C5 Coupe.
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Let me say first that I think the Bose system in every car I've ever heard sucks big time. Secondly, my "other" car is pushing about $4000 of Memphis Audio and if I want to go deaf, I can sit in it and turn the volume half way up.

In my classy Corvette, I don't want people to hear me coming down the street. I'm 44 and way past that phase in my life. The only thing I listen to is smooth jazz and easy listening (Pat Metheny Group, James Taylor, Boney James, soft rock and slow R&B). Although the head unit that comes stock in a C5 is garbage, I don't want to change it until I find a installer that can do a install so clean, you would think it came from the factory that way.

Haven't found one yet in my area that impressed me enough to let wash my car, much less chomp on the wiring.

So here's what I want to do. Change the speakers in their stock locations. Cost is not a factor. I just want the cleanest, best sound that I can get with the stipulations stated above. Again, I know the head unit is crap, but that is what I want to use for now. I make all of my own CD's so I can compensate for its short comings with the software I use.

My question to you sound gods is this: what speakers would you replace the front and rear Bose speakers with? Also, is there anything that must be done to make the stock head unit work with these speakers you suggest? Thanks for your suggestions.

 

There's not much hope of that, so you may as well bite the bullet sooner rather than later.

I listen to a lot of the same types of music (Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Eagles, JT, George Benson, lots of classical and Rippingtons-style jazz, etc.). For very good sound with that sort of music, Focal Polyglass components work very well right out of the box. They have a somewhat laid-back-sounding upper mid that tolerates a wide range of listening tastes. They're not perfect (nothing is), but I've found them to be among the most forgiving of bad recordings.

IMO, Polks have too much top-end sizzle and a muddied midrange, Focal Kevlar components have a breakup mode in the upper mid that sounds great at first but eventually becomes fatiguing and Infinity is known for an exaggerated unnatural midbass and depressed lower treble. Kale will likely suggest Dynaudios (I have no experience, but have read good and bad). Money is not the object with speakers. Quality components are. You can spend a ton of money and come away with crap. Don't listen to hype.

One of the C5 guys will have to address the matter of running them off the factory radio.

My 2c.

 

You can use the PAC adapter to keep your stock headunit and get low level outputs for your amps. Ive done it in a few diff cars before for people who wanted to keep the stock headunit and it worked great. Obviouslly you dont have the tuneability or SQ of an aftermarket radio but it works none the less

 

I forgot to include a small bit of detail. I am not going to use amp, at least not at first. There is no deviation in what I want to do. Keep in mind that I will gut the entire thing and do it right later but right now, all I want to do is change the speakers and be done with it. That's it. I know that this is not the best way to go, but for now that's all I want to do.

I know I'm limiting what can be done right now which will obviously limit what you can suggest, but for now this is all I want to do. Again, money is not an issue now nor will it be later when I gut the system and do it right. I just want the best sound for this situation.

 

Honestly just do it at once. You cant really run components off of HU power especially the stock HU's power. You are really limiting yourself at this stage by not doing an amp

 

Believe me, I understand what you're saying. However, if I can't just change out the speakers and be done with it for now, then I just can't. If that is what you're saying then that's okay. But if it can be done then I want to do it. Again, I understand how much I am limiting myself and I understand that I should "do it right" the first time. However, I'm not interested in doing it right at this time, just improving the sound for now. This is a temporary fix and if the sound improves, even just a little, that's all I want.

 

forget the no amp idea. You need an amp if you dont want the system to sound like ****. I'd rather have the Bose system than a low powered aftermarket one. In summary - You won't improve the sound by what you want to do right now. you need to go all out.

 

You do realize that this is a TEMPORARY fix? I don't plan on this being the final installation. I just want to replace the crappy sounding Bose speakers with some after market speakers that will work with the factory radio. That's all. Now when I do decide to do this the right way, I'll be seriously taking all of your opinions into consideration. I trust the info that everyone is offering as I have been out of the car stereo business since 1987. A lot has changed since then.

Again, I just want to change the stock speakers with some better ones. That is the ONLY thing I want to do at this time. Can this be done or is there something about the stock radio that will not allow me to do this?

Again, I appreciate all of your inputs but you're trying to steer me into doing it the right way, instead of just doing this temporary fix that I'm trying to achieve. I'll eventually do the right way, but right now I just want different speakers if that, and only that, will improve the sound, even a little.

Any takers?

 

It will sound worse than your bose system. that's why we are steering you away from it. You can do the 3.5" speaker mod (read faq) but ive heard mixed reviews.

 

Now that's the info I was looking for. If I can't do it then fine, I'll suffer through the Bose setup. I'm not trying to do any mods that will change the factory look of the car until I do "the real deal". One more question, are all double-din units pretty much the same size?

I'll just drive my other ride when I want to hear some crystal clear heart pounding easy listening.

 

double din is pretty standard. Go for single din unless you want navigation. The factory stereo is din 1.5 (din and a half)

You can stuff amps in the rear compartment hidden out of way.

 

Cool, thanks for the info. I do plan on going double din if I can get one done in the wood grain look.

 

Morel makes some really nice speakers...too $$$ for me , but they sound really good.


check them out

Tim

 

Not looking to pick a fight or rain on anyone's parade, but Morel mids have the reputation of having intolerably-high distortion in high-order harmonics. I basically threw away the pair I bought a few years back. Unmanageable distortion measurements.

 

what did it sound like

local morel dealer ditched morel recently... kinda evasive as to why.

 

Morel is low value. What I mean by that is that they're expensive with little to show for that expense. By contrast, Seas is exceptional value (relatively inexpensive and good performers).

I never used them (MW114S, I believe they were) in a completed system, but their HD measurements were among the worst I've encountered at any price level. Other drivers with similar HD issues manifested this distortion as a "ringing" sound that never seemed to go away. High-order HD is about the most intolerable type of distortion you can get in a driver. Even a novice can pick up on it. In the case of the Morel mids, it's been attributed to the huge voice coil. The spider has to be quite small and very stiff to center the cone. In the search for massive power-handling, Morel chose to compromise somewhere else.

 

What do you think of Dyns then?

 

As I said in a couple other threads, I've no personal experience, but I've read good and bad.

When I got serious with this stuff, there was only room for one esoteric driver company (too expensive) and I found early on I liked the Focals, so Dynaudio never had a shot with me (not theirt fault, just what I ran across first). Since Dynaudio abandoned the DIY market, there's not much chance to prove one way or the other without buying a set.

 

Yeah.. Im not sure if I like Dynaudio or Focal more... If I had to stick with 6.5s I think I'd use my 6ws over the mw165s.

Too bad focal doesn't make an 8" speaker that plays cleanly to ~3.5khz

 

No one does, if only because there are physical limitations that won't allow it. Even 2khz is ambitious, and in most cases unrealistic. Around 1 khz is the practical limit for most decent-quality 8s. Most good 6.5" mids start to struggle at 1-2khz, and they're almost all falling apart by 4khz.

Think about those numbers for a moment and you'll see why most car speakers (boxed systems) are pretty lousy.