Dash Speakers
 

I am in need to purchase new dash speakers because one of mine recently blew. So just wondering, for the ones that have changed their dash's out,
Which ones did you get.
How do they perform
And did you need to do the whole special speaker replacement job for them like in this video?

Porsche Boxster Speaker Replacement - YouTube

I did a very similar swap and used Polk db series speakers.

Polk's are great. I would take it to a good stereo shop and have them install new speakers.

I always kind of assumed that they were a coaxial system. They're not? Its just one speaker? No tweeter like it looks?

I swapped mine out for Infinity Kappa speakers and the sound is much better. And yes, you must do the surgery as seen in the video. It's not that bad of a job, though. I didn't bother with the soldering - I just plugged the old wires to the new speakers. Be sure to get the + and - matched up correctly.

I also put in the Infinity Kappa speakers (along with a new amp) and it sounds a lot better.

There is a bolt on the passenger side inside where the speaker sits that sticks out too high for some speakers. It will have to be ground down a bit to accommodate speakers with a slightly thicker depth (which was the case for the Infinity Kappas).

I've had my eyes on the Kappa's for a few days now, but with the reviews and things I'm hearing about the Polk DB's, they are sounding like a better choice right now, and for a good $20 cheaper than the kappas as well..

@Ericina What amp did you get? And how was the fit in the frunk compared to the stock amp?

I don't want to get into religious discussions here... but here goes. Before I was a 986 guy, I was an audiophile of sorts. I've purchased both Infinity and Polk speakers for my various cars in my life. My first set of car speakers were from Polk. I found the Polk to be too bright that my ears started hurting after listening to them for a while. I then found the sound of Infinity speakers to be warm and neutral and have been an Infinity customer ever since, both for car and home. I have believed that Polk is good at marketing but may not have the best products (FWIW, I believe the same about Bose), but I also believe Infinity lacks in marketing but has some of the best products. (That may not be a fair assessment.) Ultimately, the speakers you decide on should appeal to your personal tastes.

In terms of the amp, I also got an Infinity amp. It replaced my old front-trunk HAES amp. I couldn't figure out how to do it well myself well, so I took it to an audio installer, who did the installation with very reasonable cost. I have to say he did a bang up job. The amp is mounted in the same place where the old amp was, and the bracket is gone. The installation looks stock, with the exception of course that it doesn't look like a HAES amp!

Good luck!


Eric

Thanks to everyone. I have the same problem that my dash speakers are failing and I have been wondering if this was something that I could tackle myself. I am going to try this upgrade this weekend if I can find some speakers locally.

And yes, I was kind of shocked to see in the video that there isn't a three-way speaker under the dash grille! WTF is that grille design all about Porsche? Seems like a bit of trickery.

I replaced the stock dash and door speakers with Polks' DB series, bought them from Amazon. Sounded great to me, (so good that I just replaced the F & R speakers in my 911 with the same series Polks) price was very reasonable and the project was fairly simple and straight forward following the online DIY instructions. For ~ $100 you'd be hard pressed to find another upgrade that would be as cost effective, JMHO.

Question for all of you who put in aftermarket speakers:
The OEM speakers have an odd-sized diameter, and speakers with that exact diameter are very hard to find. How did you make your aftermarket speakers fit?
In my case it was LOTS of glue from a hot glue gun, but I am sure that there must be better solutions out there

Chris,
Mine had all after market spakers - dash, doors and rear 4. Although the sizes were same the holes did not match. They had drilled new holes for the door ones and the rears. But, the rear has the plastic slide in piece altered to fit the AM ones. Haven't removed the dash yet.

I bought some new speakers this afternoon and am in the middle of the job. Will post pic's tomorrow.

Chris - I used 5 min epoxy to attach the new speakers to the old speaker "frame". Hot glue was my 2nd choice!

@Chris, there is an after-market plastic bracket designed just for the 986/996 that you can buy that will accommodate the after market speakers. 4.5" inch speakers will attach to the dash grille without problem. Just look on the boards or on the Internet. They are inexpensive and simplify installation.

Still, most speakers come with the standard 4 screw mounts and you will have to cut off one of the screw mounts to accommodate the odd fit that the dash grille has. It takes a little effort but after market speakers will definitely fit in there.

Here is my install of new dash speakers. I have the Porsche base stock stereo system with the CDR-220 head unit, amp in the frunk, and subwoofers in the doors.

