whakiewes

MWC,

I agree it will be intrusive...one of the reasons I am holding off until I am complete with my mids/highs. I may not need a ton of bass and a small light 8" woofer will be perfect, but then again I may need a ton of bass and the basslink won't even cut it. I must admit, upgrading the stereo is easily as expensive as anything else I have done on my car. I will easily be at or over $3000 when I am done, no doubt. I really want to add in a bluetooth setup as well, but it just keeps adding to the ticket.

As to what Rolex said, he and Tom are completely correct. I had an ancient Blaupunkt setup, and while it looked perfect...no comparison to the new stuff. If your going to put top of the line speakers, get a top of the line headunit...or close. I love Alpines headunits for what they offer, but the more radical silver and blue headunits are frustrating. My personal favorites are the 2-4 year old Alpine 98 series, I had the 9856 (I think thats right) in my BMW. 60X4 pre-amp, tons of outputs, WMA/MP3, IPod cable available, green and amber coloring, etc... Was like $400 when I got it new...now you can pick them up for $100 about any day. There is a more modern unit (about a year old) that is very similar but with more updates. I am looking at doing a double DIN motorized unit - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1138085803557 or maybe going up a few steps. Depends where the budget stays. We have ~7.2" diagonal, so one of these 6.5" screens fits. The 7" do not. There is another single DIN headunit that plays incredible sound without all of the IPod, Sat radio, etc... accessories. The company and make completely slips my mind as I sit through phsycology class, but when I remember I will post it back. Flat black to match the interior perfectly...gosh I am mad I can't remember.

Wes

mwc951

+1 for Alpine head units

jeeper31

Do the 5.25" components fit exactly or do u have to make modifications?

RolexNJ

+2. And if I'm not mistaken, but I could definately be wrong here, I thought that the head unit fit right in with no mod? But then again I did this 3 years ago.

jeeper31

it does. put them in my last 3 944's. Just slides right in.

RolexNJ

Thanks Dan, I wasn't sure. I love Alpine!

jeeper31

They make a great unit. I jsut got one that runs my IPOD and has Sirius Satellite.

whakiewes

5.25" fit in the rear as far as diameter. Where the problem comes is the depth of the speaker. You only have about 4" to work with on the depth, maybe less. Many of the bassier 5.25" speakers are really deep, so you have to find ones that fit. Same with the front 4" speakers. The A/D/S 'is' series fit 100%, MBQuart 5.25" premium and reference I know fit, and some of the Focals fit. Only ones that I have tried. Some of the cheaper pioneers and such I know won't fit just seeing the depth of the boxes.

Wes

mwc951

For the Diamonds I had to trim the factory hole in the plastic mount to accommodate the depth of the mid-bass. I've had 2 different pairs of 6.5" mounted in the rear. They fit no problem in the rear.

mwc951

That's what I used front & rear. S500 HEX in front, S600 HEX in the rear. As I previously posted.....
The plastic mounting panel needed trimmed a bit to to clear the larger basket of the 5.25" mid-bass.
The tweeter fit just fine in the stock location. I mounted the 6.5" rears to a piece of MDF.

You will be VERY disappointed if you run them with the stock head unit. The Diamonds are power hungry. Besides, as many guys already posted, it is flawed logic to use new technology speakers with OLD, OLD, OLD technology head unit, amp or EQ. I personally would not run any component set without an amp.

whakiewes

MWC,

I have 5.25" in my back with a tweeter, not 6.5". I have option 490 and 494 which is 'two speakers on rear shelf w/ amplifiers'. Can you confirm if you do or don't have option 494. I don't know what was different...the actual speaker panel outside is the same, but I have a 5.25" speaker mounted low and a tweeter mounted up.

Wes

Edit - posted at same time. See you modified your rear. Any reason why? Do the 6.5" offer that much more mid-bass to justify the sound, or going with mid 5.25" and a woofer be a better decision?

mwc951

Wes.....

I bought the 10-speaker front & rear panels and retro-fitted the whole deal into my car with the basic 4-speaker system. That was the first install in the car w/Blaupunkts. 5.25 components in front, 6.5 components in rear. Removing the rear side windows to fit the new rear panels is not for the faint of heart, but is really not that tough of a job. The second install didn't require removing the windows.

I just figured since I had the room to mount 6.5's that thats what I would go with.

JE_951

you will be dsappointed with those speakers if you run them off ANY HU. Those will need a amp. Diamonds call for ATLEAST 20 watts RMS - 120 watts RMS and your HU will only put out 18RMS wats (50 watts). are the 10-speaker set ups, 4" or 4X6 in front? If they are 4x6 then i would suggest either JBL GTO series or the Infinity Kappa's. I have a used 5-channel eclipse amp ($80) hooked up to my GTO's in front and then I have the GTO 6x9's in back. Those (on sale) cost me $100 together. THey get loud and are still prety clear for not spending $200 a set. You will need a amp though so i got a JL 12W0 and it gives way more then enough bass and IMO sounds better then the W3 and W6 in out cars. but thats just my opinion. By the way it fill's the car totaly., oh and i put hte 6x9's here:

that pic is when the project isnt fully finished and the speakers are actualy level with eachother, they just look bad there.

ALso i will second, third, fourth, w/e that fact that you NEED a good heah unit. the HU will make or break a system. In fact i would go get a new HU and see how it livens up your stock system. then if you need better speakers then buy them. with any aftermarket speaker you will find being 4" or 4x6, yiou will need/want a sub.

mwc951

JE-951 PLEASE don't take offense, but that pic is exactly why I want to keep my install looking as factory as possible.

To each his own.....I guess.

reno808

John has a sound shop. His car is VERY NICE. GOOD SOUND TOO. i have been there