My 87 560 SEL badly needs it's full-range speakers replaced. Crutchfield says it has 3.5" speakers in the front and the rear. Tell me that's wrong. I can believe 3.5 in the front, but that's lame if the rear is the same. What am I supposed to do run four 3.5" full-range speakers and my sub? I'll be missing quite a bit of sound....

Any suggestions or info? Thanks much.

-Matt
87 560 SEL
96 Lincoln Town Car

PS: Running one JBL GTI1800, looking to do a isobaric with two of them. Any experience with iso boxes?

The fronts are, indeed 3.5's. I haven't found any acceptable replacements for them. They are mounted (glued, I think) to an oblong plastic piece that makes replacing them almost impossible. The only thing I have found that comes close to fitting are Boston Acoustics CX7E. They are a 4x6 coaxial speaker. The problem is that on the driver's you will need to bend two of the mounting posts and actually cut off the other two. This does not make for the tightest installation. On the passenger side the magnet on the speaker just hangs too low and you cannot make the speaker go all the way into the hole becuase the magnet hits the A/C duct. You will have to build spacers to make it fit. The rears are actually 6.5's, and still a pain in the butt. They are attached to a plastic piece as well, so like the front you can't just pop something else in. The hole is shaped like a 6.5" circle with a 1" by 2.5" rectangular hole at the back. I simply made a piece of MDF to fill the rectangular part of the hole, once that is done, any 6.5 will fit nicely. I am currently working on upgrading the front speakers by sealing off the front portion of the pocket at the bottom of the front doors. Once done, I should be able to fit a 5.25, or maybe even a 6.5 by cutting a hole in the pocket and mounting the speaker there. Sorry this became so long...
Justin

So,

Would it be reasonable to take a component 6.5 and surface mount tweeter, put the tweeter above the front grilles and the 6.5 in the back? Or would it sound weird with all the highs in the front and the low-mid in the back?


Have you tried the MBQuart 3.5" speakers? I believe I was recommended them at some point. They go for like $35-$40 on eBay right now.

-m

__________________
Now:
2018 Tesla Model X
1999 S500 Grand Edition 164k
1992 300D 2.5 Turbo 287k
2005 E320 4MATIC wagon
1991 Alfa Romeo 164L 99k (sleeping for a while)

Then: 96 Lincoln TC, 93 Lincoln TC, 87 560 SEL, 87 300 SDL, 80 300D, 89 560 SEC

Putting the tweeters in the dash and the 6.5's in the rear wouldn't work too well. The distance is too great, you'd get all the highs, while any back seat passengers would only bet mid/bass. The tweeter should be mounted as close to the mid/bass as possible. I haven't tried the MB Quarts, and they wouldn't fit without first building a plate to fill the hole in the dash. Since the factory speakers are attached to a plate, the hole is not 3.5", even though the speakers are. Making a 3.5 fit would just be too much trouble, since you aren't going to get great sound out of a 3.5 anyway. If you do decide to stick with 3.5's, you will want to run a sub to fill out the bottom end.

Hmm, so a shallow 4x6 or a shallow 3.5" in the MB plate would work? Hmm, for such a high end car the stereo setup sure blows. Bah.

How's your front door installation coming? I suppose there isn't any under-dash space to put a 5.25 or something...


-m

I have a W126 and currently have a 3-way set installed in the left kick panel. I haven't done the other side because I didn't like the way the left turned out. I have a 6.5", 4", and 1" tweeter down there. It wasn't that bad. Problem is that all of my speakers fire toward the gas pedal. I built it out of wood and didn't play with the angles. I am going to redo it with fiberglass and have the angles right. On the right side, there is a computer module. The cable is long enough for it to be positioned elsewhere. If you are serious about getting some good sound, you might want to talk with some installers about getting some custom kick panels made.

