dv-12

searched everywhere within the forum but didn't find any answers or Diy on installing front speakers. Can anyone point me in the right direction or have a diy? I have a set of focal components speakers i want to put in my car and run it through my kenwood deck. THanks.

XenonBenz

Find a DIY on taking off the door panel. It is pretty self explanatory once you get the door panel off. Replace woofer, replace tweeter, mount the crossover.

However you might have some problems trying to run your compenent set off of your deck power. The speakers will be seriously underpowered. Deck power generally is only enough to power co-axial speakers or oem speakers. I would suggest getting a seperate amp.

dv-12

i'm having trouble mounting the woofers in, do u know if I have to create a new mount where my stock woofers used to go?thanks.

jedcred

Yes, you do. It won't fit by itself. Initially I used some rather large washers to hold the speaker in place with the original screws, but that didn't turn out so well after about a year or so. It was still held in there, but there was something a bit Tim Taylor about it.

Best is to grab some 1/4" plank or similar material and make a speaker adapter yourself. It's not hard if you have a jigsaw, drill, and/or rotary tool. Just make sure you shave in the lower-left part a bit more, as the door panel comes pretty close to the speaker there.

WaveyKat

check out C24Owner Thread he has Speaker install with pics i think!

Rusty Axle

Another method for consideration, if you don't care about destroying the factory speakers, and assuming you are installing 6.5 inch round speakers. Pull out the stock speakers, pour some 3M adhesive remover (found at any auto parts store) into the joint on the exterior speaker guard, then pull the exterior guard off to fully expose the speaker. Once the 3M has a minute, it dissolves the glue holding the guard to the speaker base without damaging the plastic in any way. A firm pull is all it takes to pull the guard/cover off. Toss the guard, there is no use for it. Cut the factory speaker cone out of the base (the flat spokes) from the back side with a Dremel tool (or whatever you have that will do the job). Rip the wires out of the speaker cone and leave them attached to the base. Use some 3M on the edges of the speaker cone to remove it from the base (although you can just rip it off, but won't look as pretty). You'll be left with the original base that is ready for mounting of new speakers. Drill appropriately sized and placed screw holes in the base to mount new speakers, and put a small bead of silicon rubber glue (or rubber gasket that comes with speakers) over the base prior to mounting the speakers to avoid buzz. Solder the leads that went to the old speaker cone to the new speaker (make sure polarity is correct). You'll need a few inches of insulated wire to replace a portion of the uninsulated original speaker wire that ran to the cone, don't want bare wires coming into contact with anything. Then screw the base back into the door and connect the factory plug back into the base and crank up some tunes prior to buttoning everything up to ensure there are no unwanted vibes. A little time consuming, but the end result is a very clean install.

Although it is pricey stuff, I did find that covering the backside of the exterior door skin and also the interior door frame with Dynamat made for cleaner sound. There was ambient noise from the sound bouncing off all the bare metal inside the door apparently, which had a noticeable impact on clarity.

Good luck with your project!

SeaCoupe

Wow Focals? Nice speakers.

For what you spent you really don't want to cut corners. Like others have said here, I think you really ought to get an external amplifier to get those Focals to sing.

When you put the speakers in the car you have a few minimums that you need to meet.

First, no gap in the mounting of the speaker to it's base and to the door. You don't want a slight gap to allow the rear wave of the sound to come into contact with the front wave. This creates cancellation and bad sound.

You don't want vibration, so it is best to use a sturdy base to mount the speaker to and then to the door. MDF is what I used. I traced the outline of the plastic speaker mount onto the MDF, Then I made a hole in the MDF to allow the speaker to mount. Then I cut the MDF shape out.

Weather proof your MDF mount by sealing it with multiple coats of paint.

I HUGELY recommend getting a diffuser to put behind the speaker. This is by far what I think makes the biggest difference in how my car sounded. I have made tweaks here and there, but to really get the vocals right, a rear diffuser is the quickest way to get mid tones sounding accurate.

You can Dynamat or Damplifier but, it is a bit of work, and can help with the midbass. But then you'll also need to seal up your door's openings. Lots of effort here.

Once you mount the speaker and the MDF mount to the door, you can use some modeling clay to minimize vibration and add mass to the structure. Think one note, one sound here.

What, you are not done....Get yourself a tuning CD that will allow you to here sounds in phase and out of phase. Just because the instructions on the box say to wire it one way, doesn't mean that will give you the best sound. By playing with the polarity of the tweeters (I'm assuming you have separates), and then the polarity of the woofers you can really dial in the sound to the car's best potential.

