Pics of Front door Speaker install replacing stock bose speakers
got bored sitting at home today so I decided to get the speaker install done on my bud's rx8, since tint is going on thursday, i figure I should do this before then...
anyway, things went pretty smoothly considering i have never worked on this car before. the front speakres is a set of crystal csx 615 6.5" component coaxials wth bridge mount tweeter and stand alone crossover...crystal being among my fav. brands and the main brand we carry. :) anyway, here goes: the door panel went off with out a hitch thanks to the mechanics repair manual i have of the car, i must say, the stock bose speaker is one of hte strangest I have ever seen...9" speakers with reverse mounted cone? or is i passive radiator?> anyway, for anyone who is interested in really good sound quality, i think a set of morel 8" integra coaxials would be a perfect fit for these doors :) anyway, back to the isntall... i first took off the stock speaker and used the moutline to cut a mounting baffle out of 1/2" mdf, with a countersunk cutout to sink the crystal speaker in. I used the stock screw holes to install this baffle. this is followed by a good layering of dampening to prvent rattles. After looking at the stock wiring pass through, i decided that it was way more trouble than its worth and I was going to drill my own holes. on teh doors side, i was able to pop out a small grommit near the speaker. i inserted a plastic grommit there. next, I drilled out a comparable hole on the car side of sheet metal (its double walled) and isntalled another plastic grommit. finally, on the inside kick panel sheet metal, i drilled a third hole to pass the wires into the car, of course, a grommit was also used. then, speaker wire for the speaker was run through, covered with one heat drunk tubing and then electrical tape. the speaker was then isntalled and the passiver crossover module was velcrowed to the inside of hte door panel. everything fits togehter very well. the Driver side door went on the same way, with one exception, i was able to use the hole that fusebox's retaining pin uses to pas through the wire into the car, i trimmed the lower retaining pin clip off the fuse holder, and isnteadused heavy duty velcrow to secure the lowerpart of the fuse holder. the wire passes neatly out of hte fuse holder.... below are the pictures I took during the install.... this weekend I will finish the car with more pics :) http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx8door1.jpg http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx8door2.jpg http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx8door3.jpg http://simplicity.elitecaraudio.org/images/rx8door4.jpg |
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Looks very interesting, but more than I could do. How do they sound compared to the original Bose?
Also, what would that cost if I took it into a custom installation shop? |
well, nothing is hookedup just yet, will be all done this upcming weekned, i simply installed the speakers and ran the wires out...judging from how the stock bose sounded, I hae no doubt the new system will sound much better :)
as far as taking it to a shop and having it done...well, some shops will charge only like 50-60 bucks but they probaly wont take all the steps, especially the dampening...but if you find a good shop with responsible installers, pay a little more and they will do a job just like this... if someone came to my shop and asked me to do this, i would say probably around 50. |
What's the mounting depth available back there? Just curious, if I do something I'm thinking about going with some 8" bass/mid-bass drivers...but I'd probably need a good 3.5" back there to do it. Is there clearance, or is the mounting depth pretty measly?
Edit: looked up the mounting depth of those crystals and it seems to be about 2.1", think I have another inch+ back there? Probably not eh...? Maybe build up a baffle...possibly, but then I have to worry about slamming the cone into the front grill.... |
well, i think if its around 3" it would fit, think soeting like a dei 8 whcih has the magnet upfront, or akicker rmb midbass...or a morel midbass 8" whcih is also less than 3"...i would estimate that there is about 3"
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Originally posted by 16psibrick well, i think if its around 3" it would fit, think soeting like a dei 8 whcih has the magnet upfront, or akicker rmb midbass...or a morel midbass 8" whcih is also less than 3"...i would estimate that there is about 3" |
if you want to do kicks, i would suggest going with a 3 way comp set, putting the 6.5": mid bass int he doors, and then only have a 3 or 4" midand tweet in the kicks, will definetly help you keep the kicks. my original pklan was to do just that in this car, but after talking to my friend, we decided to not go with kicks :)
i would thinka morel 8" 3 way comp set would be a fantastic set up for this car, with the 8 in the door, and the 4 and the 1 in the kicks, and give each side about 150 watts... i am drooling just thinking about it, it WILL be costly, but you will have great sound for sure. :) b |
Originally posted by 16psibrick if you want to do kicks, i would suggest going with a 3 way comp set, putting the 6.5": mid bass int he doors, and then only have a 3 or 4" midand tweet in the kicks, will definetly help you keep the kicks. my original pklan was to do just that in this car, but after talking to my friend, we decided to not go with kicks :) i would thinka morel 8" 3 way comp set would be a fantastic set up for this car, with the 8 in the door, and the 4 and the 1 in the kicks, and give each side about 150 watts... i am drooling just thinking about it, it WILL be costly, but you will have great sound for sure. :) b edit: I had DLS 6.5" mid-bass in that car (which kept up pretty well) but I had them driven with about 300W. Prior to them I had Image Dynamics 6.5" which just couldn't handle the power. I think that having the 8" door room in this car (and the position of the speaker way towards the door's front) will hopefully really help the staging with the kicks and handle lower freqs. and more power. |
