Which After Market Speakers for the Front Doors fit in with no Mods?

[epic1400cs]

Hi masters. After having good education here in 3geez.com i had made big decision to buy nakamichi CD-400 for HU to play a CDs for my son(and for me).

Now, I am hunting speakers. What I want to buy is a pair of 6.5 inch, 6 inch or 5.25 inch front door speakers that fit into the basket with no cutting drilling. Infinity reference 652 was my first choice but after some search + homework, it seems that it needs some mod on the basket. Due to my time limitation, plus potential moisture issue in UK, I want to avoide that route.

As I am novice to car audio, I would be delighted if any of you suggest/recommend any name of the 2-way (no components to keep stock look) speaker fit into front door bolt on with no mods. It does't matter if you had 6.5" or 6" as original. The money I can spend is up to around $100. I don't use external amp and my nakamichi's max out put is 47w x4. Thanks in advance!

[TheWatcher]

epic1400cs,

Good luck finding any 6.5" speakers that will fit w/o cutting the speaker bracket. It's not only the depth of the stock speaker bracket, but the WIDTH that is restrictive on the speaker (not the overall width, but the shape of the plastic WITHIN the stock speaker). My 6.5" coaxials were the right depth, BUT the WIDTH of the narrow speaker bracket precluded installation w/o cutting the speaker bracket. Cutting the speaker bracket is easy to do, you just need a utility knife and a dremel. My advice is to cut as LITTLE of the speaker bracket as possible to get it to fit (the speaker bracket protects the speaker from water).

If you really want to keep the speaker bracket w/o cutting it, I would suggest just going to your local car audio store w/ the stock speaker bracket and see if any fit. Otherwise, 5.25" is your only option. 5.25" is fine if you are going with component speakers, but you're gonna have to cut the door panel/dash/a-pillar to install the tweeters, since there is no stock opening for a tweeter. And since you don't like cutting, you're probably not going to like getting component speakers. Plus, for component speakers you will have to get amps, crossovers (if they don't come with your speakers), sub-woofers, etc.

I'll just throw out a few suggestions for 6.5" speakers, but I have no idea if they will fit w/o cutting the stock speaker bracket, maybe the other board members can help. Infinity's Reference line (Infinity's low end line) has a shallow mount speakers, 6012si, depth should be fine. Blaupunkt has a new Thin series, THx652, depth should be fine. Blaupunkt's old Overdrive speaker line also has thin profile speakers, depth should be fine. My front speakers are discontinued, so no point in mentioning them.

Good luck on finding speakers.

Peace.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

First off, very nice choice on the deck, those are awesome.

IMO for a fairly shallow mounting speaker, look at the Hertz Energy line, seeing as you're in europe you should be able to find a dealer pretty easily. theyre awesome speakers for the money and have a fairly shallow mounting depth.

[Blaaz]

I don't think the Infinity will fit. I recently got a pair of Infinity 6002si (6.5 inch). They won't fit without mods. Since the tweeter is recessed, I can probably install them by shimming them in the existing brackets.

Now, I may get flamed for this, but Crutchfield.com will show you what should fit w/o mods. I think it was pretty limited. Some pioneer and kenwood 6.5" and others if you go with 5.25".

[88eyeguy]

the only speakers i've ever managed to fit in w/ no modification are Alpine 6.5". i tried the pioneers, it's a no-go in the front.

[epic1400cs]

Thanks for your input it really helps.

TheWatcher, as always, thanks for your info. I am wondering if I use baffle plate, like a ring made out of MDF, will the speaker clears the basket more easily?

Sir. Hashman, thanks for your suggestion about the Hertz Energy. It looks awsome. I did some homework and are very popular in Germany and continent. I don't know why but there aren't much dealers in UK. Wired...

Blaaz, the Crutchfield tip is cool. Their HP is very informative for me. Seems like if I dont want to mod the basket, the selection seems to be very narrow. Kenwood speaker seems to be nice. With infinity, shimming you are talking about is baffle plate? I have read that fitting the plate in between the speaker and the door will make the fitting stable and improbe sound so I might try it.

88eyeguy, I am also interested in Alpine. Are they good? Will you tell me the name of your Alpine speakers? - doesn't matter if it is old.

Here is another quesiton from novice, for those who cut the basket, what did you do with the water proof - I assume the rain/water comes in from the top of the inner door. Do you wrap up the back of he speaker with something or left as is?

[TheWatcher]

Thanks for your input it really helps.

TheWatcher, as always, thanks for your info. I am wondering if I use baffle plate, like a ring made out of MDF, will the speaker clears the basket more easily?

epic1400cs,

I don't know exactly what you mean by "baffle plate". But if you mean using MDF between the speaker and the speaker bracket to get the speaker to fit the speaker bracket, you will have another problem. The problem is the build up between the speaker and speaker bracket (w/ MDF "baffle plate") will cause the stock plastic cover to be raise vs. the rest of the door panel. IOW, the stock plastic cover that goes over the door speaker will NOT be flush with the door panel. So it will look cheap and totally ghetto, and it will be a constant eyesore whenever you get in the car.

Hope that helps.

