Door speakers, 126 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Xsbank · #1 01-29-2008, 07:03 PM

I had the grilles off the front door speakers to see what I could see - it looks like the speakers are in a sealed box, almost like mini-subs. They appear to be original (the head unit is an Alpine 7829). Is that what these are supposed to be?

The rear deck speakers seem to be original too. The dash speakers are either not in there or not connected.

I have a feeling that the after-market head unit is 4 ohms and the originals are 8 ohms, which might be why the sound is so pedestrian with what appear to be nice components. What can I do to improve the sound? Lose the 10-year-old Alpine, replace the speakers, hook up the dash instead of the doors?

I am going to check polarity to make sure it is not reversed, which is how it sounds. There is no amp in the trunk, I looked.

Larry Delor · #2 01-29-2008, 07:28 PM

If I remember right, the doors are supposed to be subs. You can unscrew the box (at least on my 88 you could) and get at whats inside. You will note a crossover in there. I replaced those with woofers.
The dash speakers can be replaced with a not very pricey Pioneer 4x6 speaker (they have this plastic piece that either pops off, or gets omitted (i forget which) and the speaker plops right in.
I replaced the large, round rear speakers with 2-ways, and left the directional tweeters in place.
The built in amps were bypassed. Sound was crisp, bass decent.

Xsbank · #3 01-31-2008, 09:47 PM

I dismantled the boxes and removed (bypassed) the crossovers and the result is a brighter sound in the car but not a huge difference. The speakers are 2 ohms and the HU is an old Alpine 7829, which must be to years old. I also noted that it is 4 X 25 watts, which is probably about 8 or 10 RMS per channel; no wonder the sound is thin. I am going to buy an Alpine 9886 and see if that makes a difference...

Hit Man X · #4 02-02-2008, 06:14 AM

Problem with 1991s are 1432 is a multicomponent system. Amps, tuner module, and headunit. Door speakers are nothing more than bandpass midbass drivers. Best is to just start fresh.

Trying to add an aftermarket headunit and retain anything else is just a huge pain. Best thing to do is this:

Buy a quality headunit. Forget about internal power, it's junk. High distortion (1-3% usually!) limited bandwidth (50-15k Hz at times). You need to consider high volt preouts, 4v min, and a good solid unit with any features you need/want (GPS, time correction, sat radio, MP3 files, etc). Alpine, Eclipse, Kenwood eXcelon, Pio Premier, etc.

Buy a nice small amplifier. 25-40x4 of CLEAN sound will blow you away. Full bandwidth, and low distortion. Look at JL Audio, old Precision Power, old Kicker, new Alpine. Again, you do not need a ton of power unless you're going nuts of have tons of drivers to amplify.

8awg wire is fine with this and some quality speaker wire with quality RCAs. I'd even recommend/consider a five or six channel amplifier in the even you want to add a single subwoofer down the line. 10-12" will be your bottom fill, no it doesn't have to sound like the Ol' Gs driving down the street in their '82 Cutlass on 22" Daytons.

Buy speakers. Everyone has their opinion. Go with something that's easy to drop into the 4x6M in the dash and sound nice to you. Yes, this means going out of the virtual shopping realm!

Pioneer Premier has some that'll fit, Alpine do, Eclipse, and MB quart.

Rears will hold a 6.5" with a bit of swearing, drinking, and finesse. Door drivers are up to you. I'd just leave them unused for a full range speaker, they point at your elbow so unless you're going to install only midbass there skip them. Tweeters there and in the dash are going to mess up sound staging.

You'd also have to fart around with bandpassing them (high and low crossover points so it does not play out of its range) meaning more thinking/setting up. If you have the desire, go for it. There will be more mids from the vocals again, but if you did a small subwoofer you'd be fine without them.

But some good 4x6s and the 6.5s will play very nice. Cross the dash from 75-120Hz, listen or look at the vocal chart where they drop off. Do the same with the 6.5s"... 45-100Hz is typical. 12dB/oct is fine. I'd do 24dB/oct if you had yourself a single woofer. Anything more and the sounds becomes unnatural.

StreekG · #5 02-02-2008, 06:54 AM

I never knew any 126 came with door speakers... i have an 1988 500SEC, without door speakers.

However i am running a CD7100 Eclipse unit with 4x6 Eclipse Speakers and stock rears and a 12" Kicker ES Sub powered by a Response 2ch amplifier.

The sound is perfect, the stock rear speakers sound excellent when you aren't trying to get any bass out of them, although before i installed my sub, they were quite the bass machines.

