what size speakers fit in the Bose holes?
 

I looked around on here and found the sticky with all of the information about the speakers in our cars. I have the bose system, and it says that the cars with bose have 9" speakers. I am adding a new headunit and replacing speakers, but I can't seem to find regular round 9" speakers, I found 6"9s but couldn't find any aftermarket circular 9" diameter speakers, does something else fit in the 9" spot? Also, anyone have good recommendations on good front speakers that they have had good luck with?

thanks!!

None are made. You must either buy a 6 1/2" adpater or make them yourself. Most people go the latter route.

boarderjosh: are you referring to the speaker in the door?
I changed out my bose speakers but left that one alone since it's a difficult task to find a speaker that fits the location with the proper ohm rating.

front speakers: I used Infinity Kappa highs. You'll need to get a little creative to mount them since they're smaller then the bose but they sound great

i had the base speakers and replace them with polk audio momos 6x9 rear deck and polks 5x7 doors and kept the stock headunit ... i gotta say the sound great i would just go ahead and say they sound much better than bose(i've heard some bose speakers) ... i changed the tweeters too for some polk audio too

my main question was the woofer in the front doors, I am replacing the headunit and going to outfit the car with new speakers. I couldn't find any speakers that were 9" round, so I am probably going to go with 6 1/2" speakers in the front, maybe just leave the bose tweeters alone but not plug them in or find 2" tweeters. The rear 6x9s should be easy to replace.

yeah you would prolly have to jerryrick something ... the rear deck is a piece of cake to replace good luck !!

You need a component set if you're going that direction. Woofer and tweeter set.

And it is a very simple upgrade to install a 6.75" set of component speakers in the door. It is very easy to make a adaptor plate using the stock Bose speaker as a template.

It was very simple to make the adapter for the front.

My issue came with the rear 6x9's. They are easy to install, but you gotta make sure that the speakers you get don't have a lot protruding from the middle. I started with Infinity Reference 3-way 6x9s and could BARELY get the rear panel down again. I switched to the Infinity Kappa 2-way 6x9s (the tweeter doesn't stick out hardly at all) so now my rear panels fit great. just a bit of advice for the rears should you get to that point.

Make your own 6.5 baffles. Get yourself a nice component set as suggested and amplify it with a nice amp of your choice!

I have not tried these, but there is an 8" component set on the market by Rainbow model CS 220 X-Plain. They run $400/pair but from the specs they should fit. Shallow depth too.

See here:
http://www.iqcaraudio.com/rainbow/x_line/index.htm

Seriously, can't you find the info in the *sticky* thread at the beginning of the forum?!?

sorry, I looked in the sticky about speaker sizes and about the different component sizes. It said that the Bose speakers are 9", but this thread was about finding the best solution to replace those speakers, I was shopping for replacements, but did not find any 9" speakers for sale, so my question was about what to do with a 9" hole. This thread answered a lot of my questions because now I know that I need to find speakers that are in the 6" to 7" range and then make or buy adapters to fit. I read that thread and all of the posts and still did not have a complete answer, so I made a new thread. and believe it or not, I found my answer.

hey man i wan to do the same thing as you kinda, well keeping the oem head unit. how hard was it to wire it up and could you help me with pics or something thanks.

There's nothing to it. They're plug and play. Remove the door panels, unscrew the factory speakers, disconnect the harness going to the speakers, make the + and-connections for the new speakers and screw the new speaker in place.

To splice in the new connections, you DO NOT need (or want) to cut off the factory harness. Just strip back the insulation a little and use a pointed object to make an eye in the wire, like this. Then thread the new wiring through the eye like this. Then wrap them together with the wires running along side each other like this. Then simply wrap the connection in electrical tape like this. The zip tie is just added security. Now when you go to sell the car, you can remove your speakers and just plug the factory speaker back in. 5 seconds. :)

I was thinking about putting a set of 8" subs in the doors... Had anyone tried this?

Depth is usually the issue there. Additionally, subs do not play mid-range frequencies well at all. And tweeters certainly aren't going to either. So you'd need another speaker mounted up front somewhere.

If you're looking for more mid-bass punch, I'd just just stick to a high quality 6.5" and then work on constructing a sealed box around it in the door. Shouldn't be too hard really.

My initial plan is for either 8's, or I might go 10" in the door with their own amp from rca preouts, then using two 6" in kick panels. Im also going with two 12's in the trunk.

And yes, jl audio makes a very shallow 10, I would just need to modify the hole.

But good advice, I might just build box for two 6.5's

Kick panels huh. You must drive an automatic?

If you could just fab up a way to install a 3-way component set, I think it would accomplish everything you're wanting and more. The door panel location is valuable real estate to lose to speaker that only plays a 200Hz range...that's already being covered by another speaker. If you're trying to make your car bump clear off the planet, then I still suggest looking into a different option. Maybe two high-excursion 12"s in a custom ported box goosed with 2kWRMS.

it's a 6 speed, ive had kicks in standards before.
Im going with two jl w6 12's in the trunk with a fiberglass sealed enclosure, with the doors im looking for mid range bass. But taking out the 9's ill lose all the mid frequency sound up front (still have the 6x9's in the rear deck) so hense replacing them with 5 or 6's in kicks

Are you talking about a 3 way component in the door?

That's doable, but with all the highs the system had already, I would go with the other idea you suggested with a good set of mid drivers in a sealed box.

That's really what im looking for, good hitting mid bass to complement the lows from the trunk.

I suggest taking some measurements and seeing just how much room you comfortably have next to the clutch pedal. As I'm sure yo know, kick panels are designed to improve imaging. You can't just have them aimed directly at the pedals...

A solid set of components should have punch clear down to ~120Hz cleanly. Removing higher frequencies from the 6.5", as with the addition of a 4" speaker from a 3-way setup, should allow the 6.5" to cleanly punch down lower than that. If you could seal in a full 3-way component setup in the doors, you'd have a KILLER front stage that should provide all the mid-bass you need.