ALTERNATIVE FOR REAR SPEAKER

[JOKING]

Have been trying to find reasonable location for rear speakers.Was thinking about lower rear part of door, closest to the rear wheels. Has anyone tried this? Can I insert without taking entire door apart? Most important, would it be below the open window and lift?

[JOKING]

Actually may have found my answer http://www.evilution.co.uk/ice/450_door_speakers.htm

[heinkeljb]

I did this years ago - with waterproof marine speakers as the tailgate folds out and presents the speakers to the sky, as you have found there is an Evilution page on it.

John

[Bill]

I have the coupe with electric sunroof so don't have the same internal trims as you (firstly). I don't personally like the tailgate speakers as if they get squashed up a few times with shopping and stuff they will soon look nasty. I'm like you thinking of fitting a second set of speakers. When I do this my plan is to again use component speakers. The mid drivers will go in those after market door pods that replace the netting area at low level. Then I'm going to house the tweeters at high level, probably in the ceiling trim, right at the back of the car. You don't want that high frequency too close to you or it's going to take some EQ'ing to stop it dominating your ear drums.

[JOKING]

I thought about the tailgate but it is the storage for the roof pieces when you fully open the cabrio so I don't think that would work. Plus I would not need to keep the storage cover open. I also gave some consideration to using the enclosed storage areas on either side of the rear but then the cover would again need to be open.

My plan would be self contained coaxial speakers. Alpine seems to make a decent one for not too much money. Using the example in the link, I thought if I put them as far back in the door as I could they would be as close to built in rear speakers as I was going to get. I will take off the card first and take a get a look at what the challenges of this approach might be.

Any other thoughts appreciated.

[Bill]

I get your predicament now, though I doubt unless you use spacers they will fit where you are suggesting.

BUT....... you could use components with the crossovers buried in the bottom of the door. Use the mid drivers as above at low level in those after market speaker pods and then have the tweeters where you mention towards the upper rear of the door.

Anyway get them skins off and pop some pictures up!!!

[oldgit]

on my fortwo 2002 coupe i fitted my rear speakers up on top panel where rear interior light is , fitted then each side of the light , easy to remove panel to fit speakers
you can get shallow plates to fit the speaker on the outside of panel .

[cougar7609]

I came across a site where someone showed how they put speakers into the smart and changed the front to have a large apple logo. They put speakers up where oldgit did. They did a pretty good job of them by moulding them into the upper panel with the interior light. Ill try and find a pic and add it here.

Here we go

[JOKING]

With the cabrio I think it will prohibit anything around the roof. I did consider something in the seatbelt covers but they appear to be a bit to flexible to deal with the vibration and they are curved which I expect will create an installation issue. Think the door remains my best option, although more work.

You can not really get a full picture without taking the entire door panel off and I prefer not to disassemble the door just now. I have had the card off to compare to the pictures in the link and there is just enough space to see that the window glass travels very near the outside of the door which actually leaves 10 to 12cm space and you could put in a 10 or 12cm diam. speaker. I prefer the look of the slightly smaller from a visual standpoint. It is not so hard to find those. What I have been having trouble doing I have reasearched speakers and appears most have anticipated this and you can easily find 10mm speaker with less then a 10cm depth. What I am having trouble with of the ones I have been able to listen to so far, I prefer the Alpine and Hertz, but they do not seem to come with the essential protective grill.

I have read some good things about Focal, mixed for Ground Zero and bad about Vibe which are others avalable nearby that have grills. Any thoughts on these?

[cougar7609]

Ahhh I didnt know you had a cabrio. lol

[JOKING]

Well, I should have guessed....being a rather no frills car with only upgrades the ones I made, and the poor quality of the aftermarket head unit and its poor installation, I did not expect to find any other sound upgrades. Afterall, his rear speakers were cheap stand alone speakers with the wires just stretched over the floor to the back and there were no tweeters. As I previously reported, after all the negative comments on the forum about the quality of the standard speakers I began to question why such a big improvement when I upgraded the head unit. Of course it was a better unit and the technology has seen huge improvment over the past several years....

So while searching for alternative speakers and base bins, I decided it wouild be a good I should check to be sure. Imagine my surprise when I pulled off the lower dash cover and looked up and this large black plastic unit was staring back at me. Who would have guessed. I don't know if there is actually an upgraded speaker installed as well or just the bins, but based on the sound I would guess there is. Certainly saved me some money and lots of work.

Now to concentrate on the 10cm door speaker installation. I would still appreciate recommendations of which coaxial speaker would be a good choice.

[oldgit]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Smart-Car-...item20e70edafd

mybe you can find some cheap ones like this

[Bill]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Smart-Car-...item20e70edafd mybe you can find some cheap ones like this

That's what I've just bought for mine (minus the speakers) so I can choose my own.

[adrimo]

Well, I should have guessed....being a rather no frills car with only upgrades the ones I made, and the poor quality of the aftermarket head unit and its poor installation, I did not expect to find any other sound upgrades. Afterall, his rear speakers were cheap stand alone speakers with the wires just stretched over the floor to the back and there were no tweeters. As I previously reported, after all the negative comments on the forum about the quality of the standard speakers I began to question why such a big improvement when I upgraded the head unit. Of course it was a better unit and the technology has seen huge improvment over the past several years.... So while searching for alternative speakers and base bins, I decided it wouild be a good I should check to be sure. Imagine my surprise when I pulled off the lower dash cover and looked up and this large black plastic unit was staring back at me. Who would have guessed. I don't know if there is actually an upgraded speaker installed as well or just the bins, but based on the sound I would guess there is. Certainly saved me some money and lots of work. Now to concentrate on the 10cm door speaker installation. I would still appreciate recommendations of which coaxial speaker would be a good choice.

Why 10cm that's rather small for the amount of work involved

[JOKING]

Bigger would also provide a larger seclection as well, but after measuring the the space available in the rear part of the door and not wanting to anything overwhelming like an oval speaker, I think that's about a big as I can get. I think that even a 13cm would dominate the space once you attach the protective grill. Of course it's just my personal view. Since I can do without taking the door completely apart it should not be too much work. taking the door card off, cutting the hole from the outside and snaking the wire to the headunit. A bit of time but I don't think it will be too bad.