_Remi

Hi friends,

Although not complicated, I thought I would document the speaker refresh I just finished in my 1993 Cabriolet. The goal was simple : improve the overall sound quality by 20-30% (i.e. make it acceptable) without investing too much given that the main use of the car is spirited driving. I am not an audiophile and as you will see, I did not know much about sound systems before getting started.

After carefully removing the front speaker cover (the boomer cover snaps, the tweeter cover unscrews), I was a little puzzled to realize that there was a plug in addition to the positive/negative wires I was expecting. After a bit of research, I understood that the positive/negative wires are actually sending signals to the tweeter and that the boomer (964.645.503.00) is also acting as a crossover.





As you can see, the boomer is pretty toast, even though it was still producing some sound. At this point, I documented myself a bit on the distinction between a component system (boomer, tweeter, crossover) and a simple co-axial speaker. I figured that a modern speaker would probably get me the right bang for the buck without having to deal with a component system (and remove the door panel). I ordered a pair of JBL Club 5020 5-1/4 on Amazon for $80 given that someone on this board said they would fit and I sourced a Metra 72-9000 Speaker Wiring Harnesses on Crutchfield for $10. Note: if your car is pre-1992, it will have a crossover and you will not have to get that connector. You will however have to do a bit more work if you want to delete your tweeter. Before you get started, check if your boomer is the fancy "boomer-crossover-all-in-one" that I had.

Here's the tweeter I removed (964.645.502.00). I simply screwed the grille back on with a piece of black paper underneath.





Here's the new boomer and once I received it, I realized that I was missing the frame that would help secure the grille. It turns out that with my speaker (964.645.503.00), there's no separate frame and I had to order a pair (911.555.671.01, $20 each on Pelican). I ended up being quite disappointed with the fit of that frame, I had to use tape to make sure the grille would snap back in properly. I kept the original speakers and might dremel them in the future to recreate a proper frame.



Next step was to tackle the rears. I had read mixed opinions on them, some claim that they are pointless in a cab but I still wanted to replace the 28-year-old speakers. I ordered a pair of Infinity Reference REF-4032CFX 4" (Amazon, $50) and the install was quite simple (note that there's no need to use any kind of adapter here). The OEM rear speakers were shot too, part number is 964.645.504.00.








All in all, quite a simple project and I definitely reached my goal : it sounds a lot better and cost me less than $200. Music is clear, I can crank it to the max without distortion (good at 50mph top down, 90mph top up). Of course, it is lacking proper bass but that was expected.

TL;DR: surprise 1 was the boomer including the crossover (had to buy an adapter), surprise 2 was the need for a separate frame, surprise 3 was that it does sound pretty good

cbracerx

Nice write up. What does the final result look like?

_Remi

You can't tell, I reused all the OEM grilles.