Hey guys! I'm a long time visitor of this site and finally decided to register.

I have a question regarding sail panel speakers in 4th Gen Camaros. I would like to replace mine as they are completely shot. Yesterday, a faulty stereo head unit caused me to blow a fuse and after taking it in to the audio shop, they replaced it for free as it was under warranty. Everything seemed fine, my aftermarket speakers in the front and in the hatch did not seem to be affected after the replacement of the head unit nor did my aftermarket sub that sits on the upper part of the hatch. I had the same audio shop install my speakers, head unit, and sub.

However, after listening to a couple songs, I noticed a horrible popping noise coming from my left sail panel speaker in the rear then a few seconds later, it stopped. Checked the speaker to see if it was still working and nothing was coming from it at all. My right sail speaker is barely working, I notice a little bass coming from it but not much. The sail panel speakers are stock as far as I can tell by looking at them (I bought the car back in April).

I read in a few places that the stock 6.5" speakers in the sail (rear) are actually subwoofers. Is this true? How easy are they to replace? They seemed pretty straightforward when I took off the grille cover on the speaker, it looked like a few bolts and it could pop out and be replaced.

What I'm wondering is what aftermarket speakers work well in this situation? Should I get a pair of 6.5" subs and put them in there? Or will 6.5" speakers work better? I'm not great with these kinds of things so if it's a lot more than just a plug-and-play type of deal, I may have to get them installed elsewhere. Thanks in advance for any information you guys could provide me!!

 

Some people replace them with the 6.5" Kicker subs. I put a pair of Alpine Type R coaxial speakers in there - they sound pretty good for the price.

 

Thanks for the reply, Guitar. What are a good pair of 6.5" kicker subs that wouldn't involve much in the way of installation? I would like to go the kicker route as my sub in the hatch is only an 8 inch. It sounds nice, but I could definitely use a bit more "umph". Also, would I have to get anything else (wiring etc.) for them to work or would they basically just be plug in and play and work fine with the rest of my current system? (Sorry I'm really kind of newb when it comes to car audio).

Edit: Did some searching and Kee Audio, who is a sponsor on this site, sells some bazooka 6.5" kickers that from the sound of it fit very well in the 4th gen sail panels. Has anyone had experience with these? What's the difficulty as far as installation? I'll post a link to them:

http://www.keeaudio.com/bazooka.html

 

Unless you start with a base factory system (if you have hatch speakers then it's not base it's Monsoon) or you completely rewire, putting coaxial speakers in the sail panels will sound like crap... worse than no speakers at all.

"Kicker" is a brand name not a type of speaker so they aren't Bazooka 6.5" kickers, they're Bazooka 6.5" subs. They fit well, are easy to install, and everybody who has used them seems to be very pleased. A search for "bazooka" will get you lots of information.

Please read the Monsoon FAQ sticky at the top of the section for a thorough explanation of the speakers used and what makes good replacements.

 

Great, thanks, Whitebird! I did some reading on the Monsoon sticky and it sounds like the Bazooka 6.5" subs are the way to go, I'm going to get a pair as soon as I get the extra money. Thanks again to both of you for the great advice!!

 

I put Kicker 6.5" in mine. I now have too much bass. I think I'm gonna have to put tweeters in the A-pillar to help balance out the sound. I replace all of my speakers with Kicker brand as well as the amp for the hatch sub. It produces a ton of bass that overpowers everything else.

 

What?

I assume you're saying if you straight replace them with coaxial speakers, since there are meant to be 'subs' there, it will sound bad?

 

The Monsoon system amp sends only low frequency signal to the sail panel subs so installing full-range or coaxial speakers that aren't built to handle that bass-only signal will sound like crap. The tweeters of the coaxial just sit there with nothing to do and the light duty voice coil of the coaxial mid is not designed to handle bass like a sub does.

You can avoid that by installing the proper type of speaker (subs) in the sail panels, by disconnecting the hatch speakers and running their full-range signal wires to the sail panels, or by leaving the Monsoon amp out of the equation and rewiring directly to the head unit or to an aftermarket amp.

If you simply install coaxial speakers in the sail panels and connect them to one of the two pairs of factory speaker wires from the Monsoon amp, you are giving up half the available power there and putting up with terrible sound from speakers not designed for that purpose.

 

That makes sense. I switched my headunit when I did speakers so I didn't really think about that.