help wanted on hi-fi upgrade W463 g500 year 1999

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gmwerk
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Hello,

anybody here did some improvement to standard hi-fi system? i would like just to put some better woofers to get a little bit more punch.

 

My car has two speakers in the rear door, two on the body where the legs of driver and passenger are, two over the dashboard...

It's fairly easy to remove the lower ones, but i dont know how to remove the grill on the dashboard without damage... any suggestion?

Im using a alpine head-unit, i could get a small inline amplifier by alpine if needed.

 

thanks :)

 

phileas
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Re: help wanted on hi-fi upgrade W463 g500 year 1999

I have been pondering over this issue as well for a while. I have come the following conclusions:

 

1. dash speakers can only be replaced by better quality 3" max: all depends on the depth of the speaker here: haven't checked it against what is available yet.

2. Replace door speakers with better quality ones in the rear and install good quality 4" round ones in the front doors (you'll have to make up the pods: should be relatively easy to do and one wouldn't lose too much of the front of the door pocket)

3. Replace rear 'top' speakers with good quality 4"ers (I don't think you can get more in there as space is limited by depth again)

4. Add flat panel subwoofer into the rear either on the back of the seats or just lie down flat on the luggage space floor.

5. To get a better mix you'll need to have a fairly high-end Alpine head with which one can 'tune' the sound for your seating position.

6. Finally, you'll need to run the whole thing through an amp (probably won't need more than a 3-way, depending on the head unit you chose)

 

++

 

I have a similar set-up in an old W126 and the sound is absolutely amazing: much better than the £6000 pound HK-optioned sound system factory-spec'd in a new Audi A6 that I drove recently.......I felt very smug!

The above won't be cheap either but, once fitted, it will further not want to make you drive any other car! (I can't sell my W126 because I love listening to music inside it so much!.......yes, I realise that it is a little anoraky, but there you have it).

 

Hope than helps/Ph

Roly
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Re: help wanted on hi-fi upgrade W463 g500 year 1999

Attached is a pic of the front tweeter in a 99 G. You have to remove the front plastic strip against the windscreen and then you remove the mesh grill and finally the tweeter. The hole is 66mm diam.

Phileas, you suggest fitting new speakers in the F doors, what's wrong with the location in the feet panel? They are a strange size 41/2 " or so.

gmwerk
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Re: help wanted on hi-fi upgrade W463 g500 year 1999

Thank you for your precious help!

I'm thinking of going much lighter than what Phileas suggest... just two quality woofer in the front and two quality tweeter on the dash, with a small alpine amplifier like this one KTP-445: i dont want to put new wires/cables and neither i can afford to have the job done by a professional at the moment :)

I will let you know results if i do this :)

thanks!

phileas
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Re: help wanted on hi-fi upgrade W463 g500 year 1999

Roly,

 

Good point: I forgot about those! When I get around to it, I'll probably switch them around and leave the door pocket as is.

 

Phileas