Orest

I've done a search on both Rennlist and the Nichols site but I've come up short. Can anyone with an earlier 928s confirm that the speakers are 4x6 all around before I spend big bucks?

ajd0002

I just replaced the rear speakers and they are definetly 4" . The door speakers are 4 x 6

Dan Bise

Be careful with a 4x6 plate up front. The early cars have only a small depression in the door skin and magnets on modern 4x6 plates these days are too wide in diameter to fit in the recess, so you will not be able to mount your door panel flush.

Best to take the door panel off and the speaker out to take some measurements before buying anything.

If you want to keep the stock appearance (no grilles) with a big 4x6 plate behind, you can get into some butchery and cut away some door metal. It will let the speaker fit and won't interfere with the door mechanism, but, like I mentioned, it is a bit of butchery, if hidden.

Dan Bise
Pasadena, CA
'83S

rjtw

Dan's right. I too faced the dilemma years ago of either using the stock speaker location and be forced to compromise on quality, or either hack the metal or move to a different location. I chose the latter because I didn't want to hack (and besides, there's an additional issue that if you hack a hole, the skeaker may be deep enough to interfere with the window). I also didn't want to stick on speakers on the outside of the upper door panels because I wanted to maintain the stock look there.

Instead, I mounted high-quality tweeters behind the grill, and placed another high quality 6" round mid/low speaker at the forward lower edge of the door (where it's out of the way and inconspicuous). Since there's almost no structure down there, I fabricated an aluminum plate for the speaker to attach to, and which is in turn attached to the forward and lower edges of the door. The plate goes behind the door panel and the speaker bolts through the door panel onto the plate. No cutting of the door structure required, and the speaker is very solidly mounted. It's still a compromise, but one that I've been extremely happy with.

There's a similar issue with the rears -- if you want to put in any decent speaker, you're looking at either hacking a hole or going with external mount. I went with an external mount, this time reinforced with a large aluminum plate attached to the inside of the panel. I'm not actually sure that making holes in the sheet metal is an option here anyway -- I think that exposes directly into the fenderwell!

Rick

Orest

Thanks for all the advice!

rjtw- What size speakers did you end up with in the rears, and for the fronts, where did you hide the crossovers?

Orest

Thanks for all the advice!

rjtw- What size speakers did you end up with in the rears, and for the fronts, where did you hide the crossovers?

rjtw

Hi Orest,
In the rears, I used ADS rectangular surface-mount speakers (300i or 320i, I forget which). They contain a mid/low speaker, crossover, and tweeter (similar to what I used in the front but housed in an enclosure). I'd guess they're about 6"x8". The speakers were all expensive, but they were well worth the investment and still like new over ten years later.

I don't recall exactly where I hid the crossover... there should be plenty of options on that one. I have a vague memory of putting it up with the tweeter but I can't be sure.

Just to keep you going, how about putting a subwoofer in the rear while you're at it? ;-)

Rick

Orest

Rick
While I have the interior apart to replace panels and carpeting, I'm also planning out the sound system.
For bass my plan is to install a small bazooka bass tube in the trunk. It's smaller than an enclosure and I can easily remove it if need be. My brother uses one in his SUV with stock speakers and I'm pleased with the results.
I will definately follow your lead since we have the same MY 928.

p.s. Do you happen to have any pics of your install?

Orest

rjtw

Hey Orest,
Sounds cool!
Sorry, no pics. As for following my lead, well, the front speakers in particular were not a trivial project, though not bad if you have access to some basic machine shop tools. (You could conecievably just mount speakers directly to the fiberboard also, but I felt that was too wobbly). I had a lot of time back in those days... Definitely do take off the panels and check out what you can get that might fit in the existing space. Maybe you'll get lucky!

If I may give you some other hints... (though you haven't asked for them!)... how about
- upgrade wiring to big fat cables to the speakers, if you plan on using much power at all
- keep the pre-amp wires away from the fuse box and LH brain area, it generates some interference. I initially routed cables forward from the radio, down the footwell, across the lower section of the fusebox on the inside, and back the right hand side of the footwell. I got some popping noises. I changed the location to forward from the radio, down the left side of the fusebox, and straight back on the left side of the footwell and all was OK.
- A great place for the amp is underneath the passenger's seat, but it's tight.

Good luck!
Rick