99 GS3

iTrader: (14)

I put a basic stereo system in my car last week, and just wanted to throw out there some pics and thoughts on these brackets available on ebay and the sellers own website: http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/

I saw these mentioned like a year ago, and everytime I thought to look at the sellers listing it says he was away, or none were listed. It seems they had gone out of business. A few weeks ago I thought to check ebay and he had them listed again so I bought them, they came in 3 days via usps.

Here is a link to the fronts and rears, although today it shows he is away again. IDK what's up with this guy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310357823262...84.m1439.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310357823266...84.m1439.l2649

So anyway here are my thoughts and pics.

Yeah you could make them out of MDF or other material yourself cheaper, but I didn't feel like it. So if they fit right I'm cool with spending $35 on something to make it plug and play. They did in fact fit perfectly with no trimming or modifications. They are very thick pvc type plastic and seem relatively strong.

The stock lexus speaker boxes are so huge and awkward these made the speaker swap very simple, and the other plus was there was tons of extra room to mount the large crossovers to the same plate, which I was happy with the way it all fit in the end. I can recommend these as far as fitment goes if you want a quick easy way to upgrade to 6.5" speakers, assuming you can still get them from the seller.

I must have forgot to take a picture of the front speakers installed in the door, but you get the idea, I did take a pic of the rear door though.

(Fitting the large component tweeters in the stock front door tweeter location was kind of a pain as there isn't much room in there for oversized tweeters with the pods, you'll be on your own for that)

Polk MM6501 6.5" Components in the Front doors
Polk MM651 6.5" Coaxials in the Rear doors

LexiBlue

iTrader: (2)

How you like the sound of those speakers

JeffTsai

iTrader: (1)

Cool, they look great. I just ordered a set of those last week. I waited forever for that guy to come back from vacation or whatever lol. He's never there! Really smart place to mount the crossovers too, I can never find a good place to put those things.

99 GS3

iTrader: (14)

I've had quite a few different speakers in previous vehicles, and bang for the buck these have been great. I have had 2 pair of the mm6501 in my bagged ranger for almost 2 years now and they have sounded great. So I went with them in the lex as well. For $200~ish for components they are very nice, but obviously components that are $600+ are way better.

I would say the highs are a little bright so keep the selectable db switch on the crossover at 0db not +3db, but these give great midbass, and even with the sub disconnected they provide great frequency range on the lower end. They do a nice job of filling the midbass gap that the sub doesn't do well..

One of the good things is that these are 2 ohm speakers, so you will get some extra power to them from your amplifier (depending on the amp).

I'm running the new alpine v9 5ch digital amp in the lexus so ohm load doesn't matter anymore, as this amp puts out the same wattage no matter the ohm load.

But in my ranger I'm running a pair of old school PPI analog amps, and the 2 ohm load made a noticeable difference, and the polks sound better than the bostons and clarions I had in it in the past, (I've had the ranger 12 years so it's been though a few different setups)

99 GS3

iTrader: (14)

Yeah I usually mount them near the amps, but then you have to run two pairs of speaker wires to the doors and is just more wire, more hassle.

Some people don't like putting crossovers in the doors due to moisture, but in my car it's not a concern since it's not a daily, I don't drive it in bad weather, and it's always sleeps in the garage.

They are fairly well built for the chunk of plastic that it is, I was worried about the speaker excursion hitting the back of the door panels, but it seems to be ok. He made the rings on risers to give magnet clearance to the window inside, but the speakers I used are very shallow, I probably could have removed the risers.

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

Nice post!!!

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

Hmm...no such thing as a digital amp, first off, and the ohm load absolutely still matters. Alpine does not recommend anything under 2 ohms per channel on those amps.

Amps are analog. All amps. If they weren't, you'd need speakers with a DAC built in, and there would be no way to amplify it since a digital signal cannot be increased, it must be converted to analog then amplified. An amp may very well have digital switching, but the output of every single amp, from a $20 flea market special to a $5K JBL Crown has an analog output stage.

That being said, good job on the install. I do agree with you that you could probably have ditched the spacers due to the shallow depth, but may not have been able to squeeze the crossovers in there if the added space wasn't available.

Big Mack

CodPiece

Thanks for the review, got halfway through making my own with particle board and decided I couldn't be effed. I went to buy a pair of these last week from the guys Ebay account, but it said he was away so I purchased them through his website and they shipped the next day.

LudeNsoL

iTrader: (14)

Nice post and info!! But stupid question are crossovers needed??What do they actually do?

justablkv8

iTrader: (2)

built mine from scratch too..lol, my garage was a mess. if I found those i would have deft, bought them

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

Crossovers divide the frequencies between the speakers they are used with. They do not allow frequencies at the filter point to "crossover" that line at full volume to the respective drivers that they are allocated to, and the larger the slope, the greater the resistance to crossing that line. If you have an 80 Hz crossover point with a slope of 12dB, you should expect any frequencies above 80 Hz to play 12dB quieter on the tweeter than the midbass/midrange, and vice versa for those below 80 Hz to the mid vs. tweeter.

