Speaker tips/suggestions for newly bought car

[Underworldly 10+ year member]

I recently purchased a 1990 Mercedes 300CE 2-door coupe. The car itself is beautiful and an absolute dream to drive. The sound system is a different story. Absolute crap. I will be putting in a completely new system. Head Unit, Speakers, Amp(s) and Sub so my cash is going quick.

Let me preface this by saying I am not a hardcore audio guy, I just want a nice sounding system.

My main area of difficulty is with the speakers. The factory cutouts are 4” both front (in the dash) and rear. Yes, 4” all around. So I am kicking around ideas, and now I am looking to you salty dogs for help.

My first thought was to put a decent size speaker on the door and just have a 4” for rear filler. That has been poo-pooed because apparently all the wiring and motor for the electric window is right where there is the only open place on the door. This will also be a money issue because I am then looking at major labor money, and I want to put the money into the equipment, not the labor.

--Q-logic does not make a Q-form kick panel for my model/year and the universal Q-form is bigger than the flat surface area I have to work with.--

I then thought to have cutouts on the back dash to put a bigger speaker. The problem there is the rear headrests fold down, so there is a groove on the back dash. It looks like a wave or an “S”. The surface isn’t flat and there really isn’t a spot to place a larger speaker. I have also heard that the rear dash/seat area is reinforced with a steel plate and any kind of customization will be VERY tough. *This brings up a question about sub below…

So, I am back to the 4” speakers.

I figured screw it -- 4” MB Quart coax both front and rear with a quality sub in the trunk will certainly be better than what I have now. I am going with that…then…

*I talked to a guy who said that Mercedes has this reinforced steel plate separating the trunk and the cab, and I won’t really get the bass inside without some kind of porthole to allow the sound in. He suggested I remove the rear speaker totally thus allowing the bass into the cab from the trunk.

So I am down to one set of 4” coax speakers? Man, that is just not going to get it done!

So put on your creative thinking caps and help this audio rookie to get a decent system into an otherwise fantastic vehicle.

Thanks.

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[Boomin Granny 10+ year member]

From what I know most luxury cars have the trunk pretty much sealed off from the cab. What I would do is get a dremel(you can get a crappy one for like $30). and cut some bigger sized holes in that steel plate if you really want that rear fill(or passengers). You also might want to look into components.

 

[mattj 5,000+ posts]

you could go with 4 inch components then you could mount the tweeters somewhere with no problems. 2 sets of components would sound pretty nice but you would lack midbass for the most part.

then again you can do some cutting if you wanted and make room for some 5.25 components or flat out 5.25 speakers.