Speaker opening question now

Conman · Post by **Conman** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:37 pm

OK,
I was looking at Crutchfield and they include free wire harness and speaker mounting bracket if needed when you buy speakers from them. It appears there is some differences between the Crew and say a 4door blazer.

So I picked a set of 6 1/2" speakers for the front doors and no problems, says it will include a wireharness as well as a speaker bracket.

Rear door it said speaker drops right in but no wireharness is available. I thought that was strange since I assumed it would use the same wireharness as the 4 door blazer. So I tried the same speaker but in the blazer and it listed a speaker bracket and a wireharness.

So my question is do I need the speaker brackets and why is the rear speaker connector different than the blazer. Would be kind of strange not to use parts sharing for that.

Have you guys changed your door speakers on your crew or blazer? Would like to see why new speaker brackets might be needed. I've only taken the rear door panel off and it looks flat so I can see why it won't need a bracket. but I find it odd it might not be the same speaker connector. yeah I can splice but why splice when you can get a connector for free too.

Anyone got pics of the front door panel off? According to Crutchfield, they say you have to drill out the factory speaker bracket and fit in their speaker bracket which will accept a standard 5-1/4 or 6-1/2 speaker. Have you guys done this without the bracket?

I just want to make sure I order something wihtout having to mod the door or panels. I just want the option to go back to stock.

One more quesion, Crutchfield says we have a 4x6 speaker opening in the dash. Just wondering if there is a speaker there now or it's just space. Crutchfield lists the opening but does not recommend any speakers for that opening. So if it's free, any use for that space for something else?

Thanks,
Con

AZS10Crew · Post by **AZS10Crew** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:55 am

There are speakers in the dash. They may not recommend any because of the mounting depth. The dash speaker openings are usually pretty shallow.

As for the rear doors, I'd get what they recommend for the crew and just splice it. Give their tech line a call before you install to get the correct polarity for the wires, then just splice it.

Conman · Post by **Conman** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:27 am

AZS10Crew wrote:There are speakers in the dash. They may not recommend any because of the mounting depth. The dash speaker openings are usually pretty shallow.

As for the rear doors, I'd get what they recommend for the crew and just splice it. Give their tech line a call before you install to get the correct polarity for the wires, then just splice it.

Thanks. I was listening to my radio this morning and there are speakers there. Can't believe there is six speakers but the sound is so mushy.

Con

AZS10Crew · Post by **AZS10Crew** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 10:04 am

Conman wrote:
AZS10Crew wrote:There are speakers in the dash. They may not recommend any because of the mounting depth. The dash speaker openings are usually pretty shallow.

As for the rear doors, I'd get what they recommend for the crew and just splice it. Give their tech line a call before you install to get the correct polarity for the wires, then just splice it.
Thanks. I was listening to my radio this morning and there are speakers there. Can't believe there is six speakers but the sound is so mushy.

Con

That's mostly the head unit. The speakers aren't really that bad. Once I changed my head unit the sound improved a lot.

NTXCrew · Post by **NTXCrew** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 4:27 pm

there are two tweeters in the dash in 4x6 openings mounted on metal plates. the front doors just have woofers, while the rear are coaxial.

i too thought that the stock speakers weren't half bad, but when compared to some nice afermarket ones, like infinity or polk, the rubber surrounds and magnet structure and etc. really begin to stand out when viewed side to side with the stock speakers.

At this moment my aftermarket coaxials are running along with the stock tweeters. the front harness didn't pull them out of the "loop". I've thought about replacing them at some point with some matching tweeters, just to improve imaging, but regardless, it all sounds WAY better.

I nice feature to have in an aftermarket head (that's pretty powerful) is built-in adjustable crossovers. I don't think I could go back!

AZS10Crew · Post by **AZS10Crew** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 4:41 pm

The stock ones definitely aren't great, but the muddled sound of the stock system is mostly caused by the crappy head unit. Replacing the stock speakers and head unit will give you the best overall sound.

