jpmtotoro Posted July 1, 2009 Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 i have a 95 cutlass supreme convertible and sooner than later i'd like to gut the factory radio and speakers and put in something that doesn't make me cringe. i have seen conflicting posts on here about speaker sizes, and i wanted to clarify. i also don't trust measuring the grill sizes because i've been unpleasantly surprised by a few cars in the past (let's just say some cars stuffed their bra and when i finally got down to the real deal, my expectations were deflated). it appears very much that i have a component set in the front doors; so i'm guessing 5 1/4" component speakers in the front (with a little 1" tweeter or something). the rears i'm less sure of. i have seen a post stating they are also 5 1/4" speakers in the back, and i've seen another stating they are 6 1/2". or maybe they are an odd size, like 6 3/4"? Hopefully somebody knows with certainty. i don't want to tear the panels off just to measure the speakers, put the panels back on, order the speakers, tear 'em down again, install, and put them back together again. that's too much "practice" for my liking! thanks in advance. JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted July 1, 2009 Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 the measuring tape says.... How do you measure speakers??????? the rear speakers are held in by 4 rivets, the front by 4 bolts. the holes line up identically between the front and rear speakers, however, I amj measuring a 94 rear cs speaker, but i thing they are the same 94 vs 95 in the rear. hole to diagonal hole = 5 1/2 inches. the front seems just slightly smaller than the rear front diameter = 4 3/4" rear diameter = 5" I have done the cheap method and salvaged much nicer sounding speakers for both the 94 (a 95 clone) and a 95, which use the same speakers in the front as a 95 vert from the factory... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 ha ha awesome, now even more confused. but thanks for the attempt. is anybody certain of the 95 speaker sizes? i have a feeling i'm going to have to tear everything apart and post my findings. i hate tearing door panels apart unless i actually have the speakers in hand to swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted July 1, 2009 Report Share Posted July 1, 2009 i'm 90% certain. i do have the front speaker size down pat, and the rear speakers use the same grills in 94 and 95. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2009 dang, maybe they are 5 1/4" speakers all around. wow, that would suck. and awful placement for speakers, too. i hate speakers aimed at my legs. and the little speakers in the back are equally disturbing. i guess i shouldn't ever expect to get a good sound out of this thing unless i do some modifications (which i'm not going to do). i'll just have to live with replacing the factory junk. the funny thing is that i have the "premium" sound, and it still sounds awful! i'd hate to hear what the base line equipment sounded like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 ok... 5 1/4" in the back, and 5 1/4" components in the front (with 2" tweeters). what a NIGHTMARE getting to the rears! the front door panel wasn't too bad getting off... but the rears? yuck. had to take almost everything out! and i was a little surprised when i got into the doors. the speakers are 4ohms (i was expecting something a bit odder), and they were fairly big. heavy-duty magnets. then again, i think mine was the "premium package." i'm not entirely sure what i'll be replacing them with, but hopefully it'll sound better. but with those speakers, it'll never really be a "full, rich" audio experience. i'm a little saddened they didn't put the tweeters in the dash and at LEAST 6 1/2" speakers in the back. time to find some good, replacement speakers. i hate being this limited. i also wish i knew the specs of the original "premium" sound system. like... the wattage of the radio. the sensitivity of the speakers... max and RMS wattage... that would make ordering new ones much easier. anyone know these specs? probably not... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 doubtful. for the front speakers in these cars I have done a "cheap" install. tweeters from a 95+ buick riveria and 5 1/4 door speakers from ANY early to mid 90's H body that has "Concert surround" ob the door panel over the speakers (olds 88/98) IMO, this yields a terrific sound improvement at a cost to me of no more that $20 for a set of j/y speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 I ended up getting some pioneed premier 5 1/4" coaxial speakers. i ended up not going with components in the front door (even though there are holes) because they really wouldn't produce much of a difference without an extra amp powering each channel. and considering the speakers were on sale for 50 bucks per pair, and one pair of decent components were going to be about 100+ bucks, it was a no-go. the thing that pisses me off the most about these itty-bitty speakers is that they can't produce anything lower than 100hz (ok they can, but laughably so). so i'm already wiring it up for a single, sealed sub in the trunk. something that can do below the 100hz these are realistically restricted to. hopefully it'll sound MUCH better when i'm done... i'm also annoyed at how little space is available behind the head unit. i had to be 90-degree RCA connectors because I couldn't push the HU back in with the wires plugged in! what a nightmare... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 The stock "premium" stereo is maybe 10-15 watts RMS per speaker. Non-amplified is a big 5-10 watts RMS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Slick, Really? I was wondering about that; what actually made this a "premium" radio over a normal one. If the built-in amp could handle a bit more juice, that would explain it. if the premium radio can handle a bit more power than a standard after-market one, what about the speakers? they were all marked as 4-ohm speakers. and the "components" in the front confused me a bit... they didn't have a crossover (not that I saw). they just seemed to be wired up together. and the tweeter AND the woofer were both 4-ohm... I didn't see how they wired it up, but then I'm assuming it's either a 2-ohm or 8-ohm load on the radio. could this radio handle a 2-ohm load?? or is there actually a crossover in there somewhere that I didn't see? one way or another, the speakers didn't seem to be anything special (surprisingly). but now you are making me wonder if i should put a small 4-channel amp in to power the speakers (maybe give them 25 or 35 watts RMS). