Tweet
I installed Infinity Kappa 652.7i speakers all around in my vert
I hated the stereo in my 2000 camaro as it was when I got it, one of the front speakers was blown, and it wasn't nearly loud enough with the top down without being totally distorted. I got into a typing mood again so here's what I did:
Infinity Kappa 652.7i (6-3/4") & 62.7i (6-1/2") 2-ohm speakers
The 6-3/4" Infinity Kappa 652.7i (5-5/8" cutout, 2-1/4" depth) is slightly larger than the 6-1/2" Infinity Kappa 62.7i at (5" cutout, 2-3/16" deep). The larger 652.7i are supposed to fit in standard 6-1/2" mounts. Both are 2-way speakers and handle 75W RMS at 2 ohms, sensitivity of 95dB, and come with external crossovers like components do.
One of the big selling points (for me, for us) is that they are 2 ohms. The lower 2-ohm impedance will net more watts of power from the proper amplifier than standard 4-ohm speakers would. Not all amps are capable of running at 2 ohms, if they are not 2-ohm stable you'll probably fry it. But my Kenwood amp is 2-ohm stable, and incidentally the stock Monsoon system comes with 2-ohm speakers.
I grabbed 2 pairs of these for about $160 total shipped off eGay, $80/pair. My 2000 Camaro being a convertible only has 4 total speakers, all 6-1/2". Very affordable and impressive specs, certainly an attractive alternative to more expensive components with seperate woofer/tweeter. I was poking around Best Buy and saw they only sell the lower end Infinity Reference series, for alot more $$ than the Kappas can be found for.
For anyone curious, I found a couple other inexpensive 2 ohm speakers as well: JBL GTO627 and the kenwood kfc-x1710 I thought there was one from Kicker or something too but I didn't make note of it.
Other components thus far
Amp: I found a used Kenwood KAC-859 5-channel amp to help keep total cost down. Kenwood is not my brand of choice but the price was right and it met my other criteria. 5-channel is perfect, I still want to add a small sub but don't want to have 2 amps. It is also 2-ohms stable, so while the 40Wx4 + 120Wx1 at 4 ohms is kinda low, at 2 ohms it is 60Wx4 + 150Wx1 RMS. The amp itself is a bit on the large side but not terribly large. It has the normal basic crossover adjustments, bridgable, and its easy to figure out without a manual.
Headunit: The Kenwood KDC-MP535U head unit seemed like a good buy (new) on eGay, plus then I am not mixing brands too much. It has 3 pairs of RCA pre-outs, aux in, USB, etc. Personally I am not too thrilled with it tho. First there are not many characters on the screen, which I knew going into it, and that sucks for having titles displayed. I do not like the way in which the faceplate drops to accept CD's, its gonna break some day. The user interface itself is not very good, it is a pain to change things while driving... I know that is something that will get better as I get used to it, but in general I don't care for the way it is laid out. The styling does not blend in to the black dash, but what does nowadays. The display sucks balls in the sunlight (convertible!) because it is completely unreadable when the sun is on it. Even with all my gripes, for the price and its feature set, it is a decent buy. However you might want to consider the next model up for a bit more fine tuning ability if it is not much more $, because mine seems to lack a couple thing I thought it had like hi/low crossover adjustment on all the channels.
Wiring: I grabbed a bunch of Stinger wiring from hifisoundconnection.com This stuff is so expensive locally it is crazy! It was still not cheap but seemed like quality stuff at a reasonable price. I figured to do the job nicely I'd need 20 feet of 4-guage power, 3 pairs of 17 ft Stinger Nitro RCA, I had a 50ft roll of 16 guage Monster speaker cable, and I bought several kinds of terminals. They forgot to send my under-hood fuse box tho, and I received some 0-guage ring terminals in its place. So I had to buy a cheap (but expensive) fuse box from Walmart temporarily.
