I have the Shaker 500 stereo and ordered 4 Infinity REF-8632CFX 6x8 speakers to add some flavor. The OEM speakers are just sad.
Has anyone changed out the speakers and used Boom Mat speaker Baffles?
I read that they sound good if you cut a portion out to vent them, otherwise they sound like crap .
Has anyone here used them and can offer an opinion and perhaps some advise?
Apparently they come in different gauges so any help is appreciated.
Brand / gauge / size of port cut outs?

 

Ok, first off, why? Is it to make them sound better or to make the rattles go away?

If the rattles is the thing... go find the rattles and deal with them directly. Foam, tape, felt, zip ties, putty, glue, etc, ad nauseam. Small rubber hammer to tappy tap tap and find those rattles. You get those done directly, as no baffles will fix those.

If it's for 'sounding better', well... ok, maybe. Just understand that baffles and such are used for low tones to be better as it tightens up the area behind the speaker to prevent over travelling of the cone. Higher tones do not need this, by and large. The 6x8 in the doors and the package tray will not produce enough bass to need this in the Shaker 500 setup. Oh, they are straight, clean signaled from the head unit, truth, before anyone starts in on that, but in comparison to the actual subs, nope, not even close. Doesn't even add anything to speak of in the down low tones where a baffle would be helpful. So I wouldn't waste the money.

But what you can do is this:
https://www.crutchfield.com/g_761/Ba...s.html?tp=3216
(Website and products are *examples*, not actual endorsements/suggestions)

Get four of these and wire them into the 6x8 speakers. This will prevent bass tone signal from getting to the 6x8s and clean up the mids and highs that way. Let the subs do their jobs, let the mids/highs happen where they should.

---

Now, all that being said, IF this car was a stock unit radio,I'd probably try them unbaffled first anyway, but then *maybe* try the baffles to see what happens. As it would be there's no subs in the car, so every bit of low tones that a measly weakling head unit/6x8 speaker can generate would be good, albeit with the loss of mid/high fidelity (which is funny of a sort saying that in a stock head unit... 'fidelity'. Riiight...)

But then, I'd probably go ahead and get a subwoofer or two figured out in the trunk and still put in the bass prevention units (or BPUs, because unnecessary renaming and resultant acronyms are fun!) on the 6x8s and do it the correct way, along with a proper head unit while I was at it as modding the stock head unit for an aftermarket amp/subwoofer is an exercise is "WHAT THE ENTIRE HECK, FORD, BE NORMAL FOR A CHANGE ON THIS STUFF" and would just be easier.

---

All THAT being said... this is a Mustang. How much 'non-sad' you goin' for? Car's not an audiophile's dream machine without a LOT of help, and baffles ain't it by a lot. But if it helps, I just stuck some Wally-world Pioneer 6x8s in my Mustang a few years ago, and they sound pretty dang good still, just plugged them in with some adapters for the main harness to not get cut in the door, and tada. Instant better highs and mids. Didn't even bother with the BPUs.

So just sticking in the new 6x8s on your Shaker directly should make one HECK of a difference no baffles whatsoever. Try that first without reassembling the door panels or anything before buying the baffles, or at least buy the baffles with a 100% guarantee return policy on 'em so you can send them back when you say 'yeah, not needed.' Or not, that'd be you.

That's my opinions. You do you, but I'm sayin' waste of money. Hope that helps all 'round!

 

Cant put it any better than that IMHO

 

Great reply Houtex! :-)
I had actually hoped someone here had tried them because I'm of the same opinion as you and probably wont order baffles. I bought 4 Infinity's and am considering a powered sub. Those baffles have such mixed reviews and the guy's that have left good reviews have modified them with port holes. If I were to try them perhaps it would be for the rear 6x8's with come cuttage. Im not sure if you have woofers in your front doors but the stockers in my 2011 are crap and sound more like a full range speaker which is pretty much worthless IMO. I really do think the Infinity's will be a big improvement to the system so thank you for your thoughts on that. Pretty awesome that you would take the time to help with your very valuable insight.
God bless ><>

 

No problem! I can type pretty fast, so I don't mind spellin' things out for clarity and such. Glad I was able to help some!

RE: rear baffles... I'm sorta on board with that maybe, but again, bass isn't a thing compared to proper subs in the 6x8 format. I've always thought, though, that maybe they wouldn't be a bad idea back there... just.. those speakers are SO difficult to deal with how they're mounted...

RE: Subs: Yeah, the subs in the doors aren't that great, but they aren't that bad unless they're blown out. And getting anything to replace them with is... well, silly. Even the 'official' kicker replacements from Shelby are... hideously wrong. Yes, they're awesome of course, but they use a spacer ring to get there and it's just ugly. That and the stupid ohms/watts ratings of the dual voice coil speakers and the subsequent amps situation don't help matters much.

Usually what happens is the surrounds of the speaker go bad. This is the ring around the cone that attaches it to the frame and flexes to let the cone move back and forth in the frame and produce that sweet baaaassss. If the surrounds split/get stiff/? then that'll rattle and/or cause less movement. You can get them fixed with new surrounds, and kits are out there for 8" speakers. I've got a set for my old school Optimus Mach 2s from Radio Shack ('member Radio Shack? Yeah, they were awesome at one point) and I've just not gotten to put them in. Speakers are otherwise fine, just those surrounds are old and rotted out. The Mach 2s are a really sweet speaker, in actuality, even though they were Radio Shack. They got great reviews, so they're worth redoin'.

Um... yeah, nostalgia aside, the same could be said for the 8" door subs, salvaging them because of the situation (their size and specs) might be worth it.

That said, they're not *bad*, and if it were lower/harder hitting bass I'd pretty quickly just get a box or two in the trunk with 12s or something back there and be done with it, let them door subs ride or just disconnect them. You can tap directly from the speakers in the back as again the signals are straight full audio signals, no cutoffs in the head unit. All your bass will belong to us... or the amps anyway. Catch a ride on those signals, send it to the amps, and Bob's your auntie, the car will go Boom.

Video related to that last.

 

That video is hilarious.... yeah, I'll probably go with something subtle:



Thanks again

 

"What he said"