Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Car Speakers

My SUV currently have a 7 speaker system.
2 tweeter by the wind shield, 2 fronts and 2 rears plus a small SUB that is mounted under the driver seat. (however...the low end is not good). These were all stock.

Will I really have to put in a new amp? I am really looking to just replace the speakers with current wiring if possible without going thru the whole car. Calgary summer is short here and I have tonnes of home reno projects on the go atm.

It’s very difficult to give you advice without knowing what vehicle you have now, and what head unit / system it is running. And even if I did know that information, I’d still have to talk to one of my car audio buddies to find out what type of interface devises are available and who much room there is for drivers and so forth…... Bose systems are a friggin nightmare to integrate with aftermarket speakers, as well as any vehicle that has On Star. Most with factory Pass/security systems also come with their own bag of headaches.

Your best bet is to ask this question on one of the car audio boards where you can speak with folks who do this stuff for a living. I’ve had very good luck at Elite Audio. They have a SPL forum and a SQ forum. The SQ forum is where I go for advice as these guys/gals are what I call, Mobile Audiophiles. The owns who BS in the SPL forum are much more, uh…..rap and thumpity thump orientated.

He stated that he owns a 2004 Suzuki XL-7 and has the Alpine IVA-W505. The Alpine is a pretty pricey head unit compared to what most poeple put in there car, and comes from a quality manufacturer, so that is good.

As for the "7 speaker system", I generally make the mistake (my bad) of not including tweeters in that count. My car from the factory is a 6 speaker system, but the factory tweeters, as with most vehicles, are such crap that even though I have them, I don't count them. If you want to replace the tweeters too, you could go with a component system up front (gets you tweeters, 6.5" door speakers, and crossovers) and either leave the rears, or upgrade them with coaxial. For bass, you would need to run a new sub and amp from your Alpine. With the size of that vehicle, you can get a LOT out of a 10" sub. Unless you want to be thumping down the road. If you get too much bass, then your SUV rattles like crap and that adds cost to resolve as well.

Some advice I was given in the past was to just disconnect the rear speakers and go with nice fronts and a powered sub. To me, right or wrong, I wanted rear speakers still. Some people, as mentioned above, just leave the factory rears in for "fill". I guess I am thinking that a crappy factory speaker is still a crappy factory speaker whether it is up front or in the rear. So it is either no rear speakers (which seems to leave a void in the sound field) or crappy rear sound unless you upgrade the rears as well.

I have a very low mileage 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. That has 5.25" fronts and 6x9" rears. A big upgrade is to put 6.5" fronts in there, so I've heard a lot of talk about what 6.5" to go with. Oddly enough, one component set that keeps getting recommended is the Pioneer TS-A1702C. People on the Grand Prix forums say that they are great bang for the buck. Of course, component speakers sound best if powered by a separate amp, but they don't *have* to be.

Hope that helps to get you one step closer....

Try Alpine Type R speakers in the front. SPL-17??? I think.

I changed my stock Suburban speakers for Type R in the front doors and Type S in the rear doors. Used the stock head unit.

What a wonderful change!

Later added Pioneer 980 head unit. Even better!

Still later added Alpine amp for doors, 10 inch Type R sub and mono Alpine amp for the sub.

Best yet!

I agree with what many have said. I had just 2 JL Audio XR's in the front, separates, run by a JL 300/2, and a 12" JL W6v2 in the back, it rattled my little A4 like nobody's business! I think the investment in a quality speaker amp will do wonders, I couldn't believe the difference it made!

Ah, more good choices for speakers.

thanks for the help...I will go for some auditions...see how it goes first.

Would it be difficult to order Axiom woofers and tweeters and just install them into the car?

Joe Vassallo had 2 Axiom drivers in his Porsche...

Link

nice...