[barth7]

Mine has the 490 stereo, but my I had some issue and only the PS was playing. I removed CR-1 radio yesterday, and will soon remove the 6 CD changer. In it's place, I installed an Alpine 9856 CD player with iPod control.







At this point, I just hooked up the 6 door speakers to the front channels of my radio. I spliced into the wires under the passenger seat for this. It sounds decent and I now have in dash CD and can stick my iPod in the glove box and control it through the head unit.



Later on I plan to add components to the door and maybe and 8" sub in a rear cubbyhole.



- What tweeter have some of you installed in place of the factory one? You can't separate it from the factory grille, can you?



- Where have you mounted your amps?



Bart

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[968bill]

See post http://www.968forums.com/index.php?showtopic=2018



That Alpine unit is nice and I ran the Ipod cable to the center console armrest compartment, works great.



Yes, on my '93 I was able to use the stock tweeter grills. I used a Drimmel (sp?) tool and had to modify several of the Infinity speaker install kit pieces along w/ using a bit of super glue but it did work. You'll have to take the tweeter out (very easy, unscrew the retaining ring from the back by going through the power window switch panel) and you'll see they glued the stock tweeter in fairly well but it can come out. I had to cut/sand with the Drimmel the stock tweeter "holder" a good deal to fit my new tweeter but it can be done and still look like the stock setup.



HTH

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[Darryl]

Yes, it is possible to re-use the factory grilles for the door tweeters. A Dremel is a must as there is some creative fabricating necessary. I actually cut the tweeter out so I could wedge the mounting bracket from the new tweeters in from the rear. It was a tight fit and I secured it with my new favorite sticky substance, "Goop". This in combination with Locktite 2 part epoxy (or JBWeld if you prefer), worked very nice in securing both the door woofer and tweeters.

It is also possible to pry out the grilles which are held in place with some silicone caulk type stuff...I replaced it with some clear silicone adhesive using the tip of a paper clip to apply to just the edges to put the grille back in palce. Here are some shots of the final product.



- Darryl

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[968bill]

The only issue I have w/ Darryl's work is the stock tweeter "holder" is keyed so it only fits in the door panel one way, that's so the tweeter can be angled in the holder so it's angled back towards the passengers, from Darryl's photos it looks like his Polks are flush mounted.



The Infinity's I used looked to be a little smaller and I was able to use their included mounting parts to angle the tweeters back. It's not pretty if you took them out and looked from the back but they're well secured and w/ the grilles on you can't tell the diff. Wish I had taken photos though.



As Darryl says, the grilles pop out w/o too much effort.

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[barth7]

Thanks for the pics and comments so far. Gotta double check mechanical issues and then I will revisit the stereo. I may try to stay with high efficiency speakers and just not use an amp - don't wanna add too much weight and I don't need to set alarms off with it.



-Bart

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[Darryl]

Bart,



I was planning on a quick install by dropping new stuff in the factory locations. I also didn't want to get into extra amps but knew the sound could be improved. My factory speakers were dryrotted from Florida heat and the head unit was low power and cassette based, so there was great room for progress. I couldn't be more tickled with the results with just new speakers and a higher power head unit. The front channels got tricky as the woofers, although 5 1/4", didn't quite fit and the tweeters, well, we've seen the pics on this post. The Polk tweeters can be pivoted if mounted in the supplied cups, but I opted for a custom flush mount so I could reuse the factory grilles. Turns out in the cabriolet, the front speakers are more for fill and simply complement the rears. Good bass is hard in the cab and I'm still fiddling around with fader and EQ settings in the Alpine to dial it in a little better. For the $$ spent, I can't complain!



For those interested and future Dremel projects, here is a shot of that keyed tweeter hole and the factory tweeter mount.



- Darryl

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[968bill]

I used the same Alpine unit Darryl used and it doesn't need a sep. power amp. Don't recall off the top of my head but the power output is a good bit higher than basic head units but it still has the outputs for separate power amps should you desire to use them. Like Darryl I too am pleased with this setup and would recommend the Alpine head unit.



Just be careful on speaker selection though, many new speakers are 2 ohm designed to be used w/ sep. amps, but 4 ohm is the min. impedance for the Alpine.



Also realize the stock setup changed between '93 and '94 so speakers that will work in a '93 may not fit well in a '94.



I still need to find replacement speakers for the rear of my '93, haven't spent much time looking though but if anyone has a suggestion please let me know, 6 1/2 Infinity's were too small.

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[barth7]

The Alpine I sed (9856) has 18m (rms, CEA compliant) X 4 and is currently the highest power one they have, I think. It won't beat a sub & amp, obviously, but I think you should be able to pick some efficient speakers that would work well with it.



Almost all car speakers are still 4Ù. There are a few, such as Image Dynamics, that have 2Ù, but that is the exception.



Make some adapter plates for the rear, as I don't think you will find a direct bolt on shaped like you need.

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[968bill]

The newer Infinity Kappa's are also 2 ohm which is why I had to go through the hassle of returning them. The online retailer I ordered my speakers from were sold out of the ones I ordered, called to suggest the newer Kappas without informing me they were 2 ohm, then gave me a hassle when I wanted to return them.

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