BMWDavid

I need new speakers in the doors of my '89 Carrera 3.2. Does anyone have any experience with SW Stereo? They have an ad in Panarama.

I want to keep the OE grills if possible.

David

Luus

Check out focals. they will fit in the same hole and sound great

BMWDavid

Not sure what you mean by "focals"

David

Amber Gramps

David,

i just bought original equipment speakers and grills from Porsche for my rear speakers, and Blaupunkts for the front that will use the stock grill from Performance products. I am afraid to make the switch.


P.s. nice car....don't change anything...and yes, we all think you are crazy.

douglas
bone stock '88 911 cab

Amber Gramps

David,

step away from the car!

Put the wrench down...

and nobody gets hurt.

the engine is music enough.

douglas

dshepp806

Focals are quite nice,..good specs....! Built several cabinets around these driver designs...

Doyle

Jay H

David,

I was pretty involved in car audio from about '88 to maybe 2000. Back then, I remember that Focal drivers were probably the best stuff you could bolt into a moving vehicle. My next set of speakers for my daily driver will be Focals (got a/d/s now [a newer set] and a/d/s has lost their touch).

Check 'em out at Focal's Site. They are pricey, but you get what you pay for.

DON'T start cutting up that car though!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't toss the original speakers either. Put 'em in a box and save them, even if they don't sound all that good or are damaged. You've got a time capsule of a car. Keep all the original stuff!

Best,

Jay
90 964, 84 3.2

Mike Murphy

I have a Sony CD-player with new Polk speakers in the 88 Carrera I bought 6 months ago. It sounds absolutely horrible to me. I was into Home/Car Audio in the 1990's (performed custom home theater and car installations). I would love to change the system, but I don't really have the heart to leave my 3.2 flat-6 out in the cold. So I will probably leave it the way it is and simply not listen to music in my car.

OT: Jay H, do you know much about Home Audio? Ever heard of Madisound?

Jay H

I used to live and breathe home audio (2 channel) as well as car audio. But, I've not heard much about Madisound. Being in Madison Wisconsin, it might be a good source for stuff... Madison is about the only town in Wisconsin with anything remotely resembling high end home audio...

Mike Murphy

Continuing with OT:

A coworker of mine has McIntosh amps with Madisound setup. He spends a lot of time on avsforum.com. He says that these $1,000/pr speakers are as good as any $5,000/pr set. Just thought I'd mention it to you since you're from WI.

I have a complete set of "crappy" BOSE 401s for my Home Theater, but when/if they ever die, I would like to actually buy some high-end speakers. For now, they still sound decent to me, even if they are BOSE.

2002M3Drew

Focals are wonderful, but in a 911? I think sheer volume and perhaps bass response in key in these cars...it isnt the environment to appreciate the nuances in the background of Dark Side of the Moon!

I'm a two channel freak at home, though...Vandersteens, Sim Audio, Rega, and a Pro-Ject table!

Jay H

I believe that certain $1000 speakers can sound better than $5000 speakers. I've heard plenty of expensive speakers that aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Run the Bose until they're dead... That's typically good enough for home theater. All Bose isn't junk...

OT continues with: At home I'm using a 1977 McIntosh MC250 with 1989 Paradigm 7se's with a '91 Onkyo Integra CD player (no preamp). I'll put it against many systems that are 4 times the money...it's not perfect, but you sometimes you don't need to spend billions of dollars for decent audio.

Drew: I agree that Focals could be overkill and a decent set of Pioneer's or Kenwoods or Blaupunkts might be just fine. However, buy a set of Focals (if you have the budget) and you're done forever. You'll never need to upgrade should you feel you need better stuff. I've heard several pretty high end systems in 911's and you can get good sound if you try hard enough.

You really gotta have a sub though for full sound in a 911. A 5.25" set of door speakers is just not enough cone area for decent low end since these cars have such high noise floors.

Good conversations... I love audio...

Jay

Mike Murphy

Jay H, where should one put the sub in a 911, assuming you don't want to give up the rear storage or for the occasional 3rd passenger?

ked

some years ago I (along w/ a business partner, a physicist) distributed Focal drivers and designed speaker systems for the hobbiest / hi-end oem market. this was just at the time that the car audio market was discovering high quality reproduction - or at least trying to. meanwhile, Focal was just starting to produce drivers intended for the auto segment. man - a lot of drivers got blown (& my ears)! I could tell stories... but most end in tears, monetary loss or exasperation, yet there were a few championships along the way, too.

anyway, I set aside a pr of 136mm Focal coaxials for my own edification. cut to 5 yrs ago when I got my '87 and I decided to replace the oem radio-cassette w/ a cd unit (put in a Blau, natch). I decided to try out the Focals in the doors - thought it would be a simple drop-in... HA! the cast (not stamped) frame was huge and the magnet structure was large & deep, compared to the oem driver backspace. made the install a multi-day event - I had a woodworker friend make some standoff rings about 3/4" deep to accomodate them. I didn't want to cut up the door panel vinyl & drill lotsa new holes, etc - all backdate-able... upshot was it turned out great for my taste - nice n' clean sound. I didn't do extra amps, sub & all that... didn't even change the rears (just faded 'em off) (keep in mind the door panel layout for spkrs changed over 87-89). in my 911, it's more than good enough for me. {now, the home system(s) - that's another story... we had Focal-Fr build drivers exclusively to our spec, for our taste, for our own systems - neat!} have fun, but "measure twice..." & think twice, too...

BMWDavid

Thanks for the input.

Doug, I did not consider Porsche for a source as I assumed due to the age of car replacements from them would not be available. I will check with my dealer now just to see what they can do.

To everyone...the object here for me is not to end up with a "killer" sound system but rather just to restore the stereo back to OE status. I sure as heck would never cut into this car or cut any wires! Everything on this car is as it was from Porsche and will remain that way.

Other than the 5.25" door speakers being bad the rest of the speakers at the time are OK.

David