Upgrading Audio System 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP on a Tight Budget

[slyblackdragon]

Hello everyone. I will be the first to admit I know zilch about car audio. All I know is I want mine to sound better.

I drive a 4 door 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. It has 5.25" component speakers up front 6x9 and 4" on the rear deck.

I have upgraded the head unit to a Kenwood-KDC-HD545U

Now I am in the market for new speakers.

First question, is it worth the hassle of squeezing 6.5" components up front?

I have been told I require an amp to run the component speakers, but this may blow my budget. Is this true?

I have also been told I should try and build enclosures for the woofers front and rear. Is this necessary?

For now, I plan on upgrading the 5.25" componets up front to a quality set. Later, as I get the money, upgrade the 6x9s in the rear deck as I get the money. I will likely just delete the 4" rounds in the rear deck. I also want to add a stand alone equalizer so I can adjust on the fly and just tune the hu flat. Does this seem like a good idea?

My budget is around 200-250 for all the cabin speakers. I am not afraid to search and wait until I find a good deal, so ebay, amazon, even craiglist are all fair game. I just need recommendations that fit my price range. Where I live isn't exactly a big market for audio, so I don't have many options to listen to speakers.

Later on I plan on building a hide away box for a small sub and amp, but that is at least a few months down the road. I just don't have the money right now.

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[slyblackdragon]

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[slyblackdragon]

You have to be kidding me. No one has any advice?

 

[murph 10+ year member]

I would go with the incriminator audio 6x9 coax they are on sale at soundsolutionsaudio.com. For the future you will need an amp to get full response and power out of your speakers. The amp doesn't have to be a standard one you can get one that hooks in the back of your deck such as the alpine KTP-445.

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

Inifinity's Kappa series are some excellent sounding speakers for low budgets. Boston Acoustics also makes some very good sounding products at a fairly inexpensive price.

 

---------- Post added at 03:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:21 PM ----------

 

the alpine KTP-445.

this only works with alpine headunits

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

For the future you will need an amp to get full response and power out of your speakers.

and the amp has nothing to do with freq response, it just gives you a louder and more cleaner sound

 

[slyblackdragon]

I stopped in and talked to a local audio shop and they had a suggestion that could possibly save me a lot of money. They suggested I put in 5.25 coaxial speakers in the front and just wire in the stock tweeters to raise the sound stage. They suggested for my price range that I look at the Alpine Type S for the door panels and rear deck.

If this would work well enough, that would free up some money to put towards a sub and amp later on.

What do you think of this suggestion?

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

Meh, not a terrible idea... not really any good for an SQ set-up, but I'm sure it will sound just fine. I am in the process of destroying my pair of Type S I've got up front, though they did good for a while. took my 65w no problem, full blast. Sounded clean enough, nothing special. One of them blew randomly... so then I ran one bridge on 150w for a week or 2 and it actually handled it all right haha. But I'm gonna be very excited to get some "real" speakers in my front stage.

 

[UnderFire 10+ year member]

The problem with the coaxial + tweeter set-up is amping it, a quality set of components and 6x9's will do you better in the long run IMO.

Some good ones to check out are the Morel Maximo's, quality and budget friendly.

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

I wouldn't do coaxials + factory tweeters because afaik you'd need to add crossovers to send the right freq's to the right speakers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. Most good coaxials come with a built in crossover, my Infinity kappas did.

I am normally all for supporting a local business and some will probably disagree with this, but I wouldn't buy from a local shop when on a budget. You can save a lot of $ by buying online but you have to know what you are looking for. Most salesman at a shop aren't always in tune with the buyer's needs imo.

 

[TheUnderFighter 10+ year member]

I wouldn't do coaxials + factory tweeters because afaik you'd need to add crossovers to send the right freq's to the right speakers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. Most good coaxials come with a built in crossover, my Infinity kappas did.
I am normally all for supporting a local business and some will probably disagree with this, but I wouldn't buy from a local shop when on a budget. You can save a lot of $ by buying online but you have to know what you are looking for. Most salesman at a shop aren't always in tune with the buyer's needs imo.

Yea. That was my route for a while, and that was a problem; I'm pretty sure just about everything went to my tweeters... And I've never heard a proper system so I didn't mind it for now, but I certainly can't wait until I get some components in soon. Maybe some of the more experienced guys on here can explain why components are a better set-up, or if they are, or if coaxials can be just as good with the proper install?

And if I were on a really strict budget, I certainly would NOT be buying from my local shop.

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

There was someone on here selling Eclipse 5.25" components for $100 shipped...I'd snag those for the front.

For the rear speakers; just replace the 6x9...if even that. Most of the sound you hear in a car comes from the front anyway. So unless you've blown a rear speaker or they're making some rattling noises, I'd leave 'em. It's not like you sit back there when you drive, right?

Use the leftover cash and save it for a subwoofer system of some sort. Every car is lacking a little in the bass dept. and a little bass makes the music sound real and have impact. A dedicated subwoofer instead of relying on 6x9's will make a world of difference and be money much better spent.

 

[slyblackdragon]

What do you make of these Pioneers? Pioneer TS-A1302C 5-1/4" Component Speaker System Review – Bestcovery

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

What do you make of these Pioneers? Pioneer TS-A1302C 5-1/4" Component Speaker System Review – Bestcovery

While I can't see the crossover very well, it looks like the tweet has a 12dB slope and the woofer has a 6dB slope. There's also no resistors to compensate for linearity or to attenuate the tweeter. Overall; a very cheap pair of speakers.

Sound wise? I'd probably expect something a little on the bright/harsh side (from the mid at least). There's no way to turn down the tweeter and the woofer playing at a LP 6dB slope will have a lot of higher frequencies bleeding through it. Some other manufacturers can get away with this via Zobel networks and tweeters that can play quite low. This set? Not quite there.

For less than $100 on-line, you're getting more than what you pay for. They should perform reasonably well off a stock or aftermarket headunit. I wouldn't expect eye-opening sonic fidelity from them, but they should sound better than your stockers.

I'm a picky SOB when it comes to front speakers & amplifiers. With that, I'd still hunt down the guy in the classifieds forum selling his old Eclipse components. Those things sound gorgeous for components that were $300 new.

 

[Danometal 10+ year member]

The wife and I have a 1998 Grand Prix GT, so I'm not sure how different it is from a GTP. I would just get some decent 5.25" components in the doors, as they have nice factory baffles that are angled perfectly. And, then I would mount the tweeters high on the A pillars. That's what we did with this set: (Edit: OK, my first post, so no URLs allowed!! It's the Polk Audio DB 5.25" component set)

It sounds excellent, but you have to amp them, but it's worth doing all at once.

I would also suggest leaving either the factory 6x9s or some lower powered, high efficiency aftermarket 6x9s running off the rear channels of the HU, and power the front stage with a nice 2 channel, or bridge a 4 channel down to 2 channels. And, I would look into getting a sub. You can't fit any box bigger than 3.5 cubes sealed (or around 2.5ish net cubes ported) in the Grand Prix's trunk, so keep that limitation in mind when picking a sub(s).