you have to take the door panel off, there is a screw holding the sub in place on the panel itself. good luck.

 

The panels are actually very easy to remove.

 

Thanks guys...who knows why they put that foolish bolt in there.
What do we think of the Audiobahn AW831SE? Looks like it might fit and the specs sure beat the MTX. Again, good price.

 

I don't trust Audiobahn's specs even in the slightest. They inflate power handling by about triple, and who knows what they do with basic woofer specs. I guess they could work, I just don't like Audiobahn equipment AT ALL. All bling and no zing.

 

Yeah, I noticed that the SPL was inflated too -- it says 90.3 but in a sealed box it's 84 or so. I guess I was hoping it was "some zing in spite of lots of bling."

I think I'm going to go with the CDT EF8 if it will fit. I'm also wondering if it's better to use 5.25" components or try just using some good tweeters, skipping the mids. One of my main complaints about the shaker is the lack of mid presence, but the CDT is more of a midbass driver and at home my speakers sound great with just 1 8" woofer and a 1" tweeter each.

 

Go with the seperate midrange. A 4" would do well also. Those low-mounted woofers would begin to break up long before they could reach to even a great tweeter. It just won't work well. If need be, just use a high quality 6x8 coaxial like the ones from JL, Kicker, or even the Infinity's (since midbass won't be necessary). With a x-over on your amp, that would sound primo, and it wouldn't break the bank.

 

Yeah, I realized how silly the idea was. I like the Crystal 5.25" components right now, but I'm only beginning to look. I like Infinity but they tend to be very bright, and the stock system is already extremely harsh in the upper-mid range. Silk tweeters for sure, otherwise I don't know.

I assume the factory amps have some kind of crossover but I imagine it's at a higher frequency. Seems like with a 3-way system in front I should cross the subs fairly low and match the mids.

 

OOOOHHHH using the factory amps changes things a bit. You'll need 2 ohm drivers to get any appreciable power out of the amps. Try Orion and Image Dynamics. Only ones I can think of. If you match them with 4 ohm metal domes, then the power deficit to the tweets SHOULD make them less harsh at volume.

 

There are a lot of dual 4-ohm drivers that I could wire in parallel for 2 ohms...or did you mean mids? I figure any 4-ohm (total) component system should do it.

I was thinking, what if there is no crossover on the factory amp, and it's allowing the sub to roll-off naturally? A good sub might do this but the cheap factory ones would just distort. This combined with the frequency overlap might account for the harshness. It seems a bit high for that to be the case, but I've heard it before...

 

That IS possible. I know there aren't any passives involved, but I'm unsure about any active filtering. I would think you would want a low pass on the sub. Being sealed, a subsonic would be unneeded.

 

OK now maybe a dumb question............

The factory subs are the dual voice coil and have four wires going to each speaker. How do I wire new MTX 4500's which only have one set of terminals?

 

LOL, I'd love to know the perfect answer to that myself! Someone else used them but we never heard back from him. I wired mine using the blue/white on one side and the black/gray on the other. I also hooked it up in a "bridge" config briefly but didn't notice a difference; gonna try again when I stuff my enclosure since my new rivers want a bigger air volume. Let us know how those sound!

 

Would it be possible for you to return the drivers and get a dual voice coil configuration, even if it's a different driver? If not, just choose a pair and hook them up, you just won't get the full power from the amps. I'm thinking at this point the factory amps are the weak link- or at least we seriously lack information. :bang:

 

Well I do have an Alpine mono amp that I can install. I was just looking to get the subs in (plug and play) until I could later get the amp installed possibly along with the Alpine head unit collecting dust in my closet.

 

Definitely just wire up one set of wires to each, see how it sounds (should be better quality than stock, probably not as loud). I'd love to hear your results.

As for the amp config, the threads on here about upgrading the base deck to the shaker 500 say it works and sounds good without external amps. This indicates that maybe the two stock amps are for the subs, and the other 4 channels come off the HU? Again, I need to get off my butt and just unplug one wire harness to see what sound disappears -- that should give us some answers.

Finally, for all concerned: the 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers Grand Award went to Visteon for the door enclosures, 12 liters or .42 cubic feet.

 

DUDE!!!!!! I could kiss you right now! That's information that I really needed. Now, get a half-pound of polyfill and a real amp on those SEAS drivers. They're gonna be niiiiiicce.

 

Hey, about 1/10 the help you've given me, glad to oblige.
Got a pound of polyfill in the mail...the amp will require a whole new thread!

 

Oh, man. I hope you didn't pay more than like $3 for the polyfill. (smacks head)- I should've told you. Go to Wal Mart and buy the pillow stuffing in the fabric department for about 3-5 bucks for 1.5 lbs. That's what everyone uses because that's what works, and it's dirt cheap that way. Of course, if you ordered true Dacron, it's good stuff. It's just totally unnecessary to spend extra for it.

 

eh, $10 for acousta-stuff. No biggie, had to get new mids off PE anyway great to know that though!

 

what is that poly stuff for?