I need quick replacements for my door speakers for my 2000 Z28, all stock Monsoon system. I don't have time to have them shipped. I'm going on a 900 mile road trip in a couple days and need tunes to keep the dog I awake. I have read through the FAQ's and found lots of info about Alpine and Infinity and Kenwood, etc but a lot of that great info was rather dated and I wondered if anybody has recently replaced speakers for a stock system and what you would recommend. Since I am pressed for time I am limted to shopping at Best Buy or Circuit City or a local (Marietta/Atlanta, GA) stereo shop. I will probably have to have them install for me as I am pressed for time. Thanks!

 

The Alpine SPS-17C2's could be found at Best Buy for $99, last time I looked.

It does not take long to do it yourself. And I would not trust some guy from Best Buy to bi-wire them correctly so you maintain the stock configuration.

Here's a link to how to replace the power window motor. It gives very good instructions on how to take the door panels off (with pictures):

http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

Here's how to bi-wire the Alpines for using in the Camaro Monsoon setup:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/wiring-stereo-electronics/397043-highly-detailed-instructions-sps-170as-camaro.html

This should only take you a couple of hours.

 

infinity kappa 62.7I, bought 70-100 bucks on ebay, sound awesome.

 

In your situation I would just suck it up and get Alpines from BB. My local CC stopped carrying infinities, but they are nicer speakers if you can find them at a similar price.

HiTech is right about BB, even if you told them how to hook the things up they probably wouldn't do it because it involves modifying the speaker itself. You can do it yourself in an afternoon after work quite easily.

 

Are both of those speakers (Alpine, and Infinity) 2ohm? I would want to go get a pair myself

 

The infinities are 2 ohm, but it doesn't matter. If you have access to either option listen to them both and pick whichever you like.

The only difference is that you'll have to push the fader a little to the front with the Alpines. The end output levels are the similar.

The infinities tend to be a little more expensive. In my opinion they have a smoother tweeter and can handle aftermarket amplification better than the Alpines.

The Alpines have a sharper tweeter that can become (opinion) harsh with higher power levels.

The bass capabilities of both are similar, so it really comes down to which sound you prefer.

 

Yea sounds good, ill have to go check them out this weekend

 

Thanks, good stuff. I went though the search option and found most say infinity first and the Alpines a close second. The only problem is I cannot find that model speaker by Infinity carried locally. Best Buy carries the Alpines but I don't know if I have the patients to teach myself how to wire these in the 90+ degree heat. I may just order them online and have them sent to my destination in Michigan and try next week. At least that way I will have them for the drive back to GA. I still have the rear speakers for the drive up. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

It's a piece of cake to wire them up. You just cut the harnesses off y our monsoon speakers, and wire them up to the Alpines. All can be done inside, w/ AC, under light.

Then they just plug and plop right in.

 

I think the Infinity's are more popular simply because they are 2 ohm speakers. Even though the impedance is not really that important unless your talking about competition speakers or sub-woofers. I never had to touch the fader with my Alpines. They are just as loud as the stockers were. Even though they have a higher impedance, they are more efficient than stock. Just because one speaker draws more power from the amplifier, does not prove that it will produce more SPL.

Which speaker sounds better: Infinity or Alpine? I have no idea. And I doubt anyone else knows for sure either. If you've replaced your speakers with one, you've probably never tried the other.

I recommended the Alpines because: a) They are the speakers I have in my doors. b) I knew they were carried by Best Buy (although I paid $40 less by shopping online).

 

Where online did you buy? I've been looking at Ebay and there is a wide range in prices but many have missing parts so I'm wondering if I should just suck up the extra 50 bucks to buy them locally so I know I am getting new, and it would be easier to return if there was a problem. HighFiBuys and Best Buy have them (Alpine) for $99 right now.

 

and is any one of these easier to wire/install than the other? I checked the link supplied by HiTechGent above and it looks like that will be a big help. Are the infinities any different?

 

I just read the Bi-wiring walkthrough and it sounds easy enough, but it just seems strange that you'd have to do all that crap... anyhow, does this decrease the sound quality of the speaker at all? I'm not exactly sure what it accomplishes by doing it other than allowing you to use an aftermarket speaker without rewiring the whole system, but it just seems stupid that factory systems are never done in a traditional standard.
Thanks
Paul

 

I actually bought the older SPS-170A's last year from onlinecarstereo.com. the SPS-17C2's are just the 2006 equivalent model. I bought a pair of 4" Alpine SPS-100A's to replace the hatch speakers at the same time. The total for the 4 speakers came to $112 incuding shipping. I don't remember how much of that was the 170A's alone. BTW: replacing the stock 4" midranges with 4" 2-way speakers realy improves the overall sound in the Camaro Monsoon system. The Firebird setup already includes tweeters in the rear hatch area, in addition to the 4" mids.

