Hi guys

I was having a look earlier today at taking the trim off the front doors to get at the speakers, with a view to sizing up them up for replacement.

After taking the torx-type screws out from round the edges and finding the philips one just behind the electric windows switch, the door still seemed to be pretty well held on somewhere in the middle - I assume there's another screw somewhere in the area of the handle - and I couldn't lift it to free it around the window opening.

Can anyone advise me on what else I need to do to get the door trim off?

Also does anyone know off hand what size the speakers are in the fronr, and if there are any particular issues with the space available for fitting replacements? I was looking at using something out of the Alpine range out of preference.

Many thanks in advance!

Hi guys

I was having a look earlier today at taking the trim off the front doors to get at the speakers' date=' with a view to sizing up them up for replacement.

After taking the torx-type screws out from round the edges and finding the philips one just behind the electric windows switch, the door still seemed to be pretty well held on somewhere in the middle - I assume there's another screw somewhere in the area of the handle - and I couldn't lift it to free it around the window opening.

Can anyone advise me on what else I need to do to get the door trim off?

Also does anyone know off hand what size the speakers are in the fronr, and if there are any particular issues with the space available for fitting replacements? I was looking at using something out of the Alpine range out of preference.

Many thanks in advance![/quote']

Hi Andy,

You don't need to take the whole door trim off to get at the speaker.

Just put a flat-blade screw driver around the speaker cover and gently prise off the grill.

You can unscrew the speaker from there.

The speakers are 17cm components.

Space is quite tight back there, though i'm not sure exactly what the speaker mounting depth is...

You don't need to remove the door panels.

The speaker grilles unclip allowing you to fit your replacements

17cm speakers fit in there , but there isn't much depth , so find some shallow ones.

If you want to take the doors off this might help

Once you have the speaker grills off and the original speakers out you will notice a kind of plastic/rubber membrane behind them. I believe many people (including myself) have removed the area directly behind the speakers as it caused a disturbing amount of reasonance ( its there to keep water out supposedly) . I changed my OEM speakers for a set of cheapy Alpine full range ( disconnecting the OEM tweeter at the same time) and the differance was quite noticable even with the stock head unit.

Cheers guys, I had the grille off yesterday to get a look

After I'd got them off I was still thinking about getting the whole door trim off so I could run the cable for the tweeters back into the car and mount them in the trim on the A-pillar, but I've decided against cutting big holes in the trim just yet and opted for an Alpine custom fit co-axial instead of the component set, so that should make life a bit easier.

I've gone for the SXE-1725S (I think that's the code off the top of my head), which I think is the same depth as the original speakers and should fit behind the grilles.

They're coming into the shop on Wednesday so I'll let you know how it goes.

Andy,

Any news on the quality of the sound from the alpine speakers?

Yes mate and it's good news, I had to wait until Saturday to actually do the job but the Alpine speakers fitted in no problems into the original mountings and the overall sound quality is much better with improved mid-range and bass to give a more rounded sound than the original speakers.

Obviously, the standard connectors are not compatible with the new speakers so I had I had to crimp some spade-type connectors on to some small lengths of cable (salvaged from my previous car's ISO-to-harness adapter) and then spliced them together so I now have both the spade connectors and the standard ones should I ever want to swap them back.

I also cut a cross in the plastic lining just behind the speakers, which I have seen advised on this site a couple of times and disconnected the standard tweeters.

There was one thing I did notice when I was checking the cable colours on the loom that was a little confusing.

IIRC, The cables that run to the front left speakers are red (+ve) and red/brown (-ve), with brown/white and blue/white (I forget which is which) running to the right, but this does not agree with the colour coding on the harness adapter. The cabling for the left speakers connects to the terminals that are, according to the adapter, for the right speakers, and vice-versa.

Exactly what is going on there I don't know but a quick check check using the balance soon showed that all appeared to be working correctly.

One last thing that I just wanted somebody to confirm for me was which way around the terminals on the new speaker should be connected, as they were not marked. I have wired it up as +ve for the big connector and -ve for the small one, on the very precarious logic that the one carrying the positive load would be the bigger 'more robust' connector, if you will. Can anyone tall me if that is the case or do I need to swap them over again?

As long as you are consistent left to right thats half the battle.

To test if they are in phase with the rears then fade to just the front speakers and slowly being the rears up.

You should hear the bass increase and not decrease.

If it does sound worse with the rears on then you have the fronts out of phase with the rear and should swap your wires on the front speakers.

I'll give that a try later on. Thanks!

Andy

Can you please confirm what size speakers you used (model No. confirmation as well)

I have seen posts on here confirming that speakers are 16cm and yet this post seems to say 17cm :confused: don't want to buy and find they don't fit.

Would also like to hear what watts :confused: people recommend. I know you get what you pay for, but don't want to pay over the odds, but don't what to buy cheap and find speakers are crap either!!

The speakers that I have fitted are the Alpine SXE-1725S - 16cm custom fit co-axial, with a fitting depth of approximately 47mm which is the same as the factory fit speakers, and they fit perfectly using the factory mounting points.

They are rated at 25w RMS which differs from the higher value quoted in the Alpine 2004 catalogue, although it matches the specs on Car Audio Direct and some other websites - if I'd have known this I would have probably gone for some higher rated speakers as my HU is rated at 50w but I've had them turned up as high as I'm likely to ever want them and not noticed any distortion. If you're looking for a particularly loud install than you may want to opt for something with higher handling.

Although I wouldn't want to say for certain, there is a little more room around the edges and some room between the front of the speaker and the door grille, so I imagine that you could probably get some slightly bigger/deeper speakers in with a little creative effort on the mounting side of things.

I will try and get some pictures up for you so you can see the speaker in situ.

If I can remember to check when I get home in the morning I will post which Alpines I used (along with dimensions) .

I used 1725S for the front, rated at 40W RMS, 16.5 CM diameter and 4.7cm deep, and for the rear's 1325S rated at 35W RMS, 13.0CM diameter and 4.85cm deep.