987 SPP (Sound Package Plus) Speakers - Not BOSE

Hey gang, Just wanted to follow up here with some cool information about replacing and upgrading my busted 987 SPP (Sound Package Plus -- NOT BOSE ) speakers in my 2010 Boxster . After 255K miles, the door speakers were toast likely due to heat, humidity, and just plain wear -- as 242K of those miles from the original based Georgia original owner. Plus, as the interior was looking a bit sorry when I bought the car, I wouldn't be surprised if the last owner just blasted the speakers until they tore. This being said, although I'm a musician -- I'm admittedly not a die-hard audiophile when listening to recordings. Plus, I simply don't have the funds to spend a fortune on this project. I figured that if I could get something that would be close enough to the great BOSE sound in my former 987.1S and my current 981 Outlaw, that would be more than fine with me. I want a full sound with crisp highs and deep lows; it's about fun music on the road while also enjoying the song of the flat-6 engine; I don't need studio monitoring perfection. I also didn't want to spend the time or money on a dedicated amp, subwoofer, and extra wiring. I also don't need a subwoofer powerful enough to loosen ceiling tiles or tooth fillings. Finally, I wanted to do this once and do this right for the life of the car -- especially as the DIY door card removals can apparently be very trying on a 987. Going back a bit, I already had the crappy ASK amplifier tested, and that wasn't the problem per the original hiss and buzz. So after dropping in an inexpensive (new-in-box) Sony head unit last year with CarPlay (that I bought for $175 on Craig's List last winter), that was a help. Plus, I already did the rear parcel shelf speaker project (4x Kicker speakers) last summer which helped create better audio imaging in the cabin. So, replacement speakers were the next stop on my audio journey as the original OEM speakers were clearly burnt toast. Anyhow, after tons of searching, a lot of people had various opinions on how to best accomplish this on a budget. A lot of people weighed in with different solutions on the 987 Owners Group (Facebook), and the solutions were dizzying. A key issue at play involves the shallow door depth and finding shallow speakers that would fit. Apparently Audion speakers fit just great and are fantastic, but they are wicked expensive and I don't think they'd perform well when powered by the low wattage ASK amp. Was there anything reasonably affordable, yet simple out there? Well, a lot of people have replaced their OEM 8" speakers with various inexpensive 6.5" speakers, and re-using the original 8" speaker grill. As I don't have a subwoofer and didn't want to make a monster project of this, I wanted as closest to the 8" I could get. In short, I've pulled the trigger on Focals. These didn't seem nose-bleed expensive but are apparently a great upgrade from OEM. I figured since I was already doing the replacement, it was time to pay the money to replace the mids by the same manufacturer, and ideally have them match. So as of writing this (March 2023), here's what I just ordered from WoofersEtc.com this afternoon: IS200 - Focal 8" 2-Way Component Speaker System with Grills ​ ​ IS200 - Focal 8" 80 Watts RMS Component Speaker System with Grills ​ ​ Focal ISN-4 Shallow 4" 40 Watt RMS Mid Woofers ​ ​ Focal ISN-4 Shallow 4" 40 Watt RMS Mid Woofers ​ So, the cool thing is that I reached out to customer service at WoofersEtc.com -- and was able to obtain a promotional discount for me to share with you: At checkout, enter in promotional code Porsche5 -- which will give you an extra 5% off your purchase (as of writing this). That drove the price down to just under $400 (free ground shipping and no sales tax) -- which seemed great for what I was getting. FYI - they didn't give me any special discount for passing this info on, Food Biker / Road Feast promotional consideration, or any of that. This was simply one of those things where they encouraged me to pass on the code, and gestures like a small discount are always worth sharing. Anyhow, the ASK system (SPP) seems pretty obscure as most of the 987 systems appear to be BOSE. There were no clear wiring diagrams easily available...and it took a while to figure out how to get the rear speakers going last summer (I forget what I tapped into down at the ASK amp). You can read up on the rear speaker project elsewhere -- it's easily found online as many people have done this before. Basically I set up two sets of ~3" Kicker speakers in parallel, which then directly tapped off the ASK amp. This AMP, BTW -- is under the passenger seat on a 987.2 and may be in the frunk on 987.1 models. Meanwhile, a really cool guy on Facebook (in the aforementioned group) named Lyndon Conrad Bell (Thanks, Lyndon!!!) steered me towards these speakers and already gave me a ton of great advice. He made and posted this amazing ASK diagram, which really helps make sense of things: So as you can see, The head unit drives the 4" door speakers. Wired in parallel to these are the front L and R channels, which are apparently easily replaced with the tweeters that come with the 8" woofers. I think the passive crossovers from Focal go in between the new tweeters and the new 4" speakers... but I'll have to make sure I ordered the right kit?!?!? Also, keep in mind that some of the IEN speakers are 2 ohm. But especially if you're changing out your HU (head unit) like I did, they usually handle 4 ohm speakers so it's likely not a problem. I think that with the OEM HU and 4 ohm speakers, you just have to crank the volume up (from what I understand)... So especially if you add rear speakers, you get a nice audio image in the car. Interestingly, the ASK amp take's the HU signal and drives the two 8" woofers and separates out a single center channel... while the HU drives the rears (if installed), the 4" mods in the doors and the front L/R tweeters in the dash. Finally, as apparently the door card removal/install is a PITA, hopefully I'll get into each side and will only have to do it once. I already ordered a bunch of extra door clips (I think it was $10 for a bunch as they WILL break), some inexpensive sound deadening material from Amazon and a small roller (apparently makes a difference) and I plan to tighten everything while I'm in there (door squeaks, etc.) Plus, apparently the 4" and the tweeters drop right into place with no mods necessary, but apparently I will have to modify and reuse the baskets of the old 8" OEM speakers. Not sure how that's going to go but we'll see. Stay tuned for updates!

