Door Speaker Help! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi all I just replaced my stock door speakers with Kicker 46CSC54 speakers. The car is a 2004 and I'm 99% sure I have the option 490 Hi-Fi sound system as I have the door speakers and an amp. I'm pretty sure I don't have the Bose system but the sticker with my option codes is so faded its unreadable. I know for sure I don't have the base system The new Kicker speakers are 4ohm, 75W RMS, 225W max. When I pulled the stock speakers out, they said 4ohm on the back and there was a sticker on the housing that stays on the door that said 70W so once again I'm pretty sure they should work. Once I installed them (just pulled the old speakers out and put the new ones on using the same connectors) there was no sound at all at low volumes and at high volume (25ish) they would just crackle whenever there was bass in the song. I'm just confused at why they aren't working at all, If the install wasn't so simple id assume user error. Again, since the install was so easy, I didn't bother to test before putting the door cards back on so once I figure it out, I'm going to have to do it all over again. Also, my left side stock speaker didn't work at all before I replaced it and still doesn't, I didn't see any obvious signs of failure, but it was also dark and cold, so I didn't spend a ton of time looking. The entire sound system is completely stock, and I seem to be learning the head units tend to crap out after a while. I'll attach some photos along with the post. Link to my aftermarket speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-22JIgp876fc/p_20646CC54/Kicker- 46CSC54.html

I was going to replace the speakers in my 1998 986 boxster but i decided not to after doing some research. Apparently the door speakers are not regular speakers but sub woofers only. And the dash speakers are soldered in place without traditional speaker connections. After looking into it I realized that it was a can of worms that would probably only work with original porsche speaker replacements which was going to blow the budget.

Quotes source post: 659404

Pianoporsche is pointing you in the right direction. I have a 2000 Boxster, and the audio system in your car has a slightly different configuration. However, I think one similarity is that the door speakers are not full range speakers. They are not subwoofers, but they do emphasize the lower frequency sound. The amp in your front trunk only feeds low-frequency sound to the speakers. That's why you are not achieving the results you expected when you changed the speakers. This thread https://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/79558-door-speaker-recommendations.html has some useful information about the door speakers. I installed some low-range speakers in my doors and powered them with a small separate amp that receives a signal from the subwoofer output from my aftermarket head unit. I did have some issues with the installation because I wanted to use larger speakers. It took more time and effort than I expected, but I'm pleased with the improvement in the sound. Good luck.

Quotes source post: 659404

The dash speakers have some non-standard mounting but I have a '98 and was able to remove the speakers, unplug the wires and replace the surround foam.

Hey everyone! It took 2 months, but I finally got the sound system working. I kept my kicker door speakers and my stock dash speakers. I'll run through my entire process from start to finish and post a TLDR at the end. I started with just replacing door speakers with Kicker 225 W CSC5 speakers. after this I had no sound from the door speakers, but the dash speakers still worked. I ensured the connections, and they just wouldn't work. After this and some discussion with smarter people than me we decided to change the amp. I bought a Kenwood Class D bridgeable multichannel amp at 50 watts per channel at 4 ohms. I didn't want to go crazy on the amp I don't need the craziest sound setup and wanted to protect my dash speakers so I didn't go higher on the wattage. I ordered some adapters to go from the head unit to go to a line out converter to change to RCAs and finally into the new amp. After doing this I now had no audio from any speakers. I once again verified all connections, still no luck. More discussion with smarter people and we decided to replace the head unit. I went with the VDO Continental European style radio head unit and put than into. had to re-wire some wires on the adapter since some of the pin outs were different on the VDO and stock head unit. It worked! But I only had 3 speakers, one door speaker didn't work. After troubleshooting we determined that one channel on the amp was fried. Lesson here: Don't buy open box amps from Best Buy. One new amp later and everything worked great. I don't currently have radio just Bluetooth and aux since the stock head unit uses some sort of non-standard antenna connector, but I'm personally not too bothered by this. TLDR: Be ready to replace your amp and head unit if you want to change door speakers, and DONT BUY OPEN BOX AUDIO COMPONANTS FROM BEST BUY. Links to the major components I bought for this project (there's some smaller stuff like cables and adapters I bought as well but I'm not going to list them here): https://www.bestbuy.com/site/kicker-cs-series-6-1-2-2-way-car-speakers-with-polypropylene-cones-pair-yellow-black/6333353.p?skuId=6333353 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/kenwood-class-d-bridgeable-multichannel-amplifier-with-variable-crossovers-black/6330250.p?skuId=6330250 https://www.amazon.com/VDO-Continental-TR7412UB-European-Bluetooth/dp/B08D2R48HZ

Glad you got it all working! Personally, I find car audio very frustrating