ace72ace

Trying to see what aftermarket 8" subs will fit in the doors. I read that JL Audio ZR800s fit, but those are on the pricey side so I'm considering alternatives. Sure I could take 15 min to break out the tools and measure myself, but if the info is already out there... I have a set of GT Premium door panels ready to install in my 13 Boss. There is quite a big assembly behind the stock 8" speaker grille. No doubt to improve the sound of the cheap factory sub. I hope whatever I choose to install will fit right in with minimal cutting/modification req. I must retain the panel speaker grilles, otherwise the install looks hacked in my eyes.

Also, what dynamat alternatives has anyone used to line both doors? I'm going to replace my JL Audio 6x8s with 6.5" component speakers, and remount the power mirror adj switch to the armrest so the tweeters can be mounted in the triangles. Just received what I hope is a decent 2/3/4ch amp from Amazon, will be testing it out today.

linelock

I used Dayton Audio RS225-4 midbase speakers to replace the factory door subs. I did have to use a heatgun to stretch out the plastic enclosure because of the larger diameter magnet on these speakers. The factory speakers use a very small neodymium magnet for an 8" driver and as the enclosure gets deeper it also gets narrower making it hard to fit a deep speaker with a standard type magnet. If you look at your panels you will see what I am talking about.

I did reuse the factory speaker cover, although there is about a 2mm space between the door panel and the speaker cover due to the difference between the mounting flange thickness of the stock and aftermarket speakers. It is not something that anyone has ever noticed though. It looks very stock.

ace72ace

Thanks! I browse Parts Express all the time and had looked at some of their speakers. I have 2 Dayton Audio 10" powered subs hooked up to my Yamaha 7.2 Surround Sound Receiver, great quality and bang for the buck.

I'm considering these down low;

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/db840dvc#reviews

And the 6.5" up top;

http://www.polkaudio.com/products/db6501#reviews

I just replaced my failing ancient Yamaha 4x75w amp with a Crunch DRA1450.4, and now I can see just how horrific the signal coming out of the stock head unit blows.... What a great value for a 4/3/2ch amp, with tons of options...

I'll worry about rear deck plus subwoofer later, for now I'm just concentrating on the doors.

linelock

The depth of those db840's may be to much unless you are willing to cut out the plastic enclosure that is part of the door panel. The speakers I am using are 3 5/8" from the back of the flange and I don't think there was much more then 1/8" to a 1/4" clearance left. I know it was pretty close.

Back in the day I was a fan of Polk's home speakers but I haven't been following them so don't know what their standards are these days. If that's what you like, go for it

I also wanted to get those JL zr800's but I couldn't justify the cost. The rs225's I am using are only playing from 300-90hz so they do well there. I use an Alpine spx-13pro 5 1/4 component set in a plate in the factory 6x8 location. These are driven from a 6ch JL Audio amp. I use the factory shaker1000 sub and amp to complete an active 4-way system. I don't use any rear fill.

I do use the factory Shaker1000 non-nav head unit but I have it feeding a JBL MS-8 processor that de-eq's and flattens the source signal.

Good luck with your system.

mac951

Let me know if you can get those in. I was considering them but the mounting depth isn't deep enough according to crutchfield. Maybe with some modification though.

ace72ace

I'd be willing to do some trimming on the panels as the price point is good and I'm wiling to take my time and do this install right. I'll create a separate thread on my install later.

Any advice on cheaper dynamat alternatives for the doors?

zbrewha863

I don't think those subs are going to fit, you have about 3.75" of clearance at the most, and that is with smaller magnets (like the Dayton mids). My JL Audio 8W3v2 subs won't fit, even though they are shallow enough, because the basket and magnet are too wide on the back. I would recommend either going with some subs with smaller magnets or going with midbass drivers instead. I used some McIntosh 8" subs before that were amazing, if you can find them I would recommend them again.

Also, keep in mind that you don't need nearly as much bass when it's in your face. I would say about half of what you're using on your subs in the trunk, max. We had to dial my McIntosh subs way down on the gains because they were just overpowering everything. I ended up with them just slightly less powered than my component speakers and it sounds excellent.

ace72ace

I think I will take your advice and get these speakers. Will pull out my panels later today and take some pix of the back so we call can see what you are talking about. I don't have a heat gun, can I just file off or grind out the plastic to get the magnets to fit? Guess I'll have an idea when I check the panels.

Also trying determine if the Polk component 6.5s can be installed up top w/o a mounting bracket...

linelock

Yes, you could cut out a bit of the plastic. I wanted to keep the enclosure intact so that's why I stretched it. It's the angled part towards the front of the car that is the issue.

I don't know how these drivers will perform as a sub woofer, as I am using them as a mid-bass driver. I also had to drill the mounting flange to match the factory mounting holes. Just a heads up.

And to answer your other question, I just ended up using dynomat as it was locally available.

kingofsting

I replaced the subs in my old 05 with Rockford subs a few years ago. You'll need to either use a heat gun to mold the enclosure (what I did) or cut out the plastic and use fiberglass to alter the enclosure (to maintain structural integrity). I didn't bother replacing the subs on my 13, but I imagine the door enclosure is still the same from the factory.

zbrewha863

Exactly -- you can cut the structure, but if you don't fill it in, you have a speaker running open air. You can do that with midrange/midbass speakers just fine, but with subs you need to get ones that are made for open air. The doors have waveguide type enclosures built into them.

There are holes in the waveguides though, not sure why. I patched mine up with left over pieces of Dynomat.

ace72ace

Just took delivery of the DA-225s... Holy hell these things are huge, can't wait to take a side by side comparison pic of these vs. the cheap stockers. These should pair nicely with the Infinity 6.5 Kappas that will go just above them.

ace72ace

UPDATE - I ended up putting up some pix as a guy over on AFM was asking the same questions about the 8" speakers in the doors, and we were really heading down the same road of how to best upgrade. So here's the link to the AFM and a bunch of the pix I've taken so far. Will do my own full thread when I finish the rest of the install.

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...-door-sub.html

clucas

I took these:

ace72ace

Thanks for posting the 'tale of the tape'. All the high res pix in the world don't help much when you are looking at physical dimension specs when trying to figure out what fits, and what needs some 'persuasion'...

clucas

Yeah, I took these a while back and meant to put them up. I'm putting some Peerless HDS 8" in my doors. They fit after I took a knife and took off a small extra lip that is on the panel. The thing with the lip was that it made the opening not a perfect circle.

DeeJayTJ

any update? i too am putting premium door panels with 8" subs in my GT.