Looking forward to your updates! Those are the speakers I am leaning towards as well. It’ll be great news if the factory speaker adapters can be made to work w/o anything extra. I was leaning towards getting these adapters custom cut to accommodate the 8” speakers but that company never responded to my email/website inquires.

Thanks, @newold_m ! I have a feeling (from the kind gent who steered me towards the Focals) that we can just reuse/modify the old grills from the OEM 8" -- but that will be a piece of the puzzle. Looking at that link you posted, it says the hole is cut for a 5.5" speaker...so I doubt that those would work -- but it says "Standard cutout diameter is 5.5″ but we can change this to whatever you need, just ask." Did you try phoning them as well? Again, a lot of people buy inexpensive 6.5" speakers to drop in there and zip-tie them into the cages -- but I want as much big boom as possible (LOL)! Apparently the speakers are on their way. I asked a rep at WoofersEtc about the crossover yesterday, and they seemed to confirm that the crossover (capacitor) is already inline with the tweeter, which should make things easy. Apparently we just remove the original tweeter in the dash (front L and R) and those should have the crossover already there. In turn, we just replace the tweeters that come with the 8" (wire them to the 4" in parallel), and we're good to go. Apparently the 4"is a direct fit. Fingers crossed here!

I've heard about Focals, and heard a setup with them - they really are very good speakers, indeed. Great choice - I think you'll be happy with them. I have the Bose setup, but an aftermarket HU that came with the car, so I have no idea what the POs acutally did (I'll have to dig deeper, but I can clearly see copper speaker wires going just behind the HU). That being said, I expect the speakers may not be stock either, so I may want to consider the Focals myself eventually... we'll see. So, do keep us in the loop! Even us non-ASK setups may be able to use what you find!

Living in West Coast by the time I catch a break from morning/afternoon meetings it’s usually too late to call but maybe I’ll give that a try. In any case if you can make the stock grills work then that‘ll be the simpler solution Are you getting the ISU 200 model? I think that’s the latest 8” one that is currently on sale.

