What is the power rating on Stock Front speakers?

[negusm]

For 79-86 what were the stock front 3.5" speakers rated at power wise?

Did it change for 87-93? Were the 87-93 dash speakers still the same size as 79-86?

-Mike

[StangBoy]

****ty? idk ive never had a a a car in which they actually worked

come to think of it ive never bought a 4eye that actually had the stock radio :(

[agbulit]

the premium sound speakers can handle the power from an aftermarket deck, just keep the volume low, or fade more to the rear speakers.

[negusm]

Maybe a better question is to ask how much power the premium sound radios/amp put out to the front speakers.

I know the speakers are crap for high power applications but I have the correct asc 1985 Kenwood radio installed for my car (10w/channel) and was looking at aftermarket speakers. They all seem to be way overpowered for the deck. Low powered speakers (I infer) would work better with a low powered deck and was wondering what the front speakers were rated for (5w, 10w?) and if they were higher in later years.

I'm not going for most volume or the best sound....just a decent match to the radio.

-Mike

[FoxChassis]

Wasn't the rated impedance of the factory speakers something other than 4Ω?

[negusm]

Wasn't the rated impedance of the factory speakers something other than 4Ω?

House stuff was usually 8 and car stuff was almost always 4 I thought.

What Ford used....I thought was 4 but maybe not?

-Mike

[FoxChassis]

I thought I've seen 6Ω stamped on a few magnet back plates of factory speakers. May have just been the rears (5x7/6x8).

[negusm]

I thought I've seen 6Ω stamped on a few magnet back plates of factory speakers. May have just been the rears (5x7/6x8).

Hmmm....could be....I will check the Premium sound rears I have at home.

-Mike

[agbulit]

I thought I've seen 6Ω stamped on a few magnet back plates of factory speakers. May have just been the rears (5x7/6x8).

I believe that 6 is correct.

Like I said, you won't 'overpower' them if you keep the volume level down.

Grab some of the bass blockers mentioned in a previous thread, and you are ready to go. The premium sound speakers sound just fine if you run some clean power to them, you don't really need anything special for the dash. Looking for good 3.5" speakers is a waste of time, they don't exist.

[negusm]

ok, nm, I'll get the lowest powered 4 ohm aftermarket jobbers for the front and some 4 ohm Kenwood 6.5" rounds for the back to fit the stock asc holes to keep impedence the same. Hopefully that low powered 10w deck can make a little noise with the 150w rears. :-)

-Mike

[frankiesaysrelax]

I thought I've seen 6Ω stamped on a few magnet back plates of factory speakers. May have just been the rears (5x7/6x8).

Every factory Ford speaker I have ever examined is 6Ω. I have two premium sound rears from a hatchback and a whatever sound 6.5" round convertible speaker kicking around but no factory fronts, aside from those in my '88 LX, which do in fact work. I believe they are 3.5"ers just like the '70-'86 dash speakers.

[84gt86svo]

79-93 use 3 1/2 speakers in the dash.

[agbulit]

ok, nm, I'll get the lowest powered 4 ohm aftermarket jobbers for the front and some 4 ohm Kenwood 6.5" rounds for the back to fit the stock asc holes to keep impedence the same. Hopefully that low powered 10w deck can make a little noise with the 150w rears. :-)

-Mike

If you want the loudest sound out of your speakers, don't even bother looking at the power rating. What you want to look for is the speakers with the highest efficiency rating. That will allow you to get the loudest sound out of your low power deck.

[V6DR]

my original fronts say "3.2 ohms" the rears say "6.0 ohms". these are the non-premium sound speakers.

[negusm]

OK, an update. I got some 35w Kenwood 3.5" front speakers off from ebay. They work great and sound fine up front.

Got some 6.5" speakers (140w) in the back. They seem to be fine but the fronts tend to overpower the back with the upper range (probably expected), so I faded the backs up more. The radio makes them loud enough to listen to but does distort when you really crank it (10w/channels ain't much).

The only problem I had was the rear speakers I got were 2 way speakers and the center tweeter sticks abover the woofer and I can't get my stock speaker covers on there....so went to Crutchfield and figured out which ones would fit.

I think I might look for a small amp for the rears to give them a bit more boost. Supposedly the asc cars got one under the dash anyways.

Oh, yeah, I have to take some pics and show you guys how I connected the rears to the premium wiring with no cutting....its a riot but works perfectly.

-Mike

[Pshull727]

the Front 3.5" are rated at 4watt max,The rear conv. only 6.5 are 15watt max,And the 5x7 hatch are 20 watts i put a set of 5.7 ford jbl's on a good amp and a good deck in my t-bird and they sounded better then some aftermarket one but with out a amp they WILL BLOW.

