996 Replacement Speakers

Been searching and googling, but speaker options change pretty quickly and I'd appreciate opinions. I have a new-to-me '01 996 Carrera 4 cab with a decent Kenwood 2din head unit, stock speakers. What speakers would you all recommend that will swap out the easiest, solid upgrade but bang for the buck, too. I'd like to put 6" subs in the doors. Recommendations, comments, concerns? What amp makes the most sense for the setup? I don't need loud. Not going for reference standard here. Thanks in advance for all feedback. Much appreciated.

I would argue speaker options for your car have not changed much if at all. Best bang for the buck (cheap) and easy to install go with Alpine SPS 410. Dirt cheap and a clear improvement over stock, but not awesome. Want really good speakers go with Focal 4" speakers. Focal cost a lot, like $500 pair.

Any idea what subs might fit in the doors? EDIT, was recommended 6.5" JL's. Comments or concerns?

Subscribed!

Subscribed +1. Curious if anyone has tried the 4 speaker Focals to replace the base stock system.

I don't think you can get impressive audio in 911s without spending a lot of money. It doesn't sound like you're going for that anyway so I think you should just start out by replacing the four 4" speakers that are located in the dash and behind the seats. (assuming you have the basic system). Spend as much as you're comfortable with on those 4" speakers. See how you like that upgrade and decide if more is really necessary. Personally I have found streaming (bluetooth) music from my phone is significantly better sounding than listening to the radio. There is no comparison whatsoever. I just replaced the headunit and the 4 speakers with the Alpines. When I stream audio from my phone it sounds pretty good. I experience a fair amount of road noise filtering in on these 996s (compared to my much newer BMW) so I do turn it up to compensate.

I like my JLB GTO speakers Replaced all factory ones Sounds great

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...-speakers.html

Not sure if you have the Bose system or not - I'm not familiar with the non-Bose, but I'm in the process of upgrading my car right now - it's a 2002 with the non-Most bose system and an Alpine ilx-007 headunit. I bought two sets of Infinity Reference 3022cfx 3.5 inch speakers for the rear seating area and the dash. I haven't done the install yet but test fit the speakers and they fit perfectly in the speakers mounts after a bit of trimming on the Infinity tabs. For the doors I got Infinity Kappa 52.11i 5.25 inch speakers. It looks like I'll be modifying the speaker box a bit to get them to fit, but shouldn't be a big issue. Additionally, I'm going to be replacing the speakers in the Bose subwoofer with another set of 52.11i 5.25 inch speakers. It seemed weird to me to use coax speakers in a subwoofer, but based on previous threads (I'll see if I can find them) where people were putting JBL GTO speakers in their subs, people love it over the stock paper drivers that Bose uses in their systems. I would have used the JBL GTO speakers, but the models everyone was using were the JBL GTO 328 and 528. These were all 2 ohm speakers, so an equal swap for the Bose drivers. The new JBL GTO speakers are 3.5 ohms. So, with the infinity, I get 2 ohm for the 5.25 inch speakers a 3 ohm for the 3.5 inch speakers, which I figured was close enough. I'll post up a thread when I do the full install. I ordered a bit of sound deadening from Second Skin Audio, as I'm going to try and quiet the doors down a bit. I'll let you know the results. Overall, I believe I paid about $260 for all of the speakers - but I did shop around quite a bit.

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Hey guys, giving this thread a bump. I loaned the car to an employee for a couple of months and just got her back and want to get the sound system dealt with. Copilot, I think I have a non-bose 911. The head unit was already replaced, trying to identify and I believe every Bose system I've ever seen the speaker covers say Bose, am I right? I like your choice in speakers. No reason they shouldn't work with the non-bose system and a Kenwood head unit, right? Have you finished your install? How'd it go, if so? Happy?

Yeah, unless someone removed the logos, they'd say Bose on it. You can double check the option code sticker, as it should be one of the options. I did finish up the install. I'll post pictures at some point. It went really well, minus the sound deadening portion. I made super thin sound barriers out of Luxury Liner, custom fit to the door, spent hours.... and they don't fit under the door cards. Lot of time and money wasted. I did put in the Damplifier Pro, and that seems to have cut down on a bit of vibration from the door. Overall, I'm very happy with the install. The speakers sound much, much better. I don't know a lot of car audio buzzwords to describe the changes... I listen to a lot of heavier rock/metal, and the bass is a lot stronger without being overpowering, and there's a ton of clarity in the sound (guitar solos, etc.). I'm very happy with the speakers, though I wish I had skipped the money on anything but the Damplifier. There's no reason you couldn't use the same speakers, you just definitely have more options out there. I was doing my best to match impedances as close as I could to stock just to make sure I wasn't under or overdriving the system, so I didn't look at other options outside of the 2 to 2.5/3ohm impedance range. There may be other solid choices out there too, but I can solidly vouch for these.

