Audio Upgrade 89 929

[old929guy]

Recently got my hearing restored a bit via cochlear implants. Bought a cassette adaptor to use with an MP3 player. I would like to upgrade the speakers in the car, a 1989 929, US model. How many speakers does the car have? I know about the two under the dash and a couple in back. Are there any others? I'd like to upgrade these to good performing units. Overall, what are my options for a full system upgrade? I have no need for blowout-the-windows capability. Listen mostly to old rock, blues, jazz etc, no hip-hop or heavy metal (except for Led Zep). If I go full boat replacement I'd probably want a sub but that isn't really that important.
Any suggestions/brand names etc would be greatly appreciated. Note, my hearing isn't very discrete so really hi-end wouldn't be of much benefit but I do want speakers with a pretty wide response curve.

Thanks Much

[mazdaspeed929]

There are 2 speakers under the dash, these are 4". There are 2 speaker on the rear doors, these are 4". The rear deck speakers are 6.5". The best thing to do if you're not going all out is replace all the speakers and get a new head unit. Circiet City has an install kit. Pepboys has the wiring kit. For like $200 you can have a system that is 10 times better then the old BS. If your system is all stock, just about anything you do to it will be an upgrade. Ebay has good deals on head units.

[9ine Deuce]

The stock speakers are garbage, they're just too old at this point. I swapped out the dash & door speakers about 6 hours after I bought my car. You can purchase those 4 speakers pretty cheap. The rear decklid speakers are slightly harder to tackle but from what I remember they produce mostly bass. You could just upgrade the woofer in this case if you dont want to replace the stock deck. If you do purchase a deck, bridge the (4) 4" speakers to the front channel and run the 6.5" speakers off the rear channels. Replacing all 6 speakers oppesed to just 4 will give you a better all around sound.

[mazdaspeed929]

If you bypass the factory amp the rear speakers will performe a lot better and thay will produce more then just bass. That is what I did, I also upgraded the 6.5" rears to 6x9's. A major imporvement. I think the factory amp has a filter on it, that is why the rear speakers only put out bass.

[9ine Deuce]

did you have to hack out the the rear decklid to drop in the 6x9's ?

[mazdaspeed929]

did you have to hack out the the rear decklid to drop in the 6x9's ?[/b]

The metal and the decklid had to get cut up.

[DMiester129]

I got the factory pioneer cd/tape player. 4 inch infinity speakers in the front. 5 1/2 inch in the doors and I switched out the rear amp and woofers for a 200watt jl audio amp with 6 1/2 inch 100 watt jl audio subwoofers. if you don't have speakers in the rear doors then the speakers on the rear shelf are not woofers. 6 speakers was an option.

[MiniBoomer]

i was actually just thinking about what sizes the speakers where. good looking out. anyone know if the rear decklid speakers are just wired to the headunit? cause only one side has wires on my hoopty.

[DMiester129]

theres an amp behind the cardboard carpet panel in the back of the trunk.

[pomes131]

IMO, the first priority should be a new headunit...only b/c any other upgrades won't be taken full advantage of without one. And, these days you can get decent decks at decent prices. I just purchased an Eclipse 3100 to replace my aging Pioneer unit from Sonicelectronix, they even throw in the HU-->In-Car harness adapter. After that the optons for configuration of the speakers are vast. Based on what your priorities seem to be, I would just get some decent coaxials to replace your oem speakers and power them with a new trunk-mounted amp with at least 25-30 watts per channel and 4 channels. Only thing is to make sure the speakers you chose would handle at least that many watts rms, and that the 4-channel amp is capable of handling 2ohm loads. This is b/c like 9ine said you'll end up having 4 of them wired together on either A or B channel. I chose to run the 4 in the back together and 2 up front seperately. IMO, this would be the most cost effective way to get a nice sounding stereo in your 929.