Megatron-UK

UPDATE: Pictures have moved... you can find them here: http://targetearth.dyndns.org/www/ca..._speakers.html

After installing the headunit from my previous car, and finding out that someone had installed aftermarket Sony amps (two 2-channel amps) I decided that the front speakers were holding back the sound quality.

Tonight I spent an hour or so removing and replacing the front speakers in my 1993 Turbo 2. I've put a guide together just in case anyone finds it useful....


Standard door speaker setup.


Tweeter covers unscrew.


You need to remove the door bins. You'll need a philips/posidrive screwdriver, the screws are located around the bottom edge of the door bin, with one screw into the side of the hinge for the pocket, and other screw inside the pocket.


With the door bins off, it's pretty easy to pull the mid speaker grills off - they don't screw like the tweeters do.


The tweeter basket is secured from the front with three philips head screws, take them out and the speaker connections are easy to remove.


Similarly, the mid-range speaker basket is held in with 4 screws, again they come out easy and the wires unclip.


Nice blank canvas. Note I haven't gone into the detail of changing the factory crossover as 1) I've got no speaker wire at the moment, 2) I really don't want to take the door cards off, and 3) I'm not entirely sure where the wiring goes with my aftermarket amplifiers.

Megatron-UK

I'm using Infinity Reference Component speakers, 165mm/6.5" - 6000CS is the reference name. I've used reference components in several cars in the past and have always been very happy with the sound quality; much better than the general consumer stuff from Kenwood/Sony/Pioneer etc.


The mid-range drivers have got a nice, simple basket and grill design that won't look out of place in the 911 - a lot of stuff now comes with really wacky grills; I'm not a fan of that kind of design. Make sure you put the basket on the door first, then connect up the speaker wiring, then screw the speaker to the basket. You may need an extra set of hands here - or alternatively, use some double sided tape to stick the basket to the door card.
Now the screw holes DO line up with the originals, but it's very tight and you may need to play around with the spacing a bit. You DO NOT need to enlarge the holes in the door cards to fit the speaker in - it's tight, but they do fit.


The tweeters had me scratching my head for a while!
What you need to do is remove the original tweeter from the basket - don't worry, they just unclip. You will then need the threaded collar + nut, concave dome, and the convex 'seat' for the Infinity tweeter.
Here's the bit to remember - you need to turn the original tweeter basket round the wrong way, so that the side that sat flush with the door is now on the outside, and vice versa.... if you leave it as it was, then the grills will NOT go back on.
Ok, then put the tweeter bracketry together as in the image below:

So you have on the CAR side of the original basket the big threaded collar which slips inside.
On the DOOR side of the original basket you screw on the plastic nut and lock the whole assembly up tight. Make sure you angle the tweeter in the concave/convex swivel 'thingy' to the correct listening position before you then screw the basket back to the door. Screw the original tweeter cover back on.

et voila!





Sound quality is exponentially better, and other than a thin silver trace around the edge of the mid-range grill, they look no different to standard (you could spray the basket beforehand if you wanted it all black). Plus best of all, no mods or cutting necessary to the original door

One downside I've just figured out is that because the speaker and grill is about 1cm further out, I can't store all my minidiscs in the open door bin anymore!

gfunk

Great writeup! - and timely. I'd been thinking about upgrading my speakers but hadn't done any research yet.

jeffnudd

Exellent guide

Going to have to replace my fronts soon but after the last episode with the doors cards im not looking forward to the task

Megatron-UK

It was really easy - one of the easiest door speaker installs I've ever done With the extra size of the mid range drivers there's a lot more punch in the low to mid range of the sound, I'm very happy with the audio quality now - it's also probably about the biggest speaker you can get in there without resorting to cutting.

btw, are images showing ok? I've got them hosted off a server at home, and I can't see them myself

speedcat

Great write-up, I hope it ends up in the DIY section. The images appeared for me after i did an initial 'refresh', since then they appear every time. Again, great post!

deep_uv

Nice writeup. I understand that on the 6" infinity's the crossovers don't fit in the original crossover pocket. I just finished installing the Infinity Reference 5010's (5 1/4") last night and the crossovers just barely fit, but they did. I had to splice in some additional wiring using solder and heat shrink for the crossovers to get everything connected. Definitely a big improvement on sound quality. I took enough pics to do a writeup, but it looks like you've got it covered with the exception of the crossover question. I can add some pics when I get home from work if anyone is interested. Nice job.

Steve

Megatron-UK

Yep! The oem speakers actually have a big plastic spacer around them, so the hole is 6-6.5" or thereabouts anyway.

Megatron-UK

Yeah, that would be useful; I'm not sure on the colour coding of the wiring to the standard crossover.

Did you leave the standard ones in place, or take them off? (it looked to me like the door cards would need to come off for the crossovers to unscrew from the back).

G53

Hi,

After much deliberation on speaker type, I just did my fronts with Infinity 5 1/4's. The tweeter installation did puzzle me for a while. It seemed that turning the mounting plate around still meant the tweeter sat too high, preveting the grill to be screwed on....I will have to try again.

AS for the drivers I have had to file down the mounting plate and the ears of the speaker - not a difficult job, but a pain in the a*se. I wanted to keep the stock grilles but i think now probably regret not going for the larger 6.5s seeing that your grill is very discreet. Dammit!

However I have read in another post that the stock crossover is not suited to the Infinity tweeter as the frequency split doesn't suit.....this was another reason why I went for the 51/4's. My stock crossovers had snapped off their lugs so that was pretty easy.

Great post - wish you did it a week earlier!

AVoyvoda

Nice job Megatrron-UK. Question:
The bass units used are the Infiniy 6000 CS you show. What units are you using for mid-range/tweeters?

Megatron-UK

The 6000cs series are components - so they come as a pair of 6.5" bass/mid drivers (they don't have a centre voice coil like co-axial speakers) and a pair of seperate 1.5" silk dome tweeters:

MarkD

Put me in the "me too" camp...

Gret job and really timely for me also. This is my planned winter project. I'm pretty sure the PO put new speakers in but didn't deal with the crossovers so I will have to figure that part out. And I like your choice of hardware... not really flashy like much of the stuff you see these days.
Can't thank you enough.

I actually thought I saw some threads on crossover stuff... so I searched. For those interested there are 2 good ones here:
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ferrerid=35947
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...ferrerid=35947

Megatron-UK

Interesting info on the stock crossovers. I'll have to investigate replacing them with the proper Infinity items this weekend.

Jay H

Exceptional write up on speaker replacement!

ALWAYS use the crossover that comes with a set of separates or higher end co-axials. Engineers spend many hours designing these crossovers for the specific woofers and tweets that they belong two. Good crossover design is 1/2 the battle on a nice set of speakers.