SCZ4

I'm very much an OEM man, which of the below gives the best improvement in sound quality? I've already bought an Alpine iDA-X305 head unit which should help iprove the fronts. Car is a UK spec 2005. Plan is to fit the head unit along with new rears. Then later upgrade the front speakers, fit an amp and maybe a small sub to fit under\behind the drivers seat. Lets see how stage one goes.

So these..



Or these..



With either solution, I assume I'll need to run new wires?

Ragnarok043

personally i wouldnt bother with rear speakers, i would put that money towards the budget for better front speakers.

Hugh9269

I left the stock rear speakers and just updgraded the fronts along with a new head unit. The Rears stock are not great, but they are a bit of a add while driving with the top down. you could add some s-pods as noted, but i think spending more money on the fronts are better deal.

darkknight1999

First of all to those that think adding rear speakers doesn't do much or they are not worth the time and money... your just uninformed... or you've never heard the graphic difference between having them and not having them.

SCZ4 - You say your and OEM man and then in the same sentence you talk about upgrading the speakers and HU. If youre going to do that then do NOT purchase the stock OEM speakers.. they suck. Just put a set in the rear panels behind the seats like this:




The sound difference between not having them and having them is night and day. I have Alpine SPX-133's in the rear panels... its an amazing difference.

SCZ4

Thanks for the information. When I said OEM, I meant OEM look, hence not wanting the S-Pods, but the seats would hide your solution which I like. I assume there is lots of room behind that panel, or did you need to get slimline speakers?

darkknight1999

To install those Alpine's required a trimming a little of the metal, not big deal, but they have speakers the use Neo magnets that are far smaller and will fit easier that have come on the market since I installed those Alpine's.

murderedrsx

I took a ballpeen hammer and rolled the lips on the bulkhead behind those panels. Made enough room. Its easy once you take the panels off you will see what you have to do. Took me about an hour to do that and cut the holes etc. Getting the holes right is the most difficult part. I used 5.25 infinity reference components there.

darkknight1999

Yeah it can be tricky... definitly a measure 3 times cut once type deal. I use a Dremel to grind them out to the right size. Little bit at a time.

How do you feel about the sound? Some people say you don't need them with nice enough fronts...(which if you had a hardtop would be true enough I guess) but IMHO it provides a much fuller sound...

murderedrsx

Considering i have a deh-80prs that auto eq and time aligns, it basically makes the soundstage end up in front of me no matter how many speakers i have. Sounds absolutely fantastic. What it effectively does is allows me to run the system at lower volumes with top down and still able to hear whereas i would be overworking my fronts trying to keep it loud enough.

murderedrsx

I used an airsaw to cut mine as well. Used a template from speaker cardboard to mark small after i eyeballed the alignment. Cut small with the airsaw then lined it up and trimmed where needed to line up the driver with the hole and panel.