I'm going to see if I can find my thread on my door install.

FOUND IT
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...30k-coupe.html

Ed

dv-12

thanks so much for the post. I actually ran into the same problem, I removed my stock 6.5 and noticed that there was a huge plastic mount around it that is attached to the stock speaker and doesn't come off. I like how u created the mdf board ring using the stock mount as a template. I think i might try ur method since I want to keep my stock speakers in case i want to put them back in down the road.
I'm a noob at this and i have never installed speakers before in my car, i usually install subs myself and thats about it, so another problem i have is how do I wire the speakers up? I know that the crossover tells u which wires should go into it, but where would the "input" wires go? I was thinking of taping the input wire on to one of the two stock speaker wires that are just hanging, would that work?

also how thick was the mdf that you bought and where would i buy this diffuser? thanks

dv-12

i attached a pic to show u what i meant by tapping the input wire into one of the 2 harnesses.......

SeaCoupe

I like having the crossovers where I can get to them. As I mentioned, one of the biggest aspects to enhancing the output of your audio components is getting the right phasing. Seems like malarky, but when you do it correctly, it makes the listening experience so much better.

So, I would not use the speaker leads in the door. You can easily buy some new speaker wire and run the wires from your Kenwood deck to the crossover and from the crossover to your speakers.

Now, back to the amplifier situation......If you use an amp then you are simply running RCAs and power/turn on lead/ground to the amp, then amp to the crossovers. Make it a four channel amp and then you are running active. Whoa, propane power there.

I doubled up on the MDF mounts. Two pieces of 3/4" board. screwed together. In hindsight to make it easier, I would have used a base of 1/4" MDF. THe trickiest cuts are at the base because of the mounting points. Then the top part of your MDF rings can be in 3/4."

You will also need some longish bolts and nylon threaded nuts to mount the assembly to the door.

Where are you located? My schedule stinks right now, but if you are in SoCal, I can certainly get you fast tracked with your MDF mounts.

Ed

dv-12

i wish i was in so cal!! i'm located in seattle, so you're quite a long way from me. im gonna try the local hardware store for some mdf board as for the diffuser u were talking about where do u get it? any audio store?

dv-12

where do you buy the sound diffuser?

dv-12

installation complete...speakers sound amazing...will try to post a diy so everyone else will know how to install speakers if they plan on going aftermarket.

jay631

Please do I am doing this next I have got the subwoofer in there already now just need better speakers in the cabin!

jae14

Since focals were mentioned here, has anyone fit 165 VR or VB in a W203? I have an 05 C230 Crutchfield says it won't fit. They also said a double din 7" touch screen HU wouldn't fit but they were wrong about that. If anyone knows about that specific size Focal I'd appreciate it.

skittles

as long as its 6 1/2 its gonna fit.

if your worried about the magnet measure the inside clearance and check the specs of the speaker and compare. remember to slide the window down so you know if they hit.

maverik259

i put some sexy boston pro60se...these bad boys rock...powered by an Alpine PDX-4.150...still needs some tweeking but damn its nice!

maverik259

oh and im running 2 10" JLw1's powered by a Kenwood KAC-8104D

jae14

Very cool, I've been considering those as well. The mounting depth for our door is supposed to be 2.5" and the mounting depth for the Pro60se's just makes it at 2-7/16". Unfortunately for me the Focal's have a depth of 2-3/4" making them about 1/4" too deep. I was really hoping to go with Focal, but BA may be a good enough alternative. I'm running a JL 300/4 to the inside speakers and a JL 500/1 to the sub.

SeaCoupe

Hey guys, I don't have any experience with the design of your doors, but perhaps with an MDF ring you can gain some clearance.

Ed

jae14

actually that probably will work, and that's what I'm considering doing now. I just want to be sure before I order them.

TemjinX2

in my c32, i was able just to reuse the oem door spacers in the front. I had the bose system so I'm not sure if its different from the other w203's. But i would just try to see if you can reuse the oem ones. I just have to redrill the holes for the speakers to mount to the spacer, but after that it fit like oem.

jae14

Which exact speakers did you install this way?

TemjinX2

the infinite speakers one step below the kappa's. I think they were called infinite cs 6.5's or something. I remember they were a little thicker then the stock speakers bu it still fit perfect.