Aftermarket Speakers???

Alright, I'll just keep it down. The tweeters did deliver very crisp highs, by the way. The song may have had distorted bass, but I couldn't tell because of just how much there was! I wasn't sure about that switch either, but I do think it helps the tweeters. Thanks!

Another thing to keep in mind... if you have the "concert II" sound system, it's designed for 8-9'ish Ohm speakers. Running the infiniti 4ohm speakers puts an increased 'strain' on the factory deck.

(I'm not sure if the Bose factory sound system uses the same impedance)


If you're hearing distortion, you're killing your drivers..

I'll disagree with the above. The OEM front speakers are 4 ohm nominal. The rears are 11 ohm. Any strain you put on the deck comes from turning up the volume up to the point of clipping (distortion).

You probably won't kill your new speakers from just playing them loud. It's the tweeters you have to worry about, but it takes a bit more power than the CS II head creates in order to hurt them.

the front speakers are a pair of 4ohms wired in series (midbass and tweet), showing the head unit an 8'ish ohm load. Replacing that with a component driver rated at 4 ohms decreases the damping factor that the head unit sees.

You see 11 on your factory rears? Weird.. mine showed 9.

You can quickly fry midbass driver coils by overloading them with 'soft' power. To hit 4/5s the volume ability on your factory deck seeing a decreased resistance is going to substantially increase distortion levels. Distortion is what kills speakers of any size...

sidenote...

don't get me wrong... I'm in the middle of my car stereo installation and I got my boston accoustics installed 2 nights ago and I wasn't able to get my eclipse head unit or amps in yet.

It's a VAST improvement over the factory speakers (especially getting the tweets up higher in the door. raising the stage made a huge improvement)... BUT I'm being very frugal with volume levels right now. I don't want to damage the new speakers. I'm not pushing them until I get the rest of the system installed.

The front components are not wired in series, they are wired parallel. But this does not create a 2 ohm load because the tweeters are filtered with a capacitor, so both speakers do not reproduce the same signal at the same time. 4 ohm load.

Do your OEM rears say 9 ohms on the back? Maybe you saw 9 ohms because you measured resistance with an ohmmeter. Resistance of speaker coils is always less than the nominal (spec) rating, which factors in reactance. Measured resistance of a 4 ohm speaker is about 3.2 ohms, an 8 ohm driver is about 6.4 ohms.

Frying a driver happens if you exceed its thermal power ratings, not because of distortion. If that were true, most electric guitar sounds (pure distortion) would blow your speakers. What happens is, people run their amp into clipping distortion (flat DC), which heats up the tweeters (most tweeters are rated at 10-20 watts) and burns them out. You cannot and will not harm a driver with distortion unless A) your head unit or amp is capable of exceeding the thermal power ratings of the driver, or B) the waveform of the signal causes the driver 's coil to move further than the mechanical limits of the driver.

I've blown speakers a few times (on purpose), but I've also tried and not been successful. One of the things I've found, contrary to myth, is that low-powered receivers do not magically blow speakers up. It's just another tactic invented by stereo salespersons to make the buyer think they need to purchase more power than they need.

lol.. I've reached my abilities to effectively explain my position on this.. there's a bit more information to be said from my point of view, but I'm at a loss of words on how to effectively explain what I'm trying to say.

I DO agree with 90% of what you're saying, as far as impedance ratings, thermally overloading a speaker and clipping an amplifier.

I also stand corrected on the front speakers. I honestly thought they 'roughly' matched the rear speakers and wiring in series was my explanation for that... to answer your question, no, 9(can't make ohms character) ohms was stamped on the magnet of my factory rears.

damn. could talk shop all day long, gotta run for now.
AA, I have fun bantering with ya!

It's all good. I do enjoy discussing. You could have something there with the 9 ohm thing. I always assumed they were 11 because someone told me so. I've never actually looked!

Agreed, enough audio talk... it's time to hit the bar. Happy hour awaits!

Half volume sounds fine, btw. Plently loud at that point, and still no distortion for a few notches of volume to come. Actually, I never had any distortion problems except for the factory speakers. The CSII head unit just figured that it's losing too much power and shut off for 15 seconds. Smart car, especially for a '95!

I just installed a replacement for the pass. side.
Pioneer
Got em at WalMart
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-MDgteQpnuuH/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=130TSG1341
No problem.

Thanks
Bert

Well, with the death of my Regal and it's decent stereo, I need to upgrade the Riv's speakers.

Before, I just went to a car audio shop, picked out what they said would sound pretty good, and just had them install everything. $800 later, I had a decent setup. But I was out $800. Damn.

So I want to go cheaper. I bet I can get a hell of a deal with the help of you guys. I've been messin' around with Crutchfield.com and eBay, and to be honest, the number of speakers out there is overwhelming. I want something that sounds good, and I don't want to overpay for it. Also, I want the speakers to be drop-in replacements.

