To start off, I am not really into stereos too much anymore. In fact I have been rather happy with how the stock monsoon sounds in my Pontiac. But I do have a problem now, those crappy 6 1/2 subs are starting to go... chic-chic-boom-pffft!-pfft!-pfft!

Now I know that just changing out the speakers won't work for our cars, these speakers need to run at 2ohm's and all of the aftermarket 6 1/2 speakers are made to run at 4ohm's. But what if you switched to a larger size, like an 8" sub? There are many of those on the market with dual 4-ohm voice coils just like the stock speaker. In fact the speaker I have in mind is the Kicker CompVR 01C8VR4: Click Here At only $90/pair they are priced right.

I took some measurements and it should fit with just a little sheet metal trimming. This speaker needs a 7 1/8 hole which is only about an inch wider than the stock hole. There will need to be a notch taken out of that large support beam for the magnet to clear but there is tons of space behind that. All-in-all not too difficult of a job here.

Now I know that the stock amp sucks and is full of distortion remember, I don't care about that, it has been fine for me so far and I don't want to go about the trouble of replacing everthing and rewiring it all. I do also realize that the Kicker speakers are designed to be put in boxes and not run off of "free air" but, if you think about how this would end up sealling itself with the fender/sail panel, it really would be more like a sealed box than just running on free air... It just might work.

All I am looking for is a little better speaker than the ones that are in there. I am looking for better sound but, I would really not be too upset if after all of this it would end up sounding the same as it did when it was new, at least I would be "pfffft" free <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> .

Has anyone else thought about doing this? Do you think it would work or is it too much of a half-baked idea?

 

it may just work....depends on how air tight it is back there and how much air space u have...try it man...and let us know...

 

Sounds like an awesome idea, but i highly recommend that you dynomat everything behind that speaker to minimize rattling and such... otherwise.. get us some pics when you're done!!

 

It's a nice thought but those speakers take alot more power to make them work than the stock speakers. That is one of the quickest ways to blow a speaker is by under powering it. Also they are $90 each not a pair so that would be a very expensive experiment just to blow the speakers.
Just my 2¢.

 

Why not just replace the whole system? It's not super hard, and you will get great sound for not too much money, if you know the right people that can help you install it. Here is what I did with my 95 Formula's stereo, and it blows away the Monsoon big time! (my 98 had the Monsoon so I am familiar with it's shortcomings)

My total cost was $950 CDN (about $600 US) and total time for installation was about 8-10hrs, but could have been lessened with an extra person helping out (there were two of us, and I'm not that good at this sort of stuff)

I bought a Pioneer DEH 1400 CD player new, a pair of Kenwood 6.5" subs new, and a Kenwood 6" components set new. The rest of the stuff I bought used, I bought an Orion 222sx amp which powers the subs (it's set to 2ohms mono), a PPI Sedona 25x2 amp which powers the components and a poweracoustik 3 way crossover.

This setup flat out rocks! It has way tighter bass than the Monsoon, and the components set sounds simply awesome, it is very loud but does not distort at all and with the positioning of the tweeters (high up on the door in the corner, right behind the mirrors) the sound stage up front is perfect. This system is perfectly balanced and everything is hidden out of sight. It took a bit of work and a bit of sleuthing to find the used stuff at a good price, but in the end it was worth it since it makes the Monsoon pale in comparison. And even with only 6 speakers.

Your idea is very unique, however I don't think it will work with the desired results. I think you'd be happier simply changing the whole system. The Monsoon is simply not a good system for the audio fanatic.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Johnny:
<strong>Also they are $90 each not a pair </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">****! You are right. I thought that price was per pair <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> .

Patman,

Thanks for the advice, but I had already installed that same Pioneer deck into my old T/A and didn't like it. There were too many buttons, controls, sound curves, and so forth. And everytime you disconnect the battery it would take me months to get all of those settings back to where I liked them again... Too damn complicated.

Your amp and component speakers are different than mine were, I'm sure that is the difference.

On that last car I used the Pioneer head unit, a set of Pioneer 6 3/4's in the doors, and I hoggged out the sail panel holes to accept 6x9's. For the life of me I can't forget what I had put in there but I know that they weren't Pioneers. I tried adding amps and rewiring this and that, but was never happy. I sold the car to my brother in law and through all of the 2 million settings he was able to get it to sound better than I was.

I think that the problem here is that I am not really much of an Audiophile any longer. Today, I would rather spend on performance parts, unless it's something cheap and easy.

Well it looks like I am off to the Junkyard to find me a new POS stock subwoofer <img border="0" title="" alt="[Sad]" src="gr_sad.gif" /> . I am glad that I posted this question here before I started hogging out sheet metal just to find out that $180 later it wouldn't work <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" /> .

Thanks!
<img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />