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So...
A car is not the ideal acoustic environment, so this is all relative. The idea of seperate lows, mid and high speakers should allow for more 'spaced' recreation of the sound you are listening to. In a 951 with cat delete, and aftermarket exhaust, does it really matter?
Folks a lot smarter than me will say that you can tune each speaker to recreate the the overall sounds more realistically. With appropriate amplification, and crossover selection points (depending on the kind of music you listen to), you could tune a multi speaker setup to your satisfaction.
For our cars, finding quality speakers in the appropriate sizes will be a pain. I can certainly understand the desire to ditch the factory set up for something that allows more modern replacements.
That being said, I'm in the process of setting up a pair of 3 speaker door cards with modern speakers to install in my 951. Finding three way crossovers was a challenge all by itself.
Thanks guys. I was curious about the 2 vs. 3 front speakers actually. I can believe that 3-way crossovers really limit your choices.
Is it possible/likely that a modern 2-speaker component setup would sound better than the factory 3 speakers?
I suspect I will end up with customized mounting points and sizes. The stock plastic pods for the front can't be the best platform to mount a speaker to.
Yes, absolutely. Modern speaker have made great progress in covering more frequencies with fewer chassis. And you want to cover each part of the frequency spectrum with a single speaker only (per channel), so that you don't get frequency cancelations from the different delay.
I think it is realistic to get to a better sounding system replacing few speakers at a time, deactivating the duplicate coverage for frequencies you have with the new speakers.
I'm struggling with the head unit too. I want something with relatively modern features like bluetooth and USB, but that doesn't look too flashy and modern.
I'm starting to wonder if a double DIN may be the way to go. I've seen a couple (pioneer I think?) which have a large screen with a few physical buttons at the bottom. Don't want a motorized screen or anything like that, since it's pretty close to the shifter.
I'd definitely appreciate any suggestions on head units. It's been a long time since I've done this and since I've started reading up on it, it seems that some of the 'good' car audio brands I used to like have been bought and sold, and the quality has gone away.
Can't help much with that. I recently went with a modern Kenwood unit (having had good experience with them back when I had single DIN cars) and I instantly returned it. Godawful.
The best stereo I had in a car was in a Ford Escort convertible where I had simply fixed two floor style speaker cabinets with good chassis to the rear seatbelts and fed it from a Sony CD player through an amp with integrated analog graphics EQ.
It was really cool, in a pitch with that POS breaking down it could move under power from the stereo
I'm struggling with the head unit too. I want something with relatively modern features like bluetooth and USB, but that doesn't look too flashy and modern.
I'm starting to wonder if a double DIN may be the way to go. I've seen a couple (pioneer I think?) which have a large screen with a few physical buttons at the bottom. Don't want a motorized screen or anything like that, since it's pretty close to the shifter.
I've got my eye on a few universal double DIN Android based units. The only problem with double DIN is the bottom rear edge interfering with the torque tube tunnel if they're too deep.
This is the brand I'm looking at, a car acquaintance has fitted one to his mk 5 golf a few months ago and loves it.
Modern 3-way setups sound amazing, especially with an active deck or a DSP running the system. That said, i run a Pioneer 80PRS along with a set of 2-way focal Polykevlars in a 5.25" diameter. I have an alpine PDX 4.100 and 1.600 stuffed in the spare tire well (inside the spare even!) to power it all. I had to make MDF spacer rings and cut to make the 5.25's work in place of the factory 4x6.
The factory 10 speaker system is more difficult to upgrade, as the speakers in the 2 and 3 way system were weird sizes. You can work a 5.25" speaker into the plastic under the door rest if your careful, however it does involve cutting that piece to make it fit. The factory tweeter mount will work just fine with aftermarket tweeters if you cut a little bit and hot glue in the tweets. I bought a set of 10 speaker panels and ended up modding out the 4x6 panels due to the challenges of making the 10 speaker work. Ill post pics shortly.
My 944 (which is loud due to aftermarket exhaust) had a stereo upgrade about a year before I bought it. Alpine head unit, USB and AUX inputs, outputting to Focal speakers: two 2-way doors up front + 2-way rear in 6x9" resonator boxes. Stock fader dial still works.
Absolutely great. Sounds nicer than the 10 speaker Bose with factory sub in my Volvo.
I'm assuming that given the technology advantages, replacing it with a modern system is going to offer better sound quality.
Ignoring any issues with what'll fit & any originality concerns, is there any downside to ditching the 10-speaker setup?
I intentionally swapped to the 10-speaker panels -- used separates up front with crossover and cut plexi for the spot I didn't use and put an infinity logo on it. Tweeters were mounted on metal stock and screwed into place.
For the rears I cut a template to mount better speakers there as well -- and screwed it to the original spots. Stuck an EQ in the glovebox and have a 4-way amp in the spare tire well...
To each their own, but to me it sounds solid. No way you'll match that with 4 4x6's, in my opinion.
I've been looking at those android units as well for my allroad. I like kenwood, if you stick with with exelcon series. I wanted to keep it single DIN, so I can utilize the chubby for a gauge pod. I think mine is a 996- front,rear and sub preamp output, wired iPod control, Bluetooth, 13 band equalizer and a bunch of stuff.
PO of my car hacked up the door panels so he could install 6.5" woofer and 1" tweeters. They don't sound bad, and with an all black interior, you don't really notice the hack job, but it bugs me, which lead to my current replacement I had to modify the 3 speaker panels, but I have installed 5.25" and 3" mids and a 1" tweeter in the stock locations. Rockford Fosgate. After market 3 way crossover splits the frequencies.
In his defence, he did a great job making subwoofers out of the cubbies behind the rear wheels. Ported, even.
I have hooked the setup to my head unit to test, and it sounds OK (out of the car). Lot of work still to do before final judgment is passed.
I have the 10 speaker setup and did a stealth installation of some MB Quart separates (factory paper speakers were all rotting anyway). I eliminated the mid range drivers and made a block off plate for those. Everything fit under/behind the stock grills so you can't tell anything non-factory is even in there. The only mods needed were the mounting points for the 5.25" in front, some minor massaging of the plastic reinforcements of the tweeter grills, so they would snap back on the door cards and a little creative mounting for the crossovers behind the front and rear speakers. Coupled it with a Pioneer DEH-9600BHS (it has HD radio, Sirius, Bluetooth and two USB's) which isn't covered in a million buttons and it all sounds great. When I redo the interior, I'll run an amp/subwoofer setup in back in the tire well to finish it all off.
First review:
"I took my Porsche '88 944 turbo to 3 local car stereo shops, to replace the 3" midrange speakers in the door, which had crumbled, part of the 10 speaker OEM system.
They all said it couldn't be done, nothing would fit. These fit (almost) perfectly, with just a little (1/8") trimming of the door speaker panel. Better speaker, great fit, thanks!"
First review:
"I took my Porsche '88 944 turbo to 3 local car stereo shops, to replace the 3" midrange speakers in the door, which had crumbled, part of the 10 speaker OEM system.
They all said it couldn't be done, nothing would fit. These fit (almost) perfectly, with just a little (1/8") trimming of the door speaker panel. Better speaker, great fit, thanks!"
Oh man, that just made things more interesting... I may do an active 3-way in the front of my Saab thanks to you DSP land, here i come.
I'd go for these in the S2 if i hadn't already built around a 2-way setup..
11-07-2015, 04:47 PM
Is there anything special about the 10-speaker system?
DSP land, here i come.