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242 speaker placement options

J

Josh

Active member
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Location
Portland, OR
i need some ideas on what to do for a stereo in the 2 door. i want to run 6 speakers like in my 244; in 4" i the front and back doors and 6x9's on the rear shelf. i was thinking of putting 5 1/4"'s in the front, 6x9's on the rear shelf, and somehow mounting 4"'s in the rear panel somehow and my 10" kicker comp sub powered by the zx 300 watt amp. and maybe trying new speakers, like infinities or polk audio instead of the kicker ds series series stuff ive used in the wagon and the 244.

post what you have and what speaker makes you like
-josh
 
Nice idea for loud, to make it sound good you are close enough, but not quite there. The factory locations in 240's don't allow for any real imaging and sacrifice all of the low-mid, just above the crossover.

I can give details later, time to go out for a beer.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Crutchfield used/might still have a chart listing what aftermarket speaker dimensions were & if they would fit in the 240 doors, in the OEM location, front & rear.

You'll find that some/most of the higher wattage/ better sounding speakers are too "tall', and will not work with the 240 window regulators, especially the power windows.

But maybe there are some newer speakers that have addressed this problem, somehow, since I bought mine a couple of years ago.

I used the Kenwood 4" 3 ways, in the front doors, because they fit in OEM location,work with my power windows, and I could use the earlier 240 grilles, look OEM and sound good for the RMS/wattage my Kenwood head unit puts out.

I also have the Kenwood 5 way 6x9 in boxes on the package try shelf now , as the 4" rear door speakers were mounted too low, to really hear them up front. I may eventually mount the 6x9s in the package tray panel.

The KW 4" 3 way frt door speakers sound good enough for me. But then I'm not trying to compete in a car stereo competion either.
 
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in my experience the window regulators are pretty deep, i have fit up to a 6 1/2" kickers in the fronts. but ive just been using 5 1/4"'s in the front on most of my cars. and im not the biggest fan of kenwood speakers, they just seem really tinny sounding
 
If you are going to spend real money on the stereo you need to do it once and do it right.

Great sounding 240 systems don't use the 4" holes in the front doors and don't have excess sound coming from behind the listener. Great to have a ton of speakers if all you want is loud, but do you want it to sound good too?

For the front stage the best thing to do is close the factory speaker hole securely, then install the grille so it looks factory.
Remove the map pockets, sorry, that's the sacrifice for good quality sound.
Cut a piece of 3/4" mdf to fit the door below the trim that was just above the map pocket. This should cover the whole bottom of the door panel. Use a sander or router to clean up the edges. Use a 6.5" component speaker and cut your hole in the forward portion of the mdf for your midrange. If possible leave enough room to mount the tweeter forward and lower than the mid, angled towards the roof between the mirror and dome light. Sound deadener is your friend, use this liberally on the door.

For the rear all you need is some fill. A good 6.5" coaxial can handle these duties just fine.

Adding more speakers creates problems with staging, noise cancellation and wiring.

A head unit with a built-in crossover helps with the sound, as does properly matching components.


What's your budget? This isn't that expensive if you have patience, shop right and select the right components. I prefer to match my mid/high speakers using the same brand and model. There are a few suppliers that have great speakers for very reasonable prices, you just have to know where to look and what to look for.


To me a budget doesn't dictate the quality, it dictates how long it will take me to reach my end goal.
 
f you are going to spend real money on the stereo you need to do it once and do it right.

Great sounding 240 systems don't use the 4" holes in the front doors and don't have excess sound coming from behind the listener. Great to have a ton of speakers if all you want is loud, but do you want it to sound good too?

For the front stage the best thing to do is close the factory speaker hole securely, then install the grille so it looks factory.
Remove the map pockets, sorry, that's the sacrifice for good quality sound.
Cut a piece of 3/4" mdf to fit the door below the trim that was just above the map pocket. This should cover the whole bottom of the door panel. Use a sander or router to clean up the edges. Use a 6.5" component speaker and cut your hole in the forward portion of the mdf for your midrange. If possible leave enough room to mount the tweeter forward and lower than the mid, angled towards the roof between the mirror and dome light. Sound deadener is your friend, use this liberally on the door.

For the rear all you need is some fill. A good 6.5" coaxial can handle these duties just fine.

Adding more speakers creates problems with staging, noise cancellation and wiring.

A head unit with a built-in crossover helps with the sound, as does properly matching components.
Click to expand...


That's great if one does not mind tearing up/out your 240 all to hella

Some want decent sound, AND OEM looks. IMO,If you want to listen to a expensive & really great sounding stereo system, put the $ into one for your home.

But if you want to mod the car to max, go right ahead. it's yours.

But my 240 stereo system sounds just fine for me. And I have about 250 bux total in it with all new components. For the head unit,4" speakers 6x9 5 ways, and the 2 boxes & the wiring & wire ends.

That is all I'm willing to spend on it myself.
 
