The dash speakers will overpower the kick panel speakers simply because they are so much closer to the listener. You would have to ensure that you had far more power to the kick panel speakers and you had the ability to turn down the dash speakers at will. Otherwise don't bother with the kicks because you won't hear them.

 

I suggest coaxial speakers. Components are nice but they make things more complicated. Besides, set up properly a coax speaker can sound just as good. Having the tweeter built in will be your best bet.

The Polk speakers I suggest to everyone is a great place to start. They have a low rating, and they fit. This means no cutting and you don't have to have an amp.

If you want higher power, you'll need an amp, and you'll probably have to cut the lips on the body mount pocket.

I can give you a few suggestions for speakers but it depends on your goals, the design of the system, and your budget.

Keep the highs and mids in your kick panels, leave the dash speakers out, and like I said, I don't like using rear speakers.

 

Can this not be managed simply by the FADE function - dash top pair to kick panel pair (similar to front and rear speaker fade)?

 

Yes, in effect you can do that, but highs bouncing off the glass gets very harsh and is too bright for a lot of people.

 

Glass is a very hard surface. When sound is bounced off a hard surface it makes the sound very bright and shrill sounding. In effect, the sound you are hearing is not the same sound the speaker is making. It's the reason acoustical rooms/theaters use fabric to dampen the sounds to prevent reflective sounds.

 

OK, I'll disconnect a wire on each of the top speakers and disable them as DB suggested above. I was lucky with pulling the upper dash pad first time around. Hopefully that luck will continue.

 

Can't you disconnect the speakers at the head unit too? The loose wire won't hurt anything with it being attached to the speaker under the dash.

 

Thinking this through...the passenger side is easy: just remove the map panel and the speaker is there. On the driver's side I can probably just lift the pad a couple of inches and pull the wire. (I'm assuming that pulling one wire per speaker will disable them. I would like to leave the wires "up there" hanging by the remaining one on each side. I'll shrink-wrap the pulled wire ends.)

 

I am in the process of doing this as well. I do have a couple of questions for the all mighty. What coaxial set are you running and what do you think of running a componant set with the mid in the kick and a custom mount for the tweater in the 4X6 area in the dash. I have no rpoblem with cutting the bird cage and I actuallu think I am going to glass in the kicks.

 

Crutchfield Canada is fast! I received the Polk speakers today. But they do not have the rigid spacer/adapter bracket shown by Steve. According to the literature that bracket does not come with the slim (DB651s) model but does with the DB651. So I'll have to fab or find a ring to reinforce the inner surface of the kick panel unless the Dynamat is adequate to the task but I doubt that. Always something!

 

I actually have the tweeters of my component set mounted in the dash where the factory speakers were, and woofers in the kicks.

Now, here's the issue. I also have a competition level head unit that allows me to tune certain things like time delay and it's been very hard to tune it that way.

I'm moving my tweeters to the window crank locations in the doors because even with the tuning available to me it's still just too bright and harsh.

Just goes to show, results get choppy when sound is bounced off glass. Coaxials are best in C3s because you don't ave to mess with crossovers or tweeters.

 

Ok well since you have already tried my Idea and found it non feesable what maderate price 6.5 coaxial do yo recomend I have high end boston 6X9 in the rear that are powered by a JL Audio 300/4 I have 2 Pioneer 10" subs in a sealed box powered by a JL 500/1 and a Pioneer mid level deck.

 

paul, how did you mount the 4x6s to the kick panels? im going to give that a shot with mine before i scrap them.

they sound god awful in the dash right now. theyre so bright right now that theyre almost ear piercing when you turn them up.

 

I don't understand why everyone here is having problems with the 4x6's in their dash. Paul I remember you had those Pioneer 6x9s in the back and I believe the 4x6s in the front in your 79 and you seemed to be very pleased with it. In fact you used to recommend that to others on the forum. After doing some research and from the help of a few of the folks here I had ended up with some Infinity 4x6 reference speakers for the front. An Alpine 9813 headunit, two 10" JL Audio 10w6, JBL 600.1 amplifier and unfortunately I didn't have anything fancy in the back to complement the rest of the equipment. It was just a pair of 6x9 pioneers, the same ones that Paul had in his 79.

I NEVER ever had an issue with my setup, in fact I would get complements on the way the stereo sounded all the time. I see a lot of people are dynomatting their cars, etc. I never did this to my car, however nothing inside rattles and the sound is perfectly clear. I never found the speakers to be too sharp or anything of that sort. The other thing I see is people using amplifiers to power their front and rear speakers and I think to myself, why? Are you using cheap quality head units that are incapable of powering your speakers? My amplifier was used to power only the subs. The volume on my headunit goes up to 40-45 I believe(its been many years since I checked) I checked it by turning off the internal amplifier and seeing how high it went. I have never had the stereo past 23 while in the car, this was done while showing the capabilities of it and was waaaay too loud. In my closed garage with the windows down and the t-tops off I had the volume up to 26 by using the remote and once again, it was much to loud for me. So that is what makes me wonder why others are needing an amplifier to power their speakers.

 

what infinites do you have? ive got a set of 6422cfp's and the things are just hell on my ears once i crank them up. at this point, i had wish i kept my old crappy pioneers. that didnt sound the greatest, but they didnt pierce my ear drums either.

as for the amp on everything, take a vert out for a drive one day and get it upto about 75mph+. i couldnt hear the radio at all when i had the pioneers hooked upto my head unit. and just because the headunit says it does 50wx4, it doesnt really. its more like 10-12wRMSx4. my speakers may say 135w, but their really 45wRMS. that HU will only supply a 4th of their potential power.

 

I can't find the box right now. For some reason I thought they were 6402 CFP, but they are the plate type speakers with the tweeter and a circle shaped speaker. I had purchased these as I was told they more accurately reproduce sound as opposed to the oval shaped 4x6 speaker. The power rating is 45watts rms. My headunit says something stupid such as 60watts per channel. However it is only 27 watts per channel (Alpine V-drive technology). I'm actually very happy with my headunit and glad that I purchased it when I did, I recently learned that Alpine quality has gone down and that their new offerings are not up to par with the 9813/9815 and their replacements the 9833/9835.

 

youve got the exact same speakers as i do, and ive got the headunit thats a step above yours, a 9815.

 

What a coincidence, I always regretted not spending the extra money for the 9815. Maybe my hearing is not that sensitive to the highs, just curious but after what volume are they hurting your ears? I understand your point about the needing an amplifier with a weak deck where there is excess road/engine noise especially in the case of a convertible. I never had that issue because if I was driving fast I would have the windows up and tops on.

 

with all of my speakers amped, our two points wouldnt be anywhere near each other.

at low to moderate volume, the speakers sound fine. but when ive gotta start cranking it up to hear over the road noise, or when i just want to crank it up, i just cant do it unless i want to to pierce my eardrums.

 

I just used four SS machine screws.