1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
I'm so excited about how this project turned out that I just had to share the results:
I'd always felt that the factory speakers on my '90 900 were adequate for the factory radio & (dead) tape deck. Unfortunately, one of the rears decided to go all buzzy last Fall. I pulled out both rear Clarion 3-way 4x10s & zip-tied in some old single cone 6x9s, thinking, "That'll be good enough." Yuck. I had to bias the fader 3/4-way toward the rears to hear anything from them, & w/o the mid/tweeter combo it was way too muddy. I started looking for four new speakers that were "cost comparable" to a 17 yr old car with less-than-perfect acoustics. (I learned more than 25 yrs ago that road & engine noise can quickly negate a lot of money spent on, & agonizing decision-making over, audio equipment choices.)
Since the car audio retailers wanted at least $100/pair for decent speakers, I hit the local pawn shops looking for "New Old Stock" items they might've picked up from various stores. To go along with my cost constraints, I also wanted something that would fit the existing openings so that I wouldn’t have to do a lot of metal cutting & drilling. (Why are only 2/3 of the rear 4x10 openings actually open??) I almost picked up some Infinity 4012i 4" ($29) for the front & some Polk db460 4x6 ($35) for the rear, but the Infinities are tall & heavy for the front locations, & I really wanted something with more bass for the rear. I lucked out & found two pair of Audiobahns, AN4000 4" 2-way for the front ($39) & AN5000 5.25" 2-way for the rear ($46).
These speakers are fantastic!! It's like getting an entirely new stereo for less than the cost of a single pair of speakers. The tweeters are positioned low enough to easily clear under the front grills, & both pair use Neodymium magnets for lower profiles & lighter weight (advantages more useful for the dash locations than for the rears). I made my own adapter plates for fitting the round 5.25s to the (partial) 4x10 rear openings. (1/4" plywood, one 8"x5.5" plate with a 4.5" opening & two 1"x4.5" standoffs per side; bolt the speaker to the bottom of the plate, sandwich the standoffs between the top of the plate & the underside of the sheet metal, bolt the whole assembly into the existing 3"x7" screw hole placements.) My sound is now clear, with an incredible extension to the range. I have crisp highs all the way thru to rich bass. (With the hatch as a sound chamber, those little 5.25 speakers are pumping out more bass than the 4x10s ever did; enough to feel it in the floor pan!) The fader is now back to the balanced mid-point position & the 4 factory EQ settings (jazz, classical, voice, rock) are perfect for these new speakers.
I don't know why I waited so long to do this....
posted by 57.80....
, Fri, 16 Feb 2007 18:45:26
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
