Ok while everyone says its "impossible" to upgrade or just replace your monsoon speakers with aftermarket speakers ive just done the impossible and proved it could sound good.

My recipe is the following: (note I didnt bother with the far rear speakes since they are small and just filler anyway).

Fronts:
Alpine SPS-1005 Tweeters
Alpine SPS-170A 6 1/2's

Rear Subs:
Rockford Fosgate RFP4406 6.5" Subs.

For the fronts I chose the Alpines because they have a fairly low RMS requirement, and are always a good choice of speakers for deck power. They are also very efficient. Note these are 4 ohm speakers where the factory ones are 2 ohm, the factory speakers however have a bigger magnet requiring more power to run. Now the Alpines have a smaller magnet and run at 4 ohms effectively forcing the amp to decrease the power, however the speaker is of a much higher quality and requires less power to run at optimal performance and it does sound better. Listening to them side by side the Alpine was the no contest winner. The Alpine SPS tweeters also dont require a lot of power to run, and definitely sound clearer and have a higher frequency response than the factory tweeters. I also utilized the factory tweeter's crossover for the alpines. What was nice was I cut the harnesses off of the old dead equipment and used them to wire in the new stuff, so if I ever wanted to put stock stuff back in (I dunno why) I could. The only problem is that the tweeters need to be flush mounted in the tweeter holes so the factory grilles cant be used. They look good anyway though and dont require any drilling.

Next was the subs... now everyone knows a DVC Sub running at 2 ohms is going to be much more powerful than a SVC 4 ohm sub. Thats true when youre comparing the same quality of sub, however remember the factory 4+4 ohm subs are foam and paper and inefficient compared to an aftermarket sub. The rockfords have a HUGE magnet, and RMS at about 150 watts. Now here I had to do some assumption since I couldnt get a clear answer anywhere as to what the monsoon "500 watt" amp puts out per channel. I assumed the far rear channels were lower power than the fronts and subs, I also assumed the fronts were lesser than the subs. My assumptions were 50 watts to the rear, 150 to the front, and 300 to the subs. Now that is going to under power the Rockfords because im running them at 4 ohm not 2. My other choice was JL 6w0s which would have been better power handling wise for this application HOWEVER I cant find them ANYWHERE, ebay, internet, etc, nobodys got em. So my only other choice was the Rockfords (or Pyramids LOL!!). This was basically just on a prayer I hooked em up and damn, they put out a HELL of a lot more bass than the factory ones.

NOW... This is no replacement for a high end deck, a good amp, or a nice pair of 10's in your car... but it IS great sound for a factory setup, it didnt cost a whole lot of money, doesnt take up any extra room, especially for people who prefer a stock look, or have a "race car" that they want decent sound in but dont want to have to pull their sub box out of everytime they are at the track.. I incidentally did this out of necessity since one of the mids, one of the subs, and one of the tweets crapped out in my car.

(In case anyones wondering about my credentials, I was in the Car Electronics business for about 6 years, working in a few places in both sales and installation and my last job I was in one of the top Alpine Authorized shops in the northeast. )

 

No problem guys, I hate seeing everytime someone says they killed a speaker eveyone jumps in (here and elsewhere) and has them on buying $1000 worth of stereo equipment. And the REALLY sad part is, that $1k worth of equipment doesnt even sound much better!

Black 98: the tweeters are 3/8" (1cm).

hondakiller: I wouldnt even spend the Money unless you bust em. like i said they are only rear fill you barely hear em. even then you very likely wouldnt kill the tweeter back there just the mid, so dont even botehr replacing the tweeter. The mids are 4 inch, The Alpine SPS-100A 4" speakers would work well. You could also use Infinity Reference 452i 4 inchers too. The Infinity Reference 6001i speakers could also be used for the front, however I wouldnt use their Reference or Kappa tweeters because their power requirements are much higher and they are larger (1"), they would probably sound like crap. I have a set of the Infinity 452i from my old firebird sitting here waiting till I blow out the back ones before I bother installing em.

 

Josh, yes they fit in the sides, they are a tight fit but they do fit. I havent had a problem finding the Alpine Tweeters on ebay, or go to any ALpine authorized shop they should carry em.

heres a pic of the install in the doors:

 

Good bit of info except I just wanted to point out something. The magnet does not determine the speakers power handling the voice coil does. The magnet creates a magnetic field in which the voice coil reacts to causing the speaker to move in and out. Also there is an Ohm's law formula that will tell you exactly what the power output of an amplifier is. I will try to find where I wrote it down and post it if anyone is interested.

 

Unplug the harnesses to remove the stock espeakers, they are soldiered onto the stock speakers.. Cut them off the speakers and attach them to the new ones. this way you can plug em right back in. When you do the back subs be sure to use the longer wires andjust tape up the shorter ones.

 

I seriously doubt hat... and anyway lets say theoretically that were true, the Rockfords still kick their *** sound quality wise etc, so whats it matter? It would definitely be safe to replace the subs with the rockfords without changing anything else.

