Speakers
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You are currently reading a thread in /o/ - Auto
You are currently reading a thread in /o/ - Auto
I recently got a 2003 Saturn L200 for a really solid price from a family friend. 32k miles and everything works great except for the speakers, which I'm fairly confident are blown out. I plan on replacing the stock head unit and the speakers. Not spending a ton on the speakers, probably $100-$150 at most for a set of 4. I have some questions:
- What are some decent brands of speakers for not a buttload of money? I've found Pioneer (TS-G1345R) and Kenwood (KFC-1365S) ones that look decent, but are there better ones around the $40-$70 per pair mark?
- My car has tweeters separate from the regular speakers, but most of the speakers I've found have those built in. What do I do with the existing stock ones? Just remove them entirely since they're a bit pointless?
- How do I know which parts to grab for installation? I'm using Crutchfield right now but apparently the stock is limited compared to some other sites, but they do throw in the stuff to install the speakers when you buy them.
- Do I NEED an amp, or is it just a sound quality thing? If I don't get one now, would it be more difficult to install if I decided to get one in the future?
Any help would be appreciated. Or just general recommendations.
>>15086707
Mileage and price paid?
>>15086715
32,000 miles
$1,000
Family friend means great-grandmother by the way. She's 99 y/o and decided herself that maybe she shouldn't drive anymore. She took care of the car though. Specifically wanted me to have it.
>>15086707
Do you have the factory sub or not?
>>15086707
as for the speakers, if youre looking for the cheapest, atleast get rubber woofer surrounds, the cheaper ones are paper and will dry out and crack again
>>15086707
Honestly the stock 6-CD if you can find it (they go for $50-100 on eBay all day) is a really decent stock deck; and being it's a stock deck no one will want to steal it.
I'm not sure why you're looking at 5 1/4" speakers because the stock ones front and rear are 6 1/2s. Pioneer's cheaper line is surprisingly efficient, if you don't want to run an amp or you stick with the factory head unit look less at the power handling capabilities of the speaker and more at the speaker's efficiency. How do you measure efficiency? Look at the sensitivity rating on the speaker. Anything 92db+ is going to be a better engineered speaker, and it will be louder (and probably clearer) by virtue of it turning more electricity into sound. Blaupunkt, Rockford Fosgate, and Infinity make speakers in that price range that will far exceed the capabilities of whatever head unit you install.
Leave the stock tweeters alone, unless you are dropping three times what you intend to on sound equipment the stock ones will work fine and they have the crossover caps built onto them so they'll work with anything.
No, you don't need an amp, and it will be just as annoying to install when you do the head unit as it would be 2 years down the road. A cheap amp will probably deteriorate the sound quality anyways.
You shouldn't need anything special for installation although the stuff Crutchfield includes is really helpful (you won't have to splice wires). If my memory serves the most you would need is a spacer ring if the speakers are deep enough to hit the window when it's rolled down.
no idea what i'm doing
>>15086798
Don't believe so.
>>15086809
Looking at the 6 CD unit, I would honestly much rather have something with a bit more in the way of features. Bluetooth/USB would be killer and it's not a lot more than that disc changer.
I mainly picked those out since Crutchfield says anything above 5 1/4" won't work in the rear. According to some Saturn fan forum the rear doors need modification to fit 6 1/2" speakers (http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114713). I'll totally look into those brands though.
If some of the stock tweeters are broke what should I do? I haven't figured out which speakers are busted and which aren't yet. That's tomorrows job.
I probably won't get an amp. Just curious if aftermarket speakers needed them or not.
I was mainly using Crutchfield because of that. I bought a stereo from them for my old car and the stuff they included helped a lot.
>>15086887
I haven't owned an L series for 6+ years now so my memory on it is a bit fuzzy but I would have sworn 6s fit the rears. I know I didn't cut anything when I put the new speakers in, no idea if I had to use spacer rings though. I was a cheap fuck and just put stock speakers from an Acura TL in because they were free and they fit.
If the tweeters are broken get new ones from a junkyard, they probably won't even charge you for them. They're epoxied into the top sill of the door, it's a pretty annoying arts & crafts project to replace them when you can just pop the whole sill off the top of the door and grab another.
>>15086887
You should figure out which speakers are blown. Use the balance/fade to test each channel if possible (fr/fl/rr/rl). Bluetooth is unnecessary. Aux jack is all you need.
>>15086916
I dunno. Everywhere I'm looking points to the fact that you can't put 6 1/2" speakers in the rear without modifying it. Front apparently takes spacers while the back doesn't. I'll see what the stock speaker sizes are tomorrow.
>>15086956
Yeah, I'm testing that tomorrow. Bluetooth is so cool though. Wirelessly stream my shit music.
I guess they make things that plug into the Aux jack to give you that connectivity if I want it though.
>>15086747
>>15086707
the L200 may not be a fun car, but it's built like a tank where it counts
my sister is a horrible driver and crashed the thing 10 or so times. by the time she killed it, it had a bent subframe (from 2 accidents), a twice rebuilt front left suspension/steering (kept ripping it up on curbs), and a transmission held together by JB Weld. the thing still ran, but it refused to track straight anymore.
expect all the plastic trim to fall off.
>>15086887
First off never buy from Crutchfield, they're overpriced as shit and only recommend their site to figure out what speaker size and radio slot you have, buy from someplace else like sonicelectronix, and you can find a cheap set of separates to replace the tweeters and woofers in your front doors, but follow what the other anon said about the efficiency rating especially if you don't plan on hooking them up to an amp
>>15086972
Aux is better than Bluetooth.
It just werks
No interference
Doesn't drain device battery unnecessarily
>>15086707
Listen OP, if you want quality sound for a good price, don't go TOO cheap. You'll be disappointed. In my Silverado i cheaped out, bought a JVC head unit, and Pioneer speakers all around. I was NOT satisfied with my purchase. Counting everything I paid a total of $200 with installation.
Pic related is my S10, I went full Alpine all around and paid a total of $260 by installing everything but the headunit myself. I cannot be more satisfied with my sound. I don't even run an amp or a sub.
