matt777

I'm trying to sort out the stereo I inherited with the new 993. It's supposed to be a good unit but it's quite thin sounding. No bass I think. I'm guessing it's 10 years old. According to the build codes the car is supposed to have a 2 speaker stereo originally although there were 4 Nokia speakers installed from what I can tell. This is what I have now:

-Precision Power 450 amp in the front - looks like there are 2 sets of speaker wires coming out of it
-A/D/S door speakers? The grill says A/D/S but I have a MB Quart box that shows model QM160.03 KX 6.5" 2 way coax speakers
- there are tweeters in the door also
-A/D/S 336is boxes under passenger seat (amps?)
- Nokia rear speakers - non-functional, raised black grill - is this a stock grill?
- Pioneer Premier DEX M88 deck

I'm thinking I should just add some good 4x6 rear speakers. Any advice? Would I just power these right from the Precision Power amp?

Thanks in advance.

jdistefa

Matt,

The speakers look like sh*t. Since you can get Polk/Infinity rear plate speakers for $100-150, that's a no-brainer.

Precision Power is pretty nice stuff IMO.

Sounds like someone replaced your door speakers with MB Quarts. A little bright sounding for my taste, and being 2-ways, they're probably worth around $150.

IMO, I would change your door speakers to a good quality component set (using the tweeter to replace your OEM crapola tweeter), keep your amp, and go for a set of rear plate speakers. Total budget around $500-600.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Matt

matt777

Thanks Matt. I agree about the bright sound of the MB Quarts. I turned the treble down as it sounded like the Pioneer system I had in my Ford in 1982.
Do you know what the A/D/S 336is boxes under the seat are for? Do they power the tweeters perhaps?

Tonydec

I'm pretty sure those are the crossovers under the seat. As for the door speakers you probably won't be able to tell without looking at them. You should be able to see through the grills and see if they are coaxials or not. The dust caps will help identify them also without having to take the panels off and look at the backs of them. If they are a/d/s, they were probably big bucks, the ones I had in my Acura were close to like 6-700 bucks.

PPI makes good amps. You probably just need to tweak the gains to get the sound right. It's not unusual to disconnect the rear speakers for better imaging and soundstage if you are into accuracy and not SPL.

droy3

I agree with Matt and Tonydec that PPI is good and would also say that ADS in its day was also quite nice. I'm not a fan of Quartz. I always found them tinny. I would start off by replacing the speakers and seeing how things go. Although ADS' are nice they might be abused and/or just old at this point. I personally prefer Focal or Morel and Dynaudio (very laid back) but the best thing is to listen to a few and pick your favorite based on this and fit/ease of installation.

Just my two cents...

Doug

ChristianR

I use Dynaudio and Morel in all my cars, they are stunning if set up/tuned properly

Christian

matt777

I'm confused as to what the door speakers are as I have MB Quartz boxes with the factory speakers in them but the A/D/S crossovers under the seat and A/D/S grill covers. I have to have a closer look. That said the sound is very thin at lower volumes and the bass is poor so I think I will try some 4x6's to see what improvement that makes. If that doesn't do it I will have to upgrade the 6.5" door speakers then. Do I really need to stick with component speakers?

Kika

I had Precison Power PC450 Amp in my SC, fantastic amp. I ran it 3 channel, full range to the front components (Boston Acoustics Pro6.5s) and bridged mono to a single 8" JL Audio subwoofer. sounded great and pounded! even with the top off the car, the stereo sounded great.
The rear speakers were run off the poewr from the HU, which is good for imaging. I would suggest a similar set up using the PPI450.

Tonydec

Matt, look through the grills, use a strong flashlight if you need to. If they are the coaxials, you will see the tweeter in the middle of the driver instead of the dustcap. That will be the giveaway. I wouldn't go just on the boxes, as people keep boxes around, he could have just grabbed the wrong one.