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Door Speaker Delete?

D

Daniel St. Pierre

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Hey y'all,

I picked up an 87 Blazer and am just starting to plan out the new interior redesign. I'm planning on centralizing the window switches and power locks on the dash and thinking about deleting the in-door speaker as well. I'm upgrading the wimpy factory stereo to a quality system/speakers so that should improve the system significantly. My rationale with the delete is to remove the unnecessary wiring from the door. With a larger, better response speaker right behind the seats, and a set in the dash to raise the noise level do you think there is any risk to bad sound quality? Paired with a good set in the rear by the tailgate I think there will be sufficient output to maintain sound quality.

Has anyone done this? Any thoughts? Let your opinions fly!
 
I wasn't aware K5s of that era ever came with speakers in the door-just the ones in the dash and behind the rear seats? Anyways, the ones in the dash are pretty small, it might be a better choice to get those kick panel speaker pods or something similar, and enlarge the rear openings to fit a 6x9 (If I recall the factory ones are an oddball size with limited replacement options). You'll find as many opinions on this as you will audio options available. I put a Highliner (http://www.jcwhitney.com/1976-1986-...ner-headliner/p2023838d50254y1976-1986j1.jcwx) in some years ago to replace the dash speakers and reroute my radio, and I'm going to run an amp and 6x9s to the new interior panels I'm making.
 
That makes sense why all the replacement kick panels don't have speaker holes.

They Must have been added in after the fact. I'm wondering if the previous owner ran them in parallel with the speakers behind the seat and didn't match the impedance correctly... that might explain the poor sound output.
 
More than likely you'll do better using good kickpanels w/ better speakers - at least for imaging.
 
JoshHefnerX said:
More than likely you'll do better using good kickpanels w/ better speakers - at least for imaging.
Click to expand...

Have you had a square with speakers in the kicks? I have a set of the q logic kick panels but haven't looked at installing them yet. Seems like they might interfere with the e brake. I haven't test fit them yet.
 
Not in square body, but several in other cars. My square is too loud to hear anything, lol In general though kicks are a decent compromise for most vehicles. Minimizes the PLD's and the footwell of the squares is pretty generous.
 
JoshHefnerX said:
Not in square body, but several in other cars. My square is too loud to hear anything, lol In general though kicks are a decent compromise for most vehicles. Minimizes the PLD's and the footwell of the squares is pretty generous.
Click to expand...

Damn. You're right. This post motivated me to check out the ones that I had. These are going to be by far the best set of kicks I've ever had. Every other set was in a sports car with no room. These look like they will fit nice and really face the occupants. I test fit them over the existing panels. The drivers side will be even more out of the way once the hood release is moved. I wish they were the right color. Pics for posterity.

IMG_0853.JPG

IMG_0854.JPG
 
I had a nearly competition level stereo in my blazer, which included kick panel speakers. I like them better than door speakers because you can use a deeper cone, which gives better sound and door components (window tracks) are notorious for buzzing to the music when the speaker is attached right to the door. They do a great job of filling in sound from the front, at least for the mids. The highs from the tweeters are pretty much lost in your pant legs. Use them in conjunction w/ a tweeter/ small mid-range combo in the dash corners and you'll get much better imaging off the windshield. I had 6" and 1" Sony components in the kicks and Eclipse plates w/ 1" and 3" speakers in the dash. I had crystal clear highs w/ all types of music at any volume.

IDK if all kick panel enclosures require it, but I had to remove the flapper and close off the fresh air vent in the pass. side kick to fit mine in.
 
If you wanted to go all-out, mount some horns in there up under the dash. good dash shape for it, and then build some fiberglass kicks for the mids. Did horns in my G8 and some sealed fiberglass doors.

:whistle:
 
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/attachment.php?attachmentid=175790&stc=1&d=1136399923

I will personally be going with something like-ish to this for mine. If you have expensive speakers I don't like the kick panels because they are going to constantly have crap kicked on them, especially for me that spends a lot of time in the snow. Near term I am running some ADS 4" coax in the dash with rear ADS/PPI 5.25" separates in custom boxes so they have back pressure from the sealed chamber. Sounds good. When the fronts get swapped to door mounted 6.5" separates with the 5.25" rears it will be a whole notha' ball of wax.

Ultimately depends on your fab skills, time and desire. I used to nerd out on this stuff all the time so it has been fun playing again......
 
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datmony said:
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/attachment.php?attachmentid=175790&stc=1&d=1136399923

I will personally be going with something like-ish to this for mine. If you have expensive speakers I don't like the kick panels because they are going to constantly have crap kicked on them, especially for me that spends a lot of time in the snow. ...
Click to expand...


Those are really nice looking pods but I think they're more likely to be kicked getting in/ out of the truck than speakers in a kick panel. The kick panel keeps the speakers up in the footwell. Your foot has already cleared them to get in/ out of the door sill and they're behind your heel once you are sitting. Speakers in those door pods would be projecting out even further than the door, right in the path of where your feet swinging.

I DD'd mine for 15+ years and in all that time I just scratched a little hole in the fabric at the rearmost edge of the speaker, never even dented the wire mesh underneath.
 
runamok151 said:
Those are really nice looking pods but I think they're more likely to be kicked getting in/ out of the truck than speakers in a kick panel. The kick panel keeps the speakers up in the footwell. Your foot has already cleared them to get in/ out of the door sill and they're behind your heel once you are sitting. Speakers in those door pods would be projecting out even further than the door, right in the path of where your feet swinging.

I DD'd mine for 15+ years and in all that time I just scratched a little hole in the fabric at the rearmost edge of the speaker, never even dented the wire mesh underneath.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing. After test fitting mine yesterday, there is far more room than I am used to with pods in the kicks. As I was driving around today, I noticed my left foot is closer to the door area than under the dash.
 
Mine will not stick out that far, more was meant as a picture for reference since mine have not been started yet. It wouldn't matter anyways for the speakers I am running because they have deep baskets, neither the Q logic nor the 73-87 chevy trucks were deep enough for the mounting depth I need......
 
Only problem being if you do that it will go into the annals of internet history....... the posts in there are ancient.....
 
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