AdamCrank

Afternoon all, im swapping the speakers in my MY99 classic saloon for some better ones after christmas.

Im thinking of putting some 6x9's on the rear parcel shelf instead of the little speakers that are there now - does anyone have a fitting guide or some pics of how they did it. I presume theres a lot of cutting involved?

Also do you usually put the loudest speakers at the back or the front? Ive seen loads of 6x9's that are powerful ( 500W etc ) but the smaller speakers that fit in the front door arent usually as powerful - is this right?

Would you recommend buying the best quality / loudest speakers i can get for the front and some mediocre ones for in the back?

Lastly what Wattage would you recommend going up to if i dont want to use an Amp? I dont want to overload anything.

Thanks

Adam

Kuro

The general thinking is that the rear is for the fill effect, rather than outright sound projection/power.

You'd probably be happier going for excellent fronts and as you say, mediocre rears.

I was advised by an audio shop that the best place to start for the Scooby was a full re-wiring and dymatting programme. Seems reasonable, but all depends on budget of course. In the end I went for the Dynamat Speaker kits and left it as that. (improvement though!)

Fitting in the rear isn't too bad, once you've whipped the seats out. The way I did it involved no cutting at all, I just screwed the 6x9's to the rear shelf. The slightly tricky bit is getting a good seal...

AdamCrank

Hia mate, thanks for the help.

I thought there was a metal plate surrounding the rear speakers, and when you fit bigger ones you needed to cut this hole bigger?

Is it easy screwing the 6x9's to the underside of the parcel shelf? Like you say the hardest part will be getting a good seal, how did you achieve this, foam or rubber perhaps?

Was the speaker connection the same as on the standard wiring? Ive seen some speakers and the connectors look different.

Thanks again

Adam

Puppetmaster

I am just about to undertake this as well... got the dynamat and speakers ready to go... just need the time.

I think people have used the weather sealant (you can get that runs around a door or window edge) to get a good seal around the speaker.

You would have to cut the hole bigger if you were to fit 6x9s - just make sure there is enough room for the magnet to fit through (obviously) and also enough room for the cone to move in and out easily.

if you attach from below you wouldn't have this issues... although you might want to make the hole bigger for aesthetic reasons

786omar

iTrader: (5)

get urself some nice infinity kappa component speakers in the front or DLS i managed to get the 5.25inch in to mine using a plastic spacer ring, and then Infinity Kappa 6x9s in the rear shelf,to get the best sound out of the speakers u will need to amp them up with a decent 4 channel amp,id advise rockford fosgate,audiobahn or DLS, the 6x9's dont have to be cut in u can mount them on mdf rings from on top or from underneath...as mention by the other members any kind of upgraded speakers in the front doors will require dynamat soundproofing behind the speaker itself,scobys rattle alot! Not worth taking shortcuts trust me do the job properly and ull have a smile on ur face when u crank ur system up!

Kuro

No worries!

Yes, there is a metal plate surrounding the tiny rear speakers, this gets lifted out. It's probably the weirdest shape I've seen, but anyway...

To get a good seal, I used thick card. (seriously!) I sandwiched 4 or 5 layers of card together (like from the speaker box itself) and made a template from these that fitted the outer speaker ring. They were pretty tough, but gave enough flex and mould to the contours of the parcel shelf. With hindsight, I could have done a very similar (and probably better) job with 2/3 layers of dynamat...

I ended up mounting them from below, as mine wouldn't drop through easily. This worked well enough, just a tad trcky holding them in place whilst screwing them upwards up you see what I mean.

The speaker connection was a bit tricky - well, I ended up taking off the connector with a stanley knife, as it doesn't seem to fit anything else but the standard stuff. After that it was pretty easy to match up - can't quite remember the colours now, but try a quick search on here. There are only two, so it's not so bad.

One more thing, if you are planning on Dynamatting (or similar) I'd do this from the top. (you might as well given that you've taking the rear of the car to pieces!) I installed mine from below, and even though I'd warmed the Dynamat thoroughly, it still peeled and fell off after a while...

Hope that helps!