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You and I like the same kind of music. I know there are plenty of speaker options out there, but the Infiniti's are a great option. I've always liked the brightness of infiniti tweets, don't know much about their current lineup but my cousin who has offered to pop these in for me said he really liked them and I almost got the feeling I'd better take his recommendation if he's putting them in for free. I'll probably just buy exactly what you got. I love bass so may add a sub later but this'll work for now.

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Picked up the Infiniti reference 3.5's, but after reading some reviews, went with Polk MM521's for the doors. So since I have a non-bose system, and the aftermarket kenwood head unit is plenty loud as is until I decide to add a true sub later, do I understand correctly that I can expect roughly the same volume from the the replacement speakers without an additional amp? Thanks...

These might work https://www.parts-express.com/tang-b...eaker--264-917 or this https://www.parts-express.com/tang-b...oofer--264-831

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I've seen these before and am mildly curious how they sound. But prevailing school of thought, at least what I've read is you just can't get a true sub smaller than 6.5". You have got to get mid and mid-sub somewhere anyway and the doors are the only option. Not hard to do a real sub later.

There are a few different things going on here. A "true sub" is a speaker that only produces low frequencies (typically below 100hz). As long as the speaker is only being fed low frequencies, it is a "sub". How "good" it is, is debatable. Depending on the size of the speaker itself, this can be difficult - much more difficult for small speakers. Although it's difficult, it's not impossible - the box is also responsible for frequency response, and will have a huge effect on how well the speaker performs. Of course physics is the ultimate controller of how much low frequency can/will be reproduced. ** putting full range speakers in a spot that's being fed a low frequency signal (doors?) is not a good idea...

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Do these fit at the doors without modification to the Box? I have been researching how deep can one go without cutting......but cannot find the information....

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i think your best bet is to open up the door panel and see what you've got in there (there are two different non- Bose enclosures) and take measurements. Good luck

"Do these fit at the doors without modification to the Box? I have been researching how deep can one go without cutting......but cannot find the information.... " No the speaker boxes will need "minor" modifications to make the subs fit and work properly. There should be a few write-ups on the "how to install" for these subs. Shoot me a PM if you have troubles.

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Hey guys. The speakers are here. Would love an answer from someone smarter than me on the amp issue. Non-bose head unit and speakers, I replace the speakers with the Infiniti and Polk referenced above. What kind of change in volume to expect? Thanks!

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Eh, went ahead and bought the amp. Can't wait.

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Just a brutally honest bump, I made a mistake going with the Polks for the doors. They're crap. Review I read must have been crap, too. Oh well, live and learn. The infinities are decent, nice and bright which I like. But the car desperately needs a sub and now the mid-bass is worse than factory. On a high note, no pun intended, all six stock speakers were blown so the Polk's are still better overall, but would have done better to have spent a little more.

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Hmmm what midbass did you put in the doors and are you feeding it low frequencies only?

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Polk. Don't recall the exact model number. Was looking for a best in class, cost effective solution and read a review or two, decided to take a chance. I don't know what frequencies are being sent to them. I'm getting a sub installed, too, and will get that guy to try to optimize them as best possible at that time.

I'm pretty sure the fact that the door speakers are subs was discussed earlier in this thread. As such, it's pretty obvious that they're only being fed low frequencies - I'm not sure of the crossover point, but suffice it to say that your full range Polk speakers can't possibly sound ok...

You also mentioned getting an amp but if your running the polks off the stock amp it will sound like crap. the stock door speakers are subs and 2ohms while I am guessing the polls are 4ohms and full range. If this is the case it's not the speakers fault.

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​​​​​​ The stock amp is out, replaced with a Kenwood and the door speakers appear to be wired to the sub channel. I'm throwing a minimalist sub in there in a few weeks and will get that shop to see if they can optimize at all, channels, frequencies, etc. Not really my area of expertise. We'll see.

I cant find the MM521's anywhere anymore. I'm currently looking at these for the doors, anyone give me a reason on why they wouldn't work? https://www.crutchfield.com/p_108R50...fx.html?tp=105 Here are the wrnings that Crutchfield gives me. To get full-range sound from your aftermarket speakers, you'll have to bypass the factory amplifier by splicing input and output wires together. Replacing the 1- or 2-ohm factory speaker with a higher-impedance aftermarket speaker will result in lower volume levels. The factory woofer in this location only receives bass frequencies from its amplifier. Replacement speakers will only reproduce bass.