Custom 6x8 Component plate

[RichCresci]

I have an Orion Cobalt CO652 6.5" component system laying around. Would it be stupid of me the waste my time making a 6x8 plate for them so they'd fit in a door? I really don't know much about audio except that the more rms wattage, the louder. I was originally planning on doing a full system but I am now considering just putting in all new door speakers. Unless it'd be a total waste of time, I was also going to keep my stock base XLS head unit. My stock system is loud enough for me it just crackles past 3/4 volume and breaks up and I'd like to drive a little more bass through it. I don't want obnoxious volume or a complete overkill system, just good sound through my complete volume range. Thanks

Also, is the only difference between base and premium the factory sub?

 

[xplorer03]

a 6.5 inch speaker will handle power better than the 6x8 and its pretty easy to do

 

[RichCresci]

Any input on those speakers? Are they any good?

 

[Anime]

You can make a 6x8 plate for 6.5" components, but it can be tricky to get both a midrange and tweeter on the plate depending on the diameter of the midrange. You can usually trim some of the metal to let the tweeter sit close to the midrange so it fits.

Cobalt stuff is okay, but hooking those components up to the factory stereo might not give the most impressive results. You'd get the best sound replacing all 4 factory speakers with them, and using a 50W x 4 amplifier to push them.

For a quick and simple speaker upgrade, you can just go with Pioneer/Kenwood 2 or 3 way 6x8's. They have lower power handling and higher efficiency, so they work great with a factory stereo.

You CAN use the Cobalts with the factory stereo, but the results of using a dinky factory stereo/amp to push 50W speakers are usually underwhelming. my guess would be you'd want to eventually upgrade the amp, then usually a new receiver comes along with it.

If you absolutely don't want to upgrade anything but the speakers, I'd suggest going with the drop-in 6x8's.

 

[RichCresci]

You can make a 6x8 plate for 6.5" components, but it can be tricky to get both a midrange and tweeter on the plate depending on the diameter of the midrange. You can usually trim some of the metal to let the tweeter sit close to the midrange so it fits.

Cobalt stuff is okay, but hooking those components up to the factory stereo might not give the most impressive results. You'd get the best sound replacing all 4 factory speakers with them, and using a 50W x 4 amplifier to push them.

For a quick and simple speaker upgrade, you can just go with Pioneer/Kenwood 2 or 3 way 6x8's. They have lower power handling and higher efficiency, so they work great with a factory stereo.

You CAN use the Cobalts with the factory stereo, but the results of using a dinky factory stereo/amp to push 50W speakers are usually underwhelming. my guess would be you'd want to eventually upgrade the amp, then usually a new receiver comes along with it.

If you absolutely don't want to upgrade anything but the speakers, I'd suggest going with the drop-in 6x8's.

I do plan on upgrading the hu at some point, but I love the stock one. It's easy to use and does everything I need. I actually think I'll be adding two subs as well which for now are just going to get tapped into the rear speakers. If i were to get a 4x50 amp, How would I wire that in?


p.s. I really appreciate the help.

 

[Anime]

Two subs tapped into rear speakers? On a factory amp? You mean to power them or just to get an audio signal from the factory receiver since it doesn't have preouts?

Adding a sub to the wires a speaker is on is just going to change the ohm load, which will probably fry the amp.

Subwoofers demand enough power they must have their own connection. There ARE aftermaket amps that will do a "tri-mode" with a subwoofer + speakers using the same wires, but the amp is made for it and requires a certain configuration.

It's not worth the headache and hassle of replacing everything. Stick with one speaker for each set of wires.

If you're going to add subs, do it the right way and get their own amp. You can definitely use the rear speaker wires as the signal input into the amp for this.

I'd say your best bet might be powering everything off the 50x4 amp, powering the components in the front with two channels, and bridging the other two for a connection to one sub. Maybe later with an aftermarket receiver you can power four speakers with it and get a dedicated amp for the sub.

Of course, it's easier to just do it all at once, aftermarket receiver, 4 speakers, subs, and the amp/amps that will deliver the power needed.

 

[RichCresci]

yeah i meant just grab a signal from them, sorry about the confusion. And i do agree on doing everything at once, but funds are currently issue so this is all I can allow for. I have an amp and 2 10's that i can properly hook up by tapping into the rears. If i do do this will the on difference between doing it that way and by using a sub preout on an aftermarket receiver be sub control? Or will the sound quality be compromised as well?

 

[RichCresci]

What size speaker wire should I use to grab my signal from the doors, And is is it necessary to tap into both doors or should I just gab on side?

 

[Anime]

The big difference from using preouts and using speaker wires as a signal source is that receivers with preouts usually output a full-range signal (20-20,00Hz) to the preouts, making for a good 20-80Hz subwoofer signal, where the speakers (especially of factory radios) usually only see something like 35-18,000 Hz, if that. Of course, you also have almost no sub control if you're also using rear speakers since you can only fade the rears by fading the subs, and switching the balance left to right also affects the subs as well.

If your amp has both inputs and pass-through outputs for speaker connections (i.e. a two channel amp with 4 sets of speaker input connectors), that's probably as good as you can get for a budget sub/amp setup. Wire the speakers to the amp with the same gauge wire (or slightly larger) than factory. It's hard to go wrong picking up the 16-18 AWG speaker wire in a 50-100 ft. roll since most factory wire is the dinky 20-22 AWG wire or worse. Wire up the amp, connect the rear speakers if it's a pass-through deal, and be sure to use the amp's internal low-pass crossover, and slowly adjust the gain until it sounds loud enough but with no distortion.

If you've got a mono sub amp (or are bridging a 2 channel amp), you might be able to just use one set of speaker inputs. Some 2 channel amps require both sets of speaker inputs be connected even when the output is bridged, but you can always try each positive/negative speaker input connection with 2 wires to see if it works, even if the amp doesn't indicate two input terminals for bridged mode.