Additional speakers in W202 estate

[paul_c]

I have a C class estate W202 which has the standard 4 speakers in the doors plus some dash mounted tweeters. Since the standard speakers are a bit weedy, and a little small even if upgraded with better quality ones, I'd like to add possibly 2 or 4 more speakers, however I'm not sure where the best/easiest place is to locate them. I'd rather not go prodding around the airbags in the front doors, so that area is out.

Any suggestions for good/easy places to install extra ones?

(PS I've looked in the underfloor areas of the boot, hopefully I can fit the amp(s) in here without too many issues).

 

[Londonscottish]

I had the same problem in mt C43 est.

Upgraded the exsiting (non-OEM) head unit for one with a sub out and installed a small, removeable sub by the passenger side rear wheel arch.

(other option for some cars would be pancake sub that goes under one of front seats but mine didn't have enough clearance).

 

[Londonscottish]

Here's an under-seat one

Car Audio Equipment | Buy online at Car Audio Security

 

[Alps]

I upgraded the lot in my C36.

6.5 " component kickers in the front doors, soundstream 2 ways in the rear doors.

2 x Rockford subs in the back

all powered by a number of soundstream amps.

I used to take the subs out and flick a full range switch for the speakers on long runs where I needed boot space. sounded much better than the standard paper based speakers

 

[V12]

Properly sound deaden your front doors and fit some decent replacement components onto a solid baffle.

Forget the headunit powering the speakers and fit an external amplifier under a seat or in the boot and you'll be surprised at the night and day difference.

 

[paul_c]

Cheers for the replies so far. My previous Mercedes' (2 of them, W124s) had 3 1/2" speakers in the top of the dashboard, it was possible to slightly widen the hole and squeeze in a 4" speaker here. Then with the 4 doors each holding an upgraded speaker, that's 6 speakers plus a sub-bass in the boot. The rear speakers and sub were driven by a 300W and 500W amp respectively.

Hence why I'm looking at more cones (the W202 doesn't have the same kind of holes in the dash, it has some tweeters but that's it). But I guess if there's simply no space then 4 speakers it is.

Sub-bass is slightly complicated by the fact that I have a large dog cage in the back, and ideally it needs to stay there most of the time, but there's a 'wedge' shape in between the dog cage (which is upright) and the angled rear seat back. Hopefully enough to make a slim custom enclosure for the existing 12" sub-bass I have. Maybe if I'm making a custom box here then I may be able to incorporate a couple of extra speakers eg 6.5" here too?

I had a look at the 2x rear storage compartments (the ones which doors flop off to access the rear light bulbs) as extra space, and the other option is the panel on the tailgate. That would allow 10 speakers plus a sub-bass (or maybe 2x 12" subs) if I took up every option there. I already have 800W of amps as 2 way 300W and 500W (Alpine V12s) so another 4 channel amp would feed it all.

Why not use the (albeit limited) power of the head unit too? After all, it tends to be the speakers which distort before the head unit runs out of power???

 

[V12]

Many common misconceptions in your above post.

I prescribe 2 months reading on talkaudio.co.uk

In summary, more speaker drivers generally = lower 'quality' & lower volume.
- Ears are easily confused when sound is coming from multiple sources / directions
- Unless speakers are exactly matching and mounted on the exact same surface such as a floorstanding speaker, they will cancel each other out at different frequencies. You will end up with flat spots and un-natural frequency response.
- 1 speaker driver playing 1 set of frequencies is the only realistic way to produce nice sounding music, especially in the car environment. This is where crossovers come in.

The other misconception is to do with distortion. Speakers may get to the mechanical / thermal limits but that is extremely rare. Most of the time it is amplifiers running out of juice, that's what we call clipping.
It is pretty much unheard of for a standard headunit to produce enough power to properly drive even the weakest of speakers.

I promise you that one set of component speakers in the front doors will produce ear bleeding volume levels and sound great as long as they are properly installed.
That is where most people go wrong. The key is sound deadening and a solid mounting surface.

Use your headunit to power the rear door speakers, your biggest amp for subs and the next amp for the front door speakers.

K.I.S.S

 

[paul_c]

Okay, I'll try off firstly with upgrading the existing speakers to decent components and I'll try them on the head unit, if this is still poor I'll amplify them separately (I have the amp already); and make the custom-fitting sub bass box.