JBL GTO 6528 - advice needed!

[The Arch Bishop]

Hi all,

Digging around in the garage this morning, I dug out these old beauties;



The speakers I have in my MR2 are pretty broken - a set of cross-overs from a long time ago and the rubber is split in several places. They sound terrible and make the door trim rattle badly.

The good Lady Arch Bishop has decreed that tunez need to be heard, so my question is will these fit?

They appear to be the right size -6.5" - but have a built-in tweeter that can  be rotated depending on ideal positioning.

So would it be best to fit these (providing they fit and don't foul with the door cards or the window) and disregard the aftermarket tweeters on the top of the door?

Also, any guides on sound-deadening positioning would be very much appreciated. I did look at the sticky thread but the images appear to have gone awol.

[s12vea]

Those will fit, take the out speakers out and cut away the old speaker and use the bracket to mount the new jbl.

Sound proof inside the door behind the speaker and also the back of the door card they will sound much better than stock

[The Arch Bishop]

I'm not sure what disaster the previous installer did to get the current speakers in as I've not removed the cards yet. This is what's in there at the moment;



Cannot WAIT to see the wiring behind them! 

I think I've still got some deadening left from doing the rear bins, so cheers for the advice!

[Dev]

That would be a good choice having the tweeters on axis with the mid driver.
 A lot of what goes wrong with a lot of aftermarket separates is they will be off axis which is not a bad thing but it needs to be tuned for the specific location which is usually not done with a basic system. The factory system with the separate tweeters are attenuated down so it matches with the driver.

[The Arch Bishop]

That would be a good choice having the tweeters on axis with the mid driver.
 A lot of what goes wrong with a lot of aftermarket separates is they will be off axis which is not a bad thing but it needs to be tuned for the specific location which is usually not done with a basic system. The factory system with the separate tweeters are attenuated down so it matches with the driver.

Yeah, I don't think what's in there is positioned or attenuated in any way shape or form!



I mean, right now it really does sound utterly dreadful! The tweeters look awful as well. I'm hoping it's not too butchered behind there as I'd like to at least put some standard trim back in.

[Dev]

Yeah, I don't think what's in there is positioned or attenuated in any way shape or form!



I mean, right now it really does sound utterly dreadful! The tweeters look awful as well. I'm hoping it's not too butchered behind there as I'd like to at least put some standard trim back in.

 There might be other reasons why it sounds bad but on the whole having components in the OEM locations is not ideal without tuning either from the passive crossovers or other more advance electronic means.
 Most people that buy components don't know this so to fill in the gaps they add rear speakers. The speakers your are installing is what I recommend because the tweeters being on axis will have a full sound that should sound good.
 Pair that with a small subwoofer and it should sound very satisfying. 





 

[The Arch Bishop]

OK, so more advice required as I'm drawing up a shopping list.

First, lets have a look at the current install. It's not the best...

My first warning sign was that the door handle surround was broken in two. OK, easy to do.

The next warning sign was the reason that the speaker was broken;



Basically couldn't be bothered to drill a hole in the adaptor so just screwed the speaker down over the top of the wire. Good stuff.

Then there was the fact that the adaptor plate wasn't the right size, so someone had created an interesting bracket for it;



So the speakers weren't centered in the cutout.

And finally, the tweeters were a push-fit;



Really hoping that the standard tweeter trim will still fix to that!

So, as far as I can tell, I need the following;

- Speaker wire (nothing fancy)
- Some adaptors that fit properly and can take a 6.5" speaker (if anyone has a link to a decent one)
- A door handle surround (probably 2)
- Tweeter covers
- Speaker covers/door bins - both of mine were broken and had been half-glued in due to lack of lugs

If anyone has suggestions for the adaptors it'd be a great help!

I'm keen to not bodge around the existing bodges. I'm guessing it may have been a 'professional install' as I've seen a few of those before and they're generally done to tight time scales using what they have. I have a little more time to do it better.

[The Arch Bishop]

Rather than be lazy, I've looked up the adaptor - CT25TY02 165mm so will get that on order.

Trim bits on the way from Mr. Sloan.

[Dev]

For my first build I gutted the OEM mids and use glue and screws to put in the new mid drivers.
I sold that to another member many years later when I decided to upgrade so that modification went with it.
 I bought some adaptors that was made for this car and they fit very well but they were not as well built as my hack with the OEM plastic.
Maybe psychological but I felt that the previous mids had better damping and I think its because the OEM plastic has baffled wall behind the mids that further dampen the reverse standing waves so I bought a used set  on eBay and they have been waiting to go in.

 As I mentioned in PM I am going to redo my doors and in the process finally mount them the way I want. My mid bass driver is very strong and needs a lot of support for the amount of power they take. You might not need the extra reinforcement but if you can find the OEM drivers cheap I would go that rout.