Glacial

I've been running an AVIC-D3 with the stock Shaker500 speakers for some time now, and think I'm ready for a little better sound quality, and some clearer/more powerful bass. I mostly listen to rock, and am not a big fan of harsh high-end or absurdly loud, bwommy bass -- I'm kind of getting tired of endlessly fighting door buzz, too, so I was thinking of ditching the door subs for a boxed sub in the trunk. Can anyone suggest a decently matched set of speakers/subs for this setup?

Thanks!

bigray327

I have four Infinity Kappa 6x8s with the stock subs. This is a cheap upgrade, and won't knock your socks off, but I'm actually pretty happy with it. I do plan to upgrade the subs when I can find something that will fit in the stock location without costing too much.

I've found that the D3 can really make these speakers sound pretty OK when set up properly. The biggest impact was turning off Staging. With Staging on, the rear speakers were putting out nothing more than trash. Then I spent a few hours getting a custom EQ setting to sound good. And I don't know if anyone else is doing this, but I put the Sub on "Reverse" rather than "Normal," it sounds a lot better to me.

One more thing. I've mentioned this a lot around various forums: if you're gonna open the door panels to install aftermarket speakers, do yourself a favor and lay down a couple of rolls of Dynamat on the inside of your door panels while you're in there. That made a big difference for me, too.

Hope this helps,

Glacial

Thanks, Ray! I Brownbread'd the doors when I installed the Avic -- it does indeed make a big difference. Unless others chime in, looks like it's Kappas for me!

firestang

no to hijack or anything, but you can have an aftermarket H/U, and keep the stock sub setup in the 500?

bigray327

Yup.

You might want to look into speakers that don't use external crossovers like the Kappas. It only adds about 3 seconds to the installation, but having one more thing floating around inside each door is undesirable for me.

kingofsting

Ive got Pioneer 3-ways (Lets say the model no is A6870R, or something thereabouts). I got mine dirt cheap used on ebay. no matter what you go with i suggest scouring ebay for that company's speakers from the last two years. . . theyre generally the same thing, same quality as the 08/09 models, for far cheaper. e.g., my pioneers were $80 a pair at best buy, but i paid about $50 shipped for all four of mine. You should also dynamat the door panels; i've got RF Punch Stage 1's in my doors, but even before that the dynamat helped keep the stock subs sounding good. I used an infinty 6-channel amp to power everything, and for a time it was awesome, but i needed more bass, so i invested in an Infinity Basslink powered sub. . . I've heard good things about it, and it sounded pretty good in an old hatchback i installed one in. . .hopefully it will fulfill my bass needs in the trunk, because the schosce box for our car is pretty bloody expensive.

Glacial

Aye, the Scosche box's pricetag fills us with dread. How do the Pioneers sound? I won't be making the buy for another week or so, so any suggestions are more than welcome! I don't think I'll have a problem with external crossovers, as long as there's not some magic secret to them that I don't understand?

kingofsting

The pioneers sound awesome; theyre not bass heavy, but the highs are as crisp as a fresh dollar bill. Im not sure what type of EQ the AVICd3 has, but when i had my PEH-5900ib hooked up, the sound was awesome with the six or seven band EQ. If you want more kick in the doors, I've heard good things about a few Kicker subs (SS i believe), and theres a company called cadence or something similar to that which distributes the original Kicker subs (under their own name, of course) which i have also heard good things about. again, the schosce box is expensive, but if you hunt ebay youll find a sub for it at about half the cost of the box... go figure. I couldn't tell you where to find the box cheap, it seems as though its around the same price everywhere. Oh and only component speakers, liek the infinity's mentioned earlier will have external crossovers. . and no, theyre not difficult to wire up at all

Glacial

I think I'm going to avoid the door subs -- they seem to buzz the door trim like a ****, and I'm tired of tracking down and eliminating a rattle, only to discover a new one. They're driving me nuts! Small box in the trunk for me, unless there's a more effective way to dampen the doors...

Thanks for the help so far, all!

CO_VaporGT_09

Correct ... except for these Infinity 2 ways:


Which, I believe, is why it was pointed out the Infinity's have externals

jamesdem1123

the scosche box price isnt that bad for a custom fit box. I made a custom fiberglass box for my supra that i loved, costed about $175 for all materials but sounded amazing and you couldnt beat the fit. ive got the shaker 1000 so i wont be upgrading anytime soon but if i do ill make a new fiberglass one.

luckydawg003

I replaced all my speakers with Kicker 6X8's and a large kicker 4 ch. amp. Sounds good. But I'm gonna replace at least the fronts with components..they just sound so much better. I'm an installer so I know what equipment is good.