I'm definitely going to make the stock grill work, but it's a question of reusing the OEM 8" basket internally -- mounting it inside the basket may be kind of difficult and that's where I'm expecting to be tripped up. Meanwhile, the basket itself should mount just fine. FWIW, I ordered exactly what was in the link above -- so I don't know if it's the "ISU" or not.

Paying attention to this thread... if you go on crutchfield , and look at the 987 options, they list " Bose " or "non- Bose "... but I'm pretty sure the SPP + ASK amp isn't either of those two things. If you look at the speaker locations/choices for "non- Bose " it only talks about the lower-door woofers and the dash tweeters, not the midrange units higher up in the door panel. (Or center and rears for that matter.)

@tiiger -- "non-Bose" refers to either (1) the standard (aka, base) package, or (2) the SPP package (ASK amp), which was the next tier up. These run with just standard wires. The next tier up is Bose, which has a dedicated subwoofer and also utilizes fiber-optic wiring per the HU, etc. If you check out the above diagram, SPP has the 8" woofers and the 4" midrange in the doors. The tweeters are in the dash. But what I will be doing here, is because the Focal 8" comes with a tweeter, apparently I can just replace the OEM tweeter with that one...as a drop-in replacement (which is wired in parallel with the 4" midrange in the door). Hope all this makes sense. I think the last time I looked up stuff on Crutchfield, I personally a bit confused per their diagrams...

yep... And as you mention, I'll be interested to hear what you'll do with the crossovers, etc... Mine has SPP but I haven't gotten the chance to get in there and look at stuff. I'll likely change the headunit for a kenwood Carplay unit, and I'll have to figure out how the speakers will go off that. Maybe a good 2-channel amp with Focal separates and crossovers? Sub? No ASK amp in the mix with all that. Might bring it to a car-audio place for an estimate/proposal and then use that as my guide. I'd like to offer to pay them for their design time, so I don't feel bad if I just use their plan/advice, doing the install myself.

Again, I think it'll just be an even swap per the crossovers (I think they're already inline with both the OEM and the Focal tweeters ), so hopefully it's a non-issue. Check some of the threads here - I think a lot of people like the Rockford-Fosgate as an easy an inexpensive solution to mount in the trunk, but YMMV. Also, FWIW -- don't be surprised if audio places are leery of being paid for their design time and not doing the labor. A lot of places (including mechanics) hope they'll do the work and not just the diagnosis/planning...as they make a little money by marking up the parts, etc.

I've done installs in the past, so I'm thinking it shouldn't be too crazy. Yeah, depending on the speakers, the crossover question might solve itself. Can't wait to see how yours goes!

It may be difficult for me to see the crossover in the Focal tweeters , but the rep at WoofersEtc. seemed to think they're built-in; I'm pretty confident that the capacitor will be easily seen once I remove the OEM tweeters. Fingers crossed...and as I said...I think the most difficult part will be mounting the Focal 8"s into the OEM basket -- but hopefully that'll be easily sorted. Cheers!

I'm going to toss the challenge flag here regarding the ASK diagram. The have a pdf for a 987.2 Boxster ASK amp (that I am unable to upload) that seems to indicate that the amp feeds all speakers, not just the woofer & center speaker unless the mid/tweeter path is merely a passthru which I would doubt. I was toying with adding the rear speakers to my 987.2 BS (SPP CDR 30) by installing the Cayman ASK amp which has rear outputs. The output connector has different keying but that can be overcome. Haven't gotten past the pondering phase of the project.