Yeah I already have a pair of kicker ds 6x9's and a pair of kicker ds 5 1/4"'s and 4" and a hu and a 10" sub so I don't mind getting one more set of speakers
 
Like I said. Unless you want to cut up the doors panels,take away the OEM appearance and make a LOT of mods & spend a lot of $ and time, and effort, just be happy with the OEM frt door spkr locations and mount some 6x9s in the rear.

Your Kenwood head unit has L/R & F/R fades, and adjustable hi & lo pass filters for F & R built in it, as well as different EQ settings. It also has a USER EQ setting where you can adjust it to your liking.

You will find that a 240 sedan it is going to be hard(& a lot of work) to "sound stage" it correctly. IMO a killer stereo sounds better in a 245 anyway.

It all depends on what YOU want. In a 242, one must remember that stereo thieves only need less than 2 minutes to enter the car. Just keep that in mind too.

But if you want to take it to the max..go for it.
 
rporzio... bad news & good news. I called Crutchfield & had them look up what frt door kits I used. It is no longer available. They quit making it.

Good news is, I have everything you need to make your own kit, minus the 1/8 spacer, which you may not need anyway. Or you can hit the JY, find a set, and modd them as I described. it's easy tough.
 
smokeyfan1000 said:
That's great if one does not mind tearing up/out your 240 all to hella

Some want decent sound, AND OEM looks. IMO,If you want to listen to a expensive & really great sounding stereo system, put the $ into one for your home.

But if you want to mod the car to max, go right ahead. it's yours.

But my 240 stereo system sounds just fine for me. And I have about 250 bux total in it with all new components. For the head unit,4" speakers 6x9 5 ways, and the 2 boxes & the wiring & wire ends.

That is all I'm willing to spend on it myself.
Click to expand...

Tearing it up? Hardly. the panel will do nothing but provide a solid mounting surface for the proper placement of the speakers in the car. Finished with a spray bedliner in the last 244 I did for a friend, it sounds great and looks damn good too.

OEM looks? Stay with OEM and enjoy the **** sound quality.

Mod the car to the max? Hardly that either.

This is a simple solution to the speaker placement problem in 240's. If your 4"/6x9" combo sounds good to you I am happy for you, but side by side even with the stock system in my e46 you can hear the difference. If all you want to spend is $250 then I hope you are happy with it, I routinely spend that much just on the front stage.




josh+ said:
Yeah I already have a pair of kicker ds 6x9's and a pair of kicker ds 5 1/4"'s and 4" and a hu and a 10" sub so I don't mind getting one more set of speakers
Click to expand...

There's a start.

I would ditch the 6x9's and install the others in the stock locations until you have the cashflow to do it right.






For those who say that you can't have decent imaging in a 240 I say bull****. It's never going to be as good as home, give that argument a rest, he doesn't drive his house (unless he lives in his 240). I already explained the reason behind moving the speaker location, it vastly improved imaging.

Want proof? Come over to my house. I will set up speakers in a variety of locations in my 240 and demonstrate how it works.



There are 2 ways to do this, factory locations with cheap **** or altered locations with a quality install. It's not that expensive.
 
This is a simple solution to the speaker placement problem in 240's. If your 4"/6x9" combo sounds good to you I am happy for you, but side by side even with the stock system in my e46 you can hear the difference. If all you want to spend is $250 then I hope you are happy with it, I routinely spend that much just on the front stage.
Click to expand...
So, you routinely spend 250 bux on the frt stage.

I guess that means you are smarter, more impressive, and more intelligent. If so, more power to you. If that is what you like, nothing wrong with that.

I did spend a bit of time, catching all the items on sale,used a Best Buy Rewards to get the boxes for $5.00 actual money, got the KW unit on sale at Christmas time for 130.00 & my head unit is the one right under the KW Excelon one.
And caught the KW 4" 3 way spkrs on sale & bargained a bit too.

Got the KW 6x9 5 ways for 65.00 bux on WalMart .com(Best Buy sells them for 105.00), so I think I did pretty good. So by looking & shopping smartly I saved a couple hundred dollars in the process.

But please realize everyone does not care to own a $2000 car stereo system. If one does, fine with me, but don't put down someone, or try to belittle them because they don't want one. Nor want to cut up the perfectly good 240 door panels to have one.

I'm happy with my system, it sounds fine when adjusted like I want it. It's plenty clear & loud enough for my tastes. Sounds pretty good actually.

I'm not in a stereo competetion, nor do I do things just to impress people. I do what I think is good enough/pleasing to me. And try to do it to where it blends in with the OEM look. I do not like the "it doesn't look like it belongs there" look.

I don't care for the custom,modded Pimp My Ride look too much. I like good stereo/music sounds matched with nice, near OEM looks as I can achieve.

I think I will have that when I get around to mounting the rear speakers the way I want. Mounte slightly leaning forward, on spacers with the boxes attached underneath.

Badvlvo,you have to realize everyone does not want to spend 1-3000 bux on a stereo for a car. If I wanted to spend that kind of money on a stereo system, I'd do it for the home, where I could actaully sit back & enjoy it., not in a car.
 
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