Front speakers - replacement with Infinity Ref 6510CS

[allan79]

so so far no one sealing the speaker rings

[NickG]

allan79 - there is no way on earth that water can fill up and ruin your speakers (or the door). The door has drainage holes at the bottom. You do not need to seal them for this reason. The reason other people have mentioned sealing is for acoustic sealing - not water. The door is DESIGNED to have water in it and designed to get rid of that water. None of this water will ever get near the speaker. The only thing I would suggest is to stick the crossover a couple of inches up rather than leaving it loose (because it will rattle) and tape over all electrical connections with insulating tape in case they ever touch the metal.

[NickG]

Well I've had the Infinity 6510s installed for a few weeks now and to be honest, I'm quite disappointed. The setup doesn't sound anything like as good as even the standard setup did in my 8 year old Ford Focus.

Although the bass gets a bit better when the speakers have worn in, I find the midrange is very weak and the sound overall is extremely trebley/tinny - so much so that I currently have the treble set to -7 (or whatever the max is). In fact the sound is so poor that I thought for a while that perhaps I'd done something wrong. But I've double checked everything and I think the speakers are correctly phased as the bass is even throughout the car and trebles are wired to the -3db connector (God knows what it would sound like if you didn't do that!).

Has anybody found the same thing with these speakers or am I alone?

I'm thinking of trying to deaden the treble even more by either changing the tweeters back to the standard ones or perhaps adding a series resistor to the treble so it gets less power. Has anyone got any experience doing this?

For those that haven't done the upgrade yet: My opinion is that I don't really think this is a worthwhile upgrade - even for £50. I think it's worth spending some more money and getting a better set of speakers than this. They're not noticeably better than the originals.

[allan79]

yes just changed mine not found any change yet but will have to fit a amp

[viper8]

Finally got round to installing the Infinity reference 6520CS. These are the 2007 model and 4mm deeper then the 6510CS.
Spent 3 hrs and added some sound deadening to the doors as well.
The tweeter adapter was a perfect fit into the tweeter mount, so no need to glue them.
Overall very impressed, treble sharper, mid stronger, bass heavier.
Onto my next project, parking sensors

[FWH]

Originally Posted by viper8

Finally got round to installing the Infinity reference 6520CS. These are the 2007 model and 4mm deeper then the 6510CS.

Was there any problem with the extra 4mm?
What rings / spacers did you use?

[TechnoTools]

where did you buy the adapters for the aftermarket speakers? very thanks

[viper8]

Originally Posted by FWH

Was there any problem with the extra 4mm?
What rings / spacers did you use?

The 4mm was no problem, windows opened and closed with no issues. Used the Astra spacers/ring, got them off ebay.

[kskanoy]

Today i was going to change the front speakers according to the guide here. I started at the passenger side. When i removed the door panel and speaker mounting there was water inside ( the room between speaker and outside panel) Also the speaker element had water drops on the backside of it. Is this normal? I did this 2 hours after a normal car wash. I mounted all back together and I'm going to the local dealer tomorrow to ask them. I'm not going to place my new speakers when they get wet, don't think that is good over a long period of time.

[sitta]

do i need a tweeter mount to fit the tweeter in place? im buying second hand speaker and it hasnt got tweeter mounting hardware in tehre

how thick is the astra ring? arond 3cm? im thinking of making one out of wood

[vtec-hungry]

door looks differnt to yours pottsy, i think it might not work for the R

[vtec-hungry]

anybody whos done this mod had problems with the door seals? and can anybody post a piccy of any attempt to mod on a new R? cheers in advance

[Pottsy]

There are loads of people who have done this mod on the 3 door - viper8 above for example. The door card is longer, but that's about it.

There are no seals on the door card, it is just poppered on. There is no need to remove the rubber seal around the door aperture. So no real difference to the 5 door car.

[vtec-hungry]

anyone know what the max mounting depth on a type r is??? talking about the infinity speaker upgrade, and I want to buy something with a bit more juice than the infinities, cheers in advance

[vtec-hungry]

anyone know the max depth mountable speakler for the type r? thanks

[Munro]

Originally Posted by NickG

Well I've had the Infinity 6510s installed for a few weeks now and to be honest, I'm quite disappointed. The setup doesn't sound anything like as good as even the standard setup did in my 8 year old Ford Focus.