looking forward to lots and lots of photos

Challenge flag accepted, @Topdown -- I may be wrong, but pretty much what I understand -- the signal from the HU comes all the way down to the ASK....and then recodes it to spit out the two door woofer and center channel. I was surprised with all this, but that's how it seemed. What I can confirm for you, and is pertinent here for your question, is that I successfully did the rear parcel speaker project ( 101 Projects For Your Boxster ) with my 987.2 Boxster, by tapping off the wires to my ASK amp underneath my seat; no Cayman ASK amp required. I'm afraid I don't remember which ones they were, but they were pretty easy to figure out and tap off of, once the seat was out of the car. There appeared to be rears on mine at the ASK but they weren't being used -- which was great. Having done it, I would STRONGLY just suggest that anyone who wants to do it -- just do it the right way and buy the $300 prepackaged kit from Suncoast and be done with it; my trying to modify OEM parts to fit much better Kicker speakers was a PITA and wouldn't have been that much of a cost savings overall. Do a quick search here on P9 per @deilenberger and read his article on that. Trust me -- either spend about $200 in parts and waste a ton of time, or spend $300 and get quickly set up -- complete with the factory connectors. Finally, I absolutely recommend installing rear speakers in a 986/987 Boxster -- as it gives far better audio imaging. Does it offer a ton of extra volume? Absolutely not. But it makes the car a much fuller experience (like a 5.1 theater) -- for a shallow space that our Boxsters have.

Is this the suncoast kit you're talking about? Aftermarket Radio Installation Kit (997.2 / 987.2) Check out the deal on Aftermarket Radio Installation Kit (997.2 / 987.2) at Suncoast Porsche Parts & Accessories www.suncoastparts.com Complete 9X7.2 Custom 2 DIN Kit Includes: Trim Bezel - Bezel finished in black, matches other black dash components Includes radio cage Complete with speed sensor & illumination wires, harness & radio antenna adapters, wire taps, solder shrink connectors and nylon cable straps Housing brackets designed for proper installation into factory opening - Featuring spring loaded secure locking mechanism & built-in guide rails. For some radios, minor modifications are required. Instruction Manual Included

No, @tiiger -- The link you posted to was an aftermarket radio install kit -- which I personally think is horribly overpriced. What I was referring to was this: 987/986 Boxster Rear Speaker Kit ​ In short, you could build the kit from scratch from the book project (https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/89-ELEC-Rear_Speakers/89-ELEC-Rear_Speakers.htm) ​ Meanwhile, there are far better speakers than the OEM ones, and Euro Motor Speed made up these ready to install kits. Again, I built mine as a hybrid setup using salvaged parts from a 986 speaker shelf (OEM speakers were all rotted out) and the same four Kicker speakers Euro Motor Speed uses (Four DSC350 speakers) in their kit. In short, my experiment worked -- but I would absolutely not repeat it. I would have saved a lot of time by just going with the Suncoast kit -- especially as Euro Motor Speed manufactured custom metal mounts that brilliantly hold the larger Kicker speakers and use the actual Porsche connectors. Trying to cut larger holes in the OEM plastic parts was a nightmare and made them wobbly as I had to remove way too much plastic from the OEM plastic panels -- so they barely fit.

FWIW - here is another thread on this topic: 987.2 ASK (Sound Package Plus) Wiring and amp upgrade how-to | Planet-9 Porsche Forum 'burrsg101' claims all speakers in the 987.2 SSP radio are powered by the ASK amplifier, contrary to the diagram above. [on the 987.2 ALL speakers are powered solely by the ASK amp (or bose if you have that setup). This includes the rears as well if you have those]. See attached wiring diagram. At any rate, "foodbiker', post some pics of the both the 4" and 8" speaker installation you are doing. thanks

Welcome to P9, @orbit398 - Glad to have you aboard. Make sure to introduce yourself in the new member's section and post pics of your ride. Thanks for the link to the previous thread, and the ASK Amp diagram. I haven't looked at the diagram extensively yet, but at first glance -- that looks like the actual Porsche wiring diagram -- which would certainly supersede the diagram that the the gent on Facebook sent posted. Cheers.