I was simply looking for a replacement for the OEM dash speakers because they were badly distorting the sound (meaning just about blown). The new Alpine SPS-410's are very reasonably priced at $59 for the pair. They also fit height-wise without modification. Overall, they sound nicer than the stock speakers but aren't audiophile grade.

After removing the stock speakers, it turns out that there was a 4" speaker and 1" tweeter from the factory. This was different from the YouTube video so this was a bit of a surprise.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p1.jpg

I started by unsoldering the wires to the 4" speaker and the tweeter and the removed the three screws holding the 4" stock speaker to the grille.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p2.jpg

The stock 4" speaker was pretty old looking and the rubber gasket connecting the paper cone to the edge of the speaker broke apart with a very slight touch of my finger. This confirmed what I was hearing such that the speakers were deteriorated and ready to be replaced.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...eakers/p1a.jpg

Next, I used a Dremel to cut the old speaker bracket pretty much as shown in the YouTube video being sure to leave the stock wire harness connector. The Dremel made this part of the job easy. I also hand sanded the old adhesive from the inside lip where the new speaker will mount to improve adhesion.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p3.jpg

Next, I cut down the four mounting tabs from the Alpine speakers using the Dremel so the Apine speaker would fit into the old bracket.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p4.jpg

Next I used 5 min epoxy to glue the new speaker into the bracket. Super glue or hot glue would also work.
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p5.jpg

Last, I attached the new speaker to the grille and then soldered the new speaker and the tweeter to the wire harness connector. I had to do a little bit of fine fit work on the grille with the Dremel so the grille would fit flush with the old speaker bracket (cut small slots where the mounting tabs for the Alpine speaker still sticks out some). Again, the Dremel made this quick and easy. I left as much of the Alpine mounting tab as I could to increase the glue area between the Alpine speaker and the old bracket but if you cut the tabs completely off then you won't have to worry about this final trim step (just be sure to center the speaker in the grille when you glue it).
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...peakers/p7.jpg

Finally, I re-installed the speakers/grilles back into the car. Overall, a nice and relatively easy 2-3 hr garage project. Stock stereo now sounds much better than the 12 yr-old deteriorated OEM speakers.

Since your replacement speakers were coaxial, any reason, other than just because they're there, to reattach the OEM tweets?

Thanks for your write-up and photos. I'm considering the SPS-410 for the dash, like you installed, and SPS-510 for the doors. Crutchfield has an Alpine sale going on which brings cost down to $125 for all four speakers.

Yeah, I reattached the OEM tweeters just because they were there. Probably not required.

The SPS-410's sound better than my 12 yr-old nearly blown OEM speakers but don't expect concert hall quality. I'd say that they are a good and very affordable OEM replacement.

Thanks for the run through Stone, Glad to hear you got it done smoothly.
I've ordered the Polk DB's and hopefully it will fit as without hassle and as smoothly as the others.

Good thread. My stock driver side speaker was blown out. I replaced my dash speakers over the weekend with the Alpine units and am happy to have stereo sound again!

Yes I just finished mine as well, sounds great. Installation process went smoothly. Took about 3 hours or so. Pretty good for somebody who isn't a pro at sound systems I would say. :cool:

I'll be doing this over the weekend. I also have to figure out why my door speakers don't work, but I've just been too busy.

I have a 1998 986 and it only came with the 4 inch dash speakers (why I'm not sure). I replaced mine with the JL Audio TR-400 CXi and they sound great JL Audio TR400-CXi 4" or 4" x 6" Evolution TR 2-way Speakers . You want to stay away from a really harsh sounding tweeter because the sound bouncing off the windshield will only amplify it. I paired my new dash speakers with a nice set of 6 1/2 inch Focal IC165 which I put in my doors and they sound phenomenal Focal IC165 6-1/2" (6.5") 2-Way Integration Coaxial Car Speakers . Just my 2 cents :cool:

I had a pair of MB Quart 4" speakers I bought for my '98 BMW. I just dropped the in the holes and hooked them up. I didn't even mount them to the grills. Sounds 10x better than stock.

Revising a dormant thread, since I saw this post and my searches have turned up no commercial solutions like this....

Where did you see it?

The list f parts you need can be found here:
Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Rear Speaker Installation

Thanks for the link. I think rear speakers are going to be round 3 or 4 of my stereo upgrades.

First is a new head unit, with bluetooth, usb, mp3, etc.

Second are new dashboard speakers, if I can find some adapter rings. Otherwise I might sacrifice the OEM speakers but am less that happy with that idea (don't like to rely on glue, don't like to lose a fall back plan, etc).

