I just wrapped up a stereo upgrade using some ideas others have recently posted like the Diamond Audio door speakers. I already had a decent Pioneer head unit but had all stock speakers and no amp or sub.

I already had a 4 channel amp and sub from a long gone family hauler that needed a new home, so this was a fairly low budget effort.

Door speakers - Bought Diamond Audio D342's locally for under $100, and am driving them from 2 of the amp channels. These component speakers have the advantage of the large grill looking very much like the stock grill, so you don't have to worry about reusing the stock grill and the plastic ring that often breaks. The grill diameter is about 1/2" larger than stock, so they don't fit into the impression of the old speakers, but after you tighten down the holding screws, they sink into the foam of the door panels fairly easily. I mounted the X-overs to the back of the door panel with industrial strength velcro from Lowe's. The tweeters will fit in the original housing if you removed the stock tweeters and dremel out a recessed area about 1/4" deep. I used a hot glue gun to stick the new tweeters in place but they are also held by the grill. The stock tweeter grill and ring can be used over the new tweeter.

Rear speakers - left stock for now, driven off the head unit. I fade slightly to the front to reduce power to the stock speakers so they just fill in the mid bass sound some. Will probably probably upgrade to some coax units in the future.

Running the wires was not as tough as I thought it would be. I didn't replace the stock speaker wires which all end up where the stock amp was installed, so speaker wires from the amp only have to go to that point. It was fairly easy to tuck the wires from the amp beside the passenger side rear seat, then down under the carpet. I only had to unstick a couple of small passage ways under the carpet for the wires. I didn't have to removed the front seat.

The Kicker Parabolic 10" sub sits in a standard box and is driven off 2 bridged channels from the amp. The box is getting kindof old and needs recovering.

The Orion Cobalt 304 amp I've had for years almost fit in the spare tire wheel, so I ground off the corners and it dropped right in with a nice tight fit. Power to the amp is very easy on our cars of course since the battery is right there.

The next part of the project will be installing a cigarette lighter jack and a Griffin AutoPilot iPhone charger with audio, under the passenger cover. This will allow me to connect my iPhone with a single wire that will charge the phone and feed the audio to the stereo as well as leaving the car's cig. lighter free for other use.

So far very happy with the results.

Here's a few pics

 

Sweet! I went ahead and mounted the amp on the folded down rear seat. They'll never get used and I really wanted to try to keep it cool. Well done bud.

B

 

Don,

What kind of head did you use?! I am DYING to do something like that with my S4 but to use a pop out touch screen head unit that can do GPS and has iPod (or iPhone) integration with it! Next time you want to come up to Austin just let me know and lets DO IT!!!

Good work Don!

 

Bill,

Hoping that heat won't be a problem. I ran it hard for a while and the amp was warm but not hot. Also all that aluminum of the spare tire wheel might soak up some of the heat. The Porsche air compressor had to go, so I bought a small Harbor Freight compressor, but so far haven't found a place for it. Doubtful I'll ever have to use it though.

James,

I used a Pioneer DEH-P6400 that I've had for years, also from a previous car. A flip screen with GPS would be great, maybe after the economy fully recovers :-)

 

Nice Job Don!
Looking forward to hearing it!

 

You lost half your hatch with that sub box.

Why not ditch the spare and use that area for a sub?

 

Randy,

I may play around with putting the sub in the spare tire area some day, with or without the spare, but since I already had the sub box, I decided to go with the easiest approach first. It's easily removable, and with the rear seats folded down, and the sub moved forward, there's quite a bit of room.

I don't really like the idea of ditching the spare. Flats aren't common but they do still happen occassionally, and I'd rather be able to limp home instead of waiting for a flat bed (assuming the spare, compressor and jack actually work as designed)

If I put the sub in the spare tire well, then the amp has to go somewhere else, which usually means raising the floor. The volume of my sub box is probably pretty close to raising the floor 3" across the entire rear, so may not be much difference in space lost, and the sub is easier to remove than the fake floor.

 

Yeah - I went ahead and lost the space as well. Only I lost more as I mounted the amp on the back of my folded down rear left seat. Hopefully the loss in space will finally convince my wife to pack light! Three tee shirts. three underwear (optional), three socks (also optional), three shorts, one pair of jeans, toothbrush. Add that to the clothes on my back and I'm good for two weeks.

 

Bill, good thing you've lost space, less room for skeleton "art"!

What's your sub plan? Box or spare tire well?

 

Doors look perfect with the Diamond speakers!!

...will likely need to relocate the amp though, to get some airflow. My 200w Blaupunkt is temp mounted the same and gets very hot after 30+ min of heavy bass output, especially in hot weather.

BTW - you didn't say HOW the Diamond's sound....

 

I'll take a pic of mine so you can see how little is actually lost.

 

Don - I went with the box. I guess it would fit in the spare well. I'm testing a 12" kenwood right now. I've got a dual six inch coming tomorrow. I'll try that and see which I prefer. No way that dual six is fitting in the tire well though...

 

Anonymous,

After reading your post yesterday, I remembered a Radio Shack wired remote thermometer I use in the hot tub. I inserted the probe in the spare tire well, a inch or two from the amp, and closed everything back up. Outside temp was 69. I ran it about as loud as I ever will, with the bass turned up higher than normal for about 40 minutes. The temp in in the well rose from 69 to about 78.

I haven't looked up the max operating temp of the amp yet, so not sure if a similar increase will be a problem when the outside temp is 95. That said, most of my trips are pretty short, and I don't crank it as much as some probably do. I like reasonably loud music, but probably will never have it as loud as I did yesterday for over 30 minutes.

 

Here's what I did. Also have a new set of Diamond 342's in box. Got a deal on two sets so I bought one extra to sell. Can't vouch for the sound quality since I haven't installed my set yet. It's on my post Thanksgiving list. Anyone interested in them please shoot me a PM with your offer. Jason

 

Nice setup Jason.

Forgot to answer the DA sound quality question. It's very subjective of course, so I've been hesitant to post rave reviews too quickly without spending plenty of time listening to them.

I don't know what the 4" MBQ's sound like, and don't have any other experience with amplified 4" speakers other than the stock ones.

I'm happy with the sound at fairly high volume levels. They seem to stay clean and undistored up to about 3/4 volume on my system. There are many variables of course like the gain adjustment on my amp, the type of music, and how good my ears are. If you spend $500 on a set of Focals, I would expect them to be better than these. If you want to spend around $100 and get a big improvement over stock, then I recommend these speakers. Also they look great in the 928. MBQ's typically handle 80-90 watts and these are only rated at 50, so I would say if you have a very powerful amp, you might want to look for MBQ's or other speakers that can handle more power. My amp is conservatively rated at 30 watts X 4, and it seems like a good match.

Let's face it, the 928 door is a tough location to get good sound from. There is little air space behind the speaker and the 4" size limit's it's ability to produce mid-base and lows. It seems to me this is why the rears are still important. They can fill in the mid-base nicely, and the passenger side rear has a straight shot at the driver's right ear so can help with the highs too. I'll probably be upgrading the rears soon, perhaps with DA's.