Hit Man X · #6 02-02-2008, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StreekG

I never knew any 126 came with door speakers... i have an 1988 500SEC, without door speakers.

However i am running a CD7100 Eclipse unit with 4x6 Eclipse Speakers and stock rears and a 12" Kicker ES Sub powered by a Response 2ch amplifier

All W126s got them in the US in 1988 along with the ten speaker system. Can't comment on the coupes, but I'd assume the same. '89 is when we got the interior updates too. 88 or 89 went to the monochromatic exterior too.

How do you like that 7100? I have an 8455 in my SD and am considering that 7100 for my SDL.

StreekG · #7 02-02-2008, 08:30 AM

Well mine is a 2nd gen with the updated interior, but no door speakers... It is a euro though, was it only US that got the door speakers or something?

I love the 7100, my first eclipse unit, and i couldn't be happier, sound quality is excellent and so many features.

Dee8go · #8 02-02-2008, 10:56 AM

Yeah, I wasn't aware they had door speakers either. How effective are door speakers, really? It seems like their placement would not be very good.

Hit Man X · #9 02-02-2008, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StreekG

Well mine is a 2nd gen with the updated interior, but no door speakers... It is a euro though, was it only US that got the door speakers or something?

I love the 7100, my first eclipse unit, and i couldn't be happier, sound quality is excellent and so many features.

Strange, could be the Euro spec deal. Most of everything were optional on those cars.

Thanks for the input on the HU.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee8go

Yeah, I wasn't aware they had door speakers either. How effective are door speakers, really? It seems like their placement would not be very good.

Changed in 1988

They're simply midbass drivers. Probably play from 40-500Hz. NOT full range, they are adequate for the added mids.

Xsbank · #10 02-02-2008, 09:47 PM

What I know about my system: Ancient Alpine HU, 7829, no front speakers, stock rear speakers, door speakers with the crossover disabled. With the crossover out, the door speakers just sound like ordinary mid-range drivers with absolutely no bass; the rears have minimal bass, sounds like old AM radio. With classical music, they sound pretty good, but anything rock, jazz you name it, unless the volume is LOUD you pretty much lose everything. If the car wasn't so quiet, the stereo would be useless. My VW radio is much better but the car is noisy!

Too bad you can't buy radios like the one in the Golf, all the controls are rotary knobs and you waste 0 time selecting, entering, BSing like you have to with the aftermarket heads. 3 separate knobs for tone controls! One of the HUs I looked at, you had to select FM, scroll through the stations that it could detect until you found the one you wanted, then hit 'enter.' Whoever designed that one must be in intensive care after having tried to use it while driving! I like to listen to 4 or 5 stations whenever I actually listen to radio - as soon as they start to rabbit on about something I should buy, I switch stations. Try that with that aftermarket. Who buys this stuff?

Anyway, thank you for the good advice: new HU, 2 new front speakers, a small 4-channel amp and 2 new rear speakers. I will go and look at the piggy bank and see what's in there.

Let's see, rear shocks (fronts done) or new stereo? New shocks/new stereo....hmmm.

Hit Man X · #11 02-03-2008, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xsbank

Let's see, rear shocks (fronts done) or new stereo? New shocks/new stereo....hmmm.

If the car is safe as-is, do the stereo. Makes the drive so much better.

Xsbank · #12 02-03-2008, 02:26 PM

I'm leaning that way too. I'm also going to measure up the door space and see if I can put in one of those thin Sony 10" subs once I pull out the box.

Dee8go · #13 02-04-2008, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit Man X

. . . Changed in 1988

They're simply midbass drivers. Probably play from 40-500Hz. NOT full range, they are adequate for the added mids.

So, you put two way speakers in the dash, midrange speakers in the doors, and a sub in the trunk? That sounds reasonable since the lower range is less directional. It's the high notes that need to be aimed more carefully.

Hit Man X · #14 02-06-2008, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee8go

So, you put two way speakers in the dash, midrange speakers in the doors, and a sub in the trunk? That sounds reasonable since the lower range is less directional. It's the high notes that need to be aimed more carefully.

Yup. Use time correction and a parametric EQ to help the high adjustment.

Dee8go · #15 05-06-2008, 09:24 AM

Now that I actually HAVE a 126, I'm wondering what those rear deck speakers are. Are they 6x9? If I remember correctly the dash speakers are 3 1/2" ones. I'd like to swap those with some new ones and maybe even put a small sub in there somewhere.

I know there are lots of threads where this has already been asked and answered, but does anyone have any suggestions for some that are pretty inexpensive, but decent-sounding?