P5 door speaker components

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 1, 2003

• #1

Hello,

I just installed my front door component speakers and since I took a lot of pictures of the process, I thought sharing them would be a nice idea for some of you out there.

This is not meant to be THE WAY to do it but simply how I did the job, and you're sooo welcome to agree, criticize, add your own stuff or simply forget about it since anyway you already have a set installed a while ago...

So lets see, first this is the OEM speakers, a set of dual-cone drivers with a DIN input power level of 25 Watts. They don't sound that bad as long as you don't open your windows and the stock deck power output is enough for you... (then maybe you should be reading about forced induction or something like it!).

Now this is how it will look after you unscrew the speakers. Wait! don't throw 'em just yet...!

What I did was to take the plastic rain guards off the OEM drivers so I could use them later. You'd be surprised at how much water slips between the window's glass and the rubber molding in your doors !!! The speaker on the left still has the rain guard glued to it.

Now this is where you get your $4.20 piece of MDF from Home Depot, a Jig saw, use the OEM speakers as a template, and draw what it will be your new 6.5-inch speaker plates. For the speaker mounting hole you'll need the template provided with your new drivers, and those are the first holes you want to do, the wood will be easier to handle that way.

OK, now on the left you can see one of the custom made (sounds cool ah? ) wood speaker-mounting plates, with the rain guard already attached to it.

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2003

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 1, 2003

• #2

Continued...

Now this is a side-view of a regular rain guard (below) and a modified rain guard (above) already mounted in the speaker plate. What I did was to cut the back of the guard just around an inch, to avoit contact with the window when it's lowered all the way down... The speaker magnet and structure would still be completely covered.

Then I did install my speaker plates with rain guards BEHIND the metal door surface... Yes!, since the hole's shape it's oval, you can pass through the hole and attach the plate from behind. (Obviously the screws went from the outside )

Now here's a close up of behind the speaker plate, and you'll be able to see how close the rain guard is to the window, but never touches it!. In this shot the window's rolled all the way down.

Now a picture of the speaker before being secured to the wood plate.

And this is the speaker secured to the door / plate. Notice the black silicone sealant I did apply around the speaker edges, and where the wood plate meets the metal, just to further control air leaks (not saying it's possible to control absolutely all the air leaks in a car door...)

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2003

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 1, 2003

• #3

Continues...

On to the crossovers, this is the back of the door panel where I found a spot to secure them, avoiding chance of water getting into it as much as possible (it's not my obsession... , it's just here in Miami rains a lot!). The image shows how I scratched the plastic's smooth finish with a small tile (san paper will do) so the silicone would stick to it much better (I used silicone sticks and a pistol).

Now there's the crossover secured to the back of my door panels. I cannot say if there's enough space to do the same in the rear doors since I don't have plans yet for those...

Now here comes the tweeters : This is how they're attached to the door; you'll need to be careful when pulling this plastic "triangles" not to break 'em. Only the 2 metal clips hold them in place...

And this would be the OEM 25 Watt tweeter still in place, behind the black metal grille insert in that plastic triangle :

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2003

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 1, 2003

• #4

4th stage and going...

OK,

Now comes something I know some will not like... I sort of KILL MY NEW TWEETERS... but in reality, I needed to trim a big plastic ring they have surrounding the metal-mesh grille, to be able to fit 'em in the small OEM locations.
This is how they looked at this stage :

Then this is the image for the new tweeter already secured in place with a silicone pistol. It's important to trim the plastic around the place where the OEM tweeter was, since you'll need to put the new tweeter really close to the grille, so the 2 metal clips that secure in place the entire piece can have enough space to lock-in.

This is a comparison between the new and OEM tweeters installed in their plastic bases...

Now this is a picture of the door panel with the crossover already wired & secured in place, and the midrange speaker also screwed into the plate adapter in the door. You'll be able to notice one of the cables has a knot since I needed to differentiate it as the crossover's input

 

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 1, 2003

• #5

Finally...

This is inside the driver's door panel, looking through the hole where the power windows' switches go.

As you may be able to check, the crossover is not even close to the metal surface inside the door panel, so I didn't expected any vibrations, and I haven't noticed any so far...
Now I don't know later since I also plan to add some external power amps, but hopefully everything will hold-up quite tight...

Just as an additional measure to minimize the possibility of vibrations, I "pressured" the crossover's wiring against the door metal with the little yellow foam attached to the plastic door panel, so there's no slack in the wiring.

Finally this is the door panel once again installed and providing a smooth stock look to outsiders...

I hope you had enjoyed the pictures and comments...

I thought it was just a way to give something in return for so many good things I have learned here...

And of course because I love my baby !!!(laserp5)

Later,
FEDE.

 

A

aschoen

Member

• Mar 19, 2003

• #6

I'm planning on doing this exact thing this weekend. Your post is going to make it sooo easy, thanks. Got a question though... Is there a stock x-over in there somewhere? or do the wires to the stock tweet come from the stock stereo?

Ant

 

1

1sty

Member

Contributor

:

2006 Toyota Tundra DC

• Mar 19, 2003

• #7

The only thing i would do different is make the adapter larger so you can atach it to the fron and reuse the factory screws so no extra holes, but as long as you coat the back of the screws with some cualk then it really doesn't matter much.

Good Work Andres, Enjoy!

 

A

aschoen

Member

• Mar 19, 2003

• #8

why coat the screws with caulk ?

