Importance of Dash Speakers to Overall Sound

Since I bought my 996, I've slowly reversed little mistakes that the PO made. They had good intentions, but some of the choices were just questionable. Nothing really major, but annoying nonetheless. One of those choices was upgrading the factory sound system with a new deck, amplifier, subwoofer, and new speakers for the door and rear. I've always thought that the sound in the front was lacking while driving. Initially, I chalked it up to the loud cabin, and/or potential lack of proper baffling installed on the door speakers, but I recently realized that the dash speakers are not connected. I haven't been behind the radio in awhile, but hopefully the wires are sitting there in plain sight. My question to you all is, how much difference do you think those dash speakers make, and do you think I'll see a big improvement by wiring them up? I'm probably going to upgrade the speakers to a better matching set. Right now they are probably low-mid grade Pioneers. The stock dash speakers are in place so those would need upgrading as well. Any speaker recommendations as well would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hard to answer that since it sounds like you no longer have the factory system installed, but the dash speakers were an integral part of the stock system (assume you have the Hi-Fi system?). This will be a good starting point: ​​​​ https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-2020-a-2.html

It will make a huge difference. You need good clean sound coming from the 4 corners of the car in order to set the sound stage. Woofers in the door are not sufficient. They will complement the dash speakers. Setting the sound stage requires tuning the timing and frequencies to each speaker. Complex systems use a DSP. My simple Alpine 148BT has timing and simple frequency tuning for 4 speakers built into it. Even though I have the original speakers and HiFi amp, after setting these, to my taste, the sound has improved a lot. If you have a 4 channel amplifier for your non-subs, I would recommend getting the dash speakers.

Dash speakers are the most important ones IMO. Wire them up or get new speakers + adapters from CAI.

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The dash speakers are fundamental in giving you the proper stereo imaging of sound. Since low frequencies are not directional, those drivers can be mounted in obscure locations like in the footwell, door panel, or behind the rear seats. However, to get sound clarity, the mid-range and high-frequency drivers must be in a direct line to the ears if possible. Why is this? Because higher frequencies do not travel as efficiently as low frequencies. It's like covering your ears with your hands - you can still make out the bass range, but the clarity is lost. Porsche claims (even states it in my manual) that their sports cars are NOT the best suited audio environments. This is because engine performance is a top priority which in turn means that Porsche reduces weight at all costs and puts more emphasis on the exhaust note. Therefore, you're not going to get all the sound treatment for noise in these cars. That doesn't mean you can't have decent sound from your radio, it just means it's not going to be the same as riding in a luxury SUV with tons of acoustical treatment, noise-cancelling technology, etc. If you intend to keep the factory components (e.g. amplifier, head unit), then just make sure you replace the speakers with ones that closely match the limited power output of the amplifier as well as the native impedance for each of the drivers.

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Thanks, all. Much appreciated. I have a completely upgraded system that the PO installed. Pioneer HU deck, Pioneer components in the doors, and Pioneer speakers in the rear. Small Pioneer 8" sub box in the back shelf. Pioneer amplifier in the trunk. The problem is that they disabled the stock dash speakers and left them in place. Based on all your comments, I'm going to go through the effort to get them working again. I'll try running them off the Pioneer HU first to see how it sounds. If it's not up to par, then I need to look into how best to install some aftermarket speakers and wire them up on my 5 channel amp. I could buy a new 7 channel amp, but maybe it's not necessary. If I go through all that, I might just upgrade all the speakers to a matching brand/set. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Thanks!

It's totally bizarre that the fronts would be disconnected. I'm guessing they are blown and the PO decided not to replace them. One funny aspect of this car that others have mentioned is that many of us don't listen to music in this car. I kind of agree with them. I love to have really nice music in my cars, but this car, I'm happy just to hear the workings of the car as I'm driving. Good luck with the changes. I'm interested to hear the results.

The other thing to keep in mind is the tuning of the head unit equalizer. Mine (Kenwood) sounded like crap. I went down to the local stereo shop I bought it from, and asked them what I needed to buy to make it sound decent. The guy came out and played with the system for 10 mins and had it sounding 90% better without buying or connecting anything. In hindsight, although I can hook up wires, I likely should have had them install it professionally as I have no idea how all these equalizer setting work. I came home and wrote them all down in a notebook so I could reproduce after I disconnect my battery

Dash speakers give you highs and mids. Definitely important. I spent more on the dash speakers than the woofers and the sound in my car is awesome to me. I�m an ex audiovisual guy so sound is definitely important. FWIW I did upgrade to a Pioneer head unit for modern features.

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JTT, I just installed a Kenwood as well and had the same experience - had to play with the EQ and settings quite a bit to get it to sound good (or better than it sounded out of the box). If you are willing to share your settings, I'd be interested to see how your local stereo shop set yours up.

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I agree with the others who have emphasized the importance of the dash speakers in setting the sound stage. Based on the components you have described, I would recommend getting some good quality 4" component speakers for the dash and running them as channels 1-2 from your 5 channel amp. Then have the doors as channels 3-4 and your sub on channel 5. If you want to use your rear speakers, you can run them directly off the head unit. Your Pioneer head unit is probably rated at 40-45 watts RMS per channel so it is capable of driving the rear speakers without going through the amp. There are excellent amplifier installation instructions on the cai-store website that I found really helpful.

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Thanks. That's the route I think I will go with. I was going to use the headunit to power the stock dash speakers, but it makes much more sense to upgrade the dash speakers and run them off the aftermarket amp and the rears off the HU.

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PM Sent

I turn on my stereo in my 996 at least once a month to see if it still works. The exhaust note is all I normally want to hear. In my other vehicles, the stereo is almost always booming.

Ok, so I rewired my system this weekend. I reconnected the stock dash speakers, and they are now driven from the aftermarket amplifier's 1-2 channels. The door speakers were moved from the amplifier's 1-2 channels to the 3-4 channels. The rear speakers were moved from the amplifier's 3-4 channels to being directly connected to the head unit's rear speaker outputs. I still need to adjust the crossovers and gains settings, but already can say it is a big improvement. The stock 996 dash speakers sound surprisingly well being pushed by the Pioneer amplifier. I definitely think there is room for improvement, but they are certainly good enough as is... I wouldn't call them a weak point of the system or anything. The main difference between the dash speakers being the primary front speakers is that the soundstage is vastly improved. I might be crazy, but they feel much better balanced than the Pioneer component speakers in the doors, but that might have been a setup issue. Not sure. At speed, the car no longer sounds like all the mid-range disappears. Thanks to all who gave input and steered me in the right direction.

Excellent result! It's always nice to take something and make it better without spending a lot of money.

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Exactly why I stopped trying to ministry to toothless women in bars.