Third would be to consider door speakers since our 986 doesn't have them... or to consider some other kind of woofer arrangement.

Fourth would be rear speakers.

Check out the adaptor rings here:

Direct Circuit - The only dealer with the Porsche Audio Speaker Upgrade Kit

Perfect, and a good price. Thanks!

Alas, the ones from Direct Circuit are sized for the 987, second gen boxster, and I have the 986.... sending them back.

Althoguh the way you install it is via connection to the grill, not the dash, here is a photo showing it against the dash opening of our 2000 S, which gives you a sense of the size.

When attached to the grill, even without a speaker attached to it, it is not possible to fiddle it into place since the ring is simply too large with its substantial lip to fit on a first gen dash.

Looks like I'll need to pony up for the JMG solution, which is $50 instead of $20 -- but is sized more conservatively so it fits in a 986.
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1362853735.jpg

The ones from Direct Circuit will definitely fit in a 986. It did on mine. Those "slots" around the ring are supposed to be trimmed, and you only need the slots where you're going to mount the speaker.

Hope that helps.

Good to know. Mine didn't come with instructions so I didn't know that. Cool! I will try.

Anyone know if the connector porsche uses is a standard size, so I could go buy something like this instead of splicing into the wires. Hate to make it a permanent solder connection if there is a nice friction one.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1362876773.jpg

Here is my post from the DYI forum ---- http://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/33439-dash-speaker-replacement.html


Polk audio db 401

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I replaced mine yesterday with Polk Audio DB 401 that I got from Crutchfield.ca. It took me less than an hour to replace both speakers with most of the time spent on the first one.

1. Removed the speaker from car and brought it to workshop. I removed the three screws and the clip that holds the tweeter and removed them both. These are not needed as the new speaker has the cross over built in with a better tweeter.

2. I used side cutters to cut the plastic cage from the speakers as shown in the first post and I cut the speaker as shown. I also removed the speaker terminals as they are not needed; new one has the terminals already installed and used these.

3. I placed a towel around the new speaker (metal shavings) and proceeded to cut the tabs with a dremmel tool. I cut enough to ensure a tight fit as in original post.

4. I placed the new speaker in the modefied basket and screwed it to the existing grill. The basket gave the new speaker a tight fit to the grill with no chance of it vibrating. I then attaced the included speaker wire harness (VW) to the new speaker.

5. Hooked the harness to the car and tested the speaker. I then installed it in the opening and tightened down the screws. I then removed the other and did the above process to this one.

The sound is fantastic now and will get better once the speakers are broken it. Sounded better today than yesterday with FM and CD's. There is a big difference from the original ones. I would not use the tweeters in the original speakers as it's cross over blocks the tweeter in the new speakers. I would remove the old ones as well as the cross over; new ones have it built in. I have also done the rear PNP speaker upgrade years ago and with both upgrades the sound is very much improved. I may decide to upgrade the head unit with something that "looks" close to stock to keep it "low key". I had read earlier that Harmon/Karden was the one to get but I can't seem to find new units out there. Their website does not indicate that they have this line. Not interested in the booming/flashing displays and nice to have orange which is close to stock.

Wish I tried the Polks
 

I installed the Alpines, and I'm not impressed. When the factory speakers weren't blown, they sounded a LOT better. Thanks for the tutorial and it's a million times better, just wish I would have tried the Polks instead.

What do you not like about the Alpines? I went with some JL Audio and they sound better than the factory speakers (even before blown) but now it's clear to get decent bass, I gotta add bigger speakers or a sub.

FYI, the Direct Circuit rings, when you learn they need to be trimmed, can fit -- unless you are a clod like me and mangle one of them while cutting them down.

I went with the ones from the UK. While the price was 3 or 4x the Direct Circuit rings, there was not cutting and they were precise fits for me speakers and dash -- including nice wiring harnesses that fit perfectly with the factory harnesses.

Note that I'm listening to an aftermarket headunit with a lot more power than the OEM headunit. That might influence the sound with aftermarket speakers which are typically half or less efficient than the OEM speakers.

Right it's exactly the bass level that's the problem. The factory set was able to output lower bass without distortion. Its a problem for me because i don't have the amp to drive the door speakers and i imagine it wouldn't be to easy to rig something. I've always had an Alpine head unit.

Interesting. Our OEM speakers sucked at bass. The main reason we notice it now is the JL Audio are so good, now it's the obvious thing missing. Frankly they can play well to 80hz which is not thumping but most instruments would sound full..... but then the whole dash shakes!