Music to my ears....

So I was on Amazon checking out speakers last week. Found these Infinity 682.9CF for $73 a pair shipped. So I got two pairs of them. The tweeter is an adjustable directional unit so you can direct it where you want it to fire. The speakers also come with a built in crossover.







All told, it took me an hour and a half to do all four speakers. It was really quite simple to do, more time consuming than difficult.

The difference in sound though is simply amazing! No other changes, just replacing the 5x7's, and I can now clearly hear cymbals, sticks, rattles, rasps, harmonica tonal changes, you name it. Hi's and mid's are completely separate now and the bass is so much cleaner and deeper. I'm no audiophile though, so to me, this is as much money and effort as I'm willing to put into it. And man was it worth it! I can actually turn my radio up all the way without any distortion. Not that I normally do that, but it's nice when I want too!

I am very pleased with the upgrade. The stock front door speakers were extremely light, extremely cheap Made in Mexico units. The rear stock speakers were a little better, more magnet area, but still not very good at all. These new Infinity's just kick ass.

I plan on doing a DIY write up. In the mean time, if anyone needs any info about this, just let me know. I've got the wiring diagram and wire colors all sorted out.

Replaced the stock speakers in my pickup and couldn't believe how cheaply made they were, just junk!

Do you have the shaker 500 or the base stereo?

I have Kappas in all 4 corners of mine. Love 'em

Easy on the speaker talk or I will have to move this to the correct forum section

onesillyracer said:

Do you have the shaker 500 or the base stereo?

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Shaker 500.

Hawgman said:

I have Kappas in all 4 corners of mine. Love 'em

Easy on the speaker talk or I will have to move this to the correct forum section

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Go ahead and move it. I guess my watching TV prevented me from seeing it when I looked for it. Sorry about that!

Had I of realized how cheap it was going to be to get nice, quality speakers, I'd of done this a long time ago!

Nice!

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

Did you also buy the speaker harnesses indicated in the Amazon page?

skwerl said:

Did you also buy the speaker harnesses indicated in the Amazon page?

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Nope. No need with the built in cross-overs. Just cut the stock connectors off, strip 3/4" of wire, twist it, fold it over on itself and insert into the cross-over and tighten down the screw. Done.

Did you put them in the doors also?

IHVOCD said:

Did you put them in the doors also?

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Yep, sure did.

I purchased the Infinity 8602FX from Crutchfield a couple weeks ago. They were running a special buy one pair get another pair half price.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-y3WmfQcqDvn/p_108R8602CX/Infinity-Reference-X-REF-8602cfx.html

I replaced the door speakers and the change in sound was definately worth it. Haven't had the time to do the rear speakers yet. Maybe next weekend...

Frank... were the rear deck panels easy to remove to get to the speakers?

D'prived said:

Frank... were the rear deck panels easy to remove to get to the speakers?

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Sure was! Pop up the seat bottom and remove it. Lay the vertical seats down. Then, remove the plastic pop-screws.







You will also have to remove the side trim pieces. They are large, but come out easily enough. Those pictures turned out badly, so I'll just tell you.

Once you've got the stuff above removed, you need to go to the door sill plate. Pull it up hard right where it meets the forward part of the side trim piece. The sill will pop up and you will notice that the part facing out of the door opening is held down by double sided tape. Just pop the sill piece up from back to front, but don't yank it out and dislodge all of the double sided tape. Once it's loose, you can just barely pull the rear part of it up enough to get the side trim piece out from under it. Then, it's just a matter of pulling the side trim piece away from the side of the car. Grab it right above the rear window and pull out. The seat belts make it a little tricky to get out of the car, but you'll see what to do. Once both side pieces are out, took me about 7 minutes to get both of them out of the car, you can then lift the rear deck panel up and out of the car, being careful to pull the seat belts out of the slots in the front of the deck piece.

I was able to take out the screws on the deck speakers just using a 6mm socket and hand turning it. But you might want to ensure you have a 1/4" drive ratchet just in case they are torqued down in yours.

