Ed-Head

I'm wanting to upgrade the audio but want to keep everything looking as stock as possible.

A friend of mine suggested keeping the factory amp to run the Sub and Center channels, and also installing a 4 channel Alpine Amp that would sit under the passenger seat. The new speakers would be Boston Acoustics S65RC for the front and Boston Acoutics SL60 for the rear deck.

But, I was talking to a installer from Tweeter, and he said that if I wanted to keep everything as stock as possible, that I should look at using Image Dynamics CXS62 2ohm speakers and dump the extra Alpine amp. In other words, just replace the speakers with the Image Dynamics and nothing else.

Does this sound possible? What about mounting depth?

Thanks in advance for the replies!

frenchnew

I guess it all depend on what you really want to accomplish with that upgrade?

More Quality?

More Power?

More Power and Sound Quality?

I never did sample the CXS62 from Image Dynamics but their sub woofers drivers are very pleasant to my ear and require very little space in a sealed enclosure.

As far as mounting depths, I have no idea about the restriction in the TL for mounting depth.

Best regards

frenchnew

raoacura

I have considered those speakers as well but I believe they will be challenging to put in. because of both depth and diameter. The stock speakers are mounted in a plastic "basket" and that basket is mounted into the door. If you remove the speaker and basket and measure from the metal of the door to the window (rolled down), there is only 2.5" of clearance. I think that prohibits installing many speakers directly to the metal of the door. The basket has a lip that adds another 3/4" and that helps give the stock speaker extra room.

The CX62 has a depth of 3.125" (the website does not say if that is mounting depth or overall depth). If you cut out the back of the basket, then you can use it to get 3.25" available room from the front of the basket to the window.

The CX62 has a diameter of 5.625". The opening of the basket at the speaker is 5.25". This means you cannot use the stock basket.

The CX62 also has a magnet that is 4.5" in diameter. The diameter of the basket where the magnet is measures 4".

I think if you could find a ring that is 3/4" to 1" thick that you can mount to the metal door, and then mount the CX62 to that ring, it would probably work. The one thing that I did not look into is the door panel. The overall diameter of the CX62 is 6.625". I did not measure the door panel in the area of the speaker. I know that the overall diameter of the stock speaker it 6.25". This may not be an issue if the CX62 does not stick out very far.

I am very interested in your results so please keep me posted. I have heard great things about these speakers and the fact that they are 2 ohms intrigues me. I am concerned that the recommended power is 150 watts but my thoughts it try them and then add more power if needed. (I do not listen loud but I do like a good clean sound at low volume). Now that your post got me into doing a little research, I'm really interested in possibly trying this.

My current path is I am trying some Infinity Kappas (60.7cs in front and 62.7i in rear). So far I have the rear speakers in along with dynamat on the rear shelf (top and bottom). I am going to try to get to the fronts this weekend.

CaryTL

I have polk db6500 for front and pioneer 6.5" for rear, both of them fit the holes on the car.

raoacura

Did you add an amp to power them or are you running off factory power?

raoacura

I looked into this a little more while installing the Kappas this morning. I also took some pics but my profile says I cannot post attachments. I do not have the tweeters installed yet so no feedback on performance yet.

The door panel is designed to mate to the factory speaker. The Kappas are the same size so they fit OK. You may be able to use the larger CXS62 if you trim some of the door panel (what you cannot see from behind).

bTwix

If you're looking to keep things as stock as possible, don't want to go all out on a system, and are looking for the biggest bang for your buck here's what I'd do:

Stage 1: (good increase of sound levels/quality; retain DVD-A; minimize mods)
- Sound deaden your front doors and rear deck first.

You'll be suprised at the difference the deadening makes without investing in other aftermarket gear. If you treat things from a systems point of view, once you start replacing speakers, you need an amp, interfacing for the amp, wiring the amp, EQ if you're picky, etc. Deadening will improve what you have and create a solid foundation for any additional work you do. Deadening also cuts down on road noise, gives the doors a solid vault like sound when closing, and acts as a thermal insulator. You'll want to deaden the rear door too after you hear how nice the fronts sound when you close them.

For the value, sound deadening
- is relatively inexpensive
- is something you can do yourself (although it's labor intensive)
- can be done incrementally, could probably do all this in one day on the weekend, or could split it up over 3 days.
- if you're going to add new speakers/amps/etc it's something you'll need to do anyways.

Dynamat is the kleenex-brand butyl-based deadener, but raamaudio (http://www.raamaudio.com) is the same stuff at less than 1/2 the price. Raamaudio is 60mil vs the 80mil for dynamat. I used Dynamat in the TL and raamaudio in the wife's xb. Both are great and are the 1st thing I do in any new ride. You should also consider poly fill for the rear deck and closed cell foam on top of the dynamat.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...hlight=dynamat

Stage 2: (increase bass response, but keep it musical; retain DVD-A)
- Replace the factory subwoofer with an earthquake SWS 8" shallow mount subwoofer. These are great. I just installed the 6.5" SWS in the doors of my wife's xb in a bi-amp config (also to keep things stock looking). They sound great and put out some great sounding bass! My installer is putting the 8s in the doors of his new car. These subs have yet to reach the tipping point, but you're going to start seeing them alot pretty soon as they are so versatile and are being marketed to installers as easy factory replacements for rear deck subwoofers in high end cars.

- Power the new sub with an aftermarket amp with speaker level inputs to keep things simple (e.g. JL Audio 250/1). If you don't want to give up one side of your trunk you can always mount the amp upside down on the rear deck which will keep it out of the way. Technically, in an ideal world, you're not supposed to mount amps upside down due to heat, but I've had mine that way for several years without any issues (even at very high volume) and it keeps the trunk totally stock looking and uncluttered.

Note: When running the power for the sub make sure you get a gauge big enough for the additional amp you might add in stage 3.

- Sound deaden the entire trunk (this will help keep the bass sounding tight and musical, not to mention preventing your car from sounding like a rattling tin can when you have it cranked up). Don't forget a little deadener on the back of the license plate.

Stage 3: (increase quality of the front sound stage at higher volumes, lose DVD-A)
- Leave factory amp and existing rear speakers for approx 10% rear fill (focus on the front soundstage)
- Tap low level inputs off factory HU for fronts into a 4 channel amp mounted under the passenger seat and bi-amp your aftermarket 6.5 component speakers of choice.
- Optionally use existing speaker wire off factory amp for front woofers/tweets so you only have to run speaker wire from the amp under the passenger seat to the passenger kick panel.
- Tune the xovers built into your amps for your 3-way system (tweets/6.5/8).
- Adjust the center channel volume for best stereo sound (e.g. turn it all the way down)

Stage 4: (more bass)
- Custom molded 12" fiberglass sub enclosures in each side of the trunk and add additional sub amp mounted in trunk or under drivers seat, etc.

bTwix

Checkout this link too ...
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138923