981/987 speaker adapter compatibility

I’m looking to swap the factory speakers with 8” aftermarket replacement (likely Focal IS-200 or whatever the latest vintage is) and looking for adapters that are the correct size.. Have the SPP so factory speakers are 8” option #1: right size but claimed to only fit 981 : https://www.amazon.com/Speaker-Adap...sr_1_2?keywords=Porsche&m=A1T3AW1B06XC6M&qid=1699791190&s=merchant-items&sr=1-2 option #2: claimed to be compatible with 987 but can only fit speakers up to 6 1/2”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU6T42I/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A1T3AW1B06XC6M&psc=1 How different are the door speaker housing between the 987 and 981? If all I need is to drill some extra holes on option #1 I don’t mind taking a risk. Thanks in advance!

newold_m - Hope you're well. Check the earlier threads; I did a full build with the Focals in my 987 as it had SPP, and am really happy with it.

Yes, @foodbiker your thread was super useful! Thanks also for the discount code What I was aiming to do and, which is why I started the thread, was to find an adapter was to find a way to simplify the 8” speaker mounting which seems to be pain point. If option #1 above can be made to fit a 987 that will make the Focals pretty much a drop in.

If you've got the 8" speakers in the door already what worked for me was to just modify those. Take them off the door and remove the OEM speaker from the plastic mount. Then using a sharp knife or side cutters cut around the outside of the grille in the plastic mount to remove it. You can then drill four holes and mount a deeper 8" speaker to the outside of the plastic mount: the speaker screws into the mount with new screws, and the mount screws into the door with its original screws. You can connect terminals to the new speakers and then solder the wires to the existing terminals in the plastic mount. Then you can just plug the OEM harness connector in. I mounted some Alpine S2-S80C speakers this way but it'll probably work for any 8" speakers.

The factory speakers are about 7.5" across the outside diameter of the frame. Do you know of anyone who has fitted 8" speakers in the housing in the door card? Crutchfield rather emphatically says these speakers don't fit (8" Focal) and then they list a bunch of 6.5" and even 5.5" as ones that will fit. I'd also have a bit of concern about the depth of the magnet - I'm not certain what is back there - but the stock ones have a rather shallow magnet on them, and I bet that's for a reason. FWIW - I don't think you'll actually get better sound from the Focal speakers than you would from a new pair of SPP speakers. I replaced both of mine with some semi-new ones an inmate here had after he did a speaker swap to something else. His had intact foam around the edges of the cone, and they sound just fine. What people perceive as an "improvement" is an improvement, but it's an improvement caused by replacing broken stock speakers with aftermarket good-condition speakers. I finally tracked down replacement rubber surrounds for the factory SPP speakers. They are an odd size - surrounds for 8" speakers DO NOT fit them. Some surrounds somehow came to the surface at AliExpress when I started searching using the actual diameters of the stock speakers. They were listed as being for speakers for an Audi. Hmmm.. Audi is owned by VW, and Porsche is owned by VW.. could it be? It was cheap enough to find out, so I ordered them, they are an exact fit for the stock SPP speakers. I've done refoaming and rubber surround replacement on some very expensive much larger speakers some years ago. It's a fairly simple, but messy job (getting the old molten foam off is the issue - sticks to everything and leaves black stains, just like the heater foam..) I figured I'd wait until it gets cold enough I don't feel like taking the Boxster out to do them and perhaps make a visual/photo DIY of the job. That way when the semi-new ones I have fail, I'll have a pair sitting on the shelf waiting to replace them, with a superior rubber edge (doesn't rot..) YMMV - but at one point in my life I did this kinda stuff part-time for a living.. (college years..)

Again, I had put in the IS-200 (aka, 8") Focals in my 987.2 by doing the whole DIY "reuse the basket" build. Yes, it was admittedly a pain point -- but part of the reason the project took so long was because it took a lot of experimentation to get it right; very few home wrenchers appeared to have ever done anything quite like this before and it was trial-and-error (pioneering pains, I guess?). If you want easy and a perfect fit, 6.5" speakers are a snap to put in -- especially with zip ties and a basket re-use; you'd be just fine. The sound is great and the extra effort involved definitely gave me more "big boom" than if I just settled for an easy drop-in 6.5" solution or OEM; I personally think it was worth it on all accounts. Probably part of what made this install worth it were the speakers themselves; Focals are very efficient speakers and I bet if there was a 6.5" Focal, it too would project really well. Meanwhile, the IS-200 literally gives me more bass than I knew what to do with using just my low-powered OEM ASK amp; two of these Focals was like installing a subwoofer in my Boxster . I literally drove around last year post-installation with the top down and the beats blasting in a test drive, and my ears hurt for a week (mistakes were made...). How does the Focal upgrade compare up to OEM? Without having done clear A/B testing, I'll go on memory here: I've had the joy of listening to Don's OEM SSP with working speakers and a solid aftermarket head unit at the time (before you did the AliExpress HU upgrade), and it sounded nice and crisp. To be honest, can't go wrong with OEM per sound clarity. We didn't do an insane bass test, but it was what one should expect. I have the stock Bose unit in my 981 Outlaw, and I had Bose my former 987.1 -- both with OEM head units. A lot of people hate on Bose, but they offer plenty of bass for top-down fun. Everything was crisp and sharp, and I'd look forward to hopping into either car just to listen to music. I believe both cars came with really solid Bose subwoofers. My 987.2 came with the OEM CDR-30 and SPP, and all (except the center channel) speakers were shot. So it was a night-and-day change here. As all the original speakers eventually melted/deteriorated -- I didn't want to buy parts that would likely fail again down the road; I believe these Focals should last a lot longer. Given that there is no subwoofer in SPP and I didn't want to replace the ASK amp, this worked out just fine. Paired with my beer-budget Sony HU, I still haven't dialed in the exact preferred EQ, but I'd say that for a non-audiophile budget setup - the Focal project was very worth it. (EDITED: I originally thought that the 981 Bose has better sound overall, but after a drive today with some of the same songs and both cars -- it's really a toss-up!) Again -- I may not have even broken in my new tweeters yet per crispness -- so it may be too early to tell. In short, given that my 981 Outlaw has a great Bose system with plenty of bass, I feel like the 987 now has a proper system that rivals it on a tight budget that can similarly handle top-down action. The only issue is that the lower front corner of the door card sticks out a few millimeters, so the door card in that corner doesn't snap in 100% flush. It's absolutely not noticeable visually, but only I know that gap exists you can feel it with your fingers if you reach down there. Again, I highly recommend this solution if you're on a budget and want big bass. No wrong answers here!

