I have an 02 Vert. I have read the Monsoon FAQ, as well as multiple threads both inside and out of this forum regarding speakers. My mind is now mush.

Currently I have all stock, but am looking at upgrading my speakers with an eye towards a full upgrade (HU/Amp) over the next couple of years. I have narrowed down the speakers to Kicker 40CSS674 for components and Kicker 40CS674 (or 654) for the rear.

1) Pioneer TS-A1605C or Polk Audio db; from my research they appear to give better highs but worse lows. Any opinions?

2) I am still fuzzy on the back speakers in a convertible: are they components or no? All I read is to slap in a pair of coaxials, but the faq makes it seem you should not do that for a Vert. I have four wires back there, so do I need components? The FAQ says they are midbass…

I do not want to spend a lot of money (trying to stay at most $200), so I would get the Pioneers, but with all the differing opinions it is hard for me to sort out what I actually need versus what people think our cars do. Thanks!

 

Your stock speakers are not wired like regular coaxials because they are not.
Camaro speakers in the doors have 2 pairs of wires running to them. One pair is for the midbass and one pair is for the tweeter. So essentially you have a component speaker wiring configuration having separate wires but are mounted coaxially. This is why I use specific speakers in my packages ie: CL-61CV.2 that wire this way exactly. They are coaxials that have separate tweeter and midbass provisions.
The other thing is that the stock speakers are also 2ohm impedance. Neither speaker you mentioned above are either 2ohm nor a coaxial so you are looking at using a 4ohm component set in a car that has a 2ohm biamped coaxial. This is part of the reason alot of the Monsoon systems I get here don't sound right or people think the Monsoon system is a crappy system. Because the wrong type of speaker is used and then it doesn't sound the way you want it to or as good as stock.
You can use a regular coaxial if it has exposed tweeter wires running up the back of it which means you will buy a brand new pair of speakers, peel the stickers off the backs of them and then cut the wires on your brand new speaker so you can attach the tweeter wires. The issue that nobody addresses with doing this besides the obvious of having to cut up of your brand new speaker, is that the tweeter signal is already filtered in the Monsoon system and the new speaker is also filtering the signal again via a small passive filter that is on the speaker so your filtering the sound twice which can hinder sound quality a bit. The other thing is that most of these coaxials are 4ohm, not 2ohm. So your cutting your power in half. While this does not cut actual audible sound output in half you are cutting your power in half so if the correct speakers are available why not just purchase the right speaker vs. just making something work.
For $149.99 you get the correct speaker in the correct size, impedance (ohm), and wires like stock.
Food for thought...

 

Thanks for your response. I have been traveling so apologies for my belated one.

I am still unclear on how this applies to the back; are you saying the speaker would need to be opened to attach all four wires, or I need components in the back as well?

Ty.