About ready to upgrade my speakers...

[yipcanjo]

My birthday is nearing and one of the items I'd like to improve is the stereo setup in my FSJ. My stereo is decent enough for now (no... it's not the "stock" stereo!), so I'm going to keep with that. The speakers are stock, however, and sound like crap. I'm not a huge audiophile, but I would definitely like something a bit nicer than what I have.

So...I don't have a LOT of money to spend -- around $100 for 4 speakers, so I'm trying to maximize what I do have. I've been leaning toward keeping 5.25" speakers in the front, and going with either 5.25" in the back or perhaps 6.5" or 6x9". I really want to keep the cutting/drilling to a minimum, if possible.

Anyhow, I've been leaning toward some Pioneer speakers...
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...850161,00.html
... or perhaps some Infinity 502i Reference speakers that I found on CraigsList. Also, I'm planning on going with 2-way speakers (not 3-way) as I've heard that the lower-end 3-way speakers can sound a bit "tinny".

Thoughts on this stuff? Thoughts on Pioneer vs. the Infinity speakers? Others brands in that price range?

Thanks guys/gals!!!

Scott

[ August 23, 2005, 09:41 PM: Message edited by: yipcanjo ]

[Dmntxn77]

Go with 4 6x9's, they sound MUCH better than 5.25's

I have had real good luck with Infinity. They are inexpensive by comparason, and sound real nice.

[AnnieL]

I just put 6X9's up front last weekend...Pioneers, the set was I think $59 at Wally World...

I fabbed some new brackets with sheet metal...cut the hole in the door bigger by using the original 5.25 hole and going toward the front end with a jigsaw...screwed in the new brackets to door frame, put back on the interior stuff, sunk the speakers in with long screws, put the covers on, and it worked great. If I can do this...anyone can. The difference in sound is WELL worth the effort, a few cuss words and a few sheet metal cuts on my hands!

[paddyp]

I use Infinity speakers in my Jeep and in my daily driver Nissan, and I love them. Nice clear sound.

[yipcanjo]

Thanks, folks. I have to see what my wallet will allow...

If going with 6x9"s in the back, is there any cutting required aside from new screw holes?

[tanggod]

I just put 6x9s in the front doors and the rear quarter panels along with a new head unit in my GW. The 4 6x9s make a heck of a difference, but I had no radio before, so anything at all would make a difference! My Chero only has 6.5s in the front, and the 4 6x9s are definitely way louder. Got one set of 6x9s at Wal-Mart for about $60 I think. They're not the best by any means, but they work great for me and what you asked for.

You'll have to make a new bracket to put 6x9s in the back. I just cut the existing bracket up to make mine. Not hard, just a little time with the hacksaw. There's no cutting of sheet metal on the Jeep itself involved to put 6x9s in the rear.

[ August 24, 2005, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: tanggod ]

[yipcanjo]

Actually, I've got a line on (4) Boston Acoustic 5.25"s that I might try first. For the price I'm getting these at, I could definitely grab some 6x9"s later if I'm not happy!

Here's hoping...

[tanggod]

You'll probably be happy with the BA's then. I've got a set of BA 6x9s up front that I got from my brother-n-law for free and they sound amazingly good. I would never have spent $250 on them, but I'm glad he did. If you can get those for fairly cheap, you probably won't be disappointed. And you won't have to cut anything up either, so even better. Let us know how it turns out.

[Rob z]

Go with the BA's. Sound great and right size = no cutting.

[yipcanjo]

So far so good. I nabbed some used Boston Acoustic 5.25"s last night -- $50 for all 4 speakers! For that price I can afford to get larger speakers later on, if I so desire. They're older BA speakers, but they were professionally installed in a show vehicle some time ago and have been lightly used and well taken care of! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyhow, I only had time to install the rear speakers last night, but they sound great! Hopefully I can get the front speakers installed soon and give my report. You can't beat that price, though! (Well... "free" is better, I suppose)

So... any trick to running new speaker wire on the front speakers? Seems easy enough.

Thanks,

Scott

[tanggod]

Heck yeah $50 is good for 4 BA 5.25"s! Good score, where did you get them?

Speaker wire to the front is really easy if you don't have A/C to drop on the passenger side. If you do, then it seemed easier to route it with the A/C dropped, but not a big deal in any way. There's a rubber grommet where the wires for the dome light and the old speaker wires pass through from the cab into the cavity with the door hinges. I couldn't get the new 12 gauge speaker wires to go through that grommet b/c the insulation on it was ridiculously huge, so I just wrapped the wires with a ton of electrical tape and duct tape and went around the grommet. Should work fine that way.

Did you run new wire to the rear speakers?

[yipcanjo]

I found them on CraigsList and talked the seller down a bit. The speakers are in great, great condition and sound *very* good! I'm pretty stoked.

Sounds like the front speaker wire is only slightly involved. Alas, I'll probably look at how involved it *might* be, and then judge whether or not to just use the current wires until I can really put some time/effort into doing a good job.

As for the back wires, well... I started doing it but realized that I needed to get better wire (so on and so forth), so I've done some creative routing in the meantime. That means that you can pretty much see the wire right out in the open!! It works for now...

[tanggod]

If you have some fish tape, then I found you could route the rear wires up the pillar between the front door and windshield, inside the conduit (don't know what else to call it) all the way from the front to the rear, and down the rear pillar. It was really easy for me, but I also have a sunroof that has drains, and the drains run through 2" holes that are in the conduit right behind the opening of the top of the front pillars, so I have easy access to get the fish tape down those front columns. I don't think my 80 Chero has those holes though, so it might not be as easy for you if you don't make some holes. I did it so the wires wouldn't be on the floor. I hate having wires run along the floor unprotected, it just seems bad to me b/c eventually the floor is going to rust and cut the wires somewhere.

[jeepmandan]

Cmon man, Jensen's rock!