AdamCrank

Great, thanks for all the help fellas.

Now i feel confident enough to be able to start this job sometime after christmas.

Merry Christmas

Adam

scoobysmiff

iTrader: (2)

use dynamat extreme and it won't fall off.

Sack the rear speakers completely, spend the extra money on the front speakers and an amp,

Add a sub to your system.

What head unit have you got? this is this is the most important part of your system.

AdamCrank

Hello, ive got a Kenwood KDC-133 Head Unit.

Its pretty good and im not looking to change this.

Any subs you can recommend that wont take up too much boot space? Ive always said i wouldnt bother with a sub as i use my boot a lot.

Thanks

Adam

Kuro

If you are desperate for a sub you could look at the 'under seat' variety, which have very compact dimensions. Obviously they are not as powerful as there 10" and 12" cousins, but you also don't have the problem of allowing bass to get back into the cabin area. (assuming you don't have sportwagon here!) Have a look on CAD or similar for 'active subs' and there's a selection of 3 or 4 from memory.

If it were me, doing this all over again, I would do things incrementally. Stage one would be a serious sound deadening exercise, followed by a change of fronts. Then I'd give that a few weeks and see how it went.

If you are still not pleased then you could either;

1. Install rear speakers - minor effects, but cheap option - wouldn't rule it out entirely
2. Amp the fronts - more expensive and more work - but larger benefit

I'd leave the sub for now if I were you, and just see how things work out. Don't forget that with a sub, it's not just the sub you need. Without a very serious sound deadedning exercise your boot will rattle itself to pieces, so you need to budget around £80 for 20sq ft of Damplifier Pro (for example) plus you'll need the wiring kit. You should be spending 20% of your sub value on wiring, so that could be at least £40ish.

Hope that helps

scoobysmiff

iTrader: (2)

Well, i have an MY99 saloon as well and i have a JL Audio 10W7 in the of boot of mine, i have NO problems whatsoever in the bass getting through to the cabin. I have got a good quality sub though, any of the JL range would be fine for normal daily use, MTX is another quality make of subs that work really really well with the correct amplification and set up, a decent 10" sub will normally go into an enclosure of less than 1 cuft, this is quite small (think 12"x12"x12" for 1 cuft)
Active subs DO NOT perform as well as a passive one in a dedicated, purpose built enclosure with an external amp.
I don't mean to be rude either but the Kenwood KDC 133 is an entry level HU at best, my point to be made was that no matter what you do in terms of amp, speakers, sound dead'ning etc it will not sound any better than the HU as it is this that will convert the sound on the disc into something that is to be reproduced by the amps, you want the best one you can get, Period.
An incrimental install is a good idea though, build it up and you can see what the individuall benefit will be.

In order of priority i would consider this as a sensible route:

1. Best head Unit that you can afford - something like the Pioneer DEH P88 is a very good idea, you can also still get the DEH P77 well priced SH, but any HU that has a 6Volt line output should be good.

2. Upgrade your front speakers and fit an amp to them, this will pay dividends in the long run. There is no HU that produces as good a power output that a decent amp does.

3. Fit a sub, big or small it will make a significant diference if it's fitted and set up correctly, it won't necessarily turn it into a boom box but will add depth to your music that you will miss without.

Sauron

Two very good Pioneer head units to consider are
http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/pro...s_id/3234.html the one I use or
http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/pro...s_id/1030.html
Neither have fancy displays or unnecessary features just very good sound quality.
I currently have Infinity INFINITY-KAPPA-65.5cs in front doors powered by a 50W Phillips DAB amp, about 8yrs old. Not very powerful but very good sound quality. May put in small 10" sub for bass in boot powered by Alpine amp.
In my previous car Mondeo I had same front speakers, Infinity 655i components in back door 165mm and Infinity Kappa 6x9 on MDF parcel shelf.
In the boot were 2 12inch DB audio subs powered by 2 Alpine mono amps at 300W each. It was done as demo car for my mates hi-fi shop in Cardiff. 1st one we done and he reckoned after 2 1/2 yrs still one of the best sounding if not the loudest.