Dash speakers - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

mptoledo · 07-24-2009, 06:44 AM

Ok, I took out the dash speakers to see what I could fit in. The drivers side really limits putting anything bigger in. I also took off my rear speaker box and the speakers are the same MFG as dash. There are 4 rear speakers(2 each side) and it looks like you can fit something bigger in there. My rear speakers are pure garbage. they sound like crap. The best buy guy says the doors are just small bass or subs. I have the fade adjusted to the front so that it sound half way decent.

Budget for speakers is around $200
summary:
1.)Front: $80 Infinity Kappa 4" (I am checking to see if 5" rounds will fit in).
2.)Door: Might leave them stock as I can here some bass from them
3.)Rear: ($120) No Idea, Please help.
4.) Head unit: JVC kd-HDR50 (already installed $165).

Any suggestions for rear would be greatly appreciated!! I would like to keep them the same brand, preferably Kappa. I like the reviews on the infinity kappas. I don't mind spending a little extra to get great sound.

drem914 · 07-24-2009, 07:32 AM

You will only be able to replace the rears with 3-1/2" speakers. It will require some cutting to the plate that currently holds the speakers, if they are the oem units.
You might want to try to just ad some tweeters in series. Many have done that successfully. Without upgrading the amp you will not have much power going there.

The fronts or also maxed out at 4" units with a 1" separate tweeter.

the doors are "subs" you can go larger but will need to cut the baffle that they sit in or make new ones.

Check over on the Renn Tech site. There are many many threads of people that have done speakers and head unit upgrades with a lot of visual and descriptive information.

mptoledo · 07-24-2009, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drem914

You will only be able to replace the rears with 3-1/2" speakers. It will require some cutting to the plate that currently holds the speakers, if they are the oem units.
You might want to try to just ad some tweeters in series. Many have done that successfully. Without upgrading the amp you will not have much power going there.

The fronts or also maxed out at 4" units with a 1" separate tweeter.

the doors are "subs" you can go larger but will need to cut the baffle that they sit in or make new ones.

Check over on the Renn Tech site. There are many many threads of people that have done speakers and head unit upgrades with a lot of visual and descriptive information.

First, thanks for the input, I was playing with the idea of puting 6x9's or a little smaller in the back. I took the whole unit off and there is tons of room. Iwas thinking about facing the 6x9s upwards and tilted as much forward as I could. I could easily drill holes in the top so the sound could escape.

On the fronts, I agree it looks like 4" are the max without some serious mods to the dash(too much trouble).

kerplunk · 07-24-2009, 11:41 PM

There are rear speakers in the Boxster?!?! I thought there were just two dash speakers and two on the door.

vath2001 · 07-25-2009, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerplunk

There are rear speakers in the Boxster?!?! I thought there were just two dash speakers and two on the door.

He may be referring to these:

http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=P&Product_Code=SpeakerKit986&Category_Code=986AUDIO

JAAY · 07-25-2009, 05:08 AM

All this talk about speakers and stereos and all this is making rip out all my factory stuff. I started yesterday. I took some photos of the stock dash speakers. I am going to be replacing the dash tweeter with memphis 1"tweeters that are a component set with a 5.25 door woofer. When it is done it will be running off a alpine deck, I am not sure which one yet, a a/d/s amp and the memphis crossovers. I am not sure if I am going to change out the dash speakers though just the tweeters. I have some of this stuff left over from when I used to be into car audio. The memphis are new and they look real sweet. I'll post up a pic of them in a bit.

