Sound package plus upgrade

I have my Cayman S for a few months now. The HU has been upgraded previously, it's a Pioneer DMH‑A4450BT, entry level but does the job for what I need. The sound, in general, proved to be utterly crappy. It wasn't hard to figure out why: 1. No sound rear right, with rear left rattling, both are obviously dead. 2. Nothing coming out of subs and center speaker. So I am only left with functioning twitters and doors midrange speakers which explains the situation. I am not sure weather the ASK amp is shot (cabling behind HU looks good) or if the subs and center speakers are dead (unlikely), but the whole thing pissed me off, so I made some research. I initially wanted to start with changing the rear speakers first, but then you quickly go down the rabbit hole. The ASK is obviously not the best choice and can be replaced by other more modern options, and the OEM speakers by much better alternatives. The objective is a cost effective setup that is good enough and will either way be hugely superior to the OEM setup. Since the plug and play solutions are scarce and I won't ever revert back to the OEM system, and after checking quite many threads on the topic, I decided to proceed as follows: 3 way front stage: Hertz DT 24.3 tweeters, Hertz MP 70.3 midrange and Dayton RS225 4 subwoofers Rear Fill: Hertz DCX 100.3 Amp: Pioneer GM DX104 The HU will power the tweeters, the door midrange and the rear. The amp will power the subs, and the center speaker is sacrificed on the altar of modernity. From the information I got, I will need to run cables to the subs, the rest should be fine. I may have a local installer take care of it, not set yet. Everything is on the way, I'll report back when installed but it should do the job, and the cost is contained with sourcing all the components separately.

A few things There are some excellent threads here on upgrading speakers, working with the ASK amp (which actually is pretty good) The system sounds awful since the speakers have probably lost all the edge-foam that supports the speaker cone. This ia an age thing. With intact factory speakers and a decent signal reaching the ASK amp, it actually sounds pretty darn good. I did find replacement surrounds for the stock speakers (an odd size that was shared with Audi). I didn't do mine yet - I replaced them with an intact set from a forum member who put aftermarket in. I've saved the ones I took out and intend sometime to do the surround replacement before the ones in there now fail. The ASK amp came in two flavors. Depends on the year of your Cayman. The amps were different in location and capabilities. The 987.1 ASK amp is located in the frunk, behind the fuzzy stuff in front of the fuel tank. The 987.2 ASK amp is located under the passenger seat, It's considerably bigger than the .1 amp, and has additional channels. There is a difference in wiring between the systems. The advantage of keeping the ASK amp is the crossover stuff is done in the amp, not with external crossover components. Each channel can be optimized for the frequencies it covers, so 20W may not sound like much, but 20W dedicated to some speakers made just for that frequency range can work quite well. Let us know how it works out!

I have the frunk one, 2008 car. I read several good threads here indeed. I'll definitely post an update. Cheers.

I ran the 70.3's in my 997. For what they cost, I wasn't impressed in the slightest. They should cost half what they do for the sound they give. I upgraded to the 700.3's, and yes, those are wonderful. Great choice on the Daytons. You can get 3D printed rings so they fit right in the factory spots in the doors. You'll also want to add some sound deadener to kill any door vibrations, and some foam or rubber gaskets behind your 8's so that they are correctly coupled to the interior. Personally, I wouldn't have even bothered with any rear speakers at all, nor the center channel. Totally unnecessary if you have your stereo dialed in correctly. Think of it this way, when you go to a pub or concert to listen to music, you don't sit with your back to the band do you? Of course not! That's why rear speakers are pretty pointless. You could have used the money you spent on those to add to what you spent on the fronts for even better speakers. In my 997, I compete in the MECA SQL Stock class, using only factory locations, leaving out the rears or center, and so far this year, I have 3 in a row First Places in my class.

I am getting everything installed by an audio shop tomorrow, I'll pick the car up this week-end. Let's see how my "budget" upgrade works out. Total is going to be around 1275 USD (830 speakers and amp, and 445 install), not cheap but reasonable I guess, depending on the results.

Done! I am picking the car up tomorrow, they said it sounds great, will report I look forward to testing it!

Nicely done. Dayton Audio stuff is an amazing value.

Happy to report that I am VERY happy Amazing sound, crazy power as well, way more than enough. I played a bit with the settings as well to try different things. All old speakers were smoked, propely brittle, and the ASK proved to be dead as well...No regrets whatsoever.

Probably brittle? Yeah... they are toast... no surrounds means they were not working properly at all, haha! At that point, new cheap speakers would have been better... but glad to hear your setup is working well, as I'm sure it would sound GREAT! Thanks for sharing pictures!

It's got to be the heat and humidity. I'm in California and when I pulled my 13-year old speakers the surrounds were all pristine.

I would expect it to be the ozone levels in the air in the region. Ozone attacks that sort of foam (also used in the HVAC box on the flaps..) With good surrounds - the ASK system speakers/amp aren't at all bad. Thing is - most of them are now at least 10-15 years old, and the rubber has long since given up the ghost. If you're into rebuilding rather than replacing, I did track down rubber (not foam) replacement surrounds for the woofers in the doors, Audi used the same odd size speaker, and that's where I found the replacements.