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Component Speakers
These pictures where taken on June 23, 2003
There is just something about a component speaker system that make them sound so much better then a regular speaker. Could it be the huge crossover that they have? Could it be the two separate speakers? I personally think it is both, but the majority of the difference goes to the crossover.
I wanted to upgrade my speakers to high quality. I used to have Sony Xplōd speakers in my doors and they sounded great. Although they were the only kind of aftermarket speakers I could afford at the time. I started to look through magazines and online to find out which pair of front speakers I wanted. It all boiled down to the new Infinity Kappa Perfect 5.1 component system. They are pretty pricey but they are awesome speakers.
I checked the depth on Crutchfield to see if they would fit into my car, and according to them, they did. I purchased them. Once I got them I started to install them. When I pulled out the stock speakers I compared the two. Talk about a difference.
I began by choosing a place to install the tweeter. This is the most difficult part for me. It is because the tweeter's depth only allows you to place them in a location that will accompany that depth. I wanted to put them right in front of the door, next to the window. For a better visual, the driver's side tweeter would be right in front of the side mirror adjustment. When I started measuring I found out that it was not deep enough. I am glad I measured first because if I didn't, then I would have made a hole I didn't want. I started to look more and finally found a spot that would be perfect. If you feel the door where the speaker grooves are and move forward, you can feel more grooves. I didn't know what they were so I took the door apart. Sure enough, it looked like a place for a factory tweeter. All I needed now was a mount.
I decided to use something that was plastic, and I would use my Dremel tool to cut and shape it. I finally found the plastic I needed. It came off of a CD case. I cut it out and made the necessary holes and slits.
I began by screwing the tweeter mount on making sure not to screw to hard or the plastic could break or crack. After that was on I slid the wires through and twisted the tweeter in until it locked. It worked, it stayed on and was sturdy. I was impressed.
I then screwed the plastic into the factory tweeter location to see if it would work. It screwed in with ease. You can see in the last picture how it sits in the door.
Now that the hardest part was done, I started on the woofer and the crossovers. Installing the woofer would have been easy, I thought. Nope, it was too deep. Crutchfield measured wrong. There was about a quarter of an inch that I needed that the car didn't have. I needed spacers. I used nuts at first and they seemed to work fine. I left it at that and started on the crossover. The crossovers for the Perfect 5.1s are huge. The only place I found for them to fit was in front of the seatbelt laying vertical. It still was a tight fit when the door was put on.
When the door was back on the speakers sounded awesome. The tweeter and woofer were together making them sound perfect together. There was only one problem though. When I would turn it up I would hear a vibration that wasn't too good. I took the window switches off to see what the woofer was doing. Apparently the spacers were too much and the woofer was touching the inside of the door panel. It would vibrate against the door. I had to fix this fast. I went and purchased some washers so I could adjust how much space I wanted. That seemed to work even better. Now they do not touch the inner panel but come close. I am eventually going to add an amp to them and when that happens, the woofers will travel more then they are now. This means I am going to have to do some more modifying. But until then, they are perfect.