Tony Fernandes

I am THINKING of tying to fit my Dynaudio 8" mid-woofers in my front doors. I have already checked and there seems to be enough room in the door panel. However, I will need to cut the existing 6.5" hole in the metal to accomodate the woofer basket and a baffle I will need to make out of MDF. Has anyone successfully tried this in a 5th gen, and if so, please, any words of advice out there? Please, only people with direct knowledge. I have the skill to do this, but I'm not sure if it's physically possible.

Tony

97GLES

iTrader: (5)

just make sure you bring the window down to check if the speaker will hit the window.

Stereodude

How deep are the woofers? What's their mounting depth?

I made custom MDF rings for my CDT-HD62DT 6.5" components. I know that if they're deeper than about 3.5" you can not do it. You can only push mount in the door out to 1.333". The stock mount is 1" from the door. That will buy a little extra depth. The window ends up being just over 2 and 1/8" from the surface of the door. That 1.333" plus maybe 2.2" gives you about 3.5" total, but that's gonna be pretty close both with the window behind the speaker and the door panel in front of the cone. Also, you may have some issue with the 8" diameter of the cone. I'll post some pictures of my mounts later and show you what I mean.

I have a 2002 (5th gen) and I am speaking from actual experience.

Stereodude

jmax

I don't know about the 5th gen but the depth of the dynaudio 8 wouldn't be a problem for the 4th gen. I recommend doing some fiberglassing around the MDF baffle to get it to fit, and seal perfectly. That's how my dual 6 1/2's are mounted in my doors. I am planning to replace the 6 1/2's with the new Adire 8's that should be coming out before years end. So my doors will be going through additional bracing and fiberglassing stages.

Cutting the metal is the easiest part of this project.

Tony Fernandes

The 8" Dyn mounting depth is 3-1/16". I'll have to check, but I swore the stock Bose mounts were a little thicker than one inch. Well, I hear you...it's gonna be close! I'm mostly worried about having enough clearance inside the door panel. I'll just have to take a slow, cautious approach.

Thanks,

Tony

Tony Fernandes

When I mounted the 8s in my '97 Explorer, I made an MDF baffle that was two boards thick (1-1/2"). I then used a router and had to flush-mount the woofer to the baffle so the surround didn't slap against the door panel grill. Also, the baffle wasn't round...it was weird-shaped due to some internal objects I had to work around. I also used a long screw that I drilled into the door the right length to hold the door panel away from the door about a half inch. You couldn't tell by looking at it that I did this.

Also, I looked at the Max's door panel and I will most likely have to cut away one of the plastic anchors that holds the panel to the door. This is strictly due to the larger diameter of the woofer.

Plus, the baffle will have to be at least 9-inches in diameter. I just don't think there will be enough room in the door panel to accomodate this.

I know I'm gonna sacrifice some serious mid-bass, but it's looking more and more grim...just by having to talk it over with you guys!! I'm thinking I'm gonna be a lot happier, just from the installer prospective, with a 6.5" woofer mounted in the stock baffle. But I haven't given up yet.

Jmax, I know what you mean about cutting the metal being the easiest part. When I did my Explorer, I must have had those door panels off/on about 30 times while I made the baffle and performed surgery as necessary...all in the name of SOUND!!! It took me a month on my days off to get those 8s in there!

Tony

Stereodude

I put some speakers that were 2 7/8" in my doors with 1.25" thick MDF/plywood rings. It sounds like depthwise you should be ok, but you may have issues with the overall size of the cone. When I get home from work I'll post up some pictures of the mounts, and the mounts in the doors. There were some parts where the mounts had to be cut down to allow the door pad to clear. Specifically the the lower corner towards the front of the car. I had to notch them so that the christmas tree fastener in the door pad could go into the hole in the door.

Stereodude

Tony Fernandes

I hear your. Thanks!!

Tony

Stereodude

I think mine were almost 9" They might have been even more. I'll have to break out the ruler on my templates when I get home and see what I ended up with. I know they were a tight squeeze. I basically put the largest rings in the door that was possible to put in them. I had to notch them for the christmas tree fastener and shave the side a little for sides of the pouch area.

Stereodude

Stereodude

Turns out my rings were just a tad under 8.5" They barely fit too. Look at the two pictures. You'll see that there are some shaved edges to the rings.

http://stereo.d2g.com:900/mdf_rings.jpg
http://stereo.d2g.com:900/speaker_in_ring.jpg

Stereodude

Tony Fernandes

It looks like you did a very good job with these. I am beginning to think an 8-inch speaker in the door may be more trouble than it's worth. I suppose that I could feasibly make the outside edge of the baffle no larger than the outside diameter of the woofer...

Or, I could make a dual-sized baffle. The inside layer could be large enough to mount to the door and the outer layer only need be large enough to mount the speaker....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Tony

Stereodude

Thanks.

I tried to do a good job. Odd thing is these CDT speakers are supposed to be 6.5" but they were bigger than the 6.75" speakers that were in the car. I think they're really 7" woofers myself. Oh well, they fit and they sound really good.

Stereodude