Speaker advice

[gambit]

Hi

Need some basic advice as I am a complete noob with car audio except I did replace my head unit by myself.

I installed a pioneer HU and am now thinking about buying some speakers to replce the factory fitted ones. Please can you answer these questions in systematic order. Thanks.

q1) How many speakers are in my car? (318 ti Sport M-Series, yr 2000, E36 UK)

q2) What size , make and wattage are these standard speakers in accordance with their location?

q3) What is a good brand of replacement for these standard speakers without modifying the speaker mountings i.e just buying better speakers same size?

q4) Should I match my speaker make to my HU make for better sound - I've heard Alpines are a good make. Please provide suggestions of good makes - I don't have a lot to spend (about £20.00 a pair which is about $40 a pair in the US)

q5) What wattage should I buy? Assuming the new HU is more powerful can I go for more powerful speakers. P.S. I dont know anything about wattage, power etc!

q6) 2-Ways or 3-Ways?

Many many thanks to whoever can reply as I know there are a lot of qs here.

Regards

g

[tiFreak]

I'm no stereo expert but I'll answer as many questions as I can

Originally Posted by gambit

q1) How many speakers are in my car? (318 ti Sport M-Series, yr 2000, E36 UK)

depends on whether or not you have the premium sound, look on your door panels, if you have 2 speakers on each door, there is a total of 10 speakers (2 woofers, 4 mids, 4 tweeters IIRC) if there is only 1 speaker in each door, you have 6 (same as the premium but without the tweeters)

Originally Posted by gambit

q2) What size , make and wattage are these standard speakers in accordance with their location?

the 2 woofers are in the kick panel, not sure on the stats but they are 5 1/4", the rear mids are right behind the backseats, they are Nokia and are a 4T size, as for the rest, I'm not sure

Originally Posted by gambit

q6) 2-Ways or 3-Ways?

that's up to you, 2-ways have a woofer and tweeter built into one unit, 3-ways have a woofer, tweeter and mid, and 4-ways have a woofer, tweeter and 2 mids, if you're on a budget however, I'd go with 2-ways

[gambit]

hey man quick reply so thanks so much!

further responses still appreciated..

[gambit]

P.S> did you really mean Nokia...as in Nokia!!!

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by gambit

P.S> did you really mean Nokia...as in Nokia!!!

lol, yes, and they suck, both of mine are blown

[Ramsey]

Hi, Gambit, Ive got the same ti Yr as yours, I've just fitted m3 mirrors to mine yesterday and had to take the door cards off. the speakers there are 8 ohm not the usual 4 ohm, if youve just replaced the HU with I'm the pioneer the output will be 4 ohm so will sound pants at the moment.
A pal of mine has just installed DLS K5 Classic speakers in the footwell and they sound the business so going to fit to mine at the weekend, he has 3 sets left Brand new and boxed they are 2-way 5.25" with separate 2" tweeters, he's selling them for £20.

See how much they are selling for on ebay or google DLS Speakers. if interested pm me.
Hope this helps

[TI-driftin]

Im not sure what component speakers starting price is but i would recomend those. I went with an infinity component speaker system in the front. This will give you a 5 1/4" speaker in the kick and a 1" dome tweeter that you could stick in the door. You'll need to come up with something to hold the tweeter in the door though. I just cut a piece of cloth and put it over the back side and threaded the nut over the cloth back on to the tweeter enclosure that holds it in the door. Not sure if they make 4" component speakers for the rear. Component speakers will come with crossovers for the tweeters. This is neccessary for cutting out notes that are to low for the tweeters which make them distort. If you decide to buy the tweeters individually you may need to buy bass blockers. Most pioneer HU's come with built in crossovers but they will apply the settings to all the speakers equally and not an individual speaker.

matching brands may be a good idea but dont let it be a deal breaker. Usually pioneer HU's will make just about any speaker sound better than most of your HU's.

I think infinity and polk are top of the line but there are many other good brands.

The main thing you should look at is watts in RMS. Dont go by peak watts. This dont mean squat.