So I was thinking of adding a 6.5" speaker in leu of the 4" rear deck speaker in my SSP system. Just extend the wire back to each side. Being (I believe) the ASK amp powers all speakers, I was thinking this would be an additional improvement. Want to replace the door 8" woofer and the 4.5" mid-range speakers and then add the 6.5" in the back. Just not sure what to buy yet. See pics of where and what my idea is (first template draft shown)

That looks kinda neat, @orbit398 -- especially as you have the space back there. You may want to test that out and see how it sounds -- as that's easy enough to do. Just watch for the ohms per the rear vs. what's OEM (I think).

planning to purchase the same 8" & 4" speakers you are getting for the door, and then a Focal 6.5" for the back spots. Leaving the stock ASK amplifier as these speakers are supposed to be super-efficient and not need a lot of power to drive them, per WoofersEct folks. Let us know how the 8" installation goes.

Will do; the speakers arrive tomorrow. Again, my key thing is figuring out how to somehow reuse the 8" basket and mount the Focals in there without some sort of adapter. Already have the sound deadening material and roller in hand. BTW, some people wind up disconnecting the center tweeter -- but I'm just leaving it alone. I personally wouldn't have bothered upgrading at all -- but I figure it's worth the investment for far better speakers as the OEMs are already blown. Again, neat idea per the 6.5" -- The good thing is that with SPP, it's pretty straightforward and easy enough to try and see if you like the audio imaging in a test. I bet the sound is pretty great in a Cayman ...

BTW - The speakers arrived a day early. From what I can see behind the backing plates of the Focal tweeters that arrived in the 8" kit, it sure looks like the crossovers (capacitor) are already soldered onto them internally -- which makes sense. So from what I understand, those are a simple and straight swap...as the OEM tweeters similarly have the crossover (capacitor) directly soldered on. No separate crossovers that came with that 8" Focal kit. As for the 4", they came with separate inline crossovers, which I'm wondering if I'll wind up needing to put them inline with the 8"...and on which side (red/black?). Any thoughts, let me know. I'll have to go back and look at the diagrams when I have time.

As for the 4" mid-woofer, I assume the crossover is needed as the it serves as a filter that blocks out unwanted frequencies to a speaker or group of speakers. I think the 8" & 4" are wired together from the ASK amplifier, and if true, I assume the crossover would allow only the mid frequencies to those speakers, making them boom a bit more. I am not expert and would check with the WooferEct guys. Crossover are used to direct sound to the correct driver, i.e., the tweeters, woofers and subs should get high, mid and low frequencies respectively.

Sounds good. I'll also take a look at the OEM speakers to see if/what might be in place. As I said, I'm pretty confident that I'll find the crossover (capacitor) already soldered onto the OEM tweeter...so that'll be a start.

🍿 And I think I followed your first post correctly... you're keeping the ASK amp, right? (You mentioned that wasn't contributing to buzz/hiss.) Was it difficult to connect the new sony headunit to the ASK amp?

that's what I plan to do. These Focal speakers are supposed to be very efficient, thus not needing a new/more powerful amplifier. Replacing the amp seems to be more work than I want to mess with.

@foodbiker , This is perfect timing for me as I have an appointment at a local car stereo shop next week to get my speakers replaced and I have been unable to determine the exact speaker sizes (diameter and mounting depth) in order to select replacements…until I found this thread! I see your 8” and 4” choices for the doors - thanks for posting - but what about the dash tweeters? Did I miss seeing those? If nit, would you mind posting their details as well? It would be a tremendous help to me to be able to know exactly which speakers to get before I take my car in since they said they’d have to do some dismantling to see what’s there in order to determine what “might” fit. 🙄 Thanks in advance! 🙏

@DS3 - Happy to help if I can. I ran into a major issue tonight the dash tweeters are not fitting; a lot of people have been able to easily shuck the earlier versions where they just drop in. These appear very glued together; unclear if I want to potentially sacrifice these (they'd run $100 to replace). We'll see... @orbit398 - I'll keep you posted per a few pics and the ASK amp wiring coming into the door. Stay tuned.

Thanks @foodbiker . Just so I understand, is your tweeter issue that you are having difficulty removing them, or that the new ones don’t fit? I ask because I’m ok with sacrificing the current factory tweeters as long as that doesn’t negatively impact the ability to install new ones. Speaking of, what tweeters did you buy?