mutant X ! Speaker Upgrade / The Stealth Look.

[Azideam]

Well Here we are again,I have recieved the JBLs from crutchfield,All In excellent condition I might say....After removing the Factory 6 x 9's. I was supprised to find out how these reproduced the sound they did in the first place....It looked like the cones were made out of brown paper bags and sprayed with laquer.Anyway They are making some replacment speakers these days with a plastic baskets over the magnet which houses the wire feed to the tweeters.I managed to get the 6 x 9s In without to much hastle.but be carefull If you dont have a spacer between the speaker and the frame when you tighten down the speaker It will hit on the top part of the fender and leave a small dent on the outside.I found this out after Installing the speaker to tightly.I have made the corection and will work on the small dents.....The front speakers I was a little leary about,so I took them to circut city and they Installed the components for $80.00.I heard some stories about the components so I didnt want to mess with them....
But for those of you who want to know what they did They simply removed the stock tweeter and caped off the wires.Then the wires feeding the lower speaker they took that to the crossover line side.
Then ran wires to the new tweeter and the midrange speaker on the load side.
The stock stereo will not drive these speakers,Its not very good at all,I had heard minor rumors about the cd player and have decided to change It out.......

I now have a 4 X 100 watt crunch amp,and a Kenwood Excelon KDC - X-469 Deck with a Sirius tuner that will also be Installed In the near future...... I will keep you posted.....

Some of you climb over rocks,I am an EX Metalhead from the eighties,I have been playing guitar for 20 years and Im on rock all the time, ya know!And that stock stereo was doing strange things to my mind,I was hearing strange voices In my head and couldnt sleep at night..... Was I being terrorized,by a Demonic Stereo,was the original owner of this vehicle a witch???? Or did his EX wife put a demonic curse on the car Itself ,and It ended up In my hands.I dont know...really.
I will do with the stock stereo, as to what Jimi Hendrix did to his guitar on stage In the sixties.. I will pour lighter fluid on it and set It a Blaze....should I have a priest present??? The Demonic stereo will not fall In the hands of another and cause the grief.... :-)

Until Next time...

Mutant X

Ps...I got the Sirius tuner free from crutchfield,with the deck when I purchased an antenna,Sirius has 100 digital channels to tinker with and most with no comercials,so you can listen to music while driving to work Instead of adds,will It be worth the $13.00 a month....mmmm sounds Interesting.

Also when I put my speakers In I silicone them In,so when they hit they grab the frame....and they dont buzz either. and when you pull them out the silicone pulls off....Also the speakers are larger than the stocks so the only way I can see to get around this Is to get a drill bit the same size as the holes In the speaker grills and drill some more....to prevent the standing waves....

Cheers

[ikoiko79]

I just put in a panasonic head unit w/ a mosfet 50WX4 interal amp in it. Also got infinity component speakers installed. sounds so nice!!

[ChuckH]

I hope you put the silicone on the truck side and let it cure before putting the speakers in. During the curing process Silicone lets off gases that can damage your speakers. Taught in sub box building 101.

FWIW, I have never used silicone to seal door speakers and have never had rattles or anything. I did modify my Xterra doors so I had an MDF backing for the speakers though and that handles them well. Rears are just fill so I didn't do much there except put some dynamat in around them. I despise 6x9's too so eventually I put in adapters and put 6.5 rounds in the rear cargo area that were half the price of the 6x9's I had and sound twice as good. I don't run bass through my mid speakers though...that's the subwoofer's job.

[ikoiko79]

I had circuit city do it so I dont know about the silicone. I am going to do the 6X9 speakers in back by myself though. That should be really easy right?

[Azideam]

Originally Posted by ikoiko79

I had circuit city do it so I dont know about the silicone. I am going to do the 6X9 speakers in back by myself though. That should be really easy right?

The 6 x 9s are easy,just be carefull I used the jbls and they needed to be spaced from the frame about 1/4 or an Inch.Or they will leave little dents on the outside of your vehicle when you tighten down the screws on your speakers,the magnets will do this.....
The Way the X is built,The Interior comes apart really easy....
I just Installed the sirius tuner this weekend and will be posting a write up on my experiance soon....

PS...I double checked the job that circut city did and they put a foam spacer between the speaker and the door panel,when I pulled the door panel up the rubber on the surround was flattened,Thats why the speaker had no BASS???So I pulled the foam ring off and chucked them both The rubber surround went back to their original shape 2 days later.

Azideam [email protected]

[Azideam]

Originally Posted by ChuckH

I hope you put the silicone on the truck side and let it cure before putting the speakers in. During the curing process Silicone lets off gases that can damage your speakers. Taught in sub box building 101.

FWIW, I have never used silicone to seal door speakers and have never had rattles or anything. I did modify my Xterra doors so I had an MDF backing for the speakers though and that handles them well. Rears are just fill so I didn't do much there except put some dynamat in around them. I despise 6x9's too so eventually I put in adapters and put 6.5 rounds in the rear cargo area that were half the price of the 6x9's I had and sound twice as good. I don't run bass through my mid speakers though...that's the subwoofer's job.

Ya Thanks for the Input I got the 6 x 9 s o work just fine for now,The Mutant X Is a living and breathing vehicle and who know whats In store next I have thought about a 8" component set In the rear.
Thanks for all the Input though,I will heed well...

[Xterra4x4]

I just bought a new pair of Alpine components. Are you saying that they will not work unless I replace the stereo as well?

[Xterra4x4]

Also, can you point me in the right direction to remove the paneling on the front doors so i can install them?

[Azideam]

Originally Posted by Xterra4x4

I just bought a new pair of Alpine components. Are you saying that they will not work unless I replace the stereo as well?

No who said that,they should fit just fine I just upgraded my stereo to drive the jbls.the stock stereo puts out about 25 watts per channel.
Way to low of a wattage to drive the jbls.Alpine Is making some very nice speakers these days.I was fortunate to have circut city do my components for I am temporaily In an apartment.
They charged 80 bucks,and did an ok job,but I got some vibrations on the fronts and had to silicone them In to stop the vibration.
For a factory sized replacement both front and rear It does sound like a live band,I had to do some fine tunning and such but It works well.
Off course this depends on the kind of music you listen to,Im not Into the beat stuff,mostly jazz,metal,and rock.
Other people had some good sugestions and I thank them but Im not ready to hack up my panels,and besides nobody can tell that I have an upgraded system that rocks.I can easily drown out a fire engine,and thats as loud as I need.

[Azideam]

Originally Posted by Xterra4x4

Also, can you point me in the right direction to remove the paneling on the front doors so i can install them?

I really cant because I had somebody Install mine but I bet crutchfield can, they are guru ,s at this..... 1 800 555 8211....

[j68rh]

I used pioneer 6x9 and didn't need any spacers. But I did use sound deadening stuff I ordered from www.edesignaudio.com. No buz sounding and no vibrations comeing from the back all I hear is clean sound. I put My infinity refrence components in and deaden the doors to. what a difference. My next project is to change the Radio out and finish my custom sub box