket stuff to fit the stock spaces.

I would recommend:

1) single din HU (so you can keep the neat little drawer).

2) 6.5 inch pods and some decent 6.5 inch speakers. I don't know if he is interested in making them still, but James92SE builds some nice door pods. I still have mine and they have been great after 5+ years.



3) 6x9s direct swap from under the parcel shelf (access through the trunk). If you have Bose, you can use existing Bose mount, you just need to bypass the amp.


Everything will fit without even removing the Bose grills. My system looks stock except for the HU. Diamond Audio 6.5s in the door, Polk Audio 6x9s, plus a sub and amp in the trunk.

 

my factory speakers were screwed in from the top. no idea how i could have taken them out from underneath, because i looked at that first.

 

i need to replace my front and rear speakers dey sound like crap. no i dont know what kind i need cuz i jus got the car. plz help, thanks

 

Seriously? Ummm...did you read any of the thread?

Depends on whether you have a Bose system or not (it'll say Bose on the speaker grill if you do, Active Sound System [or something like that] if you don't)

Fronts are 4x6 / Rears are 6.5 for the non-Bose
Fronts are 4(?)/Rears are 6x9 for the Bose

If your HU has not been replaced already, it needs to be replaced. Adding an Amp wouldn't be a bad idea either, and it's definitely a good idea if you had the Bose system.

 

nasty amp!

 

lol seriously i read it. its that they where talking about custom molds and it threw me off. ill juss check when i have the time and take them out take em to best buy to buy better ones. what kind of amp do u suggest?

 

oh yea and as for wattage most people don't look at the wattage rating anymore. they look at the rms rating.

 

I wouldn't mess with 4x6 unless you get a good deal/on a serious budget. The 6.5 pods will fit in any 3rd gen maxima front doors and it gives you the opportunity to upgrade to components.

 

i found Boss Car Audio 6.5" 2 Way Component Speakers 450W for $60


Size: 6.5 Inch
Frequency Response:65 Hz - 22 kHz
RMS Power Handling:225 w
Peak Power Handling:450 w
Impedance:4 ohm
Magnet Weight:30 oz
Crossover Included:No
Cone Material:1" Aluminum
Tweeter Material:1" Silk Dome

and Boss Car Audio 6.5" Component Speakers 350W for $35

• Peak power handling: 350W
• Magnet structure: 20 Oz
• Impedance: 4 Ohm
• Frequency response: 60Hz - 20kHz
• Efficiency: 92dB
• Cone material: Poly injection
• Voice coil: 1" Aluminum
• Tweeter: 1" Neodymium dome
• Midrange: N/A

which should i get? i only see the difference of $60 for 100 more watts.
idk im not an audio tech guy lol help if u can.

 

I don't see any efficiency specs on the first pair. I am unfamiliar with boss speakers, except they look cheap. It's been a while since I scanned the audio forum, but I recall Rainbow speakers having good reviews (then again, it may have been a running joke)

 

Wow all this audio talk in a general disscussion section! Can't believe it!

 

I hate to ask this question again because I feel someone must know and has done it but is it possible to bolt speakers directly to the metal where the amplifier bracket (behind back seats) holds onto or would a custom bracket be necessary (maybe pointless if it comes to that)

 

those seem to be the nicest ones cuz the rest look cheap and these dont. idk man i just posted what i found by googling 6.5 speakers

 

i have 6.5 kickers in the front. all i did was take off the lil housin off and drill them in.

 

I get good deals on Infinity Kappa products in any size, PM me for more information.

 

I was not aware of those beautiful adapters, so when I found some 6.5 inch Bose from a newer Maxima, the stock speaker housings didn't stand a chance. I was a little Dremmel happy nonetheless and had fun cleaning up tiny pieces of plastic for a week in odd locations all over my kitchen.

Finally got the glue in last night and i think they will perform much better than the smaller 4 inch Bostwick 2 ways ( they made their way into my all-in-one vinyl/radio/tape player in the kitcken which gave me the opportunity to clean up sawdust since the speaker housing in it needed to be modified too!) considering they were blown from bass overload. It is nice to finally have an HU with a sub out and comparable EQ.

I have the two Bose Amps leftover, but does anyone know how to rewire these to operate on an aftermarket HU? If anyone can help me figure this diagram out, that would be cool. If someone is looking for some of these (amps), I have them for sell. Thanks to any help I may receive.

 

Since your question is a bit unclear - Are you looking to use the Bose amps with an aftermarket head unit? Or do you mean simply wiring the new speakers into the factory wiring?

To use the Bose amps you need a Sosche SLC4, which should only be about $20 bucks, but it will sound absolutely terrible (i.e., don't waste your time). If you want to run the new speakers on the factory wiring, then that's quite easy. Put those harnesses back into the Bose housings, and then wire the speaker wires to your new speakers (that way you don't have to cut-up your factory wiring and it's all run through stock harnesses, etc). IIRC the speaker wires are the twisted yellow and purple ones but I don't remember (+) and (-).

If you run a Scosche head unit connector (which is the easiest way to go), you'll be able to determine the (+) and (-) though. On the Scosche connector (and every other aftermarket HU/connector/etc), the LF is white/black (-), white (+), and RF is gray/black (-), gray (+). Just find which wires those match up to and that's your factory speaker wires. Then match those wire colors up the Bose harness at the door and there you go. Of course if you WANT to go through the trouble of running all new wiring then you can do that as well

 

Thank you for the quick answer James. The setup I found in the car when i received it was bypassing any and all left-over Bose components that were left behind when the stock HU was replaced by a JVC. I am assuming then the stock speakers were replaced as well.