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 good questions. i notice that the two speakers in each of doors are 4 ohms each, meaning a laod of 2 ohms per channel, although the tweeter has a passive crossover(capacitor) mounted to it, which may mean it is higher than 2 ohms, but not by much. the rear speaker is 10 ohms.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Generally there is an amp in the car somewhere. Atleast I know there is on the Bose cars. As far as the "crossover" is concerned, to me it looks as if they just put a bass-blocker of sorts in the positive lead of the tweeter wire. Then, the tweeter and "woofer" are wired in parallel. I would highly consider a small amplifier. You'll do more damage underpowering speakers than you will overpowering speakers. That, and I bet you'll be much happier in the audio reproduction than using the stock output. What headunit did you go with? And which speakers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Generally there is an amp in the car somewhere. Atleast I know there is on the Bose cars. As far as the "crossover" is concerned, to me it looks as if they just put a bass-blocker of sorts in the positive lead of the tweeter wire. Then, the tweeter and "woofer" are wired in parallel. I would highly consider a small amplifier. You'll do more damage underpowering speakers than you will overpowering speakers. That, and I bet you'll be much happier in the audio reproduction than using the stock output. What headunit did you go with? And which speakers? correct on the bass blocker capacitor. and there is probably no external amp, as the hardtop cars with the deluxe speaker system had the external amp only for the rear subwoofers. Instead, the vert has a single 10ohm round rear speaker on the direct audio lines from the radio for the rear channels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtotoro Posted July 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 the front tweeters are 4ohm (stamped on the back of the tweeter), the front woofers are also 4ohm, and the rear speakers are ALSO 4ohm. not 10ohm like many people have said. perhaps the 95 line got different speakers? or maybe the "base" system got 10ohm speakers? not sure. my head unit is a kenwood KDC-x469. it was just sitting on my shelf. i picked up some pioneer speakers and for the life of me i cannot remember the model number right now. they were from the "premiere" line, though. 3-way, good sensitivity, but not a high power rating. maybe 35 watts RMS? Good OEM replacements, but obviously not for cranking the music to the moon (girlfriend's car anyway!!). if the front was wired up as 2ohms, why wouldn't they put 2ohm speakers in the back? i wish the original head unit had pre-amp outputs for a sub. then i wouldn't have even bothered switching out the head unit. mine works fine (and it obviously fits better than whatever you can do with a kit and a single din radio). plus the steering wheel controls work with it. i picked up a PAC switch so i could retain my steering wheel controls on my kenwood HU, but I haven't installed it yet. Now I wonder if I should consider looking at a 5-channel amp... i am not looking for a lot of bass, just a single 12 or 10" sealed sub. only because the 5 1/4" speakers can't produce anything other than highs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott205 Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Don't know if this was ever made acurate.. let me tell you what my 94 convertible and my 92 coupe have. The 92 came with the better sound system, so it has speakers in the dash 4"x6", in the door 4"x6" and in the rear deck 6"x9" (they were dual amped, one to boost the bass). You can fit smaller speakers in the dash and even squeeze a 4 1/2" if you can center it and if it isn't too deep. The door can easily be modified for 5 1/4" or if you are very talented 6 1/2" but you have to watch the depth on some speakers. Rear speakers you can do pretty much anything. You can buy adapter plates to make them fit 5.25, 6.5 etc.. or make your own My 94 has speakers in the dash, none in the door and two on the side back. 4"x6" in the dash, 5.25 in the side rear. Haven't looked to see if the rears can be modified, and probably wouldnt' be worth the hassle. I have the panel off the door and same holes, you can get the 5.25 easy in the door, and their is a spot for a tweeter up higher. Dash can be a 4x6 or smaller mid/tweeter Hope it helps if you still need help, Scot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Don't know if this was ever made acurate.. let me tell you what my 94 convertible and my 92 coupe have. The 92 came with the better sound system, so it has speakers in the dash 4"x6", in the door 4"x6" and in the rear deck 6"x9" (they were dual amped, one to boost the bass). You can fit smaller speakers in the dash and even squeeze a 4 1/2" if you can center it and if it isn't too deep. The door can easily be modified for 5 1/4" or if you are very talented 6 1/2" but you have to watch the depth on some speakers. Rear speakers you can do pretty much anything. You can buy adapter plates to make them fit 5.25, 6.5 etc.. or make your own My 94 has speakers in the dash, none in the door and two on the side back. 4"x6" in the dash, 5.25 in the side rear. Haven't looked to see if the rears can be modified, and probably wouldnt' be worth the hassle. I have the panel off the door and same holes, you can get the 5.25 easy in the door, and their is a spot for a tweeter up higher. Dash can be a 4x6 or smaller mid/tweeter Hope it helps if you still need help, Scot stock your car should have: 92 with deluxe sound package tweeters mounted to a 4ish inch square plate in the dash 4x6 in the doors, 6x9 dual voice coil in the rear, a subwoofer cone with small tweeter in the center, the tweeter is feed by the regular channels, the subwoofer by the an amp in the dash. 94 vert no deluxe sound package crummy smaller round speaker mounted to a 4ish inch square mounting plate, (not 4x6!!!) no door speakers 5 1/4ish inch round speaker in the rear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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