Budget Car Audio install ‘08

[cigvibe]

So I am on a strict budget as you may have seen in my garage build. I wanted to see what I could get to upgrade the stock speakers for the least amount of money.

I am not going with the cheapest ever like dual from walmart or pyramid etc.

Budget 6.5” decent speakers usually go for $99 a pair. However, I found that alpine and cerwin vega offer a budget component set for $50.

Logic would say grab the alpine but hey lets be different. I went with the cerein vega for $42 shipped along with the mounting adapters for $10 and the foam ring kit for $7.

Here is the factory speaker:

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A quick drill to the rivets and the assembly pops out. I mounted the new 6.5" to the adapter bracket and it goes neatly in place. Since this is a component set and not a coaxial, the OEM wire connects to the crossover. Then the supplied speaker wire connects to the crossover. The tweeter also connects to the crossover. If you want to make your life easier, just get a coaxial unit and call it a day.

The foam kit had a piece that stick to the door so that the speaker rear sound is not bouncing off the door inside.

Another piece goes on top of the speaker to fill the gap between the speaker and the door panel. The kit that I bought was a 2 piece, but the kit that I saw on a good video was a 3 piece which had a ring inside the back of the speaker to send waves toward the back foam. This would have been ideal I think.

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[cigvibe]

So for the rears, I assumed that it was also 6.5" and I would just duplicate the front. After taking it all apart it seems more like a 5.25" setup. I thought well I can still squeeze 6.5 in anyway since it sort of fits. The problem is the grill on door panel is still very small.

For now, I'm just going to leave out the rears. I never have rear passengers so it is fine. The probable solution would be a set of very high quality 5.25" coaxials since space is limited. I already raped one rear to test fit, so I have just pushed all audio to the front since the rear wasn't doing anything for me anyway.

[cigvibe]

FRONT:

My initial impressions are "ok". Keep in mind that I did not have the factory tweeter in the door pillar like other models. With this component set, I get now nice directed high points and sharp midrange. The speakers are underpowered by an old pioneer head unit. The most interesting part for me is that now the entire door panel is rattling. Even though I went the foam ring route as many have suggested, there is still some sort of bass flying through the door cavity. This is unusual because typically when you throw in a door speaker upgrade it only gets better. So, either I did something wrong, or the speakers are putting out more than I thought LOL.

[Bookworm]

Or you have what a lot of us have.

Loose sheet metal.

It turns out that the door sheet is attached to the crossbar by silicone or general caulk 'dots'. They break loose, or get hard, etc, and the door goes hollow sounding. Next time I pull my door panel off, I'll have a caulk gun handy to splat the rail to the door panel again. You can also run ridges of caulk across the inside of the sheet to help deaden it. There's also nice expensive deadening sheets. I think I'd just buy a can of the original Plasti Dip and a paintbrush before I'd spend that kind of money.

[cigvibe]

Main problem solved.


I was diving DEEP into the interwebs to find the most budget and most well reviewed 6.5" speaker out there. These cerwin vega speakers are poorly made as found when I took a closer look at the speaker that I had not installed yet. I should have known this. There were hardly any good reviews, most of the complaints were that the speaker was not actually 6.5"

After looking through my door panel grill, I could clearly see the speaker area was way small compared to the grill cutout. The frame is 6.5" but the speaker area is small. The speaker material feels cheap, i could push my finger through edges just barely touching it. Obviously these are some crap speakers using the cerwin vega name. I played some music with the door panel off and you can see the speaker shaking it like a salt shaker way too much. This was my rattle. The speaker was just over working itself. You get what you pay for is true in this case.

Fast forward, I found SKAR 6.5" midrange speakers which are VERY popular through reviews and youtube. It is just a speaker, no hardware wiring or tweeters are included. It is meant to be a replacement/upgrade only for 6.5" factory speakers. They work well as stock replacements but handle heavy duty amp work as well according to the masses. Out of 1100+ reviews on amazon they are still at 4.5 stars which is surprising as they only cost $20 each.

It sound decent just on a quick hand test. So I thought why not keep the component setup and just replace the crap mid with the skar one keeping the crossover and tweeter. After a quick swap, the results are like night and day. The speaker is no longer flopping (it has a strong surround). Also on a high volume level when I switch to the left side OEM speaker which I did not change it, it sounds terrible.

The foam ring that goes on top of the speaker I found is a perfect match for the door panel. When I changed it, I noticed that the plastic ring made a nice sealing imprint on the foam ring. So that was a win win.

After a quick drive, I am super happy. My highs are there. I have now a STRONG mid, and just a hint of actual bass from the front door.

I found a quick tip from a car audio guy, he actually didn't sound dead the entire inside of the door. He put a few patches on the inside in blank areas, but he put quite a bit of material on the actual plastic door panel. This is an interesting move and it makes sense.

[Bookworm]

Glad to hear your problem is solved. Could you put a link to the speakers in question?

I may end up putting in new speakers when I put in a new head unit - I haven't decided yet. The original speakers are still fully intact.

[cigvibe]

The speakers that I used are overkill, extremely heavy, and require a little custom work. These will make the door more heavy to open and close by a bit. But, given the $40 price tag for 2, worth the price of admission.

Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K3 ... UTF8&psc=1

I would upgrade the head unit first, then see if you are satisfied. Some stock setups benefit so well from a good head unit, that an upgrade on speakers may not be needed for your taste. As you can see, upgrading speakers the wrong way can actually make it worse.