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Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Sat Jun 26, 2010 3:47 pm

Ok, I looked and looked and cant find an accurate answer so I will post this question..

I have an 05 convertible I just picked up. Thought i would like the JBL sound but it sucks as most here stated. I changed out the head unit with a Pioneer Nav system but still used the JBL amp and speakers hoping (against everything everyone else here said) that I would be OK with the sound. But you all were right...I now have to replace the amp and speakers. Have a limited budget and dont want to put in a ton of $ but i have some specific questions. I will most likely be using infitiy reference Triax in the front and coax in the rear and possibly replace the sub as well with an infinity amp. Also considering polk as i have always liked them. So here are the questions

1-Front Speakers. These are easy, It seems 6x9 should drop in reasonably well. On ebay, a vendor is selling an adapter plate that pulls the speakers out about an inch to avoid the window etc. So that one is easy. I guess this is not really a question.

2-Rear speakers. These are quotes as 16 cm speakers which work out to about 6 1/4 inches (6.299). Has anyone replaced these before? WIll a 6 1/2 or 6 3/4 drop in without problems?

3-The convertible has a 20CM (7.87") sub behind the rear seat back. It is in a black fiberglass enclosure bolted to the seat bracket bars and the wall between the car and the trunk. I dont want to put anything in the truck as the convertible trunk space is precious. Has anyone replaced this with an 8" (seems close enough?) Does anyone know what depth can fit in this enclosure?

4-I plan on mounting the amp under the read seat...any problems with that?

I hope someone with convertible experience will share here.

Thanks in advance.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby ATXguy » Sat Jun 26, 2010 8:30 pm

I replaced mine a while ago - here are some pics:

07 Sport Convertible: 'Upgraded' Rear Speakers & Windscr
http://solaraguy.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=48218
~~2007 Solara V6 Sport Convertible - Blizzard Pearl White~~
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:53 am

Did you have any problems installing the 6.5"?

Most likely the problem with sound you were mentioning is because those speakers are 4 Ohm speakers and you old speakers are 2 Ohm. The 2 ohm speakers would require less power from the amp to generate the same sound levels. The infinity are far better than what you had in there.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Sat Jul 03, 2010 4:16 pm

Ok, No one is biting so i started this myself and will post what i find as i go.

First the Sub. The convertible has a sub behind the rear seat (passenger side in the US). It is an 8 inch. I am goiing to replace it with a polk mm series unit. I wanted to ensure that the chamber is deep enough so i opened it to measure. The stock unit is a paper cone, looks like dual voice coil speaker. It is 3.5 inches deep if top mounted and 4 overall. It is 8 7/8 in diameter and fits snugly into a 9 inch recess. I have emailed polk to see if they can give me the overall diameter (not posted anwhere I could find). I will post more when i get to the rest of the project.

Here are some pics.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:31 pm

Ok, i finished the project...here are the stats. I already had a pioneer nav head unit installed using the existing amp. Sound was not great. I removed the existing jbl amp. I installed an infinity kappa 5 channel amp, polk mm840 sub in the existing enclosure, polk moma690 front speakers with external Xovers, and polk db650 coaxs in the rear. Bottom line is the results are amazing and worth every penny. By the way, it is true about speaker breakin. Polk actually states that it can take as long as 40 hrs of playing for full break in (perhaps it is just phyco-babble to make you get used to the sound and think it sounds better!).

Anyway, here are the details for future reference.

The post above talks about the sub. The existing sub was larger than any stock sub out there. The old sub was almost 9" across, this one and most others are 8.5". It was relatively easy to get the new on in as the mounting flange is able to accept the supplied mounting clips that the speakers come with. I just had to center the sub and mark the holes and drill them. The existing holes are nicely covered and sealed in the back so you dont have to worry about sealing them up. behind the mounting flang are some support brackets so you have to rotate the speaker a bit to find a spot where all or most of the clips can go...i had to grind a few of the support off..no big deal. Here is a shot of the clips installed followed by the sub installed.

Image

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I just drilled a hole in the side and ran the new wires, sealed it up with GOOP.

The rear speakers in the convertible are 6.5 ish. They are mounted in a non standard way. However, it was easy to get standard 6.5s in there. The speakers are mounted on a kind of free standing bracket with three bolts. I removed them and then drilled 4 holes in the bracket and again, used the supplied clips and screws that came with the new speakers. I also used some eDead to help seal up the area around the speakers to provide a bit of sound isolation baffle. The old speakers were basically free standing as there was no real baffle around them. They sealed against the plastic interior panel and the panel acted as a baffle. You can see on the photos of the original speakers they had foam around it to create the seal. I got some standard home weather stripping with stuckum on one side and wrapped it around the new speaker to create the seal as well and it worked great. By the way, the interior panel is held on with three screws, one in the bottom of the cup holder, one under a small cap by the to seat belt entry point and on under a small panel where the front seat belt enters the panel (just pry off the cover and you will see it). Then there are a bunch of standard clips holding it on...just tug a bunch and it will pop off.

