I got my first Vette (red 1997 C5) over the weekend and drove it from L.A. to Omaha. What a blast! I had an opportunity to really appreciate how bad the Bose stereo can be. I want to keep the head unit and 12-disc CD changer but swap out the speakers. BUT, I don't want to damage / destroy any interior trim pieces.

I thought it would be possible to discretely run speaker wire to a pair of 1" tweeters mounted on the dash by the A-pillars. Has anyone done this? Is there a special tweeter or small enclosure commercially available?

Thanks!

 

I think people have mounted 1/2" or 3/4" tweeters in the small vents at the top of the dash. Those sizes tend to play a bit higher in the audio spectrum than your typical "component" tweeter (say 5k hz and up vs 3 or 3.5k and up for the normal tweeter). Look into CDT's stagefront or other tweeter options.

Secondly with the Blose system you really do not have the option to just change out speakers. You are faced with either replacing the entire system including head unit, keeping the stock crap and paying stupid prices for replacements, or adding a subwoofer and amp via a GM connector whose name escapes me atm. Reason that you cannot just swap speakers is that the speakers in the front are individually amplified at a strange ohm rating (think the 8" is like .5 ohms or something lame) but I think that the rear speakers are a normal 4ohm speaker that is run off of head unit power. Tons of threads here on added sub/amps or complete system redo's. I think a popular swap also is replacing the door "twiddlers" with some aftermarket 3.5's.

c5 audio faq sticky at the top has tons of info as well.

G'luck
Fej

 

i think the most common 'simple solutioni' upgrade is to replace the 'twiddlers' with infinity 3.5" coaxials.