ByThaBay

I currently have 5.25 JLs in my doors... anyone know if I can fit 6X9s in my door? I want better sound what about mounting speakers in the extended cab part on the little compartment panels under the little windows on the sides... any idea?

Poopshute

You can easily mount 6x9's in the compartments. I worked at Circuit City for a while and the road shop department said they did a pretty sick install with a 12" sub in one of those compartments. You'll just have to fabricate a plate to hold the speakers in there. Keep in mind though... you do this speaker deal it'll be difficult for people to sit back there. You may want to put some heavy duty grills with a tough wood bracket so when people sit back there it won't break the speakers. Of course if you don't want anyone sitting back there then screw it all and get the music bumpin.

I actually have a question to follow yours... will the stock stereo power 6x9's? Anyone? Anyone?

Poopshute

I just realized that I was describing the extended cab in a Tacoma. Prolly different in yours. My bad!

bike4miles

I don't think you could go any bigger than 6 3/4" in the door without some rediculus spacers that would really cut into your leg room. I have 3/4" spacers for my 6.5s. You can install 6x9s in the rear bench though.

photoleif

hey poopshute (yes, i've always wanted to say that <G> ) -- even the lowest-wattage radio can power speakers. it's not about the size of the speakers at all, but rather about their ohm ratings (how much juice do they drain from your stereo). match the ohm ratings of your new speakers to your old ones and you're fine, even if the new ones are 8x10 or 12" diameter. if you really crank the volume, you'll have problems with any system that's not fit for taking (or dishing out) a lot of energy. if your physically larger speakers also have a larger coil and heavier windings, their wattage capability ratings (meaning how much heat can they dissipate and still not fall apart or melt down) will go up, which allows you to beat on them even harder (meaning, supply more voltage). most people think of speakers and ask "how many watts do they have" -- that's totally wrong in the same way as asking how many push-ups do you have; it's not how many or how much you have: rather, it's what you are capable of sustaining without damage. for the stereo, as i'm sure you know, there is your "strength" rating in watts -- meaning how much energy can it push to the speakers (whatever their size). and even there, one watt, sustained, is an awful lot of sound out of most speakers, especially if they're fairly efficient, say a 91db/w/m rating. that means you get 91 db at a distance of one meter for giving it one measly watt. of course, most music is fairly mellow except for tansients, and that's what your stereo and speakers need to be able to sustain in order to have a very clean sound. if you have significant clipping with each beat, or with loud portions of a recording, then either your stereo and / or speakers should be upgraded to take the greater punishment and not distort. hope that helps.

photoleif

an add-on to this, too... if you want to blast the neighborhood like miles can, here's a way to figure out what size amp you'll need (and correspondingly, what wattage-capacity speakers you'll need, too, with what voice coil cooling capabilities)

take your desired dB level, let's say 139 dB. subtract from that the efficiency rating -- for many home speakers it's about 91 db/w/m, but let's say you splurge and get 104 db/w/m highly efficient horns. 139-104=35. the 104 db/w/m again means that a pure sine wave at 1 watt will yield a respectably loud 104 dB. to get you up to a glass-shattering 139 dB, what's needed? divide 35 by 3 to get around 12. to increase your dB by 3 dB, you need to double your output, so double 1 watt 12 times, and you end up with... tap-tap-tap... a 4,096 watt amp. if that weren't enough to make you want to get really efficient speakers, let's say you have 91 db/w/m speakers. what's needed to get the neighborhood rocking? 139-91=48, and 48/3=16, so double 1 watt 16 times and you end up with... a 64,000-watt amp. that oughta fill your truck bed and ensure that you don't slide around in the winter.

:-D

sampson

Hey man to answer your questions really quick. JL's are pretty good spekaers. IF you go the money maybe give a set of components a try. Those sound pretty good but can get pretty pricey really fast. I am pretty sure you could mount speakers back there no problem. If you really wanna make sure it will be easy just buy some 6X9 boxes and put them back there on the floor or like velcro them to the carpet or someting. If you wanna know anything about stereos hit me up I know a lot dude. I have been in the business for a realllllllly long time. L8r man and good luck-Sampson

Duffdog

hey photolief--

you almost had me there for a second. Just so that your aware-- that whole 1w/1m thing from the 70's is now outdated. Today, people do not stress about the "efficiency" of speakers because its total BS. When advising someone on sound stuff, be sure that you yourself know what your talking about.

The 1w/1m SPL rating is done at only 1KHz, because in the 70's, thats what people were concerned about, considering the very low BL product and low power output of the amplifiers of that era. Nowadays, audio people are concerned with the efficiency bandwidth product or EBP and not "specs" as given by the manufacturer. Its really quite easy to hit 139db with a 200Watt amp. All you really need is a vented enclosure and near lossless cabinetry. The reason for higher powered amplifiers for mids and tweets is because of the dynamic power compression that results from prolonged music-- i.e. your efficiency decreases with temperature over time. While it is true that a low powered deck can make speakers move a little, the power output from a teeny-little IC amplifier lacks the ability to handle reactive loads like---BASS.

And by the way "clipping" is a result of not enough power-- nothing else. Now, I can see that your very enthusiastic about music/sound/etc., but it seems like youve been reading a little too much Car Audio magazine.

hey Bythabay-- In my 90 toyota truck, I put 2 6.5" midbasses in each door with a door panel, then powered that with a 200 watt JBL 4 channel. That rocked out really good-- you can fit 6x9's, but they have to go vertical and they look kinda cheesy. The other option is a sub and amp combo for the lows-- i have seen 8" woofers in the little side pockets your talking about, but they need to be built with a fiberglass enclosure behind them to sound good.

T

photoleif

thanks for the clarification, duffdog. i'll check into that. sounds like i need to update my defs a bit. cheers...

DavidA

In my 91 I have a Rockford Fosgate 10" sub mounted under one of the bench seats. I took the cargo door under it off and built a plate to mount the sub. Then I used that foam insulating foam underneath it to seal the compartment. Then I have two JBL 6x9 coaxials mounted in the side rear compartments. I have 4" midranges in the factory dash openings and tweeters mounted to the side door posts. Sounds awesome!