 

C

chuyler1

goes to eleven

:

2013 CX-9

• Mar 19, 2003

• #9

So how do they sound? Do you get a decent sound stage with the tweeters being so far from the drivers?

 

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 19, 2003

• #10

Thanks everyone...!

Hi Aschoen,

There wasn't any stock crossover inside the doors; the OEM tweeters are wired in parallel to the stock full-range speakers, and filtered with a capacitor right in the tweeter + connection ( I believe it was something like 2microF or something like it...).

The thing is, there's just a speaker wire going to the tweeters, and another (different color) going to the full-ranges, so they're paralleled somewhere in between but I couldn't tell with so many wires bundled together (you know for power windows, mirrors, etc.).

So since at the beginning I was going to use the OEM deck power, I simply connected the wire feeding the stock full ranges to the crossover input, then its outputs to the new mid and tweeter.
You'll be able to check in the OEM deck's harness, front/rear speaker wires are exactly the same ones you'll find connected to the full-range speakers, so I just decided later to run my amplifier speaker outputs to these wires behind the stock deck. I really didn't feel like routing speaker wires through the door jams

Later and good luck this weekend,
FEDE.

 

1

1sty

Member

Contributor

:

2006 Toyota Tundra DC

• Mar 19, 2003

• #11

aschoen said:

why coat the screws with caulk ?

Click to expand...

you coat the screw and where it punched threw the metal to prevent rusting out.

 

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 19, 2003

• #12

Good idea 1st MP3...

I would've like to thought about that...!

Maybe next time I go inside the fron doors again I will put some caulk not just in the screws, but also in the little scratches I made to the sheet metal when taking out the stock plastic screw threads.

Later,
FEDE.

 

R

REMillers

The Cheat Says.....

Contributor

:

Mazda, RX8

• Mar 19, 2003

• #13

Good job mate, but if everyone keeps doing these write ups then I'm going to have nothing to give back to the board. hehe

oh well.

Soon I'll be doing the same thing

 

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 19, 2003

• #14

About the Sound Q...

Hi Chuyler1,

Regarding the sound, they're OK, unfortunately, their sensitivity is quite low compared to regular coaxials or other components, so when I listened to them for the first time with my stock deck's power, their output was really lower than that of the OEM speaker set!.

Besides, the stock full-range speakers had more mid-bass extension due to the bigger cones, so I kinda thought it would have been better to look out for 6x8" components, so installation would have been easier, and in the end I could've kept a little better midbass extension...

Once I installed the amps last weekend, some vibrations showed-up at high power levels and at certain frequencies in the midbass range, depending on music content, but I kinda expected this since the car door panels are mostly plastic.
The thing is like most issues in life... compromises!; I have a truly stock look, but there are sound Q issues.

Still, I know me quite well so very probably in the mid term I will be switching to a kick panel set-up which can improve midbass sounds to something tighter, even my midrange component drivers aren't that good for mid-bass in small sealed boxes...

Regarding the sound stage with tweeters up in the stock locations, it's quite a bit confusing!. It seems like a high sound stage, but then you can tell some mid and midbass sounds are clearly coming from below. Also images aren't focused, and even I played a little with the head unit's Balance control, there's not a clear focused lead singer nowhere in the dash. Mostly I could tell it would be a good set up for most people, but don't expect it to satisfy competitors or individuals used to home Hi-Fi.

I can't provide much more details about freq. cancellations or other Hi-Fi issues since I still need to give a good listen to it, and I'm also looking for a Phoenix Gold EQ215ix in ebay to take care of my freq. division between the front speaker set and the sub, and for Equalizing the sound a little of course...

Hope this will illustrate a little.
Later,
FEDE.

 

Last edited: Mar 19, 2003

A

Andres

Member

:

RX8 40th Anniversary Ed.

• Mar 19, 2003

• #15

Cool REMillers,

Now you can give back with something different like the kick panels... HE HE HE

Later,
FEDE.

 

R

REMillers

The Cheat Says.....

Contributor

:

Mazda, RX8

• Mar 19, 2003

• #16

Hmm thats not a bad idea...I tired making kick panels for my old Saturn. Hmmmm

*runs off to ponder*

 

M

Mp5978

Member

:

Acura TSX

• Dec 12, 2003

• #17

Just posting so i can refer to it later.

 

P

Poseur

Member

Contributor

:

03.5 Lsr Blue P5

• Dec 13, 2003

• #18

dude, you can always bookmark a thread. One thing to note about this setup is that therea are no provisions for mounting a tweeter anywhere but the stock sail panel. I'd reccomend trying to get one on the plate if you don't want to cut holes in your door panels (like me) If you wait long enough (it will be at least a couple months) I'll post what I come up with to get 6.5's and tweets back there. I know some on here have done it, but noone's got good pics yet. It'll likely take a bit of cutting definately of plastic, and likely of a touch of door metal. But it will be entirely stock appearing for thieves eyes as well as to anyone you may wish to sell the car to later on. Hell I'll likely even keep it to where it can be returned to stock fairly easily.

Anyway, please just bookmark. We don't all need to see year-old posts.

 

B

byohndspeed

Member

Contributor

• Dec 17, 2003

• #19

i would just put the 6.5 and the tweeters in the kicks..

 

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R

Rider69

Member

:

2009 Mazda 6s Grand Touring

• Dec 17, 2003

• #20

OK...I will say it since no one else has...Sony? Why would you choose Sony? There are so many other brands out there which would sound much better.

Anyway, good job on the install and write up.