Installation
Rear 652.7i: I was concerned with the fitment of the rear speakers, as convertibles do not have alot of room back there. I think the stock speakers were unbelievably shallow. I had read a success story of someone putting the slightly smaller 62.7i in the rear of a vert using a spacer, but note that coupes may not need a spacer for the 62.7i. My car came with some Sony speakers back there, which were about the same depth as the Infinities, and they came mounted with spacer rings (maybe 1/2" or 3/4"). The rings that came from Infinity are very shallow. I needed to have the speaker spaced away from the mounting hole, because 1) it was physically too big in diameter to fit in the hole when that close, and even if I were to make the hole bigger it 2) would stick too far back to where the convertible top folds down in the wall. The spacers that had the sonys mounted were too shallow by themselves. I ended up using 3M double sided foam tape in between the original spacers and the Infinity ring, and that got me out just enough for the speaker cone to fit in the hole. Except at the ideal mounting spot I had to drill my own screw holes, and the black plastic conduit holding wires was in the way so I relocated it replacing 2 of the clamps with zip ties (ran thru the holes from the old cable clamps but I have a vert it may be different).
Front 652.7i: The front speakers fit perfectly in the door's plastic cups. If only removing the door panels were so easy...
652.7i in general: One thing that concerns me about the way these speakers are designed is that the screw heads will be touching the rubber around the cone. It is just the way it is, from squeezing a bigger speaker into a smaller form factor. Some 3M heavy-duty double-sided foam tape works well for mounting the external crossovers inside the doors / rear wall, out of the way from the screw holes of course.
Wiring: Since we have the battery terminals on the side I got one of those GM terminal kits, the Stinger SPT85308 GM Battery Terminal 7/16" Stud, it takes the place of the stock bolt in the red boot at the battery. It then has another bolt attached in the rear to run the power wire off of. I didn't know exactly what size ring terminal to use for this tho so I got a small variety (5/16", #10, 1/4"). It turns out the 5/16" ring terminal is perfect for the battery. The 1/4" ring connector, which is much smaller overall, fit perfect in my Kenwood amp's terminals. In retrospect I would go with the srew-on kind of ring terminal, versus the crimp-on kind, because I forgot how much of a PITA it is to crimp a 4-guage terminal.
Headunit crap kit: So I got one of the cheapest head unit mounting kits on ebay. It came with the wiring harness and antenna adapter, which was a plus. And a huge bag filled with a sh!tload of black plastic parts for seemingly every GM vehicle ever made ...and no instructions. After I figured out which 5% of the parts were applicable to me and how to put them together, well, I broke the tabs on the flush mount face. So now I am using a face that makes the deck extend from the dash. The thing is in order to use the rear mounting post it looks like it would need to be out like this... I don't know that this kit is strong enough to not have any support at the rear if I was using the flush face anyway. I'll prob end up buying another mounting kit...
Overall install: Installation took a lot longer than anticipated. It is time consuming to remove all the body panels and seatbelts (go buy the big torx bit!), crimping male/female connectors on every little wire and stuff, then putting it all back together right. My amp rack is a peice of plywood for the time being, looks ghetto yes, but I am planning to build a little 10" sub box and amp rack all in the well. (until I saw the insides of the doors, now I'm wondering what it would take to squeeze some really small subs in the rear of the door, maybe better for a convertible)
Sounds of success
I love when things work on the first try ;)
The Infinity 652.7i sounds pretty damn good with my amp pushing 60W RMS @ 2 ohms. I did not try them with the stock Monsoon system, as I completely redid all the wiring, but I imagine the crappy Monsoon amp would make them sound significantly crappier.
MidBass is decent. This was one of my concerns since I have a convertible, and the reason I went with the 652.7i instead of the slightly smaller 62.7i. There is actually a little punch with the top down. I am afraid that when I put a sub it the trunk it will not be too noticable with the top down (the folded top creates alot of insulation between the trunk and cabin!) so I wanted as much midbass in the cabin as possible.
The tweeters are adjustable on the speakers via rotation, I suggest you leave it at 0 it is plenty enough.
I have seen many recommendations saying the rear speakers do not matter. However I am quite convinced the rears do make a difference. Putting a good pair of component speakers up front would be better no doubt, just more expensive, and if one went with components up front I think these Infinities (either the 652.7i or 62.7i) would still make great rear speakers for their price.
Overall these Infinity speakers offer great bang for the buck, probably the next best thing to components. Being 2-ohms means they'll work well with the stock Monsoon system if desired, but it is more desirable to use a good 2-ohm stable amplifier with something like 50-75W RMS and rewire everything.