When you go to put everything back together, the lower seat piece will need to have the seat belt buckles fed through the holes for them. All you gotta do is get both of them started from below the seat, then use the seat belts to keep them in place and pull them up through the seat after you get the lower seat reinstalled.



It's pretty straight forward and actually took me less time to do than the door speakers did. Just gimmie a shout if you have any other questions.

No amp or anything running the speakers?

HOTRODD77 said:

No amp or anything running the speakers?

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Shaker 500 uses the amp on the radio to power the 5x7 speakers.

Nice work Frank....definately do a write up and throw it in the iTunes section. Will be on my list of upgrades.

The speakers in the 2012 are better than the ones I had in my 2005, but there is still a ton of room for improvement and it's awesome you can do that without breaking the bank. Good job Frank!

BadHabit2Break said:

Shaker 500 uses the amp on the radio to power the 5x7 speakers.

Nice work Frank....definately do a write up and throw it in the iTunes section. Will be on my list of upgrades.

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No, I know. When I had my '06 I swapped the front an rear speakers with polk's(I think), and they just sounded horrible until I ran them through an amp. That's why I was asking that. I may look into these if they are a simple direct replacement.

I have Infinity Kappa speakers on all 4 corners with my Shaker 500 also. Great speakers. Major improvement over stock but they really came into their own once I amplified them. I recently went from a Scosche SLC4 passive speaker level to line level converter to a AudioControl LC6i powered line level converter that generates a sub output and cleaned up the sound even more. It also eliminated the ground loop noise I was getting.

Thanks for the info Frank!

bigwilly43729 said:

The speakers in the 2012 are better than the ones I had in my 2005, but there is still a ton of room for improvement and it's awesome you can do that without breaking the bank. Good job Frank!

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Thanks brother!

HOTRODD77 said:

No, I know. When I had my '06 I swapped the front an rear speakers with polk's(I think), and they just sounded horrible until I ran them through an amp. That's why I was asking that. I may look into these if they are a simple direct replacement.

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These bolt directly in. No drama to it at all. No modding the door panel or the door mount as with some other speakers. I did extensive research to ensure the size of these speakers would be a direct as possible replacement with minimal modding needed. Turned out, no modding was needed other than cutting off the stock wiring plug. Easiest stock speaker replacement I've ever done on a car.

wht67 said:

I have Infinity Kappa speakers on all 4 corners with my Shaker 500 also. Great speakers. Major improvement over stock but they really came into their own once I amplified them. I recently went from a Scosche SLC4 passive speaker level to line level converter to a AudioControl LC6i powered line level converter that generates a sub output and cleaned up the sound even more. It also eliminated the ground loop noise I was getting.

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I don't plan on doing anything else to the audio system. For me, this is perfect. I listen to 60's, 70's and some 80's rock/hard rock, country music, and a variety of other music. Some modern, some metal, etc. Drowning Pools "Down with the Sickness" used to easily cause distortion. Now, it's just clean bass. If I give it too much volume or too much bass setting, the stock subs will make it sound "bass-flat" while the new speakers keep on working fine. Steve Earl's Copperhead Road now sounds like I'm in the recording booth compared to the stock speakers. Metallica's "Where I May Roam" plays so well I noticed hi's and mid's that I only heard at home on my home theater system.

This isn't going to make your car a suddenly magical audio hall of music that wins audio shows, but if you just want to spend $150 to upgrade your sound experience in the car, it really does sound like I've spent $1,000 in upgrades. Which is how much it cost me in parts alone to get my Trainblazer to sound *almost* this good. The Mustang's smaller compartment and the ability to adjust the firing direction of the tweeters makes a huge difference for little money.

D'prived said:

Thanks for the info Frank!

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Sure man. Just let me know if I can help out in any way.

Thats a great write up!!! I have been wanting speakers for mine, but wasnt sure it was worth the upgrade with the shaker500 stereo without adding an amp or something else. i will see if i can get me a set too. thanks