Etronics.com has the best current prices on Alpines. They list the 170's @ $49.99 plus shipping. The newer 17C2's are $5 more. The Infinity KAPPA 62.7i's are $84.99. I'd expect shipping to be between $12 & $15.

The KAPPA's do have the advantage of having separate tweeter and woofer connections ready to go. Whereas the Alpines require a slight modification as detailed in the walk-thru. The KAPPA's were not widely available until late 2005.

As for WhiteStripes questions: I haven't a clue why GM implimented such a strange speaker arangement in the Monsoon system. As far as sound quality, my Alpines sound better than the original stock speakers to my ears. But SQ is such a subjective thing.

 

I had Alpine 170A's all around, recently replaced the fronts with Infinity 652.7i's in an effort to pick up a little more midbass and get smoother highs. The 652.7's have a bigger woofer than the 62.7's, but use the same tweeter and an external crossover.

I know they are not exactly the same as 62.7's, but the tweeter is. They do have a smother tweeter at high volume / power levels than the Alpines. I'm feeding them 75 rms and at those power levels the Alpine tweeter became rather harsh.

I know this is subjective but people tend to have a bias towards either liking or disliking a bright tweeter. If you know you dislike a bright tweeter then go with the infinities.

 

I went to Best Buy last night and listened to the Alpines. They sounded pretty good. The salesman said he has them in his car and likes them. Best Buy does not carry the Infinity Kappa but does carry the Infinity Reference which I thought sounded really good. He said with the stock Monsoon I would need an external amplifier to power the Infinity.

Todddchi are you using those Infinity 652.7i with an all stock Monsoon?
I'm going to go check out the sites HighTechGent listed above.. at least before the lightning zaps my power for another 10 hours.

 

Bryz, I'm in the same boat as you are. My driver's door speaker just gave up the ghost and I have been trying to find out what speaker will work. My car is a 2002 Camaro SS convertible and I would like to keep it looking as stock as possible, but also have a good sounding stereo. I know the stock speakers for the convertible are different than on the coupes', but I have no idea why that is other than one is driven by the amp or and one is driven by head unit??. Anyway, I have searched this site and other sites and it looks like there are different opinions about what is best. Does anyone have the step-by-step installation procedures for the Infinity Kappa 652.7i or 62.7i? Is the wiring procedure different than the Alpine SPS-170A/SPS-17C2? Thanks.

 

1.) 652.7i's are not suitable quite as easy to use with a monsoon setup. They use an external crossover that you'd have to tear down and wire up to the factory tweeter and woofer wiring. It is possible, but I didn't tear my crossovers down to see what it would require. So I can't say how easy/viable it would be. This is why 62.7's are more popular, they already have the two sets of connections right at the speaker. I do not have my 652.7i's hooked up to the monsoon amp, but if you are willing to tear down the crossover it should be possible.

2.) You don't "need" an external amplifier to power either speaker. Both the infinities and the Alpines are extremely efficient and will sound fine. The salesman may have thought since the infinities are 2 ohm that it would create a problem for factory head units/amps. But the monsoon setup is 2 ohm capable so no problem there. Of course an aftermarket amp will help but it is not necessary.

3.) Convertibles differ in the coupe that they only have the four speaker locations (doors / sails). Convertibles use a woofer and tweeter in each location for a total of 8 speakers. All 8 channels are driven by the amp. For convertibles the installation procedure is the same for the rear sails as it is for the front doors - you just bi-wire the aftermarket speaker using the 4 wires hooked up to the factory speakers. In convertibles 95% of your bass also comes from the front doors. The rears are essentially free-air mounted and produce literally no bass. So in convertibles I highly recommend doing the front doors first, and seeing if that is good enough. Replacing the rears will help with treble and vocals but you will NOT add any bass.

4.) Wiring 62.7i's is the same as the Alpines, but you don't even need to mod them. There are already 2 sets of connections (tweeter/woofer). 652.7i's use an external crossover. I cannot say how you would wire up the monsoon outputs to the crossover, because I haven't torn one apart, but it should be possible. This would be worth looking into, particularly in a convertible because the 652.7i's have a slightly larger woofer and you need every bit of bass up front you can get in a convertible. The woofer upgrade would be fairly pointless in a coupe with subs, though. In that setup you could just stick with 62.7i's and be fine, I'm sure.

5.) Finally, I thought the Alpines sounded fine with the monsoon amp. It was when I stepped up to an aftermarket amp that the harshness of the tweeter came out.

 

Toddchi, thanks for the info. It looks like the Infinity Kappas 62.7i are the ones that I will try. I have printed over 40 pages of different suggestions/recommendations and was about ready to bite the bullet and go back with factory speakers. Now, it looks like I can go with an aftermarket speaker. I'll keep everyone posted on my results. Once again, thanks for the help.

 

Really anything will beat the monsoon speakers, but your ears will enjoy the sound of infinity.