hey, whats your name? i certainly know bill and omar, been to their shop once and chatted with bill, whcih I am sure he doesnt rmemeber, and have seen him at almost all the shows i went to. in my opinion one of hte nicest and certainly most talentented installers around, especialyl whenit comes to building comp vehicles. :)
unfortuantely i have not been to too many shows for hte psat year or so, i have no idea what the new batch of isntalls look like frmo them, i only know ryan chin's blazer, stripto's neon was it? and i think a celica and a few other cars I cant recall, and of course petracca's old benz, which i know he got something else to replace :) |
Originally posted by 16psibrick hey, whats your name? i certainly know bill and omar, been to their shop once and chatted with bill, whcih I am sure he doesnt rmemeber, and have seen him at almost all the shows i went to. in my opinion one of hte nicest and certainly most talentented installers around, especialyl whenit comes to building comp vehicles. :) unfortuantely i have not been to too many shows for hte psat year or so, i have no idea what the new batch of isntalls look like frmo them, i only know ryan chin's blazer, stripto's neon was it? and i think a celica and a few other cars I cant recall, and of course petracca's old benz, which i know he got something else to replace :) |
Why do you guys want to put tweeters in the kick panels? High frequency sound is so directional, I've found any time you put something like that lower and to the side, my leg tends to drastically affect the sound if i move it. Putting them up by the A pillar or sail panels or whatever may not be ideal when you simply look at the "speaker system," but when you factor in the environment in which you will be using it, it seems to work better.
Just my ignorant amateur opinion... :-) jds |
well, personally, i find htat some automotive tweeters are mor directional than others, but in the past, i have been able to achieve good staging with most speakres with the tweet and midrange in the kick panels. according to richard clark, sound has a good way to going around your legs or other small blocking things and not be severely affected...
the a pillar mount is also a good location for tweets, personally I only used them a few times to bring up the sound stage with a second pair of attentuated and perhaps time delayed tweets up there, but I know people have achieved great results with the tweets up there, anthony davis's ford contours comes immediately to mind...but perhaps i just dont have the skill neccessary to make cars sound good with tweets up there alone by themselves :) b |
Originally posted by bureau13 Why do you guys want to put tweeters in the kick panels? High frequency sound is so directional, I've found any time you put something like that lower and to the side, my leg tends to drastically affect the sound if i move it. Putting them up by the A pillar or sail panels or whatever may not be ideal when you simply look at the "speaker system," but when you factor in the environment in which you will be using it, it seems to work better. Just my ignorant amateur opinion... :-) jds kick panel in Automatic transmission vehicles usually works better especially if there isn't any passenger in the car. Ultimately I plan to do a Dolby Pro Logic II music mode set-up and utilize the Bose center channel location (90% chance I won't use the Bose speaker) Anyway, in two channel cars, I think the best location for tweaters is in the sail panel in the a-pillar when kick panels aren't an option for whatever reason. Thanks 16pisbrick for the pics. -Mr. Wigggles |
Originally posted by bureau13 Why do you guys want to put tweeters in the kick panels? High frequency sound is so directional, I've found any time you put something like that lower and to the side, my leg tends to drastically affect the sound if i move it. Putting them up by the A pillar or sail panels or whatever may not be ideal when you simply look at the "speaker system," but when you factor in the environment in which you will be using it, it seems to work better. Just my ignorant amateur opinion... :-) jds |
Maybe if I hack off one of my legs (and make sure I have no passenger with a right leg) I'll be able to tell. Seriously, how do you get around that? I read the other comment about how in theory blah blah blah...well, in practice, it sounds like crap when a fairly large and solid object is passing between my ears and the tweeter. Are some tweeters really more sensitive to this kind of thing than others?
jds Originally posted by DreamWarrior Depth of sound stage in kicks is way better than inches (well a foot maybe) from your head. |
Originally posted by bureau13 Maybe if I hack off one of my legs (and make sure I have no passenger with a right leg) I'll be able to tell. Seriously, how do you get around that? I read the other comment about how in theory blah blah blah...well, in practice, it sounds like crap when a fairly large and solid object is passing between my ears and the tweeter. Are some tweeters really more sensitive to this kind of thing than others? jds |
If you...or anyone else...has any detailed pics of a kick panel tweeter installation in the RX-8 I'd be interested in seeing it. The sound stage/equidistant point is a good one.
jds |
16psibrick: how did you get the wires to the back of the car? did you run your own wires to the back, or tap into theirs on the floor board?
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