Alpine coax into Kartboys install. With pics.

[plac]

Installing Alpine Type S coax on Kartboys w pics. I got the Metra 9301 speaker adapters also. I'm going to leave all 4 doors in same orientation, so no need to reverse the polarity. The good news is the Alpines are a 100% match to the Kartboy spacers.

The Metra 9301 adapters everyone talks about. Got them at Circuit City. Expensive, $10.99 each box:



Showing the perfect fit of Alpine Type-S into the Kartboy spacers. Even the speaker bolt holes line up:





The door handle cover/tweeter cover:



After removing the 2 screws from the handle inner cover and armrest, you then pull up on the rear of the over like this:





This shows the door after I unbolted the stock tweeter. I will not be using it, it will screw up aftermarket coax bad. The tweet and stock mid are 4 ohm each. That means they feed the OEM deck 2 ohm final load. If you leave the stock tweet hooked up you will have a 3 ohm load, whereas aftermarket decks have a 4 ohm minimum per corner. Plus yuo'll have stupid highs.





The stock speaker hold down screws are way too short to use with the spacers. So you need to find longer screws:



This shows the Metra speaker adapter hooked to factory harness. No cutting at all, I will def put the stock stuff back in if I ever sell the car. The adapters arent 100% fit, you gotta bend stuff around until it slides in:



Showing the Kartboy spacer bolted to door:



Alpine Type S coaxial staged in spacer, very nice fit:





BONUS PICS

Rear door with panel removed. Comes off the exact same way as fronts. But one extra screw in rear area of door:



The incredibly crappy stock rear speaker:





Conclusion:

The speakers sound excellent, far better than stock speakers off an aftermarket deck. I now realized my highs were almost non existent with the stock speakers. Also, I could only bring my Pioneer deck to about 38-40 volume and I'd get bad distortion. Now I can bring the deck to 50-60 with no noticable distortion. I thought the stock speakers were fine... until I heard how good aftermarket speakers sounded.

Now I have to search and figure out how to replace some rear speakers to complete the job.

[GiZZ054]

good post. since you helped me before and you seem to know what you're talking about..I'll ask another question, haha.

ok so I think I've decided to use a mono amp (Alpine MRP-M450) to power one 12'' Alpine Type E.
and use a 4 channel amp (Alpine MRP-F450) to power my components.

My speakers are (front) : Alpine Type S 6 1/2'' (SPS-17C2)
(back) : Infinity Reference 4'' (4012i)

so I'm not sure if I should bridge the 4 channel and just power my front speakers or leave it 4 channels and power each speaker. regardless, do you think I will be satisfied with this setup?

[plac]

I bought 5.25" Alpine Type-S today for the rear doors. I'm going to see what it takes to make them fit. Hopefully not much cutting if any, so i can bolt the stock speakers back in later. I have a set of IA spacers coming for them. I can tell the spacer only has to be about 1/4", but the tweet might hit the door panel.

[plac]

ok so I think I've decided to use a mono amp (Alpine MRP-M450) to power one 12'' Alpine Type E.
and use a 4 channel amp (Alpine MRP-F450) to power my components.

My speakers are (front) : Alpine Type S 6 1/2'' (SPS-17C2)
(back) : Infinity Reference 4'' (4012i)

so I'm not sure if I should bridge the 4 channel and just power my front speakers or leave it 4 channels and power each speaker. regardless, do you think I will be satisfied with this setup?

Everyone will have different opinions. In my car, I would have the amp powering all 4 corners. If you are going to bridge, you might as well buy a stronger 2 channel amp in the first place. I am not concerned about proper imaging like I used to be. If you want QUALITY, you only amp the fronts and never hook up the rears at all. Those are the most "correct" systems I've had.

[rr1911]

looks good

[plac]

Instead of making a new thread.. just some pics of my Pioneer deck and SIRIUS tuner install..

[LIV 2 RLY]

Awesome post, I'll be following this once I get some speakers, but one comment.

A 4 Ohm tweeter and a 4 Ohm midwoofer present a 4 Ohm load to the amp. Since they both cover a different frequency range, the amp sees 4 Ohms over the entire frequency range. If you had - 4 Ohm midwoofers, then you would present a 2 Ohm load. Amplifiers have problems driving 2 Ohm loads at low frequencies since a midwoofer will require much more energy than a tweeter.

[plac]

A 4 Ohm tweeter and a 4 Ohm midwoofer present a 4 Ohm load to the amp.

I am talking about the front doors, which are wired in parallel. a 4 ohm circuit and another 4 ohm circuit wired in parallel does not equal 4 ohm final load to the power source.

[LIV 2 RLY]

I am talking about the front doors, which are wired in parallel. a 4 ohm circuit and another 4 ohm circuit wired in parallel does not equal 4 ohm final load to the power source.

When the frequency ranges don't overlap a 4 ohm woofer and a 4 ohm tweeter in parallel still equals a 4 ohm load.

But, two 4 ohm woofers in parallel would be a 2 ohm load. Just correcting your mistake, that is why a 4 ohm coax speaker is just 4 ohms. Its a 4 ohm woofer and a 4 ohm tweeter wired in parallel but connected to each other. I'm an electro mechanical engineer, and I have designed several pairs of speakers. Check your acoustics theory again, when the frequencies of the drivers don't overlap, the load presented to the amplifier is usually just the load of the woofer, as the tweeter put such a small load on the amplifier. Just look at the size of the voice coils and the travel of the woofer vs. the tweeter.

[plac]

i was talking about a separate tweet and mid which is in the stock front doors. not coaxials. hmmmm.. now you got me all mixed up.. i earned a electronics technician cert 10 years ago, i guess i've forgot most of it by now.

[LIV 2 RLY]

Either way it doesn't matter, a 4 ohm load from 20hz-10 kHz in parallel with a 4 ohm load from 10kHz-20kHz is still a 4 ohm load. I was just correcting you, the stock headunit could never handle a 2 ohm load.

[plac]

Got my new DIN pocket, fit awesome.

For the people that DON'T want the flip up door... this is the normal DIN pocket for Subaru. This was a real bolt up to my 2005 wrx cage, unlike the door one. Perfect fit, sits exactly flush with the dash trim. Has a nub on each side in front, which pop into stock cage holes. Then has a screw hole on each side at rear which you use.

Subaru Part Number
Pocket Ctr
66128AE000

[plac]

the REAR Alpine 5.25" into IA Performance spacer results..

They do not fit. Only because of the tweeter. So I made 4 tiny holes and bolted them to the doors for now. I might find some straight 4" components instead, but i need to try these out tomorrow to see how bad the highs sound.

Spacer itself is a nice fit on the door:



You couldnt use the holes in the spacers as-is, as the screws are a lot longer. It would jam into the door and push out the spacer. So you'll notice the tiny 4 holes I drilled in the metal at those 4 bolt holes. So the bolt has somewhere to go as it bottoms out.



Everything looked perfect when I mounted the speaker, until I tried to put the door panel on:



So I ended up utilizing those same 4 holes for now, until I think of a better setup. I do want the spacers installed to isolate some metal on metal vibrations:

[corybb]

so 5.25" alpines DONT fit with IA performance spacers?
****... i planning on dropping some in this spring... keep me posted on how it works out...

[plac]

well thats a tricky statement. The Alpines fit into the spacers perfectly..

but the door panel doesnt fit.. so its a door panel issue. i wasnt going to use door panel extenders.