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Speaker sizes & info

10264 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Dirtymex
The wife's 9-3's stereo is a little 'tinny' to say the least. Especially compared to her old TT with Bose and my current BMW 5.

I've just taken it to my local car audio place in Grimsby to see what they suggested and I've been quoted £545 for them to fit new front components (tweeters in dash and some door speakers) coupled to a new amp and some sound deadening.

Now, I'm sure I can fit an amp and wire up some speakers and cross-overs... so I need to know the speaker dimensions for the dash-board and front doors if someone knowledgeable has that info to hand please.

I intend to buy some components with cross-overs and install an amp under the drivers seat for a lot less than they want to do it (£250 labour!).

Also, can I run an amp straight off the back of the standard (non-sat nav) H/U in an '06 9-3 Wagon? Or do I need an adapter of some kind?

Obviously, I can find all this out myself by taking things to bits, but I'd rather get the info before I start the job.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Cheers,

Giles
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What year is the 9-3?

The speakers will be 3.5" in the dash I replaced mine with JL - jl c2-350x highly recommend.

Doors are 6.5"

Depending on your year of car to advise on the wiring.
...in an '06 9-3 Wagon?
The audio place was going to use some Hertz component speakers with cross-overs... so tweeters in the dash and mids in the doors coupled to a new amp under the drivers seat.

Sound about right? Obviously, I'll have to custom mount the tweeters behind the grilles on the dash.
In a MY06, you'll have an AMP under the passenger seat (LHS). Upgrading dash speakers without further amp makes a world of difference. You can use the front speaker output of AMP1 to drive a high level input of a seperate amplifier, or use a LOC for low level inputs. Original speakers are 2 Ohm paper jobbies, loose them and soundeaden the door while installing new speakers. Either use existing speaker wires or you'll have to route a pair of cables into the doors. Search for "AMP1" on the forum will yield a good few ideas...
So. just by upgrading the dash speakers makes a difference? Does that mean I shouldn't waste my time with a new amp and door speakers?

There aren't any speakers in the front doors at all at the moment. Assume a loom for them will be there already that I can utilise though if need be?

Okay, forgive me for being a numpty... I assume AMP1 is the OEM Saab amp under the seat?

What is an LOC?

I'll do a search for AMP1 now. Thanks! :thumbsup:
Sorry I did not see that was trying to read it quickly.

Depending on what audio package you already have will determine if you have AMP1 or not.

Do you hear any bass from the doors? Any sound from the centre? If yes you will have Amp1 if not you will have a world of bother getting decent sound out of the factory system.

The bass is delivered through amp1 only, in mine I had to upgrade to AMP1 package to get the bass I wanted then tapped into the AMP1 to a LOC/line driver to give the signals to a dual 12" sub.

LOC - Line out converter, converts Hi level speaker input to low level RCA.

Check this thread of mine and you will see what amp1 looks like and how I connected the LOC/line driver to it - http://www.saabscene.com/forum/threads/148232-Audio-install
Nothing in the doors at all. All I have are two dash speakers and two speakers in the boot-lid (estate).

Guess I'll be struggling then! :confused: Will give that link a look, thanks! :thumbsup:
Right then in that case your best bet to give an improvment is to change the dash speakers to the above models mentioned.

Disconnect the 4" speakers on the rear shelf and connect those wires into a pair of 6x9 speakers - the holes are already there and will have plastic inserts covering them.

You could even amp the 6x9's if you wish.

For some bass - http://www.vibeaudio.co.uk/car/liteair-optisound/

Small and fairly discreet - can feed this from the rear speaker output aswell fading to the rear to give more and adjust the 6x9's levels on the separate amp should you choose to amp them.
Brilliant!

I'm not sure I'll be able to fit 6x9's in the bootlid though (it's an estate) - but I'll certainly have a look and see what the space is like in there.

So the best / no hassle route is simply to upgrade the speakers. Not a problem!
Being an 06 it should be the pre-face dash.

Again I had forgotten about it being a sport wagon, they do however have speakers in the boot lid which you can change for better speakers, and you could still tap into the wiring to amp them or splice off to add a compact sub.
Yeah, it's the earlier dash.

I'll crack on with getting the speakers swapped out then. :thumbsup:
1 is negative,2 is positive..
What year is the 9-3?

The speakers will be 3.5" in the dash I replaced mine with JL - jl c2-350x highly recommend.

Doors are 6.5"

Depending on your year of car to advise on the wiring.
Will the with JL - jl c2-350x fit in a 2005 saab linear 93 2.0 ?
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