Front Speaker Upgrade to 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback
After being constantly annoyed by the awful-sounding front speakers in my 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback (the rear speakers had already been replaced), I decided to buy the Polk Audio db6501 component speaker system. I found it on Crutchfield, but I wasn't about to pay $200 for it when it was $110 on SonicElectronix.
The speaker system, being a "component system", includes main speakers (woofers) that go in the traditional speaker spot inside the door, little circular speakers (tweeters) that had to be mounted somewhere on the pillars, dash, or sail panel, and finally the crossovers that separate the audio feed to both the woofer and tweeter.
My dad has done audio mods before (the aforementioned rear speakers), so I waited until this weekend for him to be free.
The entire installation went rather smoothly, and took about 4-5 hours. It began with:
1. Removing the inside door panels. This was relatively simple, just going around the edges of the door with a flathead screwdriver popping out a bunch of clips. I also had to remove a few screws.
After the clips were popped, it was as simple as gently pulling the panels up and off and popping out the power window panels.
I set the panels aside and didn't use them again until I installed the crossover in step 5 and 6.
Door Panels Removed (Click for bigger image)
2. Removing the old woofer. This was as easy as unscrewing them from the mount. That made it easy for the next step.
3. Mounting the new woofer. The new woofer had to be attached to a mount included with the system, which was then attached to the Subaru mount.
Polk Audio Woofer Installed (Click for bigger image)
4. Mounting the tweeters. I decided to surface-mount the tweeter on the door sail panel as shown:
Tweeter installed (Click for bigger image)
5. Feeding all of the wires into the door panel. The previously removed door panels had a storage area, so I drilled a hole into it and fed the wires through it. The crossover will be placed in here. While feeding the wires through, it was easy to snap the door panels back on in the same step.
6. Wiring the crossover. My dad stripped the ends of the wires for the tweeter, woofer, and input and put them into their spots in the crossover.
7. Mounting the crossover. As mentioned previously, the crossover was going to be stored in the door panel's storage area. But they are not supposed to be loose as vibrations can be damaging. So I took some velcro strips and used them to stick the crossover to the side of the storage area in the door panels.
Crossover Installed (Click for bigger image)
Project Complete! (Click for bigger image)
Project complete! My dad and I were surprised how amazingly smoothly it went. And the sound: absolutely awesome. These speakers are well worth the upgrade from the stock audio!
May 20th, 2011 - 01:16
Found it on Google, shows up on a lot of searches I’ve done.
April 24th, 2011 - 20:15
Thank you
If I may ask, how did you find this thread?
April 24th, 2011 - 01:26
Now put an amp on them and be amazed
I have the same setup as you, wish I would have mounted the tweeters in my sails though, I ended up mounting them below my arm rest. I also Dynamated my Outback and put some 10″ subs in. Sounds very nice
March 13th, 2010 - 21:51
Wow, that looks like a great job and not too difficult at all. I have a 2004 Kia Optima with a mediocre sound system. Maybe I could find a couple guys like you to put a good system in my car.