I'm going to go at this component by component for the sake of cash flow. I know the benefits of getting a nice 3-way focal system, but having spent to get the car and starting a new business venture I'm strapped for now!

There are as many opinions as there are options, so this is what I'm doing. It won't take on your $600 speakers with $1200 amps and $800 head units, but my approach will be what I consider the best quality bang for my buck. Hopefully someone will find this useful.

The steps, in the order that I'll do them:
1. Replace dash speakers
2. Replace door midbass
3. Replace amp
4. Add subwoofer (combined with #2 since I have a pair of 8" bazookas lying around. Depending on how they sound in the car I might keep or replace. My gut says a 10" would sound better)
5. Replace head unit (I want to use my ipod)
6. Replace rear (maybe)

So the first step is to replace the speakers. IMO they are the weakest link. I went with infinity Kappa 42.9i. They are like $60. I have personally always enjoyed the sound of infinities in the car. I got the "special" torx tool to get the dash speakers out. http://amzn.com/B005HQHJEW Once out, I had to peel the silicone that the factory had put on the tweeter. It was 4 drops of it to keep it in place, but a bit of a pain to break free!

The big question for me was how to cleanly mount new 4" speakers to the grill. I saw the nifty 9xx adapters, but the cost plus shipping was not going to work for me plus I don't like Alpine speakers. So I asked a friend to help me out and we brainstormed and scavenged. 4" PVC pipe was a near perfect fit. He is good with a lathe, so he honed a slice of it out to fit the speaker and carved out a groove so that it sits in the grill without being able to slide around. All that was left was to make a plate so that I could screw the stock grill screw in and hold the speaker down. We settled on stainless for the material, 1 plate for the single screw with another for the double screw.

I'll post pics of the whole thing and the individual pieces. This weekend I'll put them in the car and give it a listen! I can't wait for some improvement! It should work for any 4" speaker.

 

I used the frames from the old speakers to hold my new focals, for the mids that is. For the tweeters I used silicone. Just cut the cones, etc off of the old frames leaving enough frame tol hold the new speakers.

I would however change your order of priorities. Do all the speakers first. Then the amp. No matter how good the amp or the HU it will sound bad through the OEM speakers.

Do you have the door speakers?

 

bazookas? $60 dash speakers?
Hey nothing against to save money and do thinks on budget but better wait and save some money and get it right.
For sake you drive Porsche 911

 

I may opt for the midbass next. I'll have to get them out and size them up to see how to best fit replacements. Thanks for the tip. I agree that the speakers are the weakest link. What I don't really want to do is cut up existing pieces and use silicone. If I do resell the car, I've found that people tend to look down on aftermarket "modifications" no matter how good it is, so I want this to be something reversible.

My car does have the door speakers.

I was expecting comments regarding cost. I don't care. So what if they are $60? Kappas are a bargain for their sound and a huge improvement over anything stock. As price goes up, you start heading into diminishing returns. I won't spend big bucks to invest in it's stereo and I'm sure there are other who won't either, but still want better sound. This is for them.

Do I know what quality sounds like? My home system has Martin Logans driven by a Classe Audio amp fed with balanced XLR inputs, etc etc etc.

 

I have the 9xx speaker adapters for the dashboard, mine are the version for JLAudio C-400X Range, they are a great fitting kit and is as good as my ears can hear.

A friend in the USA did not want the european alpine speakers (10C2), so he went for just the adapter kit for the USA designed for the USA Alpine SPS-410..

I decided against the Alpine speakers and bought just the adapter kit specified for JLAudio speakers and they worked great.

 

those adapters looked great, I just can't justify the cost being shipped from over the pond. My 4" PVC worked awesome. It's great to have some crisp clarity!

I've also replaced the door speakers already. It's a pretty standard 5.25" mount. Again I went with infinity kappas. I didn't have to remove the door panel, just swung the bottom out far enough to get a stubby phillips in. No worries about the airbag or the micro connector.

The car will be put in the garage starting tomorrow for the next 5 weeks, so I won't be looking to do anything else until then. But next up will be the amp for sure. The crappy Nokia amp can't drive 4 ohm speakers.

 

Speakers make a huge difference. Glad you're enjoying the improved sound.

 

Great to hear, completely approve of the lower cost options, the real music is in the trunk.

What you thinking for the AMP? The class D units from Alpine and Fusion are quite compact and generate less heat than the traditional technology.

I have the MOST/Bose setup and are doing the head unit and amp first and then will take a look at the speakers.

