I have replaced all 6 speakers in the cruiser. I used a pair of direct replacement 3 way coaxial 3 way pioneer (6x8) speakers in the rear piller. One thing that I did to enhance the base in the rear is to use some fiberglass (soft) sound insulaton to pack the plastic grilles befort resnapping them into place. There is enough air space there for decent base, but there is no sound seal between the speaker and the plastic grille. It made enough difference in the base response to have to seat some sponge foam weatherstripping in between the interior light assy & the headliner, because when I cranked up the volume to windows down level the light assy rattled slightly. No rattle from the speakers though. In the front doors I too had a rattle from the stock premium speakers. I relaced them with a direct replace pair of 6 3/4-6 1/2 pair of pioneer 3 way coaxial speakers. I used a foam baffle in the speaker opening before installing the speakers. The speakers are mounted on an adapter ring (supplied w/speakers) by 8 short metal screws. This makes the speaker mount extremely rigid. With the baffle under the speaker mount & the 3 screws holding the speakers to the doors, there was no rattle at all. I also put some of the same fiberglass sound insulation in the doors just to be safe, although I don't think that it was necessary. The last mod that I made was to remove the dash, and replace the tweeters with a pair of Kicker DX35 midrange/super tweeter units. (this mod was not made using the stock head unit, so I cannot vouch for how it sounds w/stock amps. However I have heard from others that there is enough oomph in the stock amps to drive all without a problem) These were SUPPOSED to be direct replacements. They were not. Removing the dash is fairly easy for most. Unfortunately, I have 3 gauges in chrome cups mounted on the dash above the console. This made the task more difficult. Anyway, the speaker baskets are round, and the mounting holes in the dash are not. It was time to get out the dremel tool. BTW this is not for the faint of heart. It was not really difficult to modify the mounting openings, as the dash is comparatively soft plastic and was easily filed w/the dremel. I used a pair of 800Hz base blockers to effectively eliminate unwanted base. These speakers made a HUGE difference. The soundstage moved up from being too low (in the lower doors) and the mid to high transition was much smoother. IMHO the separation between the factory dash tweeters and the door speakers is too just far, and tends to make the transition seem disjointed and choppy. I did have to redirect some front to rear balance to the rear to get a good blend, but that was expected and the adjustment was easily achieved. I am running a Kenwood MP922 head unit with 3 amps and 2 12" MTX Thunder seriesII subwoofers in the rear. All of the amps are MTX amps (120 watts front) (120 watts rear) and (800 watts to the subs-2-ohm load). I installed and designed the system myself after a long period of sound evaluation (of the stock system) I have run the 4 speaker replacements (mentioned above) and the stock head unit with very good results while designing and building the rest of the system. I didn't mean to ramble on. The speakers, baffles, and all other parts of the installation were purchased from crutchfield. (I should own stock) The most bang for your buck,for overall sound improvement with a minimum of fuss is to replace the factory speakers w/either coaxials, or components (personal choice) and use some inexpensive fiberglass sound insulation wherever you can. Do not replace the door speakers without a pair of slim line baffles to protect your speakers from the elements, and to provide a less harsh sound reflection. The baffles are fairly inexpensive and will help your speakers last longer and sound better at the same time. ($ 9.99 per pair) Sorry this is so long winded, but I get carried away sometimes. Hope some of this helps.
[8D]
Alan
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