royalcrown

hey guys. i'll be putting in a stereo system in my 66 this winter and plan on putting 6 1/2" speakers in the trap door rather than 6X9's. I've noticed that all of the aftermarket trap doors with speaker pods built in are for 6X9's so i'm thinking about just getting one without pods and just cutting the holes myself. my question is - has anyone mounted speakers directly in their aftermarket plastic trap door without pods and if so, is the plastic strong enough to hold the weight of the speakers without sagging? the reason i'm questioning the structural integrity of the plastic is because i noticed the ones with the built in pods seem a little beefier.

tx65coupe

Why not just run 6x9's? They sound and look better.

rdeor

I've done it with 6 x9's and they work just fine....

tcrote5516

There isnt many 6x9's out there that sound better then a nice set of component 6.5s. I assume what he wants to do is go with seperates (woofer, crossover and seperate tweeter). Also, you can find a high quality pair of components for much less than a quality set of 6x9s

For the record, they do make seperate component 6x9's, I believe Kicker comps and a few others are out there now.

royalcrown

Correct. The 6.5's i'm planning on getting have a crossover so they will be component. And to add on your point, and one of the reasons why i'm going with 6.5 instead of 6X9's - it's a common misconception that 6X9's are either louder or have better sound quality than 6.5's since they're larger. A true audio buff will tell you that a circular speaker will, in general, give a better sound quality than an ovular speaker of the same makeup (even though the average person wouldn't be able to tell a difference). Additionally, besides the quality of the makeup of the speaker (woven glass vs paper woofers, etc), a lot of it has to do with proper power/wattage.

tx65coupe

In my opinion a good pair of 2 or 3 way 6x9 speakers sound better than components.

I guess it depends on how your stereo is setup and what you like.

All I have is 3 way Kenwood 6x9 in the rear and the 2 way stereo speaker that replaces the AM speaker in the front.

My friend has only a pair of 2 way 6 or 6.5 inch speakers in his package tray with basically the same configuration I have and it does not sound as good.

I don't know what your stereo plans are as far as subs and all of that, but I didn't want to fool with adding any of that to my car.

My friend has a fastback with the 6x9 speakers mounted through the original trap door. I know that you said the reproduction ones are plastic, but is the OE trap door metal or plastic? I don't remember.

bredn65

It really doesn't matter if they're round, oval square or triangle, if you don't have good, clean and usable power driving them, it's pointless. Component speakers require more "individual" power (especially the sub-woofer) and will sound crisper in the high end and tighter in the lower end, but you won't get the separation as much. The human ear can only hear certain frequencies anyway, so some of it may be pointless too, but with good power, the frequencies you do hear will be better. There is absolutely nothing wrong w/a good set of 6x9's or 6.5's, but anytime you separate components, they'll (generally) sound better. Same principle of home audio when you separate the amp, pre-amp and tuner, it's just a cleaner sound. Having been in the stereo world for 20+ years, I've learned separation is usually better (albeit, more expensive too). But, again, it all comes down to CLEAN power. Just because an amp says it has 200 watts of power, if it's only 80 useable, then whatever speaker you put with it won't sound good, especially at any kind of volume. Sure, it'll be loud, but the distortion will probably bring small farm animals our from hiding, and potentially damage whatever speakers you have. So, if your speakers say they can handle 200 watts, sure they can, but that's a clean 200 watts (note how much "continuous power" they say they can handle too as there is a huge difference). Bottom line is if you hook up a crappy amp to awesome speakers, you're still going to get crappy sound, especially at volume). So I ALWAYS advise my buddies to start with power, then speakers. Invest in the amp!!!!