R33 Speaker options

[ROB_GTR]

i am going to replace the standard speakers on my R33 GTR, i have looked at all the posts in the search but did not give enough info.....

i dont want to be modifying or going overboard, just a straight swap if possible.......

i have possible plans to install an AMP & Sub at a later date if i want better sound etc but for now i will stick with swapping the stock speakers.

will i need to change the speaker wires or is the stock wiring good enough??

any suggestions on size & make for best overall sound?

as far as i can see 6.5" all round seems to be the best replacement?

thanks, Rob

[liner33]

i just done my front speakers over the last couple of days.

i devided to go with the best available. i chose hertz hsk 165, 6 1/2 inch.
2 way system, i.e speaker acts as woofer and seperate tweeter, crossover unit.
125w rms, 250w peak.

i took off the door card, and removed speaker and plastic retainer bracket. also removed the plastic sheet (access to outer skin).

then i got a load of sound deadening and covered around 80% of the outer skin, if you dont do this the movement of the skin will cancel out the sound, and you will get poor sound. deadening the door makes the door act like a bass box.

then i screwed managed to mount the new speakers in original holes, use the spacer that comes with speakers. it will sit flush on the original plastic housing, but as long as you leave off the mesh that comes with the speakers, the door card will fit back perfectly, with original mesh in place.

i place tweeters on the corner of the doors, original wires were used, to feed the crossfeed box, which i placed in the door card compartment, it has a tweeter sw. on it. then ran the feed back to the woofer speakers and the other feed to the tweeter. job done.

also sprayed all plastic parts on the doors. they look amazing now!

sound is out of this world, and thats at volume 10, the headunit goes to 60. you cant even sit in th ecar at 60... and i have not installed a amp yet!!!!!

coming in a few weeks.....

hope that helps.

[markyboy.1967]

If your planning on upgrading later o ten i would say to start off the best you can and build on it. 6.5" are fine in the fronts but get rid of the crap speaker mounts and use some MDF to mount them. Change the wiring while your at it and then leave alone until your adding an amp and sub at a later date.No point in not doing it correctly for the sake of about 2hrs of work on the mdf baffles.

[liner33]

i didnt modify the speaker housing, screwed the new speakers right in, just used a spacer to stand off the speaker as far out as i could so did not have to modify the original grill either.

and trust me u dont need any more sound coming from the front....i spent 300 on the system, spend the cash and the less speakers u need.

quality not quantity.

all wiring coiled in door awaiting amp, currently running the system off the headunit...

the quality is 20 times better, cant wait to hook up the amp, headunit 50w, thats only 18 rms, running them at the moment...


they did cost a pretty penny though.

[gtr-loz]

i will probably go for the infinity kappa components when i do mine as they are reasonably cheap and are meant to be quite good

[markyboy.1967]

The Infinity range are reasonable for the money. Why not post your budget and see what others can come up wth.

Liner33-- the mdf base really makes a difference to the overal sound and if done correctly you can aim the speaker to lift the sound up towards ear level.I built mine to soundoff standards and dont regret anything i did--well except paying over £150 for each rca cable which in my opinion was a waste.

[liner33]

sounds interesting, im all for making the most of the sound.

any pics of the base?

[ROB_GTR]

some good info here guys!!

i dont have a limit on price but i dont want to be spending a fortune all the same......

i have had decent set up's before without going mad....

i have currently got a Alpine MP3 head unit and i have had this quite some time and it was part of a good audio set up i had in my celica a few years back, so i will be sticking with this....

i want nice "crisp" sound with reasonable bass and a reasonable ammount of volume.

the speaker range i have looked at so far is:

Focal 4x 6.5" good write ups but a tad expensive
Alpine 4x 6.5" always had good experience with alpine
Juice 4x 6.5" same as Focal really??

and thought about Infinity...

i have read up that some people are using 6" and not 6.5"???

other possible problems could occur with the poor battery life on my car..... if i dont use it for a week the battery is near on flat

i was thinking of just swapping the 4 standard speakers for upgraded ones but i know i will still want more bass as you never get good bass without a sub........(i never have anyway)

[markyboy.1967]

What type of music do you listen to? If i had to pick one out of those for my type of music i would look at the Focal ranges.Alpine are decent mid range speakers but do lack in various places within certain tonal ranges.

Always decide on what music you listen to and what you want from the front end.For me i wanted a laid back but capable front end so i went for the Genesis A16-Audiofile range, these are very highly regarded in the under £300 range ( they were when i bought them ). Your type of music will give us an idea on what type of sub to get.

[ROB_GTR]

i listen to allsorts mate.......

i last had a 12" JBL sub, 4 channel Kenwood amp, 2 Alpine 6/9's in rear and standard fronts in a celica GT.... this was a fairly basic set up but it strangly sounded fantastic!!

i listen to Dance, Hip-Hop, R & B, Trance, Dub step, chart tunes and anything else really, the list is massive.

im not great with installing but i can get by, so i would probably take it somewhere for a shop to do it even though i hate leaving it places.....

another thing i forgot to ask is: i have a fm expander thingy installed but the radio reception is that pathetic i dont bother trying to listen to it.... any ideas on improvement?

[JapFreak786]

well i went for 2 sets of Alpine Type-R components from and back in my GS300,all amp'd up,and they sound amazing!

i would also say,make some MDF mounts for the doors',screwing into original might be ok,but it's better that way IMO,and also get some sound deadening in there,i got some dynamat and it makes a real difference!

[Mr Gee]

I used Infinity Reference 6.5" components in the front doors, mounted on custom made 1/4" MDF boards. Fully dynamated the doors and ran new thicker OF speaker wires to a small Rockford 50x50 watt amp hidden under the drivers seat to drive them.
Tweeters are mounted flush fit, high up on the doors just where the side mirrors are.

Made an overall dramatic improvement to the front stage -

All depends on how seriously you take your ICE - you can achieve a very good quality sound for not a big outlay and without going OTT.

G

[ROB_GTR]

thanks for all the ideas and advice

i have spoken to a incar entertainment shop near me where i had previous work done and came up with this:

Front Focal 6.5" components
Rear 6x9" Focal
with sound deadening in the doors and rear shelf (if poss) also think they may need to strengthen the rear shelf....

so fronts --------- £150 and upwards
rears ---------- £120 and upwards
soundproofing --£25 per roll (1 required)
fitting --------- £120 ish

i said i was after a "crisp" sounding set up and with "nice bass" without using a sub & amp set up if possible.

so i recon i will probably do all this myself as it seems a tad expensive for fitting. i know they do a very good job of it though and i will loose my rag doing it.

i have never used sound deadening and MDF for housing speakers etc..... can anyone explain or show some piccys of how to shape & fit using MDF?

being a skyline and 13 years old it has its own fair ammount of annoying rattles etc so i dont want to make them worse by cranking up the volume and making more rattles etc...

[gtr-loz]

reference sound deadening how much do you need for the doors etc, dynamat is really quite expensive on ebay there is some cheap stuff but im unsure how much to get

[Mr Gee]

ROB_GTR

If they are charging 120 quid to fit front speakers into custom made MDF baffle boards, tweeters, rear speakers, run new wiring and to configure - then I would say that this is a bargain price for the amount of work involved.

G