96ish s class benz custom systems?

Im looking for what people have done in these cars as far as custom systems. I bought a 96 s320 that had previously had a aftermarket headunit and amps installed with the original bose 11 speakers, although I dont believe the front center tweeter was hooked up. All I got with the car was the speakers and the patch cords. Im finding that the stock bose speakers arent handling my Audison Srx2 and Srx3 amps very well. The front doors arent bad but the rest dont like it, including the four 2ohm woofers in the rear which are all wired together for a final 2ohm load running off the sub channel on the srx3. I need to keep the iput level down very low on that channel as well as sub out level low and no bass boost on at all or it will clip the rear woofers at a slightly higher volume. The rear doors I had to run them through the hi-pass filter and keep tuning out lower frequencies until I found a livable level they could run at without bad distortion. Because of 2 & 3ohm speakers I cant really just run them off the deck, so Im looking at replacing speakers. Anyone that has done one will know the challenges im looking at for fitment. What have you guys found that fits preferrably with minimal modification?

if they really are the original stock speakers then they are probably dry rotted and destroyed by now. even if they arent you could still do much better with aftermarket speakers. if thats the same style benz that im thinking of i just recently changed the four woofers in the deck and installed some 6.5 coax. i think this was a 93 but not sure exactly which model because it had no other markings. every single piece of plastic in that car was super brittle so be careful if you try to take anything apart. my suggestion to you would be to install at least four new speakers but you can change them all if you want.

soundnsecurity wrote: if they really are the original stock speakers then they are probably dry rotted and destroyed by now. even if they arent you could still do much better with aftermarket speakers. if thats the same style benz that im thinking of i just recently changed the four woofers in the deck and installed some 6.5 coax. i think this was a 93 but not sure exactly which model because it had no other markings. every single piece of plastic in that car was super brittle so be careful if you try to take anything apart. my suggestion to you would be to install at least four new speakers but you can change them all if you want.

Would you suggest staying with woofers in the rear shelf or just going with a 2way and subs in the trunk? I do have passengers in the rear seat so im trying to keep some rear sound back there. So rear doors would be upgraded as well if I stay with woofers in the rear shelf.

no, if you will have subs in the trunk then change the deck speakers to full range.

soundnsecurity wrote: no, if you will have subs in the trunk then change the deck speakers to full range.

Ok. Would I be better off with rear shelf or rear doors or just keep both? Rear doors are mounted in the lower front corner of the door and are only 4", rear shelf has four 6.5 or 6.75". I could do a single pair in the rear shelf and a pair in the rear doors as well, but would need to figure out the best way to wire them if they are on the same channel so I dont over power and distort the 4" before the rear shelf reaches its potential.

i would just disconnect the rear door speakers. those 4" factory speakers are just a mid and are normally filtered by the stock bose amp so that they dont play frequencies that distort them. ive never been a fan of any full range speaker smaller than 5 1/4" because they will never keep up with the rest of the system and usually handicap your system.

Ok, that is kind of what I was thinking with the rear doors. I may be able to alter the enclosure to fit a 5.25" in the doors though, would it be worth keeping them if that can be done? Another thing im running into is how sound proof the passenger compartment is. Im sure the gas tank being vertical right behind the rear seat isnt helping. I didnt want a ton of bass and had thought I should be able to run one 10" in a sealed box with either the third channel on the srx3 @ 220w rms but wasn't able to get enough out of it. I tried my Planet Audio Rxd1000 @ 400w @4ohm rms last night and I still couldnt balance the sound out. If I open the trunk and stand behind the car it was more than enough. I put my Alpine Mrp-M850 and two Pioneer 12's in parallel to 2ohms at 800w rms which was loud in my cadillac, almost too much bass. In this set up it balances the sound better, but is a bit more than I was after. I played with gains and sub level to bring the subs down but wanted this set for my other car. :( If I was to remove two of the rear shelf woofers and just leave the holes open would it help bring the sound from the subs through without a noticeable distortion or any other issue? There is covers on the rear shelf from factory that would hide the open holes and retain the factory look so I wouldnt have noticeable holes in the back.

in my opinion the rear door speakers arent worth the effort to convert them to 5.25" but with the subs i always say its better to have too much than not enough, you can always turn the sub down. it will probably help to leave two holes open in the deck but it could lead to some consequences, as i mentioned earlier, that rear deck is probably super brittle and the extra air flow and vibration going through the deck could make it crack and rattle. i cant say for sure that it will happen but i think its a good enough chance to be considered. you could try it out and just keep an eye on the deck for a week or so to make sure the bass isnt breaking the deck.