Does the 560 SEC have some speakers in the door? Wonder if one could transplant a same colored door panel into my/your car and then mount a tweeter in the dash and whatever in the door? (just shot an e-mail off to a contact at mbcoupes.com)

I am a bit disturbed with not being able to put a decent speaker in the car. I'm a bit disturbed anyway...

I went to a local audio shop, Audio King, kind of a high-end superstore. They said a 4" speaker would fit in there and recommended the 4" component Infinity set for $249 a pair. Mount the 4" in the dash and the tweeter on the support bar. I like that, but, from what you're saying, the 4" probably wouldn't fit. The guy at the store assured me the 4" driver would provide enough midbass to compliment my subs (two 18's). I'm not so sure.

I'll probably be opening up the dash this evening to survey. Thanks again for your insight.

-m

Ok, popped the speaker out of the dash. Man, this is a wacky design. I could see putting a 4x6, but modifying the 4" length to make it the full 4" instead of the 3.75 it is now. Hmmmmm. Looks like about 1.75" deep.

These Kenwoods might work.... Don't know how great they would sound. KFC-4625C

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-puh9MSzP1VR/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=51500&I=113KFC4625&o=&a=

JBL's got one too, although slightly deeper. GTO6420

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-puh9MSzP1VR/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=51400&I=109GTO6420&o=&a=

Hmm, a few other's on Crutchfield, too. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Got a message back from MBCoupes, the 1988 and newer 560 SEL's have speakers in the front doors--just transplant the inside part of the door (or buy a newer car! ...)

You could probably find a 4x6 plate that you could mount a 3.5" in, but yeah, it might not be worth the work.

Without doing the doors, what else do you have?

Just sent a message to MB Quart technical support if they have any suggestions for our problem...

I wasn't aware that the '88 and newer models had door speakers! We all seem to be one year off. I would advise against the Kenwood speakers, they make GREAT head units (that's what I have, in fact), but as a general rule, Japanese companies make crappy speakers. Try to stick with American or European. I suppose now that the easiest (and most $$$) solution would be to buy '88 door panels. Short of that, I have considered cutting out the MB speaker from its plactic housing and mounting an aftermarket 3.5 coaxial to that plate. The mid/bass will still suck in the front, but hopefully enough will carry from the rear deck...
Justin

You could put a good 6.5 full-range/midbass in the rear, and if you put a 3.5 in the front as you describe, and cross it over low enough (probably until it sounds smooth with the rear without distorting) that might be the answer.

Would it be worth putting a good component system in the rear to try to fill in the midbass? If you roll the windows down, you totally lose it, though....

Wanted to ask, how did you get the rear speakers grilles off? I didn't see any screws and didn't want to start prying. Let me know, as I want to take a peek back there too.

Thanks much. Sorry I went on there for a while, was just in a groove.

-m

invisik,
I wouldn't bother putting in the $$$ and effort for components in the rear. The back speakers are mainly just fill for the driver (how often are you in the back seat), so the better sound quality would really be lost back there somewhere. The easiest way to get the rear grilles off is to, first recline the back seat (this will give you a little more room on the hat shelf). Next just pull the grilles toward the front of the car, they should move forward about an inch. Now just pull up from the front of the grille and they should come right off! I found a semi-temporary solution to this whole problem. I removed the factory speakers from the dash and cut them out of the plastic oval mount. I wasn't sure about destroying the original speakers, but PartsShop sells them for $22.00, so it wouldn't have been a huge loss if this didn't work. Anyway, after cutting the speakers out I mounted a pair of Boston FX3 3.5" speakers in the oval plastic piece. I had to hot glue the outer edge of the Bostons to seal eliminate a few gaps, but that wasn't much trouble. I put them back in the dash and...well, it was a BIG improvement! The lack of bass is still there, but my 2 Polk DX 12's in the trunk take care of the lower bass. Next I'll be putting a pair of Boston RX67 6.5's in the rear, and bypassing that awful fader switch by running a 4 channel amp to power the new speakers. It wont be a competetion system, but it will do, I think!
Justin