[modern] bass speakers revisited

Dear fellow enthusiasts:
I have recently replaced my 4" sub-woofers in my 1988 VdP. I was
discouraged from doing so at aq number of radio “joints” who insisted I buy
an entirely new system and junk the old one. I know the stock system has
been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny on this list, but I find it
quite pleasing. At any rate, I tried the Radio Fix as suggested by a
number of members. The original stock speakers (40-1022 I believe they
called) have been discontinued. The new 4" sub-woofers are made by
Optimas, and number 40-1030. They have a polypropelene cone and are rated
at 4ohm. The best part? They screwed right into my existing housing in
the car! No tin snips, no fuss. I merely cut the original wire leads off
my orginal speakers, resoldered the connectors to the new speakers, and
voila! The 40-1030 cost $19.95 apiece, making them quite a lot cheaper
than other speakers and the frequency range is 45-11000 hz (not the
greatest, but ok). THey sound pretty good, but I like natural bass, not
forced bass like you find in mnay of these rolling “boom-boxes”.

Happy motoring,

Matt
1988 VdP 106000

Matt,
You don’t think you can get away with crap like this?

Posting something like this, but not mentioning WHERE you got the speakers
from!

Brett
1990 XJ6
…Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 12:24:17 -0500
From: “Matthew L. Buffington” mlb0476@acs.tamu.edu
Subject: [modern] bass speakers revisited
Sender: owner-modern@jag-lovers.org
To: modern@jag-lovers.org

Dear fellow enthusiasts:
I have recently replaced my 4" sub-woofers in my 1988 VdP. I was
discouraged from doing so at aq number of radio “joints” who insisted I buy
an entirely new system and junk the old one. I know the stock system has
been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny on this list, but I find it
quite pleasing. At any rate, I tried the Radio Fix as suggested by a
number of members. The original stock speakers (40-1022 I believe they
called) have been discontinued. The new 4" sub-woofers are made by
Optimas, and number 40-1030. They have a polypropelene cone and are rated
at 4ohm. The best part? They screwed right into my existing housing in
the car! No tin snips, no fuss. I merely cut the original wire leads off
my orginal speakers, resoldered the connectors to the new speakers, and
voila! The 40-1030 cost $19.95 apiece, making them quite a lot cheaper
than other speakers and the frequency range is 45-11000 hz (not the
greatest, but ok). THey sound pretty good, but I like natural bass, not
forced bass like you find in mnay of these rolling “boom-boxes”.

Happy motoring,

Matt
1988 VdP 106000

Matt,
For some reason, I missed radio shack completely!

Are the speakers you got woofers?
I cant find the 40-1030 in the new catalog.

I tried full range speakers on there, and the system sounded lousy.

40-1197 is only good for 3 watts…

I like the way my system sounds with the door speakers replaced, and
the radio opened up to full range sound.
That way, you don’t have to push the subs under the seats to distortion
as you have bass out the doors as well…and, I put 4 inch speakers
in there.
Who knows HOW it would sound with quality speakers!

Brett
1990 XJ6

Matt,
I found the speakers in the new radio shack catalog…they were in
the home speaker section, not the automotive speaker section.

They look good. They are more expensive than the all electronics
woofers, but may handle higher power.

I tried 4 inch full range speakers in the sub positions first, and
the system sounded horrible…although the audio out of the radio is
restricted to lows for the woofers under the rear seat, the filtering
is incomplete…this causes no problems with a woofer in there, but
if a full range speaker is fit, it sounds muffled, and out of phase
with the door speakers.
The restrictions in the door speakers, and the woofers is built in
the radio, not added at the speakers(at least till 1993).

The doors come apart easy…its in the haynes manual and in the archives
I think…there are hidden screws…

under the round rubber seal for defrost ducts in the doors

Under the pull handle…plate slides up

Under the wood…remove inside handle, slide wood (back or forward,
I cant remember)

Inside puddle light in door…lens slides off

Bottom part has lots of plastic bits to hold it on door…just pull
and it comes off.

I used some $30.00 a pair kenwood speakers in the rear doors…4 inch
with wizzer cones.

For the front speakers, I bought 4 inch pioneer co axials for
$60.00 a pair I think.

The original speakers were 3.5 inch on my car, and its very easy to
fit 4 inchers in there, as the doors are made of hard foam that you
can cut with an exacto knife, and poke screws through.
You cant tell from the outside that there are different size speakers
in the doors…you can see the speakers through the grills, but they
look normal(unless you get hot pink ones or something).
I think you might be able to get a 5 inch one in there if you went
a bit creative with the knife…

I am really happy with the sound, with the door speakers getting full
range sound, and the woofers under the seat adding extra bass,
as contrasted with the stock setup that relies on the woofers under
the rear seat for all the bass…they are too small for the job
without help… its a size thing…

Brett
1990 XJ6
…Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 08:41:44 -0500
From: “Matthew L. Buffington” mlb0476@acs.tamu.edu
Subject: Re: [modern] bass speakers revisited
In-reply-to: 19990915011638.EDLL7266@localHost
To: Brett Gazdzinski <@Brett_Gazdzinski1>

Brett:
The speakers I got are called 4" sub-woofers, but the frequency response of
45-11000 hz is tending more towards a mid-range. Yet they are capable of
producing very low freqeuncy, high quality sound. I do not think a 4"
midrange would work well back there unless the crossover has been changed
(as you have done). What door speakers have you used? How do you access
the door speakers?

Matt
1988 VdP 106000mi