I my fiancée is a huge music snob, and is into seriously high end speakers. That being said, we want to look into upgrading our stock stereo without amping it. Does anyone know the factory ohms of the speakers so we know what to look for?
Also speaker sizes - in kinda confused because people seem to replace the front uppers with all sorts of stuff.

So we want to replace the factory

Upper doors 6x8's??
Lower doors 8" sub
Trunk 12" sub with better pieces while maintaining factory locations, fit, and amplification. For example, reuse the stock enclosure for the sub.

Having a discrete OE look is key.

 

will yu be selling the stock equipment???

 

The doors and rear deck speakers are 5x7 or 6x8 (both will fit) and it won't do much good to replace any of the subs without getting another amp. I've got a JL audio stealthbox which comes with a 13.5" sub and an 600 watt RMS amp in my trunk. I replaced all the 5x7's and run a JVC double din HU which powers the 5x7's. It gets louder than I'll ever listen to it at and is crystal clear. With the volume halfway up then almost everything inside the car is vibrating and the trunk rattles too (laying down rear seat eliminates most of the trunk rattle). I'd start by replacing the door speakers, I believe they're 4 ohm, and that'll make a huge difference alone. The rear speakers are a pain because you have to remove alot of the rear inside pieces.

 

Front Upper: 6x8" is the stock size, you can also fit a 5x7" coaxial. If you want something nicer, you can get fit pretty much any set of 5.25" components in there, they will come with an adapter for the midrange speaker. Then you can either mount the tweeter in the door or in the cabin. I have a set of 6.5" components that I am putting there, it is a tight fit but depending on the components you can do it.

Front 8" Subs: Don't even try it with what you have in mind here. The 8" subs are 1.8 ohms, and they have a very shallow mounting depth (3.25"). I did see where West Coast Customs built custom fiberglass boxes for some 8" subs there and they fit, the guys were saying that there is more room than people think, so who knows. But to replace them, I would definitely take the door panels off and measure. Then you will have to either find 2 ohm SVC or 4ohm DVC 8" subs, wire them down to 2 ohms, and they might work with your factory amp.

Rear deck: Same as front uppers, most people who replace these just use some 6x8" coaxials. I don't use rear fill in my systems, so I leave that out. Also the rear speaker install is much more of a pain than the fronts. Most high-end systems don't really use rear fill, but if you have rear passengers a lot -- then you probably shouldn't have bought a Mustang, but ... -- you could switch them out for some coaxials. Word of advice here -- get some coaxials with swiveling tweeters, like the Infinity Kappas, they will allow more of that sound to get up to you.

Sub in the trunk: If you just want an easy breezy stock look, get one of the form-fit sub enclosures. JL and Kicker make some for about $700, MTX has some for cheaper. MTX actually has one with a built-in amp, I would go with that one for a totally stock look. You won't get a ton of bass out of that though.

EDIT: Not sure those pre-made enclosures will fit a convertible, you should check first.

 

thank you!

 

Danielle, the way these factory systems are being designed these days, you can pretty much forget about just replacing the speakers with aftermarket and being done with it. If your fiancée is really a music snob, you will need external processor and amplification.

The first thing I would suggest is to get a processor. Sort of like a tuner for your ecu, the processor can make your stock speakers sound a lot better. Most likely, you won't be satisfied with that, in which case you can start swapping components. Let me know if you want more help. I used to work at a high end audio shop - we did all of Monster Cable's vehicles, and I've personally worked on Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis etc.

 

I put aftermarket 8" woofers in the doors and it is a major PITA. I love it but I wouldn't do it again. I had to cut the back side of the door panel and make a fiberglass box and it was a tight fit but the new ones look stock on the outside.

Maybe you could get a new boyfriend. There's plenty of them out there.

 

thank you for the suggestion! To her my midrange price M-Audio Studiophile Monitors that I have in my office at home are "cheap". A while back we were looking at speakers for my office, and a sampling was Kef, Canton, B&W, as well as other brands I can't remember off-hand. However.. I now finally understand and realize what *good* speakers sound like and it was pretty amazing to hear the difference.

btw, my fiancee is a girl :-)

 

Wait. But you're a girl. OIC.

