PeteT

Sorry if this has been asked a million times before but I'll ask it anyway!

I've got a Sony MDX-C6500 minidisc player (4 x50w) in my MY00 4 door with the standard speakers.
What I am after is some front speakers that are a direct replacement for the original ones with a budget of upto 80 quid. Don't want to bother with amps/tweeters etc just something that doesn't distort when the volume goes past quarter of the way round.

Thanks guys.

gregh

Tiny bit up from your price limit are Infinity 605cs, around £120, drop straight in, but you need to fit a crossover unit.

greg

aziz

Hi,

Are there any other drop in front speakers with out the need for a cross over?

Thank you
Aziz

john banks

Just about any 160-170 6-6.5 inch coaxial will go in if the mounting depth is below 72mm and you are prepared to make a spacer of MDF. Certainly 165mm screw straight in (example Kenwood HQ167DB). 170mm go in with supplied adaptor ring (Infinity 605CS woofer - these have separate tweeter and crossover). Neither of these need an MDF spacer to avoid the magnet hitting the window as their mounting depths are 59-60mm. IIRC, up to 64mm mounting depth goes in OK, beyond that it is magnet on window time unless you do the MDF thing. Get hold of Kenwood and Pioneer catalogues or onto their websites and check out some mounting depths and diameters and it will give you IDEAS of other models. I say that just because these particular catalogues carry quite a lot of measurements/pictures/info, not that you should particularly select one of these brands.

However, my Infinity 605CS were only £88 - I think they are about £93 now. They are better off an amp as they are not particularly sensitive for use off headunits. Some of the Kenwood components at this price are rather louder off the headunit - I would suggest sensitivity of >=92dB/W/m if running off a headunit as otherwise they may be drowned out too easily by the sensitive paper cone factory rear speakers and you'll have the fader control in a funny position to get a balanced soundstage.

I would strongly receommend fitting component speakers (ie with separate tweeter and crossover) as they tend to give much better imaging. I started with coaxials (the Kenwoods above) to save effort of fitting tweeter and crossover, but later ripped them out and bought components which sound tons better cos they have a separate crossover and a tweeter that points at the ear rather than the calf (treble is highly directional). I've not yet heard anyone raving about a cheap coaxial speaker that fits in the Impreza doors, but many go on about how wonderful components are. I think that tells us something. If you are fitting a speaker, you have to take the door trim off anyway in an Impreza, so you may as well put the tweeter and crossover in - all you need is an extra bit of time and some duck tape - also possibly a soldering iron and some spare speaker cable.

It has been said before that sub £100 or even £200 speakers are "budget" stuff and obviously won't do if you are going to seriously get into heavy ICE - it really depends a lot on budget. £100 can sound reasonable or even quite good IMHO.

[This message has been edited by john banks (edited 17 July 2001).]

AJC

I found an image of the Infinity 605cs speakers



and I was interested to know whether the tweeters will fit in the space in front of the door handle? Is that where the Duck tape and soldering come in? Thanks.

Andrew

gregh

>> know whether the tweeters will fit in the space in front of the door handle?

Yes

>>Is that where the Duck tape and soldering come in? Thanks.

Yes

Rob FTM

I fitted a pair of these recently (thanks Nick et al. whos expertise I used ) BUT unlike everyone else I fitted the tweeters slightly differently.

I have a MY99 and I took of the tweeter cover, the bit of plastic that the door release is on (Mr inarticulate here), and cut the grille out and used the screw mounts provided by Infinity. So the tweeter went in from the front and was held in place by the screw mount from the back.

Now the (slightly) bodged bit . I led a wire from the crossover up through this hole AFTER the door car was fitted and soldered it onto the mounted tweeter before I put the plastic bit with the tweeter back in place. This means that if I want to take the door card off I have to remember to unsolder the tweeter first.

IMHO this looks very neat and I quite like the idea of being able to angle the twweter after everything has been fitted.

If someone tells me how, I will post a picture as I belive it speaks a 1000 words!

Rob.

gregh

see this for adding images:

tizard99

Some nice advice on here by the looks of it.

One comment I have is my 92K has Cerwin Vega 6" woofers in the doors and Infinity ribbon tweeters on the dash top running off the headunit and it has very good imagery but the bass is lost from the woofer because its mounted on the std Subaru plastic baffle. This means the front of the speaker is about an inch back from the grill, which gives a bad off-axis response so the bass is crap unless your directly in-line with them. My question is, is this same plastic baffle fitted to newer models as if it is I would advise anyone to go down the MDF spacer route as no matter what your speakers cost It won't have much bass. Also dampening door cards with a product called Dynamat helps too.

Trev.

Scooby Doc

Trev

I find the biggest problem with my front components is that if you crank up the mid range then everything starts rattling.

A wee revision has been on the to do list for a while - waiting for John banks to come round and do it for me

I think the MDF spacer is a good idea in principle.

When you mention the dynamat have you actually stuck that on the back of the door car?

My intention was to use the 1" foam route to stop the polythene vibrating but would be interested in your thoughts

Martin