Car Speakers

rev_henry

I'm wanting to replace the stock front door speakers in my 1999 corsa B, to get a little more power and bass and generally improve sound quality.
I understand I need autoleads adaptor rings, so I can then fit 13 or 16.5/17cm speakers in the space. However I'm rather confused by the myriad of different figures quoted by manufacturers and have little idea what to get. Looking to spend £35 tops ish (Is this reasonable?). Also I know there could be an issue with the windows being able to roll down, if the new speakers are too deep. Can someone suggest a starting place as to what I should get?

I'm fairly technically minded (albeit a bit confused by this!) so I'll fit them myself if its easy enough (Is it?).

goldspanners

in some of my cars ive upgraded the oem speakers, but ive never used the autoleads adaptor plates, i would rather spend the extra money on better speakers that fit the exsisting holes. jbl used to do a range of oem sizes.
dont buy on price alone, you might find they are no better than the ones you are taking out.
get the exsisitng speakers out and measure them, then go to halfords or motorworld find a good spec and compare the sizes to your originals.
i fitted jbl speakers to the front doors of my old ford capri,they fitted straight into the original speaker holes, they were tiny,but such a good sound from them,and i got them cheap as they werent a commonly used size.

steveo3002

£35 prob isnt going to be amazingly better

try www.talkaudio.co.uk , they'l know what fits your car and works well

rev_henry

Thanks people, I shall follow up your suggestions.

callistris

To improve sound quality, you need to upgrade the source first i.e the headunit;)

Just simply upgrading the oem speakers may or may not improve the quality if the signal going to those speakers is pants in the first place.

Sound deadening matting applied to the whole of the internal metal of the door will also help improve quality and bass, but this involves alot of work:rolleyes:

The best way to improve bass is fit a subwoofer:cool:

hewhoisnotintheknow

goto a scrappy and find something that fits there, you can remove all sorts of speakers from various cars and try fitting them to another corsa there, much cheaper!

goldspanners

callistris wrote: »

To improve sound quality, you need to upgrade the source first i.e the headunit;)

i would agree with this, a new head unit ( with a good output) will be a breath of fresh air to your sound system.
ive got a set of jbl 6x9's in my parcel shelf wired up to an external amp, the sound from this set up is really good,the bass is good enough to not need a sub taking up space in the boot.

goldspanners

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

goto a scrappy and find something that fits there, you can remove all sorts of speakers from various cars and try fitting them to another corsa there, much cheaper!

its another good idea, maybe have a look for lexus' or similar high spec cars.

mikey72

I think speakers are the first thing to change, otherwise everything will always sound bad. Look for the size of the magnet on the back of the speaker.
If you can't hear them first, as a general rule, the bigger the diameter of the magnet, the better the sound.

rednose66

RE Going to scrappys....... my alfa uses cheap paper coned 6.5 inch drivers in the rear shelf. Some scrappys want as much as £80 for these speakers which are really dire. I bought a set of decent JBL co-axials for half of that and they sound ten times better.

I would be very wary about buying speakers from a scrappy. Find the right size for your car and buy off one of the bigger audio dealers on eBay. JBL and Infinity in particular are cheap and offer decent sound quality.

rednose66

mikey72 wrote: »

I think speakers are the first thing to change, otherwise everything will always sound bad. Look for the size of the magnet on the back of the speaker.
If you can't hear them first, as a general rule, the bigger the diameter of the magnet, the better the sound.

Magnet size isnt necessarily an indicator of sound quality. I went on a banger rally a few weeks ago in an old Volvo I got a pair of cheap 6X9's with the biggest magnets out - they still sound like cheap speakers though - worse than the much smaller 6.5 inch drivers that I ended up putting in. Other factors influence sound quality as much - design, the type of cone, cone material, crossover components, amoutn of air that the speaker needs etc. Unless you are wanting an audiophile type system - and you wont find one at £35 - stick to a good branded speaker. Ask around online for owners of similar speakers or owners of your car and find out what they recommend.