Seth - since you heard the system, it's changed a lot. Besides replacing the two door 8" 'woofers' (ha) with ones that don't have destroyed foam, the way it's wired up to the new headunit allows me to separately set the gain on the bass channel (those woofers). I also can dial in the gain on the speakers I added that are behind the headrests (at ear level) in the storage cubby. I can control the front/smaller-door-speakers also. I can dial in about any amount of boom that I want. I'm not a huge fan of boom (classical music background, drifted into jazz..) but a solid bass played right is joy to my ears. I am fussy about clarity (my home system is electrostatics, driven by a 400W RMS real watts amp - it's extremely clean sounding and transparent.) I seek to get the car sounding at least a bit like that, but it's hard to put 5' tall electrostatics in a Boxster, would have to leave the top down all the time.. The DSP (Digital Signal Processor) on the headunit has more adjustments than I can actually figure out what to do with. (I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out what the heck THIS does: Anyone got a clue? The sound does change when it's on or off.. but what exactly is it supposed to do - what the heck is "mixing gain" and "through gain"? Even a Google image search didn't turn anything up, and apparently quite a few Chinese made headunits have this as part of the system. Anyway - I digressed. The car sounds much better now than it did when you heard it. If I could get rid of the damn whine from the alternator it would be "perfect" (aka - as good as I'm willing to take it..) My point is - if there is one - don't discount the factory system until you've heard it with a good signal input. Sometimes it is the headunit.

That is just fantastic, Don; I can't wait to hear your upgrades in person at some point. (Hopefully we can finally figure out how to get rid of that alternator whine, as I really think that's fixable through some sort of shielding solution...) I think a lot of people don't realize that it's not just the speakers that makes a difference. In fact, I may eventually move over to your style AliExpress head unit at some point... In my case, moving to an inexpensive Sony HU surely improved my overall sound and was a step-up from the CDR-30 . It's not audiophile quality, but definitely better. As I maintained the SPP configuration, the Sony directly drives most of the speakers, and the ASK amp under the seat continues to drive the center channel and the two door woofers. Again, it's not just the speakers that makes a difference; I'm sure your aftermarket amp makes your replacement OEM woofers shine! Wow - I'm thoroughly puzzled by those multiple gains. I can see that your open tab is for "Stereo Sound Enhancement," there seems to be no rhyme or reason for any of that. Really curious to hear what you find with this.

Just one quick follow-up. As I was doing a car swap today, I spent about a good part of an hour each way listening to music ( 981 Outlaw with Bose and Joyeauto, 987.2 with Focal upgrades in SPP, Sony HU). Honestly, it was a toss-up and the Focals sounded better than I thought. Yet again, I now have more bass than I know what to do with, and it's a question of dialing in the correct EQ. If anything, the sound was really intense in that after two hours of music, my ears were hurting a bit so I had to back it off. Both were with the tops up, but the 987.2 had the removable hardtop with the extra sound-deadening material that I added to the sides. Plus, the 987.2 has the optional rear speaker kit, which I did DIY with Kicker speakers. Again, with just the stock AMP, it really sounds fantastic. So if you're thinking of jumping in the pool, the water is not just fine -- it's pretty amazing. YMMV!

Found this video showing the modifications needed to the stock speaker housings to accommodate an 8” speaker — doesn’t look too bad. Have the Focals on order from Woofers Inc and can confirm that the Porsche5 discount code still works. Went with ISS-200 and ISN-4 combo. Thanks again @foodbiker

I'm so glad! Again, it's really not that hard. Just take your time. If you want to take it to the next level, buy some sound deadening insulation (I used Amazon Basics) and put that in at the same time. It makes the car door sound more solid and helps with the sound. Enjoy!

Update : I reused the stock speaker housings for the 8” woofers and it was quite straightforward — followed that video I posted above and cut away the mesh from the housing and dropped the Focal ISS 200’s from the top. All I needed to get enough clearance was to remove the round foam around the door card. ISS 200’s came with a crossover built into the wiring connector and tucked that behind the speaker and used the factory plug. Almost looked the Focals are meant to be there Note : drop in the Allen head bolts before you mount the speakers as they can’t be installed afterwards since the new speaker is slightly bigger than the housing. What actually longer was the 4” speakers as I wanted to preserve the wiring on factory side intact. For some reason Woofers Inc shipped ISN 100 4” mid woofers instead of the ISN-4 I had ordered and the ISN 100’s came with crossovers.I cut the factory speaker connector off and soldered the crossover to that and then plugged that into the connector on the door side. Also had the make a 90 degree connection on the speaker posts to get enough clearance..

For some reason the photos failed to upload in the post above so trying to attach one by one

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