I don't care if this topic gets merged with the other one, but I need help! Before I make the purchase, I need to know if anyone has either of these speakers:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000MPFJPY/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ARKIXFDF7XJLA&v=glance

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000MPDSBQ/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ARKIXFDF7XJLA&v=glance

installed in their Riv, do they have the same clip connector as the factory speakers, or do they have to be soldered and wired and such? I think I'll save myself $80 by bolting in and connecting the 5-1/4", and 6"x9" speakers on my own if it's simple, as in only if they have the same connection as the factory ones do. Then I'll have GeekSquad hook up the amp to all four. Thanks!

i just twisted the speaker wire together and put a cap on it and it sounds PERFECT i love it

yeah what he said... ^^^

oh and they wont sound that great until you get a better head unit. but when you do... they sound amazing.

Well i thought the quallity of the stock unit was very lacking... and i like the look of my unit...theyre usually only ugly if you go cheap...

The speakers will not have the factory connectors included. They will likely come with "quick disconnect" style connectors like these:



Cut the wires to the stock speakers at the terminals. Splice those wires and crimp on the supplied connectors. This way you can connect the factory connector to your new speaker, then plug into the existing wiring.

Quote:

i just twisted the speaker wire together and put a cap on it and it sounds PERFECT i love it

By "cap" I think you mean wire nut. It may sound perfect right now, but if it ever comes apart, it could be bad. I've had wire nuts come undone before. They are reliable with thicker, solid electrical wires, but not with thin, stranded speaker wires. For car stereo, use one of the following methods:

BEST: twist and solder wires, insulate with heat-shrink tubing.

GOOD: use crimp-style connectors with proper crimp tool.

OK: twist wires and wrap with electrical tape.

The stock head is lacking power, but with an amp it's sound quality can be very good, especially if you feed the signal through an EQ.

See i never heard potential in the stock unit... i have a very refined ear as ive been playing guitar for six years and was in a classical guitar ensemble for 2 and every CD sounded like it was burned imo.... the eq probably would help out a lot but i already had the sony unit... It sounds better than my dads bose system IMO although he still has more volume and bass but thats what subs and amps are for.... soon to come hopefully.

You can tell the difference between burned CDs and pressed ones?

Yeah... theres almost a fuzziness or muddiness to burned cds. that is less present in pressed ones... i also can usually hear the difference between higher budget recordings and lower ones... took years of playing music though before my ear became aware of it.. like most people cant hear the difference between guitars either but i can usually pick what kind of guitar it is by listening to it....

I too can hear the difference in high vs. low budget recordings, and if I knew what I was looking for, I think I could tell different types of guitars. I can also tell the difference between head units. But I cannot tell a pressed CD from a burned one. I cannot even tell uncompressed format from an MP3 converted at high (192kbps) bit rate. I tried listening to several pairs of tracks with Sony MDR-V headphones in a quiet room, trying to identify differences, but could not.

If your ears are as sensitive as you say, I think an aftermarket head could make a difference to you. I don't think most others will appreciate the difference, though. I also think that once you turn the car on and start rolling down the road, it will be difficult for even your trained ears to hear the subtle nuances that come from an aftermarket head, or a pressed CD, etc.

What is your basis for thinking the stock head is a weak link in the CSII sound system?

So I have to cut them here, marked in red, and then connect the new speaker wires to that? Is it the same deal for the 5-1/4"s?





Thanks a lot for your help, and when I do get the speakers you guys may have just saved me $80 in installation fees!

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the front speakers. The 6x9"s are different because the connector is mounted to the speaker itself. For the rears, you'd be better off just cutting the wires ahead of the connectors, where the insulation is, and crimping the quick-disconnect type connectors on. You won't use stock connectors, but that's ok.

Well After replacing the Speakers with aftermarket ones it still had that muddiness... The sony has much clearer highs IMO and the fact that it didnt want to play more than one song at a time and sometimes none at all led me to believe it wasn't all that great of a unit.
It is true.. unless you can really tell the difference theres no reason to buy an aftermarket unit... but i thought it was a huge difference...and it could be since the stock unit was underpowered it wasn't able to deliver higher volume sound clearly...but yeah buy what sounds good to you . I've actually heard people say they can't tell this difference in aftermarket head units ( not 50 dollar ones like 90 and up ones)
As for the burned CD thing i do notice that they also get considerably less volume , but again it could have something to do with the way certain cd players read them or the quality of downloaded music from limewire but even the itunes songs don't seem as a good as pressed disks when burned.. And for the record i thoroughly believe in supporting the artists

Let me pull a little John Madden here:

Ok, so you take the scissors and cut the wire there, then you take the speaker and undo the bolts, take it out, then you can use a sledgehammer or something there cuz hey, it's just an old speaker! So then you go and take the new speaker, don't smash that one up, bolt it in, then you use the quick connector piece and put the wires together, I don't know if it's positive or negative. I'm a football guy, not a math nerd, huh-hey!! So then you, then you go wire it up, then the 757 comes in for a landing, and you move your defense up there, the other team's gonna run around a bit, and there you go!