Scott03 · Post by **Scott03** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 4:46 pm

The only thing I would watch out for is getting too nice of speakers with just an aftermarket H/U if you are not going to use an amp with them. I had to send back my Infinity Kappas in my old Cav because the Sony deck just couldn't power them and the bass just didn't sound good.

NTXCrew - I do like your choice in the Reference series, I had them in my Old Blazer with a Pioneer H/U and the 4x6's just screamed, and the bass was pretty good for 6x9's.

Conman · Post by **Conman** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 7:10 pm

Thanks for the info. I've been out of the audio look for some time. I use to have a great system in my 90 Mitsu Galant: It started out with Clarion Pro CD player(removable remember those?) then it was replaced later with a Sony detach face and changer. Had A/D/S components and A/D/S 10" woofers in a custom build box. Xover was a Nackamichi Amps were Alpine, Sound Stream, and Alphasonic last two were A class. Sounded great until most of the stuff was stolen in NYC.

I had another system in another car and it had one 15" Pyle Pro but that was stolen too in Queens.....

So now I'm itching to get some stuff again. nothing too crazy this time so I hope no breakin issues......... Most likely I'm going to stick with the Head unit internal amp for the 4 speakers and just add bass blockers for now as there is not much room to add in amps. I do still have the Alpine amp which is small so I might still use it if it will fit under the dash or seat for the front speakers and run off the H/U for the rear. Bass will be my powered bazooka I have now.

Back to the speaker talk, did you guys doing anything special to mount speakers in the doors? Seems odd to me that crutchfield has a mounting kit for what appears to be a regular speaker opening in the front door.

One more question. Thinking about a DVD radio and wondering if you guys had any info you can give me. Looking to add an LCD for the rear area for my kid(that's the justification atleast).

Thanks.

Cheers,
Con

Conman · Post by **Conman** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:57 pm

http://www.s10forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96435

Is this why Crutchfield has a speaker bracket for the front speakers?

NTXCrew · Post by **NTXCrew** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:49 pm

Scott03 wrote:The only thing I would watch out for is getting too nice of speakers with just an aftermarket H/U if you are not going to use an amp with them. I had to send back my Infinity Kappas in my old Cav because the Sony deck just couldn't power them and the bass just didn't sound good.

NTXCrew - I do like your choice in the Reference series, I had them in my Old Blazer with a Pioneer H/U and the 4x6's just screamed, and the bass was pretty good for 6x9's.

Thanks. Great for the $$$. I can tell a big difference between them and the Pioneer 3-ways I had in my old car (same setup as your old one: 4x6 & 6X9). More than I thought there would be. They look so much more stylish- not gaudy like those Sony Xplod ones- (My wife would say mine had "simple elegance", but whatever

) peaking out from behind the door grills.

adrenalnjunky · Post by **adrenalnjunky** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:53 pm

My blazer has the same 6 speaker system, and I have stripped the whole interior out at one point to build up a huge system, and then decided to keep my cargo space and took it all back out.

Now I'm running a Kenwood Excelon CD headunit and 10 disc changer, a set of rockford fosgate Fanatic X series 4 inch compnents squeezed into the dash, and a Bazooka Amplified 10 inch sub.

sounds great, it jams - not as loud as my last SUV (6 punch 12's) but it sounds really good for no more speakers than I have in it.

I left the speakers in the doors alone, the Kenwood headunit is a 45x4 rated unit, and I have all speakers running off it, and the tube powers the sub.

I've installed car stereo for years, and I was completely amazed at the sound I'm getting out of this equipment. I would have never allowed a customer to let an installer at the shop I used to work at wire their vehicle like I did mine, but hey, it's my truck and I'll take the consequences of blowing an amp in my headunit. I think the key is to get a truly high output headunit, not something tha just says it has high output. Plus the Excelon I have has adjustible front and rear crossovers, and a dedicated sub out, so that helps too.

Here's a pic of the plates I made for the dash speakers out of lexan:

Well never mind--I had one at one point, but can't find it now.......