Big Mack

99 GS3

iTrader: (14)

Your reading into what I meant wrong. I did not mean ohm load 'does not matter at all', of course it still matters and all manufactures still have a lowest stable/recommended ohm load for each particular amp. But most newer amps such as the alpines do not output different power ratings at different ohm loads like most older amps, where they may support 2 ohms and make 400w, but when ran at 4 ohms may only make 200w. But most newer 'digital' amps would make 400w ran at either 2 or 4 ohms.

The car audio market/manufactures refers to the amps as 'digital' amps, of course they are still analog. If your feeding with line level and out with speaker wire, like you say it's not doing any decoding. It's unfortunately a misleading term that has been adopted is in full force on the marketplace and may confuse some, and may even strike a sensitive defensive chord with some for some reason The 'digital' amps are just switching amplifiers, which are way more efficient, smaller, require much less battery power, and run much cooler. So there are notable differences, and I suppose they needed to have a term that people will understand to make them realize amps designs and efficiency have changed over the past 10 years.

No matter if the dac is in the deck, the amp, or built in the speaker, it's all the same thing as far as signal goes, the driver at the end is just gonna see voltage constantly reversing polarity. Some powered studio monitors take direct optical or coaxial inputs and the main benefit is the elimination of possible interference or emi induced in the speaker runs.

The two PPI amps in my truck are 5ft long mounted together and get too hot to touch sometimes it would melt the flesh off your finger if you held it there, but they do sound great. The 900w 5ch alpine in my car is the size of a sheet of paper, I pounded on it for quite a few hours yesterday and it gets very warm but seems to stay a constant temp and is never even close to being too hot to touch.

So either digital or switching or what ever one wants to call them, the new generation of amplifiers being offered these days are a different breed and do offer some welcomed benefits for typical car audio installations.

Yeah, I still wonder about removing the rings, as I'm still not positive if the surrounds touch the door panels during excursion. I know it's close, and I don't hear or feel it hitting, I need to check it out later, I'm gonna pull the door panels again in the future to add a little dynamat and change my door switches to different color leds.

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

I didn't read anything into it. You said ohm load doesn't matter anymore, and it clearly does. There's no reading it or interpreting it, it was just a mistake to say it doesn't matter anymore and I clarified that it does. Not a big deal, but to say I read it wrong or reading something into it is false, mang.

Only those that vary the line voltage will not produce more power into a 2 ohm load (or lower) than they do at 4, and that's not common just yet. In fact, I don't think "most" would apply at all, since there are still many companies that produce amps that make more power at 2 than 4, Kicker, JBL, MTX, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc... Certainly those that have switching supplies and change the voltage to keep the current draw the same and stable won't vary the output and that can be good or bad, depending on what you want out of it.

I agree with everything except the last part if you were referring to what I said. I was not defensive at all, merely clarifying for those who may not have the level of knowledge that you or I do.

Agreed. Why bother to educate the consumers when you can throw out a misnomer to them and figure it's a catch all?? I would rather they use switching amps, but that might actually confuse consumers who "just want something that works," which is what I used to hear all the time.

Agreed. Gets kinda pricey putting those style systems in, too, but much less complicated when you can run a single cable from the board to the outboard and then out to the monitors and not have to worry about interference. Gotta pay to play in that game, though.

Definitely benefits to using switching amps, as you 'splained above. Are you running A1200's, or are you running later models like PC2500's? Good God...I just realized that the A1200 is 24 years old.

No disagreement.

Put a piece of paper between the speaker and the door panel and sprinkle a little powder on it. No powder on speaker, no hitting the paper. Easily cleaned up, too.

Big Mack

SC300-T

If someone knows...whats the max mounting depth of a speaker that can be used in the rear doors when using a bracket like this one. I have my front doors finished, just need to figure out when I'm doing with the back.

ninja6o4

iTrader: (6)

Nice one OP You did EXACTLY what I am doing in mine. Purchased these adapters, got the coax's in the back, saving up for the comp's in the front right now. Driven by JL XD600/6 & Kenwood 8104D for sub. The coax's are breaking in now and I am constantly reducing the input to them because they keep creeping up and overpowering my still stock speakers up front

I am going with the Polk setup because I had Infinity Kappa's once before, and guys on the DIYMA forum suggested Polk when I said I found the Kappas too bright for my liking. So if you find these bright.. don't bother with Kappas or Focals

I think you'll be fine. I compared the height of the speaker beside the stock speaker mount before I installed it, and the stock speaker sticks out even further than the Polk does with the baffle, a good 1/8-1/4" if I recall.

You actually don't have to worry about it at all. Rolled down, the window doesn't even reach where the speaker is mounted.