mdj8
Member
I had to change my speakers as they sounded terrible. Since buying the car I've only listened to R4 on the way to the station and back. I decided to load some CD's and the music sounded dreadful, I imagined that the flexi rubber ring around the cone had rotted. I did some research here and the consensus on various forums including here was that a "woofer" was needed and someone managed to fit one with a mounting depth of 86mm. I duly ordered some low range speakers supposedly 65 to 6K Hz and 4 Ohm. After removing the door card and the speaker housing I found that the original speaker looked OK, no rotting, however if I pressed gently on one side so the coil moved in and out of the magnet it would catch and make a scraping noise. Pressing on the other side did not. Anyway, the whole of the unit is part of the speakers and the components are all glued together. To remove the 8" speaker I cut through the rubber damper all the way around and then whilst folding back the cone cut through the cloth holding the coil to the magnet. Removing the cone and coil the issue could be seen. Not only was the cone poor quality paper but the centre part of the magnet was off centre. This caused the coil tube to rub on the magnet creating a scraping sound. I checked the resistance of the speaker as someone else on a board said they were 2.5 Ohms. Well they are not - resistance was 3.8 Ohms which meant replacements would need to be 4 Ohms too. You can see the off centre magnets and wear, in the pics below.
After cutting through the spider arms, close to the outside edge which still held the magnet to the frame, (see pic above) I then scraped off the remaining rubber and glue. I installed the new speakers placing them where the rubber damper had been glued to the chassis, making sure the connectors were close to the wires then drilling some 3.5mm holes through the new speaker holes angled towards the outside so the self tapping screws I intended to use had plenty of plastic to screw into.
Once screwed in and wired up I attached the speaker unit to the door connected all the wiring and went to put on the door card. It wouldn't fit, so I had to cut some of it away. After putting on the door card I then tried to put the speaker grille on, that would not fit either. Mmm.
Nonetheless I gave the new speaker a try and was quite unimpressed, it didn't do much or make much sound.
So clearly I needed some speakers that would fit. I finally found some on ebay that were 8" and had a mounting depth of 65mm here:
I couldn't find any reviews and it said they were "mid-range" whereas the previous posters had all been talking about "woofers". Looking at the old speakers I very much doubted they were "woofers" anyway and as the new replacements were only £69.99 for the pair, I thought I'd risk it.
Too big "woofer" 80mm deep vs "Mid Range" DBX 65mm deep
Well I'm very glad I did. After installing using self tapping screws in the holes I made for the previous too big speakers, they fit perfectly. More importantly they sound superb. the bass response is more than I could have imagined, the arm rests vibrate when deep bass is playing and the rest of the range is crystal clear. They sound as though they were made for the Command system. A vast improvement and no need for "woofers" or anything else in fact.
Perfect fit, although you can see where I cut away the door card for the too big speakers.
They don't stand proud so the grille can be put back on
The box they came in
The speaker size.
Happy fitting!
After cutting through the spider arms, close to the outside edge which still held the magnet to the frame, (see pic above) I then scraped off the remaining rubber and glue. I installed the new speakers placing them where the rubber damper had been glued to the chassis, making sure the connectors were close to the wires then drilling some 3.5mm holes through the new speaker holes angled towards the outside so the self tapping screws I intended to use had plenty of plastic to screw into.
Once screwed in and wired up I attached the speaker unit to the door connected all the wiring and went to put on the door card. It wouldn't fit, so I had to cut some of it away. After putting on the door card I then tried to put the speaker grille on, that would not fit either. Mmm.
Nonetheless I gave the new speaker a try and was quite unimpressed, it didn't do much or make much sound.
So clearly I needed some speakers that would fit. I finally found some on ebay that were 8" and had a mounting depth of 65mm here:
I couldn't find any reviews and it said they were "mid-range" whereas the previous posters had all been talking about "woofers". Looking at the old speakers I very much doubted they were "woofers" anyway and as the new replacements were only £69.99 for the pair, I thought I'd risk it.
Too big "woofer" 80mm deep vs "Mid Range" DBX 65mm deep
Well I'm very glad I did. After installing using self tapping screws in the holes I made for the previous too big speakers, they fit perfectly. More importantly they sound superb. the bass response is more than I could have imagined, the arm rests vibrate when deep bass is playing and the rest of the range is crystal clear. They sound as though they were made for the Command system. A vast improvement and no need for "woofers" or anything else in fact.
Perfect fit, although you can see where I cut away the door card for the too big speakers.
They don't stand proud so the grille can be put back on
The box they came in
The speaker size.
Happy fitting!
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