Tweeters

[JimDantin]

I'm looking for a pair of tweeters. Two dealers quoted them for me at $202 for EACH speaker!!! One dealer said he could sell me a kit of two upgraded door speakers plus the two tweeters for $229!! Looks like SmartUSA has some serious pricing issues. I have a call in to them to try to figure out what this is all about.

Obviously, the two dinky speakers aren't worth much, but they are easy to install. Top end tweeters from an expensive retailer are only $200 for a pair! Comparable speakers to the smart OEM ones are more like $20-30 a pair!

If you've upgraded to different speakers and want to sell yours, or if you've found an aftermarket speaker that can be installed with minimal hacking, I'd appreciate a reply.

Thanks

[brian r]

What you want to do is replace your speakers with an easy to fit aftermarket set. Placing tweeters in the original dash slots under the dash can be done without "hacking", but it's a bit of work to disassemble things. You can always surface mount them as most components provide decent looking bases for this. The most difficult thing would be to mount and wire the crossovers. For some of us this is no big deal; for a novice it may be not too difficult if you have some help, like the installation guides and tech support you can get from Crutchfield. Bill Crutchfield built an empire by giving mail order customers the ability to install their own car stereos.

The easiest solution for you would be to replace your door speakers with some high-sensitivity coaxials that have pivoting tweeters, like Infinity's 6 1/2" Kappas.

[JimDantin]

I do want the tweeters up high, so the door speaker replacement isn't particularly attractive to me.

I'm OK with wiring and physical mounting -- I just want to be sure I don't tear up everything needlessly.

[EdwardDennis]

Originally Posted by JimDantin

I do want the tweeters up high, so the door speaker replacement isn't particularly attractive to me.

I'm OK with wiring and physical mounting -- I just want to be sure I don't tear up everything needlessly.

Jim,
I installed two 1" 100W aftermarket tweeters. The install isn't difficult, although it requires some patience to locate and access the stock wiring.
You can slip the aftermarkets into the existing tweeter slots under the dash-- or you can simply surface mount them using 3M 2-way tape over the existing tweeter grills at the front of the dash (if you don't want to drill into plastic). Just feed the speaker wires through the dash grill and connect them to the stock harness under the dash. I located a pair for under 25.00 and they sound decent: better than without.

[vpkb1998]

Send me $10.00 and they're yours. The stock tweeters are very decent, but I'm never happy with stock ;-)

I got the passenger side out already, will try to get the driver side off this week. It's a b..ch to unclip.

[John_H]

The tweeters slide out pretty easily and there should be enough of a service loop to pull the still-connected tweeter down to where you can easily disconnect then tape the loose end back up behind the fuse box where non-tweetered Smarts stash their wires.

[JimDantin]

I gave up and bought some aftermarket tweeters. Power Acoustik NB-1. They will slide into the mounting slot, but not fully. A bit of Gorilla tape sealed the deal!

FYI, the speaker wires are taped to the wiring harness with some tan-colored tape. Driver's side was hard to find as it was behind the fuse panel. Passenger side was at the bottom edge of the dash -- nowhere near the spealer location!

vpkb1998 -- I am interested in your OEM tweeters -- let me know when they are ready to go jdantin@bellsouth.net