Although the bass gets a bit better when the speakers have worn in, I find the midrange is very weak and the sound overall is extremely trebley/tinny - so much so that I currently have the treble set to -7 (or whatever the max is). In fact the sound is so poor that I thought for a while that perhaps I'd done something wrong. But I've double checked everything and I think the speakers are correctly phased as the bass is even throughout the car and trebles are wired to the -3db connector (God knows what it would sound like if you didn't do that!).

Has anybody found the same thing with these speakers or am I alone?

I'm thinking of trying to deaden the treble even more by either changing the tweeters back to the standard ones or perhaps adding a series resistor to the treble so it gets less power. Has anyone got any experience doing this?

For those that haven't done the upgrade yet: My opinion is that I don't really think this is a worthwhile upgrade - even for £50. I think it's worth spending some more money and getting a better set of speakers than this. They're not noticeably better than the originals.

I have just found your post. I had exactly the same problem but I think its the doors that are the problem , not the speakers. It may be that its only the the 3 door that has the problem due to the size of the doors. However I worked on getting the woofers working better by fitting Dynamat Extreme to the doors , and am now delighted with the sound quality. I still have the bass at + 3 and treble at -3 though.

See this thread:
How To Dramatically improve speaker sound quality for £40 (Dynamat)

I even agree with you about the Mk 1 focus - its the only car I have owned where I did not feel the need to upgrade the stereo !!

[damianscott71]

Hello chaps,

Last week my car was in the dealers having a piece of door trim replaced under warranty, so I took the opportunity to apply some adhesive speaker cabinet foam to the outer edge of the door cards before they were put back onto the car.

After reading up about speaker enclosures on the internet, I figured that the lack of bass was due to the fact that the car doors just aren't sealed well enough to offer decent bass. Basicall, all the air pressure that is needed for good strong bass notes was leaking out from the edges of the door.

The material is similar to the draft excluder foam that you can buy for home use, but it's thinner (approx 2mm thick) and is approx 2cm wide. It has an adhesive backing.

I simply ran the foam around the outer edge of the inside of the door card, butting it up neatly against the plastic, so that it's not visible from the outside when the door is put back together. This prevents bass leakage from the inside of the door, and makes the door behave more like a speaker cabinet.

I also made a flange from the foam around the speaker cover part of the door, by running a loop of foam around the inside of the speaker cover, and on the outside too, then pressed both adhesive faces together to prevent the foam from sticking to the speaker. This ensures that the sound emitted from the front of the speaker exits only through the front of the door, and doesn't leak into the door itself.

For an investment of just a few quid, and 10 minutes work, I really think that this is an essential part of the speaker upgrade, alongside insulating the doors. The bass is now solid and sorted, and stereo seperation is spot-on.

As usual, I didn't take any photo's though! Sorry!

I got the foam from CPC (online & mail order), 1 roll is more than enough for 2 doors. When I get chance, I'll post the part number.

[damianscott71]

Oh! BTW, I insulated the car bonnet last weekend! What a pain in the butt of a job that was!!!! Can't say that it's made much difference, perhaps a little less wind noise, and I can hear the engine a bit more clearly at moderate speed.

Bonnet feels & sounds more solid when you shut it though and it should be less prone to denting when I hit a bumble bee whilst driving at low speed.

Sory, that was slightly off subject.

[Munro]

Just for the record for anyone reading thru this long thread, this speaker upgrade is very worthwhile doing.

You will read various posts about excess trebble / weak bass (my earlier posts included). A lot of this is down to the speakers taking a good while to bed in , which is a new one for me. When first installed mine sounded so bad that I was convinced I had wired them up wrong. However they now sound superb.

The door sound proofing around the speaker area is also very worthwhile doing - see the How To Forum.

[NickG]

Originally Posted by Munro

Just for the record for anyone reading thru this long thread, this speaker upgrade is very worthwhile doing.

I'm afaid I strongly disagree. I think if you're going to go to the trouble to take your doors apart and spend 2-3 hours fitting new speakers, then you need to spend more money and get a better result.

My speakers have now been installed for several months and I still cringe when I listen to them. Although they are marginally better than the standard speakers they are still nowhere near as good as the STANDARD speakers in a Ford Focus for example. I wish I'd spent more money and got some better speakers than the Infinities. I'm still tempted to bin them and get something better.