I need help upgrading speakers

[kinggrimwood]

I want to upgrade me speakers all around. My question is referring to the 4 inch door speakers. It is clearly plain and simple to replace them with newer 4 inch speakers.
My question is HOW MANY WATTS ARE THE DOOR SPEAKERS?
The most wattage i can find for a 4" speaker is 100W, and if the stock speakers are less than that, i'll consider it a worth while upgrade, but if the stock speakers are close to 100w, then i'll have to consider modifying it to a 5.25in speaker where i can find a lot more POWER!
please respond to this post if you know the answer.
Jeremiah

 

[WDoherty]

I just did the sound system in my 92 sc400 and installed MB Quart 4" in the back and one Infinity Kappa 4in. in the front and left the other working Nakamichi because to me it sounded better than the aftermarket speakers! The power rating is on the back of the speakers if you remove them (i can't remember offhand), but it is a low rating like 30 watts, but the magnets are bigger than even aftermarket 4in. speakers and they may be underated or rated in rms. I'm happy with the 4in. as i have them on a 125hz high pass on my pioneer deck, but if your running a stock stereo with no high pass and you are currently unhappy with the sound you may want to make the jump to 5 1/4", but it will be lots of work.

 

[kinggrimwood]

I have an aftermarket Pioneer Premier Stereo. I removed my front left to check for wattage, and it did not say, it really ticked me off because it took so long to do. I only had the stock pioneer system, if i had the Nak system i'm sure i'd be happy. But if you think the Nak speakers were down near 30w, i'm sure upgrading to newer 100w pioneers would be a lot better. Do you think it'll help it sound a lot better?
Also, i was thinking of going aftermarket with a quality sub, and amp. Most people i know only amplify their subwoofer, but i'm not huge on only loud thumping bass, i want the entire thing to be more equal with it's loudness. Are amplifiers designed to hook up to door speakers as well?
thanks,
Jeremiah

 

[WDoherty]

I am also running a pioneer premier deck and it has plenty of power for the door speakers. I am also running an external amp for the sub in the trunk and the sound balance it great. I didn't know you had the stock pioneer speakers, you'll probably want to upgrade, but basic pioneer 4in. don't handle that much rms power, you might want to go a little more high end. Even basic Infinity 4in. handle a lot more, and the kappa i installed has a stout surround and large magnet. Also, 4in. were not direct replacement in my car, thier was a small gap around the speakers so i had to silicone them in.

 

[kinggrimwood]

I was just looking at infinity speakers. I don't know a whole lot about the best brands, but i've always trusted pioneer. Any insight you have toward brands/upgrade ideas would be helpful. You know how it is when you go to the store, if you don't know anything they try and sell you the most expensive stuff (like because i own a lexus, i'm made of money and are going to spend thousands on my stereo). I'm more of a DIY guy, so i really don't want to deal with 5.25in speakers because it sounds like a pain in the butt.
thanks again,
Jeremiah

 

[kinggrimwood]

Also, what do you think of Alpine? They make a 4" that does 125w.

 

[WDoherty]

Alpine's should be good........go to the cruthfield website and you can select 4in. speakers and it will list them all with rms and max wattage and thier kinda high prices. From there you can select the speaker you want then get them online somewhere cheaper or locally or from them. For example, i bought my Infinity Kappa's on ebay for 50 plus 20 for shipping, so $70 total, not bad. I beleive they are 100 or more on crutchfield without shipping.

 

[LexARSE]

The power rating on the back of a speaker means absolutly nothing in terms of how good its going to sound or how loud its going to go. A speaker doesnt put out power. An amplifier does. The number on the back of a speaker is how much ower they can handle from an amplifier and on cheaper brands like pioneer is usually a max power not RMS. For example on after market CD players they might say 55W x 4 this means that the inbuilt amp on the hu, will put out 55w peak power which is more like 13Wrms.
And dont think you can over power your speakers. As long as its a clean signal, not a distorted one, and you sencible with the volume control you'll be right. Im my car i have over 600Wrms going just to my front speakers which are rated closer to 120-150Wrms.
For get about the speakes on the speakers and go and listen to as many brands as you can and make a decision on what sounds best to you. Not the salesman.

 

[stevechumo]

SC400 Rear Speakers

As all of you seem to have experiences on the stock speakers, could anyone please tell me what sizes are the rear stock speakers for a SC400? Are they 6x9" or...? My system is a Nakamichi with 10" sub. I'd like to purchase the speakers before I tear things apart. Thanks.

 

[reddlexus]

How do you add an amp?

I'm going to rip out my Nak headunit and stock amplifier and replace with an aftermarket system. If I use the harness from my car for the purposes of power, turn on wire, ground, and speakers.......how do I go about installing an amp to this speakers? Thanks!

 

[mkorsu]

As all of you seem to have experiences on the stock speakers, could anyone please tell me what sizes are the rear stock speakers for a SC400? Are they 6x9" or...? My system is a Nakamichi with 10" sub. I'd like to purchase the speakers before I tear things apart. Thanks.