 

The whole point of this setup is that numbers and thories are sound, but not everything is perfect... I invite anyone to come to my house with a perfect working factory sub and listen to it side by side with the Rockford I have hooked up nd you tell me which one hits harder, sound cleaner, and better. Trust me the Rockfords wont disappoint.

 

I realize that the enclosure has to be a certain size for the subs, but that area where they are is pretty large. Couldn't you just drill some holes on the sheet metal for air to pass through if needed?

 

The RF sub proably does sound better than the stock sub. That was not my point. All I am saying is that speaker layout, subwoofer enclosures, amplifier installs, and so is a science that can be very exact. Yes there is plenty of room for making things and work and work well BUT they will not work as well as if they are installed to their exact specs. I think it is kick *** if the RF sub drops in and works well. I never said it wouldn't, I said there are many things to consider to make the system work to it's fullest.

And no you can not drill holes to make it have more airspace that goes against the idea of using an enclosure. But if you did have not enough airspace you can gain some by putting polyfill in the box to make the speaker "think" it is more airspace.

 

EatRice, I agree with you on creating a tuning an entire system. Additionally about setting up subs for thir exact specs with a proper enclosure. My point is for about $250 I have shown you CAN give your sound a minor tune up (or just replace damaged components) without having to go through the hassle of changing the headunit, installing all new speakers, re-wiring, and so on. Theres a lot of people here who just want decent sound, dont want to take up space, because they honestly would rather dump the money into engine mods. Unfortunately the common answer to that is "you have to rip it all out and start from scratch" its not so bad here as other places, but IMO this setup sounds better than about 85% of the aftermarket deck/Speaker combos people woud end up with, especially if they dont get a sub... because NO deck out there powering whatever kind of speakers youd stick in the back will give even nearly the same bass as even the factory subs. Its a lot of work and money for not a lot of upgrade that they dont even want or need.

I guess Ive changed in my age, I havent worked in a shop in over a Year but I used to set up everything from just decks and speakers to full blown DVD/Nav systems in everything from Metros to Escalades. I love a good system, but IMO buy what you need, to fit what you want, overkill is detrimental to your wallet, and in hindsight, some will regret it.

 

I never said that it was a bad idea to this upgrade. I thik it is a good idea espically if it works well. All I have been trying to do is inform the readers about the some of the more technical information.

And just for a bit of information and not a dick measuring contest. I have been in the car audio business for 15 years with several years involved heavely in competion. Also I am a certified IASCA judge. I have been all over the country for training from manufactures including RF,Alpine,Sony,DEI,Phoenix Gold, and few others. I am still currently in the business but trying to move more into home audio. I like to post on web sites like this (I post on several sites) because it helps stimulate my brain. I usually have to read several books I have here to answer a question. So that is just a little bit of my background so you don't think I am some putz 15 year old with a subscription to Car Audio and Electronics.
Peace

 

If replacing the stock subs with the Fosgate 6-3/4" ones, do you need to replace the wiring as well to accomodate for the more wattage?

 

The wattage comes from the amp not the speakers. If you are using the stock amp there is not a need to change the wiring. The wattage rating on a speaker is the amount of wattage a speaker can handle being put into it by the amplifier.

 

my next experiment... im gonna disconnect some of this stuff and re-wire the tweeters in parallel with the front speakers and run it at 2 ohms and see what happens... they "shoud" handle it (I know the tweeters can Im not sure about the speakers...)

 

you are going to put the tweeters in parallel with the mids? What kind of crossover are you using?

 

how many speakers are you going to use all together...per channel?

 

As the owner of a car audio shop, my expierence with the monsoons systems is the replace the door speakers with a good component set, the rear panels with a 6.5" midbass speaker and a premium 4x6 (not necessary). Also a JL audio stealth box would be a good idea also. And if you have the money replace the head unit, these always makes the systems sound better. Im sorry but GM radios are garbage.

 

I just ordered the Fosgate 6-3/4" subs to replace the stockers. The stock ones have two wires that go to them, how do I know which wire goes to which tab on the sub?

 

Eatrice:

Im going to re-use the factory inline crossover as Im using right now, Ive been in contact with the guru over at houston fbody that wrote the books on this setup and did a lot of research on it. He says at 2 ohms the channel is putting out about 40watts RMS.. The speakers and tweeter can handle it, he says the factory amp also has a built in crossover at 120 hz to keep bass out of the mids. This is just going to be hooked to the front channels I left the stockers in the rear. The subs are on their own channels, and Im just not gonna use the front channels off the deck that currently power the tweeters.

PS IMO GM source units arent bad considering some of the crap Ive seen come out of some vehicles... however stock is stock no matter how you cut it... I still think its fun and different to mess with this setup... Its no big deal to me if I blow it up, Id rather play with it to see what I can make it do.

Ferocity: Cut the harnesses off the factory subs.. theres a long and a short pair of wires... Use the LONG pair to connect the subs.

 

just so you know if the tweeter is xover at a higher frequency than the mid is then you will only achive a 2ohm load when both speakers play the same frequency at the same time.