Installing new speakers

[Iyse]

I have a 1998 Mercedes C180 Esprit, and I want to upgrade the factory speakers. The ones I have in mind are a couple of Sony Xplod 13cms in the front and 10cms in the back. I know people have extreme views on Sony's speakers, but that's not the issue.

I'd like to ask if I need any adaptor to mount these speakers behind the grills, replacing the factory originals ofcourse.

Also, I have a couple of tweeters on the dash and what I can only assume is a couple of low range speakers (13cms I think) by the back of the headrests. Now, my guess is that the tweeters are connected to the two fronts and the low ranges are connected to the two backs. I've already installed a sub in the boot so I don't really need the low ranges. Is there any way I could, in the future, replace these with some 6x9s, and if so... How would I do it? Sorry for being so vague, if any more information is required, I'll post it. Thanks.

 

[Anders]

Mine is an estate, so the rear speaker setup is probably different. Anyway, I spent the Saturday changing the speakers, to quite inexpensive Blaupunkts.

Front, GTx 662 (16,5 cm) and rear GTx 402 (10 cm). The front ones are easy, just remove the old ones (cutting the cable at the speaker), and remove the speaker from the adaptor (a bit of brute force is needed). You then drill 3-4 holes and screw the new ones into the adaptor and re-install.

The rear (which are in the door cards on an estate, so different to yours), is slightly trickier, as the fourth screw holding the speaker is not accessible without removing the door card. So either snap it off, and remount only with three screws or remove the door card... Anyway, again, you will have to remove the old speaker from the adaptor using the same "brute force" approach.

So, you should go for 16.5 cm speakers at the front, and check what the old ones are in the rear, if yours is a saloon, or go for 10 cm ones.

 

[Richard W]

The way Anders describes it is how I did my 220CDi with 16.5cm and 10cm. The only difference being I fitted adaptors front and back.

Don't worry I fitted Sony speakers too and they sounded vastly improved to the factory fit system! (They're now in the Golf and have improved that too!)