Installing aftermarket speakers in front doors

[mji111]

After watching the video regarding how to remove the door cards, I decided to give it a go and replace the front door speakers with some better Hertz Coaxials. I know that components can create a better sound stage, but I want to keep the interior looking stock and do not want aftermarket tweeters visible. That is just my preference. Removing the trim with a trim tool is easy. The little plastic cover behind the door handle was a little annoying because I was trying to pick it. I ended up using a thin and long flat head screwdriver and it just popped off pretty easily. There are only a few torx 25 screws (4) and torx 27 bolts (2) behind the door handle and at the bottom. Once those are removed, the door easily prys off with the trim tool and then you just lift it up off of the rubber door seal by the window. By far the hardest thing for me was disconnecting the electical connectors for the windows, locks, mirrors and door light. You will need a very small flat screw driver to get them to come free. The speaker removal requires a smaller torx bit (20?) and the wire hanrness pulls away easily. Please note that the hole in the door is very tight for aftermarket speakers. Another person posted that they made it a little larget with a dremel tool. I ended up slowly tightening the screws cross corner like lug nuts and got it to squeeze in there. I also put a little weather stripping behind the speaker on the door. The sound is so much better with just the replacement speakers and only being pushed by the head unit. I am sure they would be even better with a 5 channel amp, but I don't want to go under the dash and fool with the speaker wires there. I did not replace the rear speakers and I probably won't as this sounds good enough to me with these new 6.5"s and the 10" sub under the rear seat. I did, however, put sound deadening on all of the floor boards and under the mat in the cargo area. That made a difference in reducing the boom sound when going over bumps. I did not bother with the doors but you certainly could do that with clearance for the door card.

 

[GN4HIR]

Nice job. How is the sound stage? I think the factory coax speakers do a decent job with the sound stage. I'm like you, I don't really want to mount separate tweeters. Any other speakers you considered? I've used Hertz before but seems the pro installers are using Audison (which owns Hertz).

 

[mji111]

The sub is Focal, so I also considered that brand for the door speakers, but decided with Hertz since I am leaving the factory Hertz 4" rear door speakers as is. I know that does not matter, but that is how I decided. Over the years I also have used JL audio and don't think you can go wrong with them either.

 

[SiMsound]

From my point of view it´s necessary to use external tweeters because of the reasons below.

- more soundstage. Not only heigth but also depth and width!
- more clariy in the high frequencies
- more ass and kickbass performance because of more usable membrane surface of the midwoofers

It´s a no go that Ineos still uses no single tweeters. Every low budget Hyundia have some.

 

[HereinDaRockies]

Love this mod! The ROI and sequencing for this kind of direct replacement is spot on, even if you want to consider more extreme mod like a pillar tweeters.

If new in-door speaker is good enough for you, adding a tweeter may be low return on investment.

Just so I am clear, the cutout in the door fits all 6.5” coaxial speakers?

 

[mji111]

Yes. The opening worked for the ones I installed, but it was a tight fit. Oversized 6.5” speakers may require a little trimming of the plastic, but I did not need to do that.

 

[HereinDaRockies]

What about the connector to the speaker? Are they plug b play? Or you had to do some soldering?

 

[SiMsound]

No 6.5" speaker fits perfect because Ineos use 6" factory speakers. That´s the reason why all our kit´s come with an extra adapter for perfect fitment.

 

[mji111]

What about the connector to the speaker? Are they plug b play? Or you had to do some soldering?

Just crimped on terminal connectors and reused the factory harness, which was soldered to the speaker.