So......... I am used to the setup you described where the speakers aren't connected to the amp, inside the speaker housing, and it is good to know that trying to reconnect them with hope towards getting a better sound may be unnecessary.

It was just a thought, in case they operate well as a crossover device, or indeed are excellent amplifiers that could help take the audio to the next level.

Thanks for the reply, perhaps someone may think the contrary would be more favorable; either way, I have scosche gear, and it isn't the most favorable brand even though the project may only require some simple technological adaptations.

 

leave the bose stuff in the scrap bin. it is not designed to run with anything other than the matching bose components.

 

ok so i have read the thread and im still a little confused.. i have an 89 gxe with the whole bose speaker setup.. and an aftermarket pioneer HU.. i just want my sound system to actually work again.. like.. my speakers sound horrible.. can i just buy sum speakers in the same size as the stock speakers and just bolt them in? or do i also need an amp?

 

you can buy some new speakers but you will need to bypass the factory amps for it to all work well.

 

Honestly, unless the speakers themselves are physically torn, you can run the Bose speakers just fine on an aftermarket amp. I know the general consensus here for the past 10 years has been "remove and upgrade", but it's really unnecessary if you just want a working audio system. Just take apart the housings, remove/bypass the amps (like I described above), screw the 4x6's (or whatever they are) back into the housings, and hook up the aftermarket head unit.

This way you don't even need to buy new speakers if you're just wanting it to "work". I've done this just recently on two of my 3rd gens, and it sounds just fine. In fact, it doesn't sound bad at all. If you didn't know that it once had Bose, you wouldn't think anything of it, really. I'd always read that the impedance of the Bose speakers was so goofy that they wouldn't hardly play without the amps, but I've actually found this to not be the case.

Like I said, I've done this in two of my 3rd gens just in the past few months, and dare I say the one that has the nicer head unit (some $80 Pioneer from WalMart) actually sounds pretty darn decent. Has pretty good bass and even decent midrange I honestly don't think I'll even ever bother to "upgrade" it unless one of the speakers tears or something. The other car has a $40 "Dual" brand head unit, and it does sound kind of rinky, but it definitely all works just fine.

 

oh damn man.. i rele wanna try that.. like im a total noob so i dont rele know how to hook them up.. is there anywhere that i could see like pics and an explanation?

 

Now that I re-read my post, I need to make an important edit. In the first sentence I meant to say "...just fine on an aftermarket head unit." I don't know why I said "amp".

 

ok.. so i triyed the amp bypass thing and it worked!

and it was rele simple..
here are sum pics to try to explain..
they only show the back because i forgot to get pics of the one front speaker me and my step dad did..


you need to make sure you have the nasty *** foam off of the wires that go directly to the speaker.. they should be orange and green.. GO CANES!!.. lol



now on the harness of wires that go to the amp isolate the two skinny strippred wires.. DO NOT USE THE BROWN AND BLACK THICK WIRED.. THIS MIGHT BLOW YOUR SPEAKER.. it kinda happened to me..



now all you have to do is cut and strip the wires that go directly into the speakers and the ones that i just pointed out above.... hook em up with sum sort of clip.. idk the name.. but my stepdad had some so i just used them.. and theyt should look like this




ohh yeah.. i have an aftermarket HU so idk if u have to have one.. i dont think it will work with the stock HU

 

Cool, glad it worked out for you

 

yeah man.. thanks for the idea

 

Darn I'll be doing something like this to...I think my headunit is shot as well...alot of static when i turn the volume ****....I'll have to do more testing once I get my power source relocated!

 

I've read 3 or 4 different posts, and this is the only post that actually shed any light on my subject.
You guys are telling me that I can't bypass my amps with the stock HU, and if I wanted to, I would have to buy an Aftermarket HU anyways?
Would it not be easier to just re-wire the entire setup, Hu to eatch speaker?
Right now, my RF speaker is the only one working, there is static coming from that speaker, when the rear speakers were working I could barely hear anything out of them. when the LF speaker is connected it makes this horrible squealing sound almost like a england Police siren, then it pops and crackles, So I've Took it out for now.
Just by looking at the speakers and the amps I can tell the speakers are fine.
But little did I know when I bought the car less than a month ago, that a tree had fallen on the roof and its all been replaced.
Oh, and when they were waiting to replace the roof, EVERYTHING got rained on. This might be my problem.
If it is, What would be easier bypassing the amps, or just buying a new HU with speaker wire, and 4 new speakers with no amp ( for now)?

 

my fronts are clarion, and i upgraded the back 6x9s to Nakamichi 8 inch sp80s. ill post a pics up soon.

 

I've been lookin at some 4x6's im thinking some boston's but the one in the picture dont look like the ones in the car does it matter??

 

first, less colors, italics, and bolds. it makes your posts hard to read for some of us.

chances are your speakers and amps are fine. Bose (sometimes referred to as Blows) factory head units have a tendency to go out. Thats just the way things go.
Even if you have Clarion, it's stock; you can get a new replacement at Wal-Mart for $100, and will sound 100x better (and you get what you pay for).