Firebird Nation banner

Speaker selection help-1995 Firebird 10 speaker system

16959 Views 12 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  1993TransAm
Why does this seem more difficult than I thought? I just want good sounding speakers using the factory head unit....only because the factory speakers are garbage. I can't even find the existing sizes of the speakers and why there are two in the front doors and a tweeter on the column. I know they were being innovative with a component system, but the components theses days are a 2 way and not a 3 way (unless you pay a lot more). Which ones are bass only and which are 2 ways? Any help and suggestions would be greatly aprreciated...especially good sound ones that don't break the bank!
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
There are no factory two-way speakers in that car, hence the OEM component setup. You have two 6.75" midranges in the doors, two tweeters in the doors (I don't know what their size is - they're proprietary), two 6.75" subwoofers in the sail panels, two 4" midranges in the hatch panels, and two more tweeters in the hatch panels. If you use a traditional coaxial speaker in the doors to replace the midranges, you may find your sound imaging in the front is too "bright" (that was my experience). If you are good with a soldering iron, you could remove the capacitors and inductors from the OEM speaker chassis and use them with the replacement speakers. You will preserve the factory sound imaging and not have too much treble.
Thanks for the info Simon. Do you have any recommendations on speakers to replace the stock ones? I hear of some other guys using the Pioneer component speakers with the crossover built in, but other than the front, I am not sure what else to buy. And just so I am clear on the speakers and their places, you have the two tweeters in the pillar posts, a 6.75 in driver/passenger door alond with a 4", then there are two 6.75's in the backseat area and two subs in the rear storage or are those 4" in the rear (I assume this is the hatch). Sorry, the car is new to me and I am just trying to undertand the terminology.
Pioneer G-Series speakers are a solid replacement speaker that will handle the OEM head unit's RMS output just fine.

The 4" speakers are in the hatch (trunk panels in the very back), not in the doors. There are also tweeters in the hatch. Both speakers are underneath each cover, so it may look like there are only 2 speakers in the hatch.

Metra makes inexpensive OEM-style replacement speakers. Their 6.5" speaker (which looks like it should fit in the 6.75" mount that GM uses) is a dual-cone speaker, which closely resembles the OEM speaker, only the cone isn't made of paper that will dry out. It has no passive crossover or built in tweeter like a Pioneer 2-way speaker would. It uses a smaller cone to reproduce higher frequencies more faithfully, but it will not reproduce the frequencies that your OEM tweeter will. I think that might be an inexpensive way to re-create OEM sound imaging and avoid the overly bright sound you will likely hear with a 2-way replacement for the midrange.

I suggest using Pioneer G-Series 6.5" speakers for your subwoofers. They'll fit perfectly and their bandpass starts at 30-35 Hz. The amplifier will attenuate all frequencies above 150-200 Hz or so, so the tweeter portion of the speaker will always be silent.
See less See more
I know this sounds like a dumb question, but which pair are considered to be the subwoofers? Are these the ones in the rear seat or in the hatch? I apoligize for being so ignorant, I am usually better at this.
The Speaker set in your Hatch area are considerd to be the Subs, the ones in rear seat are the mids
So there is a 4" sub on each side plus a tweeter in the rear hatch?
Maybe the system was totally different in '95. By '02, there were no tweets in the A-pillars. Instead, you had a 6" (or 6.5 - I forget) mid and a 1" tweeter in each door, a 6.5" sub in each side flanking the rear seat, and a 4" mid and a 1" tweeter in each side of the rear hatch area.

My rear hatch areas were hacked by a previous owner who left a large, jagged. oval hole under each speaker grille. I had to do some repair work to get anything to mount under the grille and ended up replacing the 4"/1" configuration with a pair of 3-way 5x7's.
The speakers in the rear seats (B-pillar) are the subwoofers.
I know this is an old thread but I'm starting to fix up my 1994 Firebird and am interested in replacing all 10 speakers. I see there are options for the larger speakers, but have not been able to find a solution for the tweeters in the doors and in the hatch. Has anyone done this? I would like to know the 5 different speakers used by anyone who has replaced all 10 speakers in the entire system. I'm only looking for speaker replacement and plan on keeping the OEM amp and headunit as is. Thanks!
Just adding to this topic. My system consist of a Kenwood x998 head unit, 2 jl audio component systems in the front, two crescendo 6.5 subs in sail panels, a kenwood 450/4 4 channel, Kenwood 9105d monoblock, and two Kenwood W3013ps subs in a firebird box. I have replaced everything in this system about 3 different times and have sunk at least a grand into it. My advice to people buying new audio equipment do it right the first time because it will take a ridiculous amount of your time up and will ruin your wallet. I didn't end up keeping or replacing the rear trunk speakers because it was going to mess with my imaging in the front of the car. Work your way from your headunit back, I would not recommend keeping the factory head unit because it will not provide the power your speakers crave and when the time comes to do subs you will have to use a line-output converter which just plain sucks and sounds bad. Don't use anything less that 4 gauge wire, tune your amp correctly, and for the love of god turn the bass boost off.
See less See more
Reviving another old thread. I am just wanting to replace the rotten factory speakers and keep the car more or less stock. I have a 1994 10 speaker Firebird, pre monsoon. What is the current go to speaker setup. I don't think I can even get correct ohm rated rear hatch 4" speakers.
Kee Audio sells an F-body-specific speaker package. It is tailored to the Monsoon units, however, due to the dual voice coil construction of the sail panel subwoofers. I'm aware of only a person or two on this site who actually purchased the Monsoon-specific packages and they gave them good reviews, but this was a long time ago.

I just looked at Kee Audio's site and it appears that they still sell these packages, but only for Monsoon-equipped cars.

I wouldn't be overly concerned with the impedance rating of the factory speakers you're looking to replace. Impedance is directly related to the speaker's sensitivity. While it is true that a 2-ohm speaker only requires half the power of a 4-ohm speaker to produce the same volume (all other things being equal), a 4-ohm speaker with a sensitivity rating of 3 decibels/meter higher than a 2-ohm speaker would produce the same volume at the same level of power. Why is this true? In order to increase the volume on a speaker by 3 decibels, you must double the power to the speaker. Factory speakers typically are of lower sensitivity than higher quality aftermarket replacements. Look at specifications like frequency response range, total harmonic distortion, and frequency response curves (the latter two aren't always available) to source a good replacement.
See less See more
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
Top