[FlyinM]

What brand recommendations would you make for replacement front 3 1/2 dash speakers if I am running about 22w? I'd rather listen to the exhaust melody, but occasionally I might want tunes.

[FlyinM]

What brand recommendations would you make for replacement front 3 1/2 dash speakers if I am running about 22w? I'd rather listen to the exhaust melody, but occasionally I might want tunes.

[negusm]

Oh, yeah, I have to take some pics and show you guys how I connected the rears to the premium wiring with no cutting....its a riot but works perfectly.

-Mike

Here are my premium sound connectors:
http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/Projects/SpeakerInstall/PremiumSoundConnection1.JPG
http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/Projects/SpeakerInstall/PremiumSoundConnection2.JPG

I took some wire, connected on some audio spade connectors for connecting to the speaker. The other end I soldered to some thick ROMEX copper wire. Then I just shove that end into the female holes of the wiring harness. NO CUTTING!

BTW, here is a rear speaker finally installed:
http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/Projects/SpeakerInstall/SpeakerCoverInstalled.JPG

Note, how SMALL the hole is compared to the STOCK Ford opening:
http://www.ascmclarencoupe.com/Projects/SpeakerInstall/StockvsASCSpeakerHoles.JPG

They are special rear panels that I can never replace!

-Mike

[SchoolBoy]

Damb I wish that I had found this sooner...

Just so you know, one of the better way's to tell if a speaker will work well with low power, or high power running throught it is to check and see what the db rating is, anything over 90db is good, and 96db is about the max you will ever see, sometimes 98db, but that is usally in pro audio...
So when you go looking for speaker ESPECIAL tweeters, try to find something that has 92-93db, this will tell you that the spaeker takes less power to make a good sound, and more power will only make the sound better to a point........ Now for everyone with high powered decks, sorry....... but you only really have about 15-22 watts of pure power...... The 200 watt stats come from the fact the that the deck can put out more, but at the cost of quality! Making the speakers sound harsh......

Most ford speaker I have ever seen are 6 ohms, and most after markets are 4 ohm.......



Buy the way..... I like your fix for the rear speaker hook ups!

[negusm]

Somebody already mentioned to look for the efficiency rating of the speakers. Nearly all Kenwood 6.5" car speakers seem to be 92db.

Right now, I have to fade up the rears all the way so they sound balanced. I have a tiny 18w/channel Alpine amp that I will fit behind the dash to boost my 10w/channel Kenwood radio. Whoo hooo! High powered! NOT!

You should see the small Alpine amp. He's a cute little guy.

-Mike

[SchoolBoy]

Actually I would like to see a shot of it, and what is it exactly? I plan on running 4 pairs of speakers in my RS, so I keep thinking that a little more power would be nice..... ceause you know those 12" woofers get hungery.... :D

[negusm]

I have an Alpine 3505....here is the Alpine 3501:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALPINE-3501-2-Channel-Car-Power-Amplifer-NO-RES_W0QQitemZ5823340361QQcategoryZ39733QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

He says 25w/channel but he's full of it. Go to Alpine's site and they say 18w/channel just like the 3505 I have. The real difference looks to be in the connectors.

-Mike

[SchoolBoy]

k cool, that thing is definately small!

[negusm]

OK, got my little amp hooked up and no difference in the rears. I started looking into it and it looks like Kenwood's brochures and owner's manual disagree. The brochures said 10w, the box says 15w and the manual says 20w max per channel.

The little Alpine amp is at most 18w/channel....soooo it looks like that little amp isn't probably adding anything. I know its working...I'm getting sound from it...but nothing tremendous.

I was listening to the radio and the front speakers are still too blasted loud and you can't hear the rears.

Soooo....I have a 30w/channel alpine amp (60max total) and the question is....

The larger alpine amp has some beefy power leads....can I still wire them into the stock Ford radio harness like I was doing before? If not, what would be a good wire to tap into for power....the rear defrost wire? Its pretty good size and goes from under the dash to the battery I think. Would I really be pulling that much juice to fry the stock radio harness? I mean its just a 60w amp....

Thoughts? I plan on putting this new amp between the console and the heater vents. It isn't very big and I measured the fitment.

-Mike

[SchoolBoy]

Uh before you go nutz, did you check your fader controles on the deck to make sure that you haven't channeled to much power foward, and to see you can pu some in towards the rear. I know its a simple thing, but sometimes thats what gets over looked......

[negusm]

Uh before you go nutz, did you check your fader controles on the deck to make sure that you haven't channeled to much power foward, and to see you can pu some in towards the rear. I know its a simple thing, but sometimes thats what gets over looked......

Yeah, when I fade them forward, the fronts are SUPER loud...when I fade the backs all the way up, I can barely tell they are there. Actually the only time I could really tell the difference is when I had the backs all the way up and I unplugged the amp, I could here a bit of the sound go away..

-Mike