- :
- 16 CX-5 Tour'ngAWD
Car: 2016 CX-5 Touring, 6-speaker, non-Bose, w/o NAV.
Who doesn't like a good dash speaker installation story...
Here is my experience in swapping out the factory dash speaker (a tweeter) for some 3.5" 2-way speakers. Let's hope my choice of speaker was a good one, even if it wasn't in line with my original choice.
My apologies for the length. I know others have covered dash speaker installs. I'm just trying to further community knowledge.
My original plan was to install the Infinity REF-3022cfx; however, I waited too long and it seems this speaker will be discontinued soon, at least that is the way it seems on Crutchfield.com (and I missed all the good sales on them too). Oh well... I'm sure this speaker is still available from other online retailers, but I don't have experience with them and I don't like ordering electronic stuff from Amazon. My preference; ymmv.
After looking at, and sampling, many different 3.5" speakers (at Crutchfield), I finally decided on the Kicker 43DSC3504. Why you ask?
a. The main reason was its price ($35/pair). I didn't need to go crazy expensive on this as the car is Mrs. GoFrogs' daily and she's not the audiophile type.
b. The replacements had to "fit" in the factory locations.
c. A low RMS spec was desired since the speaker was going to run off of radio power. NOTE: The Kicker 46CSC35 wasn*t available at that time of purchase, but at the time of this post, it is...go figure.
The Kicker 43DSC35 specs are as follows (from the Kicker brochure):
- Power handling: 20W RMS (80W peak) -- [Crutchfield listed RMS as 6-15W...hmmmm, strange]
- Sensitivity: 88dB (yes, I know there are other speakers with higher sensitivity)
- Freq response: 80-20k
- Bottom mount depth: 1-5/8" or 41mm
- Tweeter: " balanced polyether imide [PEI] dome
Again, I chose the Kicker 43DSC3504 mostly on price, then features (the low RMS rating), then brand name. I looked for 3.5s with a silk dome tweeter as I've read the silk would be more smooth/warm and less harsh; however, there aren't many 3.5s out there fitting my criteria. The Kicker 44KSC35 has a silk dome, but looks like it needs more continuous power (rated up to 50W RMS) to perform optimally.
Pictures attached are as follows:
- the information I used to make my determination on the RMS value (why I chose the Kicker DSC line)
- installation tools used (03, 04)
- new speaker and associated wire with high-pass filter (12)
Who doesn't like a good dash speaker installation story...
Here is my experience in swapping out the factory dash speaker (a tweeter) for some 3.5" 2-way speakers. Let's hope my choice of speaker was a good one, even if it wasn't in line with my original choice.
My apologies for the length. I know others have covered dash speaker installs. I'm just trying to further community knowledge.
My original plan was to install the Infinity REF-3022cfx; however, I waited too long and it seems this speaker will be discontinued soon, at least that is the way it seems on Crutchfield.com (and I missed all the good sales on them too). Oh well... I'm sure this speaker is still available from other online retailers, but I don't have experience with them and I don't like ordering electronic stuff from Amazon. My preference; ymmv.
After looking at, and sampling, many different 3.5" speakers (at Crutchfield), I finally decided on the Kicker 43DSC3504. Why you ask?
a. The main reason was its price ($35/pair). I didn't need to go crazy expensive on this as the car is Mrs. GoFrogs' daily and she's not the audiophile type.
b. The replacements had to "fit" in the factory locations.
c. A low RMS spec was desired since the speaker was going to run off of radio power. NOTE: The Kicker 46CSC35 wasn*t available at that time of purchase, but at the time of this post, it is...go figure.
The Kicker 43DSC35 specs are as follows (from the Kicker brochure):
- Power handling: 20W RMS (80W peak) -- [Crutchfield listed RMS as 6-15W...hmmmm, strange]
- Sensitivity: 88dB (yes, I know there are other speakers with higher sensitivity)
- Freq response: 80-20k
- Bottom mount depth: 1-5/8" or 41mm
- Tweeter: " balanced polyether imide [PEI] dome
Again, I chose the Kicker 43DSC3504 mostly on price, then features (the low RMS rating), then brand name. I looked for 3.5s with a silk dome tweeter as I've read the silk would be more smooth/warm and less harsh; however, there aren't many 3.5s out there fitting my criteria. The Kicker 44KSC35 has a silk dome, but looks like it needs more continuous power (rated up to 50W RMS) to perform optimally.
Pictures attached are as follows:
- the information I used to make my determination on the RMS value (why I chose the Kicker DSC line)
- installation tools used (03, 04)
- new speaker and associated wire with high-pass filter (12)
Attachments
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