Thanks! However, I have 5x7s!

 

I see you have a Blaupunkt, but what model?

Those mats look real plush in the second pic and I am sold on them. Info??

 

Even better! The Alpine R-type speakers come in 5x7.

What are your fronts? 5.25 or 6.5?

 

I chatted w/ a Crutchfield rep. Great to work with, I gave him the make and model, then he told me to measure "screw to screw", etc as he was standing by. Came to the conclusion that this was the system for me.

1085211I Infinity Kappa 52.11i 5.25" 2-Way Car Speakers
575P1572 Rockford Fosgate Punch P1572 5" x 7" Coaxial Speakers

 

Goods have arrived! Along w/ the delivery, you can see that 2 bags of female connectors came. I assume I have to cut off the existing wire tips and install these, then simply plug in new speaks?

 

looks like the Blaupunkt charleston

 

Today was in the install, which I "assumed" was going to be easy. However, being 43 and a very well seasoned new yorker, I know that "nothing" is easy! I thought that they front was going to be the most difficult, becasue I had to remove the lower door storage, in order to get to the speaker. I figured the rears would just drop in! The worst part of the install, was that the 5 x 7's were not "drop-ins" as they were supposed to be! I had to cut them in!

First pic shows what I found when I pulled out the front speaker. Looks like somebody made a splice already, I am wondering if they were replacements. Since my new front's had a simple tightening screw, that was to crimp the wire, I removed the splice. After a few attempts of not being able to tighten the screw enough to secure the wires, I improvised and installed these tips in the second pic. That worked like a charm!

After slaving over the rear deck, I finally installed them. However, I was "supposed" to be able to use the existing screens, but no dice Chicago!
The Alpines that were installed, were really shot, dried out and had some tears. Are these stock?? I am on the fence about leaving the new rears exposed or put a mesh over them.
Bottom line, it's a big improvement over what I had. Much more crisp and clear sound.

 

The factory installed paper cone 4x6" speakers back in '84, so the Alpines you took out are not stock.

 

Definitely aftermarkets. I'd cover the rears-did they not come with covers?

 

Did the Crutchfield guy say anything about Bi-amping the speakers? IMO, Infinity Kappas need a lot more power than the deck can provide alone in order to get the most out of them.

 

The Infinity's are listed as having a 2 ohm load and also a sensitivity of 94db at 2.83 volts (1 watt) at 1 meter. That's pretty high sensitivity ratings and will work well with 1980's head unit power ratings (though I still think these old Blaupunkt units had decent amplifier sections that probably had a good five to ten watts of power). These Infinitiy's seem to be designed and marketed for installation in systems with just head unit power.

I would assume in this day and age that brand new car speakers designed for head unit power have decent sensitivity ratings in order to avoid the vendor (Crutchfield) having to take stuff back all of the time due to low sensitivity.

 

No, the "usual culprit" is the use of only the 12 volt battery voltage source to drive LOW ohmage speakers. What you really need is an amp that incorporates a MOSFET DC-DC up-converter (inverter) to provide upwards of 200 volts for speaker drive. Speakers help but due the modern day use of higher drive voltages you rarely find decent speakers with both low coil resistance to "accommodate" the low drive voltage and good strong magnets.

 

No where in these posts do I see any mention of speaker resistance vs power vs supply voltage.

If your "head" unit uses only the battery 12 volts as speaker drive source then with the most simple (and most common) drive circuit it can only supply about 6 watts, assuming a 2 ohm speaker. P=E/R, voltage divided by resistance = POWER. Even with an "H" type drive circuit the drive power only rises to 12 watts/speaker.

But that isn't nearly the whole story, not by a long shot.

You have the "dynamic" speaker drive issues to account for, overcome.

Back EMF, the "resistance" to speaker coil current flow as the speaker moves through the magnetic field thereby creating a reverse, opposing, voltage.

And the "biggy". Speaker coil inductance. The only way to overcome that is with a much higher drive voltage than the simple P=E/R equation implies. Therefore a

speaker drive source voltage of 200-400 volts is the norm for modern day systems. That also why the market is really only supplying 8-16 ohm high fidelity, STRONG magnet, speakers there days.

Does the unit you wish to keep have pre-amp, RCA jacks, outputs..?

Clearly, if so, what you need(ed) is a modern day speaker drive amplifier to drive those new speakers. What ohm speaker did Crutchfield sell you? Absent the amplifier that should
have been 2 ohms or less.

I'm mildly surprised that the Crutchfield rep/EXPERT didn't point this out.

 

I am going to get the covers, but they didn't come w/ the speakers.

An amp would definitely be the way to go, but I'm not sure how far I want to go with this system. Just wanted to basically replace the garbage speakers that I had. If it's a simple enough install for the amp, then I might as well go for it!To answer all your questions WWest and the questions from others, Below are the specs on the units. The radio / head unit is the standard Blaupunkt Monterey that came w/ the car.

 

With a decent but relatively inexpensive (Kenwood KAC 8405, $120.00) 4-channel amp replacing the OEM speakers "in kind" would probably more than suffice.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...n-IjDSM7jkBV3A