jschrauwen

Bearing in mind that I want to retain the oem Symphony (non-Bose) HU and that I don't wish to add supplemental amplifiers;

1. Upgrade the front doors with a 5.25" component set.

2. Upgrade the rear deck with 6.5" speakers.

3. Add 5.25" components in the rear doors.

Now for the questions.
Is the HU strong enough to adequately power all of the above?
Do I have to retain the oem rear deck amplifier to drive the rear deck speakers?
Will I loose some base by using the RCE216 MBQ 6.5" components?
Will the MBQ RCE216's mounting adapters that come with them work to connect to the 2 hole oem speaker mount?
Although the rear doors are already pre-wired, are they also powered?
Is there a good source for the adapter plates for 5.25" speakers for the front and rear doors?

Thanks in advance,
John

Slave IV

bypass everything audi setup and send a signal straight from your HU to an aftermarket amp or preferably a signal processor like the threesixty you see in the install pics below (other post). also, rear speakers are not really needed and I'd reccomend taking them all out and adding a sub instead. if you must have rear, just one set would be enough...

jschrauwen

I've read that nymerous people have just upgraded the quality of the oem speakers to great results without having the need to do a complete wiring change and integrate an aux amp.
I'm not looking for SPL but rather SQL.

McLoffs

I replaced my front speakers and they're better than stock but not by a lot -- I'm now looking into going with an amp. Seems like the best way to go.

jschrauwen

I mistakenly posted a similar thread in the general section not knowing there was a dedicated audio one.
One member cleared up a few areas for me and gave some helpfull suggestions that follows my projected path.
Basically I'll start off with replacing the front door speakers with 5.25's. And I'll replace the rear deck speakers with my 6.5" MBQ's (I have an extra NIB set).
I'm hoping that the tiny amp that's connected to the driver's side rear deck speaker is up to the task of driving those MBQ's - thoughts on that?
Also, I'm hoping that I can find a real nice pair of 5.25's for the front doors that are efficient enough to be adequately powered by the head unit - suggestions for quality brands that will satisfy that?
Once I've done those two upgrades I'll re-assess and see if I need to go to the next level with an aux amp. If that happens, then I'll try to shoe-horn those MBQ's from the rear deck into the rear doors. Then place 2 free air subs in the rear deck and power all of these with an extra amp I have - Performance Teknique ICBM 5.1.
Thanks,
John

MacSub

That's 2 x 20w peak not RMS.
The rear amp is the size of a matchbox, though a matchbox would be made of better quality components.
Just replacing the speakers will give you nothing, you need to amp them and add a sub. The door speakers are mounted to the flimsy door cards so forget anything approaching mid bass even with an amp. Don't even bother with the rear deck speakers, fit a couple of free air subs instead.

Slave IV

the distortion coming from those sorry amps. If SQ is your main concern, feeding a clear signal to your speakers is pretty important. It's kind of like getting a high performance race engine and putting 87 octane in it...

MacSub

No one has had great results just by upgrading the speakers

diagnosticator1

Although the consensis opinion is that the results of upgrades of speakers only won't be worthwhile, compared to the minimal cost and effort the results are much better than expected. That is my experience, and I don't consider myself an auto audiophile but Sym II+ non Bose with the Infinity kappas sound quality is good enough for me, and is noticably better than the factory supplied setup.

jschrauwen

I'd like to see (hear) the difference first of a speaker replacement since that's a given. If after that I'm still not satisfied, there's always the aux amp route.
Thanks for that diagnosticator1.