I think I had MB Quart speakers up front and something else in the back, which I can't remember. I want to go with the 3-Way 6X9s and then up front I have no idea what I need.

So what brands are good? What should I stay away from? I want to do this right. I might upgrade later, with an amp so I get better sound quality, but I'm not going to replace the stock head unit because that always attracts a lot of unwanted attention.

I'm going to install the speakers myself, which is supposed to be easy, so I'm not worried about that.

I went with Infinity reference 3-way 6x9s in the rear and 5-1/4 components in the front. The rears will fit in the stock molded in brackets with a little gentle persuasion , just don't over do it. The front are a little more involved having seperate tweeters and crossovers, so experience is needed here as you must remove the door panels to mount the crossovers. I was able to remove the stock tweeters, drill out the plastc mount, and fit the Infinity tweeter in its place. I had to relieve the backside of the speaker grille a little to clear the new tweeter.
If you don't feel comfortable with that much work, just go for 2-way 5-1/4 speakers in the front.
My speakers sound excellent, even with the stock head unit. I plan to install a 4 channel amp very soon though to take advantage of what these speakers have to give. If you go the route of 3-ways in the rear and 2-ways in the front, then it shouldn't take you more than an hour to make the swap. I'd recommend picking up wiring adaptors to make the swap even less trouble. I went the cut and solder route. Total cost in 2006 was less than $400.
One bonus, you will also find out that even a 300 pound guy like me can comfortably sleep in the Rivs trunk

I also recommend infinity reference 3-ways 6x9 and 5.25" components ( i went with coaxial up front , but you're better off with components up front).

Infinity reference series are nice, as well as the Kappa series.

I put Boston Acoustic all around in my car and really enjoy the sound quality.

AMAZON.COM HAS THE LOWEST NEW-IN-BOX PRICES!!!! YOU WILL BE RIPPED OFF ON CRUTCHFIELD AND EBAY!!!!


Infinity Reference 5022i's for the front, they're 2-way 5 1/4" speakers. $70 after shipping.

Infinity Reference 9623i's for the back, they're 3-way 6x9's. These are a tight install, but just put the speakers up on the tabs and guide the long screws that come with the speakers in, tightening each one little by little, and it'll fit just fine. $118 after shipping.

Unless you want everyone else to hear your music, you don't even need a sub with this combo. They're very simple to install, too. The car's sound deadening keeps all the high quality sound inside your car, and no matter how loud you have it you can only hear it faintly from outside the car, in the front.

Buy these and the rear speakers will be even easier to install: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-lEDa7NWVJ3u/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=12071014&search=speaker+harness&tp=3097&tab=review

I paid a little more $$$ for mine as I was in a hurry and purchased them locally. I like Amazon.com and have never had a problem with their service. One of my stock rear speakers was blown when I bought the car and I replaced my speakers the next day. I was planning to add a powered sub, but no need with this combo. My only complaint is that the rears fade out at upper volume levels with the stock head unit, which is not an easy swap (due to lack of depth) on my '95. Once I get my amp in place, look out
Right now, I am taking a break from installing a Sony CD changer in the trunk. I will do a short write up on it later this month.

Thanks everyone!! I knew you guys would be a great help... I'm looking up all your suggestions as we speak!

Focal, 'nuff said. They're not cheap, but they're not cheap for a reason. I had them all around in my Jeep and 2 10" Kickers for bass. I now have Focals up front and Alpine Type R's 6x9's in the back. I'm looking to replace the rears with something better and I'm looking at Focals for that.

http://www.focal.tm.fr/

IIAN

Those little clips, should I get them?

Absolutely, it makes everything so much neater, easier, and you'll always be able to change to other speakers without clipping and soldering wires.

By the way, it's ilan for everyone who tries to ask me something. I don't like how the font on the internet makes lower case L's and upper case i's look exactly the same.

Heh, sorry ILAN.

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely get these clips!

Don't worry about it, I wasn't directing anything at you, and I hope I didn't come off sounding mad. I am a bit frusturated that all fonts that people use on networks make i's and L's look the same, especially with my school, but I can deal with it.

Glad to hear you're getting the clips. PM me if you need any help with the screws and stuff because the rest is pretty straightforward. It should only take 15 minutes to install both speakers now.

Actually, I didn't take anything personally. My last name has a silent "g" in it, and everyone screws it up... in other words, correcting every elementary teacher I've ever had, over and over and over...

Anyway. Hm.

So yes, clips... and I think I might go with your suggestion for speakers, they seem to be right in the price range that I was willing to pay.

Thanks again.

I paid 120 or so for all 4 shipped from crutchfield and they throw in the clips for free , I dont know how much they go for on amazon.com but i dont think i overpaid.

Tony - did you get those same Infinitiys that ILAN had?