I still need a little more bass...
Infinity Kappa 652.7i (6-3/4") & 62.7i (6-1/2") 2-ohm speakers
The 6-3/4" Infinity Kappa 652.7i (5-5/8" cutout, 2-1/4" depth) is slightly larger than the 6-1/2" Infinity Kappa 62.7i at (5" cutout, 2-3/16" deep). The larger 652.7i are supposed to fit in standard 6-1/2" mounts. Both are 2-way speakers and handle 75W RMS at 2 ohms, sensitivity of 95dB, and come with external crossovers like components do.
One of the big selling points (for me, for us) is that they are 2 ohms. The lower 2-ohm impedance will net more watts of power from the proper amplifier than standard 4-ohm speakers would. Not all amps are capable of running at 2 ohms, if they are not 2-ohm stable you'll probably fry it. But my Kenwood amp is 2-ohm stable, and incidentally the stock Monsoon system comes with 2-ohm speakers.
I grabbed 2 pairs of these for about $160 total shipped off eGay, $80/pair. My 2000 Camaro being a convertible only has 4 total speakers, all 6-1/2". Very affordable and impressive specs, certainly an attractive alternative to more expensive components with seperate woofer/tweeter. I was poking around Best Buy and saw they only sell the lower end Infinity Reference series, for alot more $$ than the Kappas can be found for.
For anyone curious, I found a couple other inexpensive 2 ohm speakers as well: JBL GTO627 and the kenwood kfc-x1710 I thought there was one from Kicker or something too but I didn't make note of it.
Other components thus far
Amp: I found a used Kenwood KAC-859 5-channel amp to help keep total cost down. Kenwood is not my brand of choice but the price was right and it met my other criteria. 5-channel is perfect, I still want to add a small sub but don't want to have 2 amps. It is also 2-ohms stable, so while the 40Wx4 + 120Wx1 at 4 ohms is kinda low, at 2 ohms it is 60Wx4 + 150Wx1 RMS. The amp itself is a bit on the large side but not terribly large. It has the normal basic crossover adjustments, bridgable, and its easy to figure out without a manual.
Headunit: The Kenwood KDC-MP535U head unit seemed like a good buy (new) on eGay, plus then I am not mixing brands too much. It has 3 pairs of RCA pre-outs, aux in, USB, etc. Personally I am not too thrilled with it tho. First there are not many characters on the screen, which I knew going into it, and that sucks for having titles displayed. I do not like the way in which the faceplate drops to accept CD's, its gonna break some day. The user interface itself is not very good, it is a pain to change things while driving... I know that is something that will get better as I get used to it, but in general I don't care for the way it is laid out. The styling does not blend in to the black dash, but what does nowadays. The display sucks balls in the sunlight (convertible!) because it is completely unreadable when the sun is on it. Even with all my gripes, for the price and its feature set, it is a decent buy. However you might want to consider the next model up for a bit more fine tuning ability if it is not much more $, because mine seems to lack a couple thing I thought it had like hi/low crossover adjustment on all the channels.
Wiring: I grabbed a bunch of Stinger wiring from hifisoundconnection.com This stuff is so expensive locally it is crazy! It was still not cheap but seemed like quality stuff at a reasonable price. I figured to do the job nicely I'd need 20 feet of 4-guage power, 3 pairs of 17 ft Stinger Nitro RCA, I had a 50ft roll of 16 guage Monster speaker cable, and I bought several kinds of terminals. They forgot to send my under-hood fuse box tho, and I received some 0-guage ring terminals in its place. So I had to buy a cheap (but expensive) fuse box from Walmart temporarily.
