OK, we just bought a 96 850 GLT Sedan for our son. Drivers side rear speaker has bad vibration. Options include replacing with a Volvo speaker or going aftermarket. Does anyone know of an aftermarket speaker that will fit in the opening that doesn't look like crap? Or is there an aftermarket speaker that will fit inside the housing that the original speaker was in? Next question. The Volvo speakers say they have an 8ohm impedence and most of the ones I see in the stores are 4ohm impedence. What is impedence and will it make a difference in whether or how good an aftermarket speaker would sound? Please help before I pull out what remaining hair that I have.

 

1. Volvo replacement speakers are exspensive. I was quoted $150 for a single rear deck speaker in my 1995 850 NA.

2. I replaced all my speakers in my car with aftermarket speakers. Boston Acoustic's to be exact.

3. When you say Driver's Side Rear speaker, are you speaking about the door or the deck? If it is the deck they are 6x9's and I found it difficult to find a aftermarket 6x9 that would fight right. So I bought 5x7" speakers and did some slight modifications to make it fit securly. Nothing you couldn't do yourself.

4. The dash speakers are 3", the door speakers are 5 1/4" and the rear deck speakers are 6x9".

 

S70, it is the rear deck (6" x 9") speaker. The 5" x 7" ones that you bought, did you use the original cover or did the ones that came with the speakers cover the hole? Appreciate your response.

 

Use the OEM Volvo grille.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look for a 5" x 7" speaker to replace. I was hoping to be able to reuse the OEM grille so as not to detract from the aesthetics of the car. When you said with minor modifications, what exactly did those entail?

 

Making some new mounting points for the 5x7" speakers so they wouldn't move around. I also installed two tweeters in the rear as well that came with the 5x7" component set I bought. I put those outside the grilles.

 

Thanks. That install looks really clean, which was what I was hoping to accomplish. You've been a great help.[sm=bounceybounce.gif]

 

No problem

Boston Acoustic makes great car speakers. I had their low end stuff and loved it.

 

We haven't listened to any of their speakers yet. Of the ones we've heard, JBL, JVC, Sony, Alpine, Boss, Pioneer. . . , we like the sound of the Pioneers best. I'll probably have to go to the nearest large town (Louisville, Kentucky) to hear the BA's. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

If you have a Tweeter near you they sell Boston Acoustic speakers.

 

If you replace one speaker with non OEM you will probably want to replace all speakers. If you replace them all then you could go 4 ohm, but if you replace just one you should get the OEM speaker. You do not want to mix 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers. Personally when I have just have one go out I replace with OEM cause I think they sound as good if not better than most speakers you can buy at big box stores. If I was really going to get into replacing my speakers I would look into a brand named Focal. I had them in a Porsche a few years back and they were awesome. Of course then you are looking at new head unit and adding an amp.

 

Nope on the Tweeter. Closest thing is Best Buy, Wally World, Target and auto parts stores. There's a place in Louisville called Ovation and I think they carry BA. I've heard of and read about BA before so I know it's a good product. Its just that with speakers, I always like to hear them before buying. If I'm going to run into problems mixing the 4ohm and 8ohm speakers I'll probably just go back with the OEM speakers. That's not all bad because I think the OEM speakers sound OK. Son is not looking to install a "system", because he doesn't listen to the hip-hop, rap, heavy bass music. He's into classic rock and said he didn't care anything about a big sub and amp becuase he wants to hear all the music, especially the guitar parts (I guess since he plays guitar). Thanks again, you guys are awesome.

P. S. Just curious as to why you can't mix 4ohm and 8ohm speakers.

 

I'm looking for a replacement speaker for my 97 and I ran across this thread. You can't mix 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers because with the same volume setting you would only hear the 8 ohm speaker or you would have to turn the sytem up really loud to hear the 4 ohm and the 8 ohm would be blasting. As long as all speakers have the same ohm rating you will be fine. I had a mix of two 4 ohm and two 8 ohm speakers in my home system back in the 70's and I ended up selling the 8 ohm set and buying a 2nd set of identical 4 ohm speakers.

By the way what speakers did you end up with and are you/your son satisfied?

 

i was reading thru this thread while replacing my speakers.
factory speaks:
Front / rear door : 4ohms
Rear Deck : 8 ohms

 

I have read some other threads about speaker replacement and found the same thing. Wonder it that's true on the 850 also? One of my dash speakers is cracked, and I'm thinking about replacing the two in the dash and the ones in the front door.

 

Jim, sorry it took so long to answer but I just reread this thread again. We ended up going with Pioneer speakers. We put 5.25 in the doors (with minor modification required of drilling one new screw hole) and 6" x 9" in the rear deck. I would like to have gone with 5" x 7" which I believe would have fit inside the existing grilles but he was afraid that the smaller speaker wouldn't give him the amount of sound he wanted. I could have put my foot down but I went ahead and let him have his way on this one. I reused the bottom of the speaker grille (so I didn't have any hole to fill) and just put the grilles that came with the speakers on. I don't think it looks as good but it doesn't look terrible and it is his car. Didn't go with component speakers, just put coaxials all around. The sound is pretty good. I'm really waiting to see what it sounds like after Christmas when we install his CD changer.