jfrobertson

Has anyone found some nice aftermarket speaker to replace the Mark Levinson Door Speakers with? I found a kit to mount regular 6.5" speakers onto the Mark Levinson 6 x 9 frame but now I need to choose some nice 8-ohm 6.5" speakers. If anyone has had good luck with some I'd appreciate some help!

The depth of these speakers looks to be more than 3" ... is it?

I just wanted to let you guys know I installed the "Vifa TP16WJ-06-08 6-1/2" Woofer 8 Ohm" speakers from parts express. The sound is great, much better than I expected, almost unbelieveable for the price I paid for these speakers, $20 apiece. The hardest part of the install was making the adapters to put the 6.5" round into the 6 x 9 bracket. I can't believe how loud I can turn it up without any distortion, they really sound fantastic. These speakers don't have foam around the edge they have rubber, they look higher quality than what came out.

Both the old woofers the foam was split all the way around, I guess you can imagine how bad it did sound. The stock speakers did not look like quality ($200)speakers, and I noticed the foam had split right where the frame presses against it mounting it to the housing it sits in, if I had new stock speakers I would leave the frame off and just mount using the holes in speaker frame, I think the plastic frame that sat on top was pressing to hard on the foam, it had a sharp edge so with all the flexing back and forth I'm not surprized the foam split, what I'm trying to say is it looks more like an issue with how it was mounted than the speaker itself.

I followed the procedure that several speaker threads link, that guy did a great job with the instructions. There were a few tips I would add. After removing all door panel screws the panel didn't seem to want to lift up and out, I pluged the window cont. back in and lowered window. After some gentle back and forth pulling the side closest to mirror finally came loose. It's a tight fit, I would reccomend having the window down, and take it slow when pulling out the panel. It was easier getting it back in, just make sure you give it a little extra push to make sure it's fully seated back down.

Almost all the screws are phillips head, until you go to remove the 6 X 9 from the housing, those 4 screws under the foam use a little 6 point star, I'm not sure what it's called but luckily I had one.

For the adapter I used 1/4" plywood. I would have rather used particle board but couldn't find 1/4", I wish I had looked harder because the plywood was a pain making clean cuts, I made it work but there are better choices. I mounted the speakers in the adapter and then the adapters back in the stock 6x9 housing, I left the frame that went on top of the old speaker off. and then I put some low density weatherstripping around the edge.

It all fit together well, and like I said the sound is fantastic, my wife and I drove around all afternoon. The door panels are on tight and nothing broke. Thanks for all the info on these, I could not have done this without all the info on these forums.

Just wanted to add one last thing. When calling around to car audio stores before ordering speakers I was very unimpressed with the answers I was getting concerning how they would fix the issue. One shop said he would install boston acoustic 6'5" round 4 ohm speakers, he insisted the 4 ohm would work/sound fine, I wasn't buying it, He wanted $210 for all. Another shop said they would do like another poster said and wire 2- 4 ohm speakers in series. The 3rd shop (car toys) said they wanted to set it up to have all 4 ohm speakers, I guess add an amp, they wanted to get in the car to see whats up before quoting anything, translation- big $. These shops don't have any 8 ohm speakers so I'm glad I just did it myself, the cost was much lower and the sound is fantastic, I can't believe the stock speakers sounded any better than these. I wasn't jealous of my wife's car before now I am, I have a tundra and the audio doesn't even come close. Thanks again everybody-Dave