Hi,

I'm replacing my door handle gaskets and have the inner door panel off the car. I was surprised to remove the upper speaker cover to find that I had no speaker? Was this an option? So, wondering while I have the door trim off if I should add speakers? I would not want to bother running new speaker wires, but I did find one connector (highlighted in the photo) that is unused below the speaker. Would that be for a speaker?

 

This area is called "the sail" probably from its profile. Premium sound systems have a tweeter in there, which is crossed over with a capacitor at 6000hz.

it makes a difference, but sure can be improved on!. FWIW I experimented a bit just to aee.speaker cover off I tried a few tweeters that I had laying around. Difference? Yes improvement? Yes. Would they fit? Not withou some surgery.

I tried something for the heck of it. I had a midrange tweeter pod from an old infinity 6x9 speaker on the shelf. Hooked it up and gave a listen. HOLY S$#T!! Big improvement! Imaging, tone, wow!

what to do, only had 1 of these drivers. Checked local audio stores. The just sold tweeters, acknowledged the fact that the midrange would make a big improvement.

Checked amazon, I could buy a pair of the infinity 6x9 3way speaker for front $110.

bought them, pulled each speakers midrange tweeter pod out and put them in the sail position. Wonderful improvement , though I always intended to take shears to the old speaker cover so it could cover the new install and look more factory. Realized that was one of those jobs I'd probably never get to. Really didnt look that bad, always something else with priority.

after seeing how good the leather repair kits paint was in matching my oatmeal interior , I grabbed an artist's brush and painted these speakers pods to match perfect color. Love the sound, can live with the new custom speaker look = done deal for me.

I hope this helps you. BTW you should determine if you have premium sound with missing speakers or not. Premium sound always has amplifier in trunk above cd changer.

John

 

See speaker on driv er side this image is before painted to match.

I know you guys, only a matter of time b4 image requested :-).

 

So are you saying that changing just the tweeters improved mid-range? I am VERY unhappy with how muted the mid range sounds in my coupe.

 

It would but, unless you have the premium system as John says, the other end goes nowhere.

@mhminnich - (presuming you have premium) are your dash squawkers still intact?

 

I wouldn't know a premium system if I saw one! Here is a picture of mine, but I'm assuming that I don't since I don't have the speakers at the top of the door.

I have not checked the dash speakers and will do that when I return from an upcoming trip, but I assume they are fine.

 

Hi Bill,
It's the same head unit for both, so you'll need to check in the trunk. If it's not the premium system, there are no dash speakers either.

 

Mhminnich, yes I sure am saying that. I just moved so I'm not sure where everything is or I'd lend you a midrange/tweeter speaker pod for a test. Im Not sure where it is.

let me run through a coupe of things. IMO the "super tweeters" [lets call them st for brevity] in the sail are barely effective. I had a pair of Yamaha aftermarket tweeters. Put one in, replaced the driver side st with the Yamaha. Of course I used a crossover to ensure it only received high frequencies. This was temporary, I held it in place with hand for the test.

Improvement? Yes it was but didn't knock my socks off. Tried same with a Canton brand component tweeter. (As you probably realized I used to be into car stereo mods-have a bunch of left over components) another improvement but something was still missing.

then I saw the orphaned midrange/tweeter pod. I mentioned. Think of a 3 way six by nine inch speaker with the mid/tweeter pod in its center.

infinity speaker brand was kind enough to embed a crossover in the pod itself, so I just hooked it into the st wire. Put on Jazz at the pawnshop and pushed play.

Wow - vibraphone notes danced across the dashboard. Clarinet's reed sounded live! This nailed it on many levels.

I liked it so much I figured I'd spring for new 21st century drivers and was off to the local high end car stereo shop.

they sell some nice component tweeters, despite their high quality they just couldn't reproduce the woodsy sound of a clarinet's reed or the depth of some tones.

I explained that to the salesman, who replied: "well that's because you were using a midrange in that pod". I was conflicted, how could such a tiny midrange make a difference? Well you can't argue with results - it sure seemed to...

since I only had 1 pod, I looked into what a new pair of infinity 6x9 3 way speakers cost. They were up around $200 back in the 1980s.

good news, amazon has them at just over $100 for the pair! I bought them. It was a strange feeling buying them knowing I was going to yank the pod out and probably put the basket/magnet down in the workshop to be used as a big magnet.

back in the 80s these pods were just screwed in. Now the use epoxy! Well physics always wins. A foot long Stilson wrench on the pod base and a bar wedged into the basket + a little muscle and POP! the pod was free.

in retrospect I wish I had purchased black speakers, as you can see these were silver grey. Maybe someday I'll work the speaker grill they came with to make the install look more factory, but this time function wins out over form. Huge improvement for $100 and 1/2 hour.

I hope this gives you a good idea and answers your question. I suppose if you have a few hundred dollars and lots of time, putting component mid range in the dash or behind the a pillar, with a high quality tweeter In the sail it'd be a quantum leap forward but that'd be an installation on a other level entirely.

John

 

Bill if you have an amp in the trunk you have premium .

John

 

Thanks Johnken! You got my heart fluttering at the thoughts of rich sounds from the 'mostly' stock system.I am definitely going to investigate this.

I also have to say that your tweeter-echtomy description was something right out of a b-grade slasher flick.

 

I had the non-premium system in my XK8 and upgraded by making a cable to take a preout signal from the standard head unit to the boot of the car, where it runs into a 5 channel amplifier. I have new composite speakers in the rear and component speakers in the front, with tweeters in the door 'sail', running through a crossover. The 5th channel of the amp runs a sub in the standard position.

All the speaker wires (including the one you see behind the door card) run to connectors under the center console, which is where I have wired the amp into all the speakers. I have to say, I'm very happy with the sound in the car now.

 

Blade, that must sound wonderful. Wish I could hear it! Probably light years ahead of the factory components.

John