 

I will be looking forward to your future posts regarding your stereo upgrades. I own a 996tt with the "Hi Fi" option and my wife's Taurus has a much better sound system. It seems like I cannot even moderately increase the volume without it distorting

 

I have:
1) Kenwood DNX7100 Head Unit with Nav
2) JL Audio 500.5 Amp
3) 6.5 JL Audio Evolution Door Speakers
4) 4" JL Audio Evolution Dash Speakers
5) 3 JL Audio 8" Subwoofers
6) 1f Cap

$5000 in stuff and I dont even listen to it. Too busy listening to the 470hp!

 

The way it ended up, I am using the following:

• Polk PA D5000.5 class D 5 channel amp which fits up against the firewall nicely.
• Infinity kappa speakers, 429i in dash and 529i in door.
• Pioneer DEH-80PRS head unit.
• Kicker 10" TCVT102 2 ohm sub.

My impressions...
I always enjoy the sound of the Infinity. I had confidence in the head unit. Bluetooth audio from my iphone streamed through the "cloud" (iTunes match) actually works and sounds great. I still prefer the actual CDs though. The pioneer auto tuning function is what made this work the best. You attach a mic to where you will be sitting and it auto tunes the system for you. I didn't do that right away since I needed to get a feel for the sound in the car. So before the auto tune, I was very disappointed in the kicker. I really couldn't get quality sound out of it. To the point where I was ready to return it for false advertising of it's range. After the auto tune, it was able to reach the deep lows while keeping the mid lows nicely under control. I want quality, not quantity. And with that, the Polk also has plenty of quantity.


So for less than $1,000, this is a very nice system that looks like it is stock (except the sub behind the rear seats).


I also used factory wiring to keep everything neat.

 

I used the Infinity Kappas as well. Quite happy with the sound. Pioneer AVIC Z120BT head unit with Alpine PDX-5 amp. Custom sub box in back too.

 

I just put a Pioneer DEH-80PRS in my 911 C4 and I'm very happy with it. I sometimes think I maybe should have gone with AppRadio2 for just slightly more money but overall I'm very happy.

When I got the C4 it had the stock stereo with the fancy DSP module. Not to mention a very nice cassette tape holder I might add (see photo)
I had a friend of mine do the install 1) out of fear of taking wrenches to a Porsche and 2) because he does it for a living and could do in an hour what would have taken me 3.

The upside to the 80PRS:
- 2 USB ports : I have one with the iPod connector a second with a USB port that I can pop flash drives into. Both work beautifully.

- iPod/USB control from the deck itself is very good. Shows song names, etc. (various display options). Navigation is easy.

- Bluetooth works very well. Great for running Spotify or other apps from your phone.

- If you have an iPhone it supposedly will run Pandora straight off your 3G connection. (I have a Droid)

- a ton of face and button color display options to suit your mood

Downside:

- the microphone for Bluetooth headset use is not well suited for a convertible. It picks up road noise badly so I get complaints from callers. (this could be an upside if you prefer not to be bothered while driving)

- Display isn't easily read in bright sunlight, lots of glare

- USB control doesn't allow you to cycle back to a previous song if you skip past one

Speakers are next on my list. We didn't go that far so I'm glad to see your speaker choices as I plan my next upgrade.

thanks.

 

Jeepers on the vintage cassette tape holder! Never actually seen one of those in a 996! I'm sure you're glad it's gone!

Q. Did you consider any of the other single-DIN Pioneer HU's besides the DEH80PRS?

I'm considering that one, but prefer the OEM look of the stage 4, "mucho dinero" DEXP99RS (but alas no Bluetooth). If I did that then I'd definitely have to do speakers and woofer, and before you know it, I'm putting $10k into a $25k automobile (wouldn't be the first time).

 

Bluetooth was a must for me at the time. I considered pretty much every single-DIN in the $250 to $500 price range. The Kenwood KIV-BT901 looked cool. I was really intrigued by the Parrot Asteriod but it seemed from reviews that it looked great but lacked functionality. There's an Alpine in the same category too but I always had this feeling that with them you mostly pay for the name.

Ultimately my buddy is a Pioneer dealer and so gets a better price. That drove the decision.

I couldn't justify the higher end Stage 4 stuff. Its hard to say to the family "yeah I know I just bought a Porsche but I need this $1000 stereo too". Its a 2001 that had 60,000 on it when I bought it so I didn't pay any more for the car than most people pay for vehicles. There's no way I could afford a Porsche any newer than this. But the fact that it's a Porsche seems to have this effect on people where, regardless of what you paid for the car, they think "you got a Porsche, that should be enough".