door speakers

[ctx]

I have 3 questions, so would a knowledgeable person please enlighten me.

1. How do I know if I have a ford premium amp to my door speakers,its a 99 xlt and Ive already replaced the HU with an alpine (it only had a single harness into the back of the stock deck+back control harness,which isnt in use now)?

2 will 6x9's fit in an explorer door

3. Im worried that if I upgrade my door speakers they will sound like poo, because someone on here said they would, will I have this problem?, and if I will, how do I bypass the factory amp

thanx for the help guys -David

 

[jimbo74]

6x9s will not fit in the door without some major amount of modification, they are too deep and or too large for the openning.... upgrading the speakers with any good speaker will sound a lot better than stock....

 

[ctx]

alright question 2 has been answered, how do I tell if I have the factory amp?and if i do will it still sound much better with aftermarket speakers for clarity,distortion,and loudness

 

[White97Jimmy]

if you have a factory amp, I believe it is in the rear cargo area for 99's. Try looking in the drivers side cargo panel.

 

[izackary]

I have a '99. The factory amp is all in the headunit unless you have a Mach, in which case there's an external sub amp near the sub on the PASSENGER side, replacing the cargo pocket. I had the premium level stereo, and believe me, the speakers are nothing special. All the electronics on the driver's side in front of the jack are irrelavent to your stereo. In any case you shouldn't have any kind of factory amp or amp bypass you'll have to worry about to replace your headunit. The factory rectangular harness you adapted to your alpine is your regular speakers, power, dimmer lead, etc. A square harness would go to a CD changer in the console and also to the rear controls on a ford "premium" (non-mach) system. I'm pretty sure the Mach models had a 3rd small harness to go to the sub amp in the rear.

 

[awd5.0]

what size speakers are the ones in the front doors? rear doors? would 5x7's fit?

thanks

 

[briwayjones]

5x7s or 6x8s can fit in all four doors

 

[aldive]

Your door speakers are 6 x 8 and yes 5 x 7 will fit also.

 

[awd5.0]

i haven't bought new speakers yet, but would it be more benificial to just go ahead and buy 6x9's insted of 5x7's ? i was under the impression that my 2000 XLT had 5x7's .. was i wrong?

 

[aldive]

i haven't bought new speakers yet, but would it be more benificial to just go ahead and buy 6x9's insted of 5x7's ? i was under the impression that my 2000 XLT had 5x7's .. was i wrong?

6 x 9 will not fit w/o modification. Stock size is 6 x 8,

 

[badazz89lx]

i was told by 3 shops that 5X7 is factory size in my 2000......

 

[DeathsArrow]

5x7 and 6x8 both fit because of the way that the mounts are manufactured.

Another option is 5-1/4" components, which will work with a conversion plate.

 

[aldive]

i was told by 3 shops that 5X7 is factory size in my 2000......

The actual factory size is 6 x 8 but 5 x 7 will directly fit.

 

[badazz89lx]

The actual factory size is 6 x 8 but 5 x 7 will directly fit.

and i guess since the more common of the 2 sizes available would be 5X7 they tried to steer me in that direction over trying to find a 6X8......

 

[izackary]

they're the same thing. i guess technically the 5x7's have 6 screw holes including one on each end, and the 6x8 just has the 4? they're redundant as your doors don't have holes to match the ends anyways. just to match the 6x8 holes. i'd try and find both just to expand my options just a little more....but more speakers are labeled a 5x7 than a 6x8.

 

[expo5.0]

6.5" will fit with a plate as well

some higher end 5.25s/6.5s will also need a 1/2"-3/4" spacer so that the speaker clears the window when it is rolled down.

if you have a jig saw i'd go with round speakers and make your own "plates/spacers" to mount them. actually even if you don't- i think you should go buy a 9.99 one at walmart and go that route.

you can order a harness that is plug and play to bypass the factory amp- or you can do it yourself by soldering. a long time ago i did a write-up on how to do it the soldering way. the hardest part of the whole deal is taking the plastic off to get to the amp (juts take your time on it and be careful not to scratch the plastic around the clips while you pull them out)


some people do not like the sound of aftermarket speakers with otherwise stock systems because most do not have the same perceived 'bass' reproduction. the stock ones are well designed to make a 'basslike' distortion at lower frequencies which the aftermarket ones will not. however, your music will be sooooo much cleaner and will play much louder with the aftermarket ones. if you really miss the bass you will want to add a small sub (even a lower end 8" makes more noise than most give them credit for) to fill in the lower frequencies a bit.

 

[izackary]

Drew, you're a Clarion fan...what do you think about that little sub pack thing they make? Think it could help for what it is?

 

[expo5.0]

yes, but its not cost effective really.

its almost ridiculously cheap to get a decent 8" and a amp that will power it well enough to outdo it.

i don't want ot hijack thread- but for example i have a 8" mtx 6000 for sale that i'd take like $25 plus shipping for and could be powered for less than 100 easily. of course the box can be a sticking point (if one doesn't want to give up cargo space), but they aren't all that expensive either.

somebody needs to start manufacturing different boxes for that spare tire area. i actually drew up plans for one yesterday that was gonna get at least 1.2 cubic feet and fit a 10". it would mount in the stock location with the plastic completely removed and then the plastic would slide back into position over it (you would have to dremel those "tabs" the stock grille mounts to off). of course it would then stick out about 4" further than flush (but not any further than the wheel well does anyways)

 

[DeathsArrow]

some people do not like the sound of aftermarket speakers with otherwise stock systems because most do not have the same perceived 'bass' reproduction. the stock ones are well designed to make a 'basslike' distortion at lower frequencies which the aftermarket ones will not. however, your music will be sooooo much cleaner and will play much louder with the aftermarket ones. if you really miss the bass you will want to add a small sub (even a lower end 8" makes more noise than most give them credit for) to fill in the lower frequencies a bit.

Some people have no idea what their music is supposed to sound like. Of course their factory car stereo is better than anything they have in their house. I've also heard enough to know that some people think a ton of bass sounds good regardless of what the rest of the sound range sounds like.

 

[awd5.0]

does anyone know the factory frequency range of my stock speakers? the aftermarket speakers i'm looking at have a range of 30-28000 Hz. If factory bass is better, the low end of the factory range must be below 30 Hz.