Installation
Rear 652.7i: I was concerned with the fitment of the rear speakers, as convertibles do not have alot of room back there. I think the stock speakers were unbelievably shallow. I had read a success story of someone putting the slightly smaller 62.7i in the rear of a vert using a spacer, but note that coupes may not need a spacer for the 62.7i. My car came with some Sony speakers back there, which were about the same depth as the Infinities, and they came mounted with spacer rings (maybe 1/2" or 3/4"). The rings that came from Infinity are very shallow. I needed to have the speaker spaced away from the mounting hole, because 1) it was physically too big in diameter to fit in the hole when that close, and even if I were to make the hole bigger it 2) would stick too far back to where the convertible top folds down in the wall. The spacers that had the sonys mounted were too shallow by themselves. I ended up using 3M double sided foam tape in between the original spacers and the Infinity ring, and that got me out just enough for the speaker cone to fit in the hole. Except at the ideal mounting spot I had to drill my own screw holes, and the black plastic conduit holding wires was in the way so I relocated it replacing 2 of the clamps with zip ties (ran thru the holes from the old cable clamps but I have a vert it may be different).
Front 652.7i: The front speakers fit perfectly in the door's plastic cups. If only removing the door panels were so easy...
652.7i in general: One thing that concerns me about the way these speakers are designed is that the screw heads will be touching the rubber around the cone. It is just the way it is, from squeezing a bigger speaker into a smaller form factor. Some 3M heavy-duty double-sided foam tape works well for mounting the external crossovers inside the doors / rear wall, out of the way from the screw holes of course.
Wiring: Since we have the battery terminals on the side I got one of those GM terminal kits, the Stinger SPT85308 GM Battery Terminal 7/16" Stud, it takes the place of the stock bolt in the red boot at the battery. It then has another bolt attached in the rear to run the power wire off of. I didn't know exactly what size ring terminal to use for this tho so I got a small variety (5/16", #10, 1/4"). It turns out the 5/16" ring terminal is perfect for the battery. The 1/4" ring connector, which is much smaller overall, fit perfect in my Kenwood amp's terminals. In retrospect I would go with the srew-on kind of ring terminal, versus the crimp-on kind, because I forgot how much of a PITA it is to crimp a 4-guage terminal.
Headunit crap kit: So I got one of the cheapest head unit mounting kits on ebay. It came with the wiring harness and antenna adapter, which was a plus. And a huge bag filled with a sh!tload of black plastic parts for seemingly every GM vehicle ever made ...and no instructions. After I figured out which 5% of the parts were applicable to me and how to put them together, well, I broke the tabs on the flush mount face. So now I am using a face that makes the deck extend from the dash. The thing is in order to use the rear mounting post it looks like it would need to be out like this... I don't know that this kit is strong enough to not have any support at the rear if I was using the flush face anyway. I'll prob end up buying another mounting kit...
Overall install: Installation took a lot longer than anticipated. It is time consuming to remove all the body panels and seatbelts (go buy the big torx bit!), crimping male/female connectors on every little wire and stuff, then putting it all back together right. My amp rack is a peice of plywood for the time being, looks ghetto yes, but I am planning to build a little 10" sub box and amp rack all in the well. (until I saw the insides of the doors, now I'm wondering what it would take to squeeze some really small subs in the rear of the door, maybe better for a convertible)
Sounds of success
I love when things work on the first try ;)
The Infinity 652.7i sounds pretty damn good with my amp pushing 60W RMS @ 2 ohms. I did not try them with the stock Monsoon system, as I completely redid all the wiring, but I imagine the crappy Monsoon amp would make them sound significantly crappier.
MidBass is decent. This was one of my concerns since I have a convertible, and the reason I went with the 652.7i instead of the slightly smaller 62.7i. There is actually a little punch with the top down. I am afraid that when I put a sub it the trunk it will not be too noticable with the top down (the folded top creates alot of insulation between the trunk and cabin!) so I wanted as much midbass in the cabin as possible.
The tweeters are adjustable on the speakers via rotation, I suggest you leave it at 0 it is plenty enough.
I have seen many recommendations saying the rear speakers do not matter. However I am quite convinced the rears do make a difference. Putting a good pair of component speakers up front would be better no doubt, just more expensive, and if one went with components up front I think these Infinities (either the 652.7i or 62.7i) would still make great rear speakers for their price.
Overall these Infinity speakers offer great bang for the buck, probably the next best thing to components. Being 2-ohms means they'll work well with the stock Monsoon system if desired, but it is more desirable to use a good 2-ohm stable amplifier with something like 50-75W RMS and rewire everything.
I still need a little more bass...
Comment