Door speaker upgrade, which speakers

[lofi]

Having done a load of searches across various forums the two speakers below come recommended as replacement for the none Bose door speaker in my non MOST car.

I guess my question is, are the Focals worth twice the price when used in the unsound deadened 996. If just after slightly fully punchier base.

Oh, and everything I read says components are best for the doors but you forget the tweeter and the cross over and just fit the driver unit.

Pioneer TS-D1320C
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2910...ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=95&ff19=0

Focal 130A1
http://caraudiosecurity.com/130a1-13cm-components

 

[chiark]

The door speakers are, I believe, subs in every version. You should have some five inch things fitted in a box behind the grille.

I've fitted focal 5ws speakers which are dedicated 5 inch mid bass/ subs, and they sound surprisingly good for their size. (I needed to get door cards, boxes and run cables too. Consider yourself lucky to have have avoided this pain)

You need to pay attention to impedance if you're swapping and not adding an amp. I don't know what your originals will be. If you can add an amp it may be worthwhile... The eom head unit has line out on a plug connector...

The rest of the range is reproduced by speakers in the dash, again I thnk this is on every configuration. It I could be wrong . Upgrading those is definitely worth doing, I've currently got tang band full range single point drivers in there, but they don't seem to go high enough so I'm replacing them with a 4 inch mid/tweeter combo. I've had to mount the full range in a baffle in he speaker hole as they were too deep to fit under the original grille; there's a metal bar on the drivers side that the magnet caught on. Bit of mdf and vinyl and it doesn't look terrible, but I've bought some blank grilles from opc to see if I can hack up a better job.

I'll put a thread up about my audio adventure

 

[lofi]

Thanks, I should have said I'll be running the standard amp but it is driven by an Alpine double din unit (which is very good). I understand the door speakers are 2ohms but from all my other reading no-one seems to worry about this. Perhaps I should start with the dash speakers.

 

[chiark]

Dash speakers would make the biggest difference IMHO, but it depends what you're looking for. The dash speakers in mine were pretty poor and would distort quickly...

If the door speakers are 2 ohm now, it would be good to know how they're connected with the other speakers as that could be showing a low load to the head unit which could cause it problems with heat. If they're in series with the dash speakers, that'd be fine, but if they're just connected in parallel with the dash then that'd pull impedance even lower than 2ohm. I'll see if I can find a wiring diagram for you.

 

[tbrown]

Alpine headunits have the option of powering speakers from the
internal power amp or driving an external amp.
When I removed the headunit from my last car, I found that the
installer had bypassed the Nokia power amp. No idea why because
it is an easier job to wire up the headunit into the existing loom.
The workshop manual wiring diagram doesn't give the impedances.
As far as I remember the speakers were all 4ohm unless it was a
Bose system which I believe were 2ohm impedeance.

 

[chiark]

The only manual I can find shows that there's an amp involved as soon as you put speakers in the doors. This is admittedly from 1999 though. http://pdfmanual.co.uk/download/559047 (See sheet 14)

 

[tbrown]

I should have said I'll be running the standard amp but it is driven by an Alpine double din unit

The standard [Nokia/Haes] amp has 6 speaker outputs anyway as will the
Alpine headunit. Taking the doorcard and speaker grilles off [10min job]
will be the quickest and easiest way to check out the impedances,
you will be taking them apart anyway to replace speakers.
I would recommend replacing the door membranes while the door cards
are off if they are old/damaged as they do tend to leak over time,
especially if you are putting new speakers in.

 

[chiark]

Aaaah, I missed the bit that said "I'm running the standard amp".

D'oh.

 

[tbrown]

Aaaah, I missed the bit that said "I'm running the standard amp".

D'oh.

That shouldn't make any difference. Regardless of whether it is an internal
or external Amp, the speakers should be the correct impedance.
I seem to remember a while back that a friend was pulling the Bose speakers
out of their car and I wanted them, but they were the wrong impedance.

 

[lofi]

Thanks guys.

My plan is to first disconnect the standard amp and see if it all still works. That should tell me if the Alpine headunit is driving the speakers or whether it is just line out to the amp. I suspect the latter as all the wiring is there. This way I'll know that whatever the standard speakers are impedance wise I should stick with them.

My car is an early turbo so whilst it has the facelift shell the interior is preface lift, I.e. no glove box or cup holders. So I think it came as standard with the six speaker kit rather than just the dash speakers. I am hoping therefore that the door speakers are not a silly impedance.

The amp is called HAES and is marked as 6 x 40w part number 996.645.321.00 says Harman on it made in Sweden of all places. Does this give a clue as to the correct speakers?

Oh, and I'm ok with the door cards. Had the drivers one off several times to unsuccessfully track down a metalic rattle that disappears with a bit of pressure on the door card.

 

[lofi]

I've been doing some research to understand this ohms business. It appears that if the amp is rated at 2ohms fitting 4ohm speakers will be fine as they will not draw too much current so the amp will be fine. The worse that could happen is that if played very load the speaker could blow. And the other down side is it reduces the sensitivity of the speaker.

2 ohms speakers seem hard to find, so out of the two I mentions in the first post, which would you go for?

 

[chiark]

Running a 4ohm speaker in place of a 2ohm will mean the speaker draws only half the power that the original speaker would. Unless it's twice as sensitive (unlikely) then you will be wondering where the bass has gone.

Tbrown is right, match the impedance unless you're changing to an after market amp, and even then you need a plan. (As an example I'm running the 2 focals in parallel off a 5 channel amps sub channel... and have a bit one to sort out what signals go where.)

If you're taking door cards off, whack a speaker out and get a model number. Better still, quickly test it with a multimeter to see what resistance it reports. (disconnect it to do this )

I suspect your dash speakers will definitely be 4ohm.

 

[The Dragonmeister]

Personally if you are keeping the car for a couple of years you might consider spending a bit more on the speakers. The midrange Focals are the KRX range for the 2 way 6.5 inch components they are 400 for a set. The WRC are more expensive and better but you get diminishing returns with the WRC. Focal also make an ibus subwoofer which fits in the passenger footwell. Also consider a decent amp like Genesis or soundstream. Again it depends how long you want to keep the car for.

 

[SaintsPaul]

JMG Porsche in Bournemouth do upgrade kits for the 996.

These include bezels and speaker upgrades.
I think for the complete 6 speaker kit it is about £500.

I was going to look into this later in the year.

 

[Chef996TurboS]

Some info here about the ohm's of the speakers: (2nd post down)
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=901890

Hope this helps.