rear speakers

[ScottMc]

hey guys.
has anyone replaced the rear speakers in their BMW?
My 320i came with Kenwood 2 ways (i haven't measured them but i guess they are about 5.5") when i bought it but the cone is punctured and these need replacing.
My question is - what is the biggest size of speaker i can fit in their place. I would ideally like to fit 6x9s for decent bass response since i dont want a subwoofer.
Also has anyone made their own parcel shelf out of MDF or similar? How easy is this to do and is it recomended?

 

[Big Daddy]

Try here, you can enter your car information and they will tell you everything that fits:

Crutchfield

 

[rjp325i]

I installed 6.5 in my rear deck of my E30 without cutting. It was a tight fit but the Infinity speakers work great combined with my 5.25 Infinitys in the kick panel. Crutchfield is a good data source but they say 5.25 speakers all around.

 

[coyotefreek]

Like the others are saying ScottMc, I dought it is 5 1/2 it is probably 5 1/4 in the front. rjp325i did you need anything special to get those 6.5's to fit.

 

[Rukus]

go with 5.25. they fit perfectly.

i have two Rockford coaxials in the back. they are great.

 

[vlad]

Personally I like the es/is plate speakers. Yeah, they need a little assistance in the lower end department, but they leave a stock look and are very respectible sounding with a bit of power behind them.

 

[rjp325i]

No I did nothing except to add a couple of washers to raise the grille a little higher because of the height of the Infinity speakers, the moveable tweeters are taller than some of the others. I used the same fastening holes. It was a close fit but nothing was cut in order to fit them.

 

[coyotefreek]

Well here is my current list of things to buy: Infinity Kappa 52.5i 5 1/4 front, Infinity Kappa 62.5i 6 1/2 for the rear (thanks rjp325i), Either Kicker or a pair of Sony Subs, and Sony amps. So my running total is 300 for speakers + 250 for sub + 400 for amps and the total is $950. Oh and add 400 for the sony mp3 reciever, so $1350 now for my 20% discount including free install, im looking at aroun 1150 including tax. I do have some options I could cut down on like dropping the Kappa speakers ang getting the Reference -100 and I could skip the speaker amp -160, making my budget total of $900.

 

[rjp325i]

I used Infinity Reference Series when I installed mine but they should be the same, I did mine in 1999 and they are still good with the desert heat. Good luck and I'm sure you will be happy with them and will find them easy to install. You may want to add some items in stages to ease the $ impact.

 

[mikev]

Also has anyone made their own parcel shelf out of MDF or similar? How easy is this to do and is it recomended?

What ever you do don't cut the parcel shelf its an integral part of the chassis and would fail in an accident if cut wrong.

 

[rjp325i]

Nothing at all should have to be cut. I did not cut anything to fit the 6.5 inch Infinity Reference Series speakers into my 1989 325i.

 

[ScottMc]

thanks for the help guys. think i'll just go for the 5.25"ers then just to be safe.

 

[rjp325i]

You will find that there is little difference between the two sizes. Mine were free so it was an easy decision. However I was surprised when the 6.5 inchers went in so easy. I even used the existing screw holes. On the kick panel speakers I had to remove the thick fabric covering on the kick panel because it rubbed against the tweeter. The front ones were more of a pain than the rears because of little height/depth clearance. The early E30s like my old '85 had a separate speaker grill that was not part of the kick panel. That made it easy. I do not know what type you have on your E30.