JAAY · 07-25-2009, 06:03 AM

Heres a photo of the Door speakers and the tweeters and the crossover for them. The cool thing about this set is they can be bi-amped and come with a plate all ready to put the sub and the tweeter mounted together in a 6x8 configuration. I can't wait to hear how they sound. I should do the full install next week.

drem914 · 08-11-2009, 04:46 PM

The stock amp is 4 x 40w and they typically run the dash and doors.
the head unit runs the rears unless you have a 6 x 40 amp. you can tell by the order code in the front trunk what type of audio you have. If you did not have rears before putting these in, you probably have the 4 x 40. I suggest you trace the line outs and speaker outs to find out what is connected and where.
You may need to modify the harness connection between the jvc and the amp in the car. No telling what BB did, if you have to turn the front fade all the way up to get anything out of the rear. Hopefully they didn't switch everything around and set the dashes as the rears and the doors as the fronts

mptoledo · 08-11-2009, 05:31 PM

Thanks to both of you for the input. I just have them sitting there in the middle compartment on their magnets. No hard turns for now.

yeah, I probably picked the wrong size speakers for the rear. But they sound so good. I am guessing the Best buy guy hooked the amp up differently than stock. I will stop by there tomorrow and see what he says. He actually is pretty comptetent. He may have some input on housing. I played around with styrafoam, but it just didn't fit right. The front infinity covers are cool but don't fit the rears. The 4x6 didn't come with covers. I just cant mount them on a board as there is nothing to screw in unless I use an L bracket because of the "plate" design.

The problem, The plate speakers are 1" too tall for the housing. They must be set at an angle and in the middle compartment. I need to find a way to mount them to a board possibly with an L bracket or some type of housing enclosure.

If they had covers I could mount them behind the seats as there might be enough room. I love the fact they are 2 ohm and they do complement each other well, but I need the same amount of power going to both front and back so I think I need to drop the doors off the amp and add the fronts. it is pretty loud with the current amp.

this is what they look like.
http://img01.static-nextag.com/image/Infinity-Kappa-462-9CFP/1/000/006/025/389/602538907.jpg

Again Urban and Drem thanks for the input. Its not that hard and I am sure there is a solution I am not lookng at.

I need BEER It helps the thought process!!

gstoli · 08-11-2009, 07:02 PM

Congrats on the dash speakers. I am buying the same set as long as I find them chip from a legit seller that would make me confident that I can return them if I do not like them.

I think you would have to trim the rear compartment to fit the 4" rear speakers properly. I have measured the rear compartment again and again and only 3.5" speakers will fit.

BTW I have the OEM rear speakers (not installed... I hate the factory sound so much that I did not bother installing them) and I can see two speakers on each side. They are 3 1/4" in diameter. But why two? I guess they connect in series, but still why two?

I am thinking of buying a 5 1/2 component speaker system and installing the woofers in the doors and the tweeters in the rear compartment. But I will install 3 1/2" rear speakers too, so the tweeters sound redundant.... What do you think?

mptoledo · 08-11-2009, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gstoli

Congrats on the dash speakers. I am buying the same set as long as I find them chip from a legit seller that would make me confident that I can return them if I do not like them.

I think you would have to trim the rear compartment to fit the 4" rear speakers properly. I have measured the rear compartment again and again and only 3.5" speakers will fit.

BTW I have the OEM rear speakers (not installed... I hate the factory sound so much that I did not bother installing them) and I can see two speakers on each side. They are 3 1/4" in diameter. But why two? I guess they connect in series, but still why two?

I am thinking of buying a 5 1/2 component speaker system and installing the woofers in the doors and the tweeters in the rear compartment. But I will install 3 1/2" rear speakers too, so the tweeters sound redundant.... What do you think?

The rears were hidious, even worse than the front. Yes the 2 speakers on each side in the rear were just split on each side( Weird).

ON mounting the rears (that sounds funny

), anyways, I am thinking about two ways, one is to get a board and mounting them at a slight angle, or finding some cheap computer speaker(or something) casing and mounting them in that. I am going to Best buy, oddlots(amazing what crap you can retool there) and where ever else I can think of. I may even hinge two boards together, cut a big hole for the magnets and use that. Either way I have decided to put them in the middle compartment as the tried them behind the seat rest(where the stock were) and it really killed the volume and quality.

For some reason I get a kick out of puzzles like this and love figuring it out.

The fronts were easy. I just cut out the center and three posts in the back so the speaker would fit. They sounded great until I hooked up the rears. The rears are so clear and loud!!

The whole key was setting the radio's custom users settings, mids, lows, highs, sub,..... The presets were garbage.