 

People always make the mistake of trying to replace the factory 8" door "subs" with subs. You should be replacing them with mid bass drivers and letting the trunk sub(s) handle sub bass. Then they'd have a lot more options for fitment. I'd argue that mid bass is the most important aspect to consider when building a system. It's between 80-300hz that gives it that punch, and hits you hard. It really depends on the type of music you listen to though.

If I were building a system in a S197, I'd be doing a 1" tweeter/3" midrange combo on the A-pillars, with a passive crossover on them; 5.25-6.5" midrange in the kick panels or factory location for the 5x7s in the doors; 8" mid bass (something like the JL ZR800) in the door sub location; a single 12" sub in a sealed enclosure in the trunk; Audison bit one processor (or similar); Audison Voce amps (5.1k for A-pillars, midrange and sub, Due for mid bass).

You can piece together the speakers by buying OEM versions from partsexpress/madisound to save some money, but I'd stick with the same manufacturer for amps and processor. I really like Audison's new all digital solutions, especially considering you have the Electronics Package. It will keep everything clean and you will only have to run power/ground/speaker wire, no RCAs.

 

 

While we may not like the same brands, I do agree with pretty much everything else you have to say. Having competed in SQ for years (back in the day), everything you say is pretty spot-on.

The difficult part, as you said in another thread, is finding a place for those darn tweeters! I'm sure that Q-Logic will come out with some kick panels that fit soon, or you could have some custom made, but I can't find a good spot on the A-pillars.

 

Oh just saw this too if you're looking for a sub. Almost certain it's the same fit for 10+ convertibles.

https://themustangsource.com/f666/jl...re-box-500392/

 

I have the Factory Nav Shaker 500.

I went with Focal 5x7 speakers in the front doors and moved the door speakers to the rear deck (for more high and mid in the back)

In the trunk I also installed a JL Audio 13.5 Stealthbox with a JL Audio 500.1 Amp. I think it sounds really good.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath for Q-logic kicks at this point. They would've made them for the S197 by now. I know the A-pillars have a terrible angle on them, making it look impossible for mounting. Think outside the box. When we made my A-pillars in my Escape, we machined plastic ABS rings for the tweeter and midrange, glued them in place using CA glue (aiming them at the opposite headrest with a laser sight), then cut strips of ABS to give the ring support and shape, stretched grille cloth over the shape and glued that in place, brushed resin over the cloth, then filled/sanded until I was satisfied. I had intentions of covering the panels with matching vinyl (and even bought it) but coveted the panels with dark gray grille cloth that matched my dash, as a short term solution, but I liked the way it came out so I left it!

You can accomplish good sound with almost any brand equipment. The install and tuning make up 70-80% of the way your system is going to sound. Take for example, the SQ competition Civic that was built by my old shop - Junior used only Sony products (excluding the Alpine processor) to showcase amazing sound quality from crap speakers that you can buy at Walmart, but with a good processor and good install, it ended up a show-winning car.

 

You know the rules of the internets... "pictures or it didn't happen."

 

I would say that without additional amplification extremely high end speakers will not sound much better than mid line speakers. Any system tends to be only as good as it's weakest link. In this case, the oem head unit and amplifiers. I was a car stereo installer for many years and managed a high end audio store for many years more after. I often saw people that were unhappy after building a system with some high and mid line products.

 

This is, for the most part, very true.

 

bringing it up, since it's my thread, but any chance that the JBL GTO938 (6x9) might fit in the doors?

any idea of the rear speaker size on a convertible? I'm not scared of replacing all four. Subs will do for now. I have a feeling that once I replace these speakers I'll find myself a lot happier with the low end because the mids won't be muddying everything up.

 

6x9s will require cutting of metal. Guaranteed. The rears, I believe are separate 5.25 and tweeters, at least that's how they are on SN95 Verts. If not, they're 5x7s as well. Make sure you add some deadener on the door/quarter panels - bare minimum - this will help your new speakers perform. I'd also wrap your adapters with the deadener before mounting them.