Peace.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

^^ i dont know if the other trim models are different, but in my se-i i had pretty large baffles with my last speakers and there was no problem with fitting the factory grille back over top.

[epic1400cs]

epic1400cs,

I don't know exactly what you mean by "baffle plate". But if you mean using MDF between the speaker and the speaker bracket to get the speaker to fit the speaker bracket, you will have another problem. The problem is the build up between the speaker and speaker bracket (w/ MDF "baffle plate") will cause the stock plastic cover to be raise vs. the rest of the door panel. IOW, the stock plastic cover that goes over the door speaker will NOT be flush with the door panel. So it will look cheap and totally ghetto, and it will be a constant eyesore whenever you get in the car.

Hope that helps.

Peace.

Thanks. I confused the 'plate' with 'board', the name is "baffle board". As you can imagine, this is my novice reserach without backing up by practice but I notice many car audio lover make or buy this "baffle board" to fix their speaker securly to the door which makes the sound much 'better' by eliminating 'resonance' (am I correct?). I know it is side story from my main iterest using stock basket but I found it amusing. Below is the page of making of "baffle board" by someone. This guy made umbrella for the water proof issue - I don't know if it good enough, though. It is in Japanese but there are full of step by step pictures so no need to read it really.

http://tsubotsubochan.web.infoseek.c...eboard_fr.html

But as you suggesed, if there is no space for this, I need to think about something else.

[epic1400cs]

I have POS 120w 6.5" Pioneer 3-way's that fit in perfectly.

Wow, great! By the way, what is POS?(sorry for the silly question)

Today, the Nakamichi has arrived. It look like prestine Honda Genuine Parts. Very simple and discreet design that I like. I am sure it will fit in the dash very neicely.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

POS = piece of shit

And thats awesome, Nak decks rule, keep us updated.

[MrBen]

The upper end Pioneer 2 or 3 ways are pretty decent. The ones with the butyl surround and cost around 60-80 a pair. They fit right in, both front and back.

[epic1400cs]

Hashman, thanks for letting me know what the POS is! It was helpful as I couldn't find it in my dictionary.

Sir Ghetto, after your suggestion, I have look through Pioneer US HP. It seems that they are making quite few trade-in type speakers (called shallow basket) for some lazy people like me. Annoying thing is that their UK HP doesn't mention that and most of all, their product range is quite different. But seems like basic design are the same.

Mr cke, what is the name of your speaker? When you say "can barely hear them", why does that happen(I slightly feel I might be asking very silly question but please bare with me)? In your view, was it satisfying to chose 'trade-in' Pioneer speaker or better to go bigger ones (Infinity for instance) with some modifications? Don't worry I will not flame you but I just want to hear your opinion as user with experience.

[epic1400cs]

Today I have been fitting the unit into my car but the unit doesn't start up. I have triple checked the connection and the fuse but they are fine. As a test, I connect the 'Battery', 'Ground' and 'Accesorry' wires only but no luck. To make it sure, I connect 'Battery' and 'Ground' wires to the battery terminal of my car directly. When they are connected, I can hear small 'click' and motor sound from the unit but it doesn't start up by me pressing the power button. I also pressed the reset button but it stays silence.

Should I say this unit as faulty? Is it quite common among Nakamich(I have never experienced dead brand new unit among my last 8 units)? The pain is I have bought it as 'brand new' on ebay. If the seller refuses to accept return/repair, I might have to pay for it. Does any body know how much its gonna cost??

[88eyeguy]

Alpine SP-170A. I beleive they are rated at 200 watts, but the RMS on them is between 40-50 watts. When I had them in my Accord they produced great treble, and mid-level sound. Now that I have them in the rear of my 240, I get great hi-bass fill in addition to my subs. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with them.

[TheWatcher]

https://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=44330

Excerpt: "And get it from a reputable dealer, so you can get the warranty. So many times people just buy on ebay w/o the warranty. Then when the HU fails, they have no recourse but to buy another HU."

I should have posted that warning in this thread for you epic1400cs.

Peace.

[epic1400cs]

https://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=44330

Excerpt: "And get it from a reputable dealer, so you can get the warranty. So many times people just buy on ebay w/o the warranty. Then when the HU fails, they have no recourse but to buy another HU."

I should have posted that warning in this thread for you epic1400cs.

Peace.

Well, this is how people learn things.

[epic1400cs]

After the check by the seller, the Nakamichi was found to be ok and I installed it today again. It is now working wonderfully! The problem was that the colour coding of the cables and I mixed up the accessory cable with dimmer/light cable - really embarassing. I should have read the FAQ in here ealier. Anyway, thanks for your help and, wow, I am very happy with the sound this HU produce.

Now, for the speakers, I made compromise(?) and I have bought Infinity Reference 652i for front and 605cs Mid range as rear fill (am I correct?) on ebay. I looked up the Pioneer trade-in type speakers and tried them in some shops but I felt that Infinity is my preference. The basket thing, as watcher has suggested, I will cut the basket as little as possible. It is a bit more work but I expect nice sound from them. So, in the end the main objective of thread has disappeared , sorry guys and mods, but thank you for great input.