Quick Speaker Question for 89 Reatta

[Guest Justin224]

Sorry if this has been answered a dozen times before, but I plan on going to a speaker closeout sale today and wanted to make sure I understood the speaker set-up for an 89 since I haven't had the chance to take off the panels and check out what's under the grills for myself....

From what I understand, there at 5.25's up front on the doors, but wanted to make sure I'm understanding the back correct. Are the rear's 6.5 components? And the fronts are 4 ohms while the rears are 7, correct? But can the rears handle 4 in addition to 4's up front? Are there anything I should be aware of when picking out replacements? Or even, does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance,

Justin

[Guest Justin224]

I ask because I searched posts on here and read about 6.5 rears but doing a product match on crutchfield said 5.25 front and rears...

[harry yarnell]

4 ohm all around. Door speakers are 5 1/4. I believe the rears are 6x9

[KDirk]

If I'm not mistaken, 88 & 89 may have used 6.5" woofers and component tweeters on an adapter plate that fits the 6x9 opening in the rear. my 91 had 6x9's from the factory and that's what I put back in. I know the service manual references component speakers in the rear, but some illustrations show 6x9's. I have assumed that the 91 (and probably 90) had 6x9's as an expense reduction.

Honestly, the component setup is probably better for overall driver quality characteristics. If I had to do it again, I'd get the adapter plates instead of new 6x9's.

KDirk

[wws944]

The thing that seems confusing, to me at least, is that according to the FSMs, the '89 (and I'd assume '88) systems have a different speaker configuration than the '90/'91 cars.

The '89 manual says, on page 9A-6, that "The Reatta uses 1.5" 7 ohm titanium dome tweeters in combination with 5 1/4" 4 ohm HSS cones in the doors and adds 1.5" 7 ohm tweeters and 6" round 10 ohm HSS in the rear." Then on page 9A-33 they refer to the Reatta rear speakers as 6x9". Then on page 9A-34 they show a diagram - with round woofer and separate tweeter...

The '90 manual shows basically the same for the front, though they only mention a 0.6" tweeter. But in the rear they only show 6x9s. (On the convertible they are 4x10s.) The 4x10s are simple woofers - with whizzer cones to extend the high end a bit. Not coaxial, no separate tweeter. I would imagine the 6x9s in the coupe are the same way.

Since I have never had a chance to examine any Reatta, other than mine, up close, I'm confused. Did the '88s and '89s really come with 6" rounds in the rear w/separate tweeters?

As far as speaker impedance goes, the fronts are 4 ohm and the rears are 10 ohm in all of them. Since they use the same amplifier chips/transistors in both front and rear channels, there should not be a problem driving 4 ohm speakers in the rear. (I'd assume they did it that way originally to balance the sound a bit.)

Edited February 25, 2010 by wws944 (see edit history)

[wws944]

If I'm not mistaken, 88 & 89 may have used 6.5" woofers and component tweeters on an adapter plate that fits the 6x9 opening in the rear. my 91 had 6x9's from the factory and that's what I put back in. I know the service manual references component speakers in the rear, but some illustrations show 6x9's. I have assumed that the 91 (and probably 90) had 6x9's as an expense reduction.

Ah. Adapter plates would explain it!

Honestly, the component setup is probably better for overall driver quality characteristics. If I had to do it again, I'd get the adapter plates instead of new 6x9's.

Given equal quality drivers, you might get, maybe, a half octave more bass from the 6x9s, with a couple of db higher efficiency. Important in a car system with relatively low power. OTOH, there are very high quality 6.5s available and at the higher price ranges, 6x9s start to fall out of favor.

I tend to like my front speakers to create the sound stage, and simply use the rear speakers for 'fill in' and low bass. So having a wide range woofer and no tweeter in the rear is actually my preference.

[Rawja]

Yeah '90 and 91 had 6X9s in the rear quarters. I switched out the adapter plates on my former '89 and installed Infinity Kappa 6X9 three-way components in place of the original setup. IMO, the 6X9s give much better bass (I mostly listen to awful techno-disco). I'm all set to do the same for my '88, just haven't gotten around to it.

[Guest Justin224]

In case this post gets viewed in the future, I just wanted to verify that my 89 did have 6.5's and not 6x9's. Once I had the chance to get to the car and take a look, by un-doing the velcro carpet from inside the truck, it was easy to see the set-up. I'll post a few pictures for reference when I get a chance, but they (both the 6.5 and a separate tweeter) are wired by a single speaker cable, which is fed directly to the woofer, then off through a clip to cut out the lows, and finally into the tweeter.