Jimmy P

iTrader: (177)

I am realy not THAT much into car audio, more about speed, but I do want to upgrade what I currently have. My 99 SS has the Monsoon package, and I am a bit tired of it. I think some of the speakers are blown, because I have to keep the bass real low. I have a Alpine CDA-9886 that I can use for the HU.
Now for the speakers, I have read that most just ditch the hatch speakers, and just use the door's and the sails. I am not realy looking for all out bass, I just want some nice clear mids and highs. What if I use the Infinity Kappa 63.9i's all around? 2 in the door panels, and two in the sail panels? Both powered directly from the Alpine HU. I think the amp in the HU is only like 18watts rms, or something like that. Will that be enough, or should I consider an external amp?

I see alot of people on here love the CDT CL-6EX from Keeaudio. They are supposed to have better mids than the Infinitys. Would I benefit from having these in the sail panels, and the Infinitys in the doors, or is it a good idea to try to use the same ones all around?

So I will be bypassing the Monsoon amps, and running new wires. I read a post were someone was mentioning still using the Monsoon amps with the aftermarket HU and aftermarket speakers, and I dont realy understand if that would do much good, if any. Any input? Thanks

onebadazzls1ta

Anything's gonna sound better with an aftermarket amp pushing the mids and highs they are crisper louder and longer too. With a factory h/u and amp the amp heats up and the speakers tend to "fade" or get softer. Oh btw anything's gonna sound better then stock speakers, Yeah even cheap pioneers will. Make sure you have a good gauge power kit don't go to skimpy on the power wire it makes all the difference. I didnt bypass my rear speakers all my speakers work and it's loud as **** with my t tops off.

vjo90rs8

iTrader: (9)

CL-61CV for the doors, wire and mount just like stock
CL-6 midbass drivers for the sail panels

That is what I am going to use off the stock monsoon amp soon. Also, you might want to think about adding a subwoofer, I am running an Alpine CDA-9884 HU, stealth enclosure, 480W amp with an Alpine Type R 10" sub and even though you don't want all out bass it really improves sound quality since you are letting the sub take care of all the low frequency, taking a lot of load off the sail panel speakers. Just go for a subwoofer that will give you more sound quality at the expense of some SPL (loudness).

This setup allow you to use the stock wiring and amp without the trouble of running your own wire and I am sure it will sound great.

Jimmy P

iTrader: (177)

I am prety sure I want to stay away from subs. The car is already heavy as it is haha. I had two 12" subs in my previous vehicle, and eventually I would just turn them off completely.
So the CL-6 midbass speaker produces just mids, not any highs?

vjo90rs8

iTrader: (9)

your sail panel speakers only get low frequencies from the stock amp anyways, the stock amp doesn't just amplify, it does all the filtering also.
They are not mids, they are midbass, which is about 100-500Hz. You want to get speakers that match your amp.
Components in the front, CL-61CV will mount just like stock which are component speakers but are mounted as coaxials.
CL-6 midbass speakers in the sail panels to replace the midbass speakers that are already in there.

Jimmy P

iTrader: (177)

But I am going to bypass the stock amps.

djdalite

i have alpine type r's in my doors & sails and two alpine type s in the hatch, you will deffinatly need an amp to push these, a memeber on here sells a nice 4 way alpine amp for $169 i believe. more then enough power, if you dont want a seperate subs, you can get some 8in subs to fit in the sails and put 4in or 6x9's in the hatch and it will be plenty loud

vjo90rs8

iTrader: (9)

sorry, I missed that. Why not use the stock amp, if you have a choice between running the speakers off the head unit or the monsoon amp you should definitely go with the monsoon amp. More power and saves you the trouble of running new wire and plus, you want to upgrade the sound quality, not downgrade. Aftermarket speakers and headunit and stock amp should sound pretty good.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Yes, aftermarket speakers and head unit running with the stock amp does sound pretty good. I have that setup in my car and I am very happy with it. I'm too old to care about window shaking bass and I just want enough power to drown out the outside world without annoying people in the cars around me (...much). You can always add more (or better) equipment later but just those items will make a very noticeable improvement over the stock sound system.

Jimmy P

iTrader: (177)

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware at the stock amp could be used with aftermarket speakers and sound good. I guess it does make sense. If the stock amp is rated at 200watts rms, theres no way the built in amp in the Alpine head unit could compare.
If its all plug and play, then I deffinantly will go that route. I will PM Kee and get a price on the 4 speakers.
What do you guys think of the MA Audio MA65B Midwoofers instead of the CL-6?

vjo90rs8

iTrader: (9)

The CL-6 might be best because they will match the front speakers perfectly but since you are not getting a subwoofer you might want to get a midbass driver that extends into the lower frequency range and gives a little more SPL than SQL, then the bazooka or MA speakers might be best. I would talk to KeeAudio about that.

djdalite

you can run the stock head unit and amp with different speakers but if there not the right ohms rating then you will get half of the power divided among however many speakers you have running off of it. you can do a 4channel amp and two componet sets for pretty cheap if you google model numbers, then just run some 4in off the stock amp in the hatch

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

The difference in impedance between stock Monsoon speakers and aftermarket replacements is sometimes blown all out of proportion. In a Camaro, the door mids and sail panel subs are 2-ohm while most aftermarket replacements are 4-ohm. This would cut the power output in half. But half the power only results in a 3dB drop in volume which is easily recovered by the aftermarket speakers (assuming that they are quality speakers like CDT) being more than 3dB more efficient (sensitive) than the stock ones. You won't notice any loss of volume.

They won't be exactly plug-and-play - you'll have to use a wiring harness adapter for the head unit and you'll have to splice into the factory speaker wires for the new speakers - but it's far less work than rewiring all the speakers to the head unit or an aftermarket amp.