need advice for new speakers!!

im going to keep the factory radio in the car and put new speakers in it so my car wont end up with a broken window and a missing radio.. i want to put 2 ways in the front and 3 ways in the back i just want good sound not alot of bass could someone give me tips or ideas becasue im clueless. i have a $120 budget for the back speakers also.
thxs

Hey,

When I started looking into getting some sound for my Lesabre I was planning to go with a head unit and speakers but thanks to some sound advice I decided not to. I got an entry level Apline in-dash cd player then about a year and a half later I had a bass tube installed in the trunk. The morrow of the story is that GM speakers are top of the line and they certainly don't sound factory. I get comments all the time and my speakers were made in 1989. Good luck.

Greig*

My friend who owned my PA before I did installed a set of jensen 6 1/2- 3 ways in the back, and I installed a set of pioneers in the dash. I kept the factory radio, but if I hit the equalizer I'll get distortion because the radio just isn't powerful enough. The overall sound is alright, absolutely no good bass, though. I'm going to install keyless alarm/ entry and dark window tint to take care of theft control for when I get a new deck. If you don't care about the brand, the jensen 3 ways were 40 bucks at walmart and I got the pioneers at circuit city for 50. That would leave you with an extra 30 bucks for a tank of gas!

If you put drive high power speakers with your factory deck they will sound like crap, your speakers will clip and the heat unit will overheat trying to drive the speakers, resulting in bad sound and shortening the life of everything.

If you really want to keep the factory head unit I would recommend getting 6x9s and building (or buying) small boxes for each and set them on the back window sill above your old speakers, and if you have some cash left over pop a small amp in there to drive them. That will get you the best sound for the least buck, just remmeber to fasten them down so they dont go flying when you break!

Normally though the front speakers give the sound clarity and the rears are meant to widen the sound (or make it sound fuller).

I would have recommended what falc said about adding an amp, but I didn't know it was possible to add one with a factory radio. How is it wired?

I did a very quick search on car amp install and found the article below. Basically, most amps have two inputs, line level or speaker level. Line level is RCA plugs and are usually labelled as 'pre-amp' output on the deck. Speaker level just means normal speaker wire that run from the deck to the speakers.

Of course the factory head unit won't have line level outputs this unless there was a factory amp installed (not sure that buick factory amps used line out or not though).

Anyways, you would connect the speaker level outputs from the deck (normal speaker wire) into the speaker level input of the amp, then the amp output directly to the speaker. Essentially put the amp inline with the speaker wire. Line level or pre-amp signals are better for amplification but you will get adequate sound using the speaker cable for the type of system you are installing.

ALways keep electrical power (motors, power cables, lights, etc...) as far away as possible from speaker wires to prevent line noise from the electricity affecting the speaker wire signals. This means if amp is in trunk, run speaker wires on one side of vehicle and power wires on the other.


http://www.justkenwood.co.uk/editorial/inst_amp.asp