Has anyone opened up the rear speaker openings for true 6.5" speakers? If so, any issues other than probably not being able to use the factory speaker grille?

 

That's about it...I bought 4 JBL GTO speakers with the crossovers and tweeters for the doors and headliner...Then added a subwoofer behind the rear seat...Amps are under the rear seat with two fans moving the air...Make sure you've got the plastic support opened up to fit then just mount the speakers through the headliner and the plastic support...I actually added some insulation to the support so it didn't vibrate from the added sound quality...More info in my build thread...

 

I went overboard and opened up the door panel as well...Too much sound being lost with the factory set up...

 

Thanks. What tool did you use to open up the headliner hole?

Door speakers are interesting. I didn't think they would fit without sheet metal cutting. Did you use a spacer/adapter?

 

I usually use an air die grinder to slightly open up the hole...I'd get whatever speakers your using and try them in the openings...I didn't need to do any cutting on the doors other than the obvious door panel and there was a thin,supplied spacer I used...And I don't think I needed to do much with the headliner as well just a quick touch up for better clearance with the brand I bought....I did need to glue the foam baffle{for waterproofing } from the back side because I needed all the clearance for the huge magnets on the new speakers

 

I guess you glued the baffle to the inside of the door sheet metal?

 

Here is an example of a true 6.5" speaker vs a combo 5.25/6.5" speaker (which are sold as 6.5" speakers right along side true 6.5" speakers). A true 6.5" speaker will have a 4.75" woofer cone while a combo size speaker will have a 4.25" woofer cone. Woofer size isn't everything, but all things equal, a larger woofer will provide more solid bass.

The holes closer to the woofer on the combo speaker are used for the stock XJ mounting holes. Those holes are not present on a true 6.5" speaker because there is no room for them.

On a side note, I've realized that Kicker 43DS6504 speakers (the ones on the right that I had in my XJ for several years) sound pretty bad compared to some similar priced options.

 

I've found that the Crutchfield compatibility list for the rear speakers is overly strict, at least for late model XJs. If anyone wants to manually select speakers, the opening is 5.0", and the available mounting depth is about 2.75". The grilles can accommodate a speaker that sticks up 0.75" from the speaker mounting surface, e.g., from a tweeter sticking out.

Some speakers, such as the speaker on the left in the photo in my previous post, will fit in the opening, but will require drilling new holes and using panel screw clips.

If anyone is interested, I've now tried Kicker 43DS6504, Polk DB652, Infinity REF607F, and Pioneer TS-Z65F in the rear speaker location using a Sony XAV-AX6000 headunit with 20 W RMS power and stock speaker wiring. Infinity were the best for me by a slight margin over the Polk. Infinity has good clarity and the best bass response of the bunch, but not by a big margin. The story could be different if I were using an amp and were running good speaker wiring.