I have replaced all the stock speakers in my SC400 with MB Quart so I can answer this for you. The rear's are 4.5". Very small. I replaced mine with 6.5" MB Quart full range speakers. Widening of the openings in the rear deck lid is required for this. The door speakers as everyone is saying ARE NOT 4"!!!! I made this exact mistake! I purchased 4" MB Quart's to "drop in" and they were too small. I believe the fronts are also 4.5". In order to get the 4inchers to fit, I needed to fab a sheetmetal adapter to accept the new speaker mounting locations.

 

[stevechumo]

Thanks. But I've finished replacing those speakers a long time ago. You're right that the front speakers aren't exactly 4". They might be 4.25" to be exact. But I don't see many aftermarket 4.25" laying around, so 4.5" is a good choice. For the rear, I use 5.25" so the original grills won't cover up the speakers if they're 6.5" or 6x9". Anyway, I just use them for midrange so I don't need any bass from them. I have a pair of 8" subs in the trunk.

 

[stevechumo]

I'm going to rip out my Nak headunit and stock amplifier and replace with an aftermarket system. If I use the harness from my car for the purposes of power, turn on wire, ground, and speakers.......how do I go about installing an amp to this speakers? Thanks!

Well, if you use an amp, then you might go with an aftermarket head unit. Then it'll be easier to connect. You might just connect the RCA jack from the head unit to the amp, and reroute all speaker wires to the new amp. That would be some sweating. You'll need to tear all the interior panels apart to do this.

 

[WDoherty]

Yeah, it sucks, but instead of that i just spliced into the speakers wires in the truck where the original speaker wires originate then spliced them into original wires coming from the head unit to the amp and connected those to an aftermarket head unit up front.

 

[mkorsu]

Thanks. But I've finished replacing those speakers a long time ago. You're right that the front speakers aren't exactly 4". They might be 4.25" to be exact. But I don't see many aftermarket 4.25" laying around, so 4.5" is a good choice. For the rear, I use 5.25" so the original grills won't cover up the speakers if they're 6.5" or 6x9". Anyway, I just use them for midrange so I don't need any bass from them. I have a pair of 8" subs in the trunk.

I'm surprised you said you couldn't use the stock speaker covers!! With my 6.5's, I had no problems! Yes, the cover technically doesn't cover the entire speaker, but since the grill is mounted to the decklid cover it made no difference. Do you have the new 5.25's raised above the decklid at all?

 

[reddlexus]

Yeah, it sucks, but instead of that i just spliced into the speakers wires in the truck where the original speaker wires originate then spliced them into original wires coming from the head unit to the amp and connected those to an aftermarket head unit up front.

Do you mean that all of the speaker wires oringinate in the trunk? Thanks.

 

[WDoherty]

Yep, they are the wires of larger diameter, smaller guage, which, IIRC are all on the same plug, except for the subwoofer wires, which are on a different plug. I used 4in. after market and sealed with silicone, they only receive 125hz and up from my head unit so they sound great! There is no need to start cutting away for larger speakers unless you use the stock headunit/amp where you have no control of crossovers.

 

[stevechumo]

I'm surprised you said you couldn't use the stock speaker covers!! With my 6.5's, I had no problems! Yes, the cover technically doesn't cover the entire speaker, but since the grill is mounted to the decklid cover it made no difference. Do you have the new 5.25's raised above the decklid at all?

I'm still using the stock covers. What I meant was to prevent the grille covers will be covering some of the 6 x 9" surfaces. For the rear, I only use a 5/8" MDF board as an adaptor for each 5.25". These 5.25" aren't raised above the deck lid at all. They sit flush inside the stock grille covers and I like them that way, although 6 x 9s" are good choice, too.

 

[mkorsu]

I'm still using the stock covers. What I meant was to prevent the grille covers will be covering some of the 6 x 9" surfaces. For the rear, I only use a 5/8" MDF board as an adaptor for each 5.25". These 5.25" aren't raised above the deck lid at all. They sit flush inside the stock grille covers and I like them that way, although 6 x 9s" are good choice, too.

Thanks for the explaination!!

 

[UZZ30-Québec]

I want to upgrade me speakers all around. My question is referring to the 4 inch door speakers. It is clearly plain and simple to replace them with newer 4 inch speakers.
My question is HOW MANY WATTS ARE THE DOOR SPEAKERS?
The most wattage i can find for a 4" speaker is 100W, and if the stock speakers are less than that, i'll consider it a worth while upgrade, but if the stock speakers are close to 100w, then i'll have to consider modifying it to a 5.25in speaker where i can find a lot more POWER!
please respond to this post if you know the answer.
Jeremiah

Watts are useless since they are vocal speakers.

The limit of you system will be the tweaters before the woofers.

Very high quality titanium tweeters is the way to go, or else, you will have a lot of bass and mid, but High range will sound like crap.