Here is the original speaker. You can see the bracket it live on as well as the foam surround.


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Here is the new speaker. Note the weather stripping

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The fronts were a bit more trouble for me..

First, to get the door off follow this thread for a great explanation. Easy to do.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=46213&p=539581&hilit=+door#p539581

Now, this photo shows the orig speaker and mounting bracket.

Image

Now, the good news is that the speaker is a standard 6x9 size. The black bracket you see does two things, it pulls the speaker away from the door to give clearance for the window behind it and it also holds a small potted crossover, most likely a low pass filter as these are designed to work with the mid/highs in the dash. I took out the cross over but the bracket it was in was hitting the very thick cast aluminum frame of the polk moma speakers so i had to cut it off (just used a jig saw).

here is a shot of the cross over bracket...

Image

Here after i cut it off

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Fortunately the polks bolted right to the mounting bracket. Unfortunately, they were about 3/16" too deep and hit the window. So i had to use a shim to pull them out about 3/8". Then they were fine. If you want to know how deep a speaker you can mount, look up the polk moma690 and check the depth of it and subtract a 1/4" to be safe...or build it out as needed. I covered most of the door (very quickly and not very professionally in eDead to ensure no rattles and then mounted the speaker and external xover on top of it.

Image

One thing to note, if you look at the old speaker, you can see some water stains (or it really looked like soap residue from washing the car perhaps) on the old speaker...obviously water gets in there and that makes me feel good about the fact that the Polks are marine certified.

Image

I mounted the amp in the area next to the sub as there is plenty of room and ventilation there and i didnt want to eat up valuable trunk space. I ran direct wires to the rear and sub and i ran wires to the front, where the old amp was (behind the glove box) and tapped into the 4 wires for the front door speakers. (somewhere on this forum are links to all the wiring diagrams and such so you can get all the color codes etc. you need). I noticed that on the wiring diagrams, it showed the wires for the door speakers (front left and right) going first to a junction box on the dash mid/high speakers, then slitting off to the doors. Sure enough, when I turned it all on the dash speakers were live. At first i thought i could live with it but it made the system too bright (especially since the dash speakers are 2 ohms and the new setup is 4). So i pulled out the dash speakers and snipped a wire to each. They come out very easily, just use a knife or small screw driver and pry up the grill, then two bolts and you can pull them up.

Image

Anyway... all in all a big PIA but well worth it.The car is much quieter with all the eDead on the doors and i dont hear rattles as much on bumps (remember, convertible). The sound is great and i am very pleased. I just wish i listened to the advice in the beginning and just did it all when i got the car.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby zomble » Fri Jun 08, 2012 7:27 pm

The low pass filter in the door speaker did you put it back in the circuit or did you just plug the speaker in.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:14 pm

No, I disconnected the dash tweeters and installed full range polks in the door....dont need the filter then.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby russasaurous » Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:01 pm

Thanks so much for posting your project.

I didn't even know there was a sub behind the seat before I found this site.

You also apparently did your research on your choice of sub as well. I can't find a more efficient sub that will fit the limited ~3.85" mounting depth. Even the JL Audio subs don't stack up too well next to the Polk, so Amazon is speeding a Polk Audio MM840 DVC to my door..

Question though. The factory unit appears to be a dual voice coil. Did you go with that or the single voice?

I'm hoping that I can use the factory JBL amp, but am doubtful.

Will post results - and thanks again for your post - very useful information.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby petemos » Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:41 am

I used a separate amp...so i didnt need the dual voice coil as my amp had a separate single sub out. I tried to just replace the head unit, leave the factory amp and speakers...that didnt work well...actually didnt sound well. I them went all out and did the whole mess and am glad I did.
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Re: Convertible Speaker Replacement Questions

Postby russasaurous » Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:23 am

Oh that's right - you changed the whole rig, apologies I forgot about that. I was thinking you left the rest of the system intact for some reason. I'm hoping the dual voice coil (DVC) will allow me to wire the sub in parallel to work at the correct volume with the factory JBL Amp.

I've read some other things on this site that indicate impedance is a problem (new speakers are not as loud as the old ones). The rest of the system is adequate - the bass is just underwhelming. The new sub will be here Monday, so I'll give it a go and let the group know. It would be really nice to get proper bass out of the JBL E7001 for < $100.
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