Do the Alpine Type-S SPS171A speakers require home made spacers in order to fit the front door panel since the oem speakers are thicker?

 

First off, all speakers require spacers, They don't have to be homemade - those Alpine S's come with some that might work. Metra makes some cheap ones too. The wooden ones actually sound better, though.

Do you get the idea about the mating spacers matching up to the R of the door panel?

 

The homemade spacers you made looks great. I just wanted to know if the spacers that shipped with the Alpines fit the TSX front doors without a problem.

 

Nope, not without a problem. I trimmed a bit of the metal (very, very little), as per instructions, as it didn't seem to sit correctly prior to cutting. The Alpine/Honda adapter has plastic clips whereas the OEM adapter has metal clips. The metal clips compress the adapter to the door better, the plastic ones snap into place, but it's not exactly snug, there is a little play, so I just screwed it down. And, for whatever reason the door panel would not reattach until trimmed some of the plastic behind the speaker grill in the door panel. I can't say exactly what it was hitting against (the adapter obviously, but where?) as you can't see behind the panel while trying to attach the panel. None of this was really a big deal in my opinion and it sounds good to me, though I'm neither expert nor audiophile, but I can tell you it's not just a simple swap. Also, you would need to shave a little of the plastic in the dash if you were to flush mount the tweeters using the factory location, ~5 min. with a razor blade, you'd never see it, just need to widen the hole.

 

Thanks for your input. I'm thinking about purchasing a pair of Alpines but I'm not a woodcutting expert. I'm ok with a modding the panel like you described.

Are you happy with your purchase? How would you rate the speaks?

I have already replaced my OEM tweets with JL's without any modifications. The bracket that the tweets came with fits perfectly.

 

You actually want to cut both the metal of the door AND the inside of the door panel, but you're not a "woodcutting expert"?

I'm not a woodcutting expert, but I'd a lot rather learn to use a $30 jigsaw from Home Depot than cut both metal and plastic of my new car.

 

Point taken. But as Spoon stated "I trimmed a bit of the metal (very, very little), as per instructions" seems like a minor modification that could be easliy done compared to going to Home Depot, purchasing wood and renting a jigsaw and performing the work myself.

 

Just as long as you state it as personal preference, I would say you're accurate. But I have to tell you that once you make up your mind to be open to it instead of being resistant to it, it's easier to cut 3/4" plywood from a 2x2 piece that Home Depot sells for $5 than it is to cut metal.

Where would you rather make a mistake? On the $5 piece of plywood (which can support like 4 mistakes : ) or with the door?

 

You are right ! Maybe I should get my lasy ass out to Home Depot after I buy the fronts and see about purchasing some plywood. I wonder if they will do the cutting for me if I give them the specs.