| Replacement rear deck speakers
Hi guys,
At the risk of being hung, drawn and quartered (flamed for you new sk0olrz) please accept my apologies in advance if I cause offense!
It is possible to replace the rear speakers on the rear deck under the rear window with a bit of work.
You might need to do this if your car did not come with Bose as standard (mine didn't).
There are at least 2 companies that make suitable sub-woofers / bass drivers:
JL Audio and Elemental Designs.
You can easily fit 6.5" subs to the rear deck by just making a baffle out of some mdf or birch ply. It looks possible to fit 8" subs in the two spaces right at the side, with 6.5" subs/bass units in the middle two spaces. So you have:
6.5" - 6.5" - 6.5" - 6.5"
or
8" - 6.5" - 6.5" - 8"
Wiring these up is dependent on what ohm speaker you choose and your amplifier.
Of course you can't use the bose amp if you change the rear speakers, but a decent 100Wx4 channel amp should be sufficient.
In my car I installed 4 x 6.5" elemental designs subs with a 4x125W RMS amp. The amp had filters on it already so I could tune the frequency response to my taste (around 40Hz and below for non boomy sub-sonics).
The Elemental Designs speakers are true subwoofers - below 20 Hz you see them moving their little hearts out rather than hearing it. Lower than 20 Hz and you need to get your bits of foam out to stop the resonant rattles that you start hearing the car make.
With SPL meter in hand I can tell you that this system can easily satisfy most bassheads out there - sure it's not going to win any SPL contests, but this is an SQ system rather than an SPL system.
So, if you want a modern day alternative, or need to change your system, rest assured there are ways to do it and with very good results too. As for whether it's better than the Bose system or not, I don't know as I have never heard the Bose system so I don't have a reference point. However, upgrading the head unit, amp and speakers isn't as hard as you might think, it's just a case of careful component selection and pretty standard installation techniques.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Ventolin |