School me on some car audio basics, please.

[Arquemann]

- With the Kenwoods in the doors, the dash sounds best with no speaker installed -

- In any configuration, the Kenwood 4" in the dash are way too high. They really strictly enforce the sensation that only some of my sound is coming from each area of the car, which is something I was specifically aiming to avoid -

This is kinda one thing I was wondering about too. Currently my MGM is all factory premium stuff, except for new 5.25" JBL's in the doors. The dash speakers have good output, but they lack lows completely, and the midrange is meh at best. So the highs of the dash speakers kinda overpower the door speakers, so the sound overall is quite heavy on the highs, and the low power amp doesn't help the modern door speakers.


So, installing new dash speakers with the hopes of better midrange and not drowning out the lows from the door speakers even more,
OR
Leaving the dash speakers off completely, and hoping it doesn't sound weird with just the door speakers blasting into the footwells.

My '95 Caprice didn't have dash speakers, which caused a weird wonkiness in how the stereo sounds, depending on how I have positioned my left leg.

[kishy]

This is kinda one thing I was wondering about too. Currently my MGM is all factory premium stuff, except for new 5.25" JBL's in the doors. The dash speakers have good output, but they lack lows completely, and the midrange is meh at best. So the highs of the dash speakers kinda overpower the door speakers, so the sound overall is quite heavy on the highs, and the low power amp doesn't help the modern door speakers.


So, installing new dash speakers with the hopes of better midrange and not drowning out the lows from the door speakers even more,
OR
Leaving the dash speakers off completely, and hoping it doesn't sound weird with just the door speakers blasting into the footwells.

My '95 Caprice didn't have dash speakers, which caused a weird wonkiness in how the stereo sounds, depending on how I have positioned my left leg.

Aftermarket JBL, or the Ford-JBL option from a Town Car?
I recall having tried the Ford-JBL speakers in the door of my Town Car, and found (due to wizardy beyond my understanding, at least at the time - almost certainly impedence related to the presence of the dash speakers) that they barely made a sound at all.

I think if there was some way to substantially reduce the output of the dash speakers, the Kenwoods could stay. But I don't want to do invasive alterations, and there is no combination of options the radio offers (bass, treble, balance, fade) that gets the highs on the dash speakers under control without also making everything else too low, or rear-biased. I'm probably content with 4 speakers, as long as all 4 are doing good useful stuff.

Problem with my wagon: it has non-original door cards installed, with map pockets. This configuration is incompatible with door speakers. There are door speakers in it, but that combo of parts doesn't work properly together. I'm sure I could do 6.5" since the adapter rings aren't there, but they're pumping their sound into a sheet of cardboard with some carpet and a plastic pocket on top. Maybe finding something "bassier" to pop in the dashboard and foregoing door speakers would be the right option for that one.

[Arquemann]

Aftermarket JBL, or the Ford-JBL option from a Town Car?
I recall having tried the Ford-JBL speakers in the door of my Town Car, and found (due to wizardy beyond my understanding, at least at the time - almost certainly impedence related to the presence of the dash speakers) that they barely made a sound at all.

I think if there was some way to substantially reduce the output of the dash speakers, the Kenwoods could stay. But I don't want to do invasive alterations, and there is no combination of options the radio offers (bass, treble, balance, fade) that gets the highs on the dash speakers under control without also making everything else too low, or rear-biased. I'm probably content with 4 speakers, as long as all 4 are doing good useful stuff.

Problem with my wagon: it has non-original door cards installed, with map pockets. This configuration is incompatible with door speakers. There are door speakers in it, but that combo of parts doesn't work properly together. I'm sure I could do 6.5" since the adapter rings aren't there, but they're pumping their sound into a sheet of cardboard with some carpet and a plastic pocket on top. Maybe finding something "bassier" to pop in the dashboard and foregoing door speakers would be the right option for that one.

Just regular aftermarket JBL's, I guess the "new" wasn't clear enough. With my preference on the fader, it does seem incredibly rear-biased when sitting in the back.
Mine's just the plain grille door panels, I don't think I've seen many of the 6.5" pod doors. Though I've seen quite many doors with pockets and the 5.25" speakers. Funny.

Having 6 speakers is kinda annoying, since the parallel setup is wonky for 4-channel stuff, 6-channel amps are generally more money and car speakers aren't exactly plentiful in anything else than 4 ohms.

[kishy]

Just regular aftermarket JBL's, I guess the "new" wasn't clear enough. With my preference on the fader, it does seem incredibly rear-biased when sitting in the back.
Mine's just the plain grille door panels, I don't think I've seen many of the 6.5" pod doors. Though I've seen quite many doors with pockets and the 5.25" speakers. Funny.

Having 6 speakers is kinda annoying, since the parallel setup is wonky for 4-channel stuff, 6-channel amps are generally more money and car speakers aren't exactly plentiful in anything else than 4 ohms.

No, the "new" should have been clear enough, my brain just didn't do the brain things.

I don't think there was a 6.5" pod/adapter ring, but I do think that at least some 6.5" speakers will fit in the hole in the door when the pod is not present.

I was just working on the assumption that Ford never assembled a car with the map pockets and the door speakers. Perhaps they did. My car (the wagon) has door cards that definitely were not originally paired with speakers because they didn't even have the hole cut out for the speaker grilles at all. Maybe there was a factory setup that had the speaker grille inside the pocket.

Some relevant photos (along with many irrelevant) in the following posts of the wagon thread:

https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/technical/gmn-reader-s-rides/48830-kishy-s-1985-country-squire/page38#post1205360

https://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/technical/gmn-reader-s-rides/48830-kishy-s-1985-country-squire/page54#post1221771

[Arquemann]

I think I might've understood some things fundamentally wrong.
I thought the protruding "pods" came with 6.5s. Seems like you've used "adapter ring" and "pod" interchangeably, further increasing my confusion. I thought they were separate thing.
Seems like that is not the case?
Did anything come with 6.5" door speakers from the factory?
I'm doubtful that the bare door-hole in my MGM would've taken a 6.5" without modification, and the factory ones were 5.25" anyways.

Google images comes up with quite a lot of images with door pockets & speakers for that to have not been a factory thing. Dunno.

[sly]

Had a feeling the BMW adapters would need to be drilled. Kinda surprised that 2/3 actually lined up.