TomV Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 The topic of what are the "best" replacement speakers for the factory systems has been asked frequently. Most answers come from someone who has already tried an aftermarket speaker with some success or the person is referred to Crutchfield to find something that simply fits the factory location. The problem we have is that no one knows the driver specifications of the factory OEM speakers, other than they are 4 ohm and the physical dimensions. Well today I happened to find a really cool device to measure loud speakers. Dayton Audio DATS V3 Computer Based Speaker & Audio Component Test System This DATS V3 device could be used to find the actual T/S parameters of our OEM Lincoln drivers. Then we could search for aftermarket drivers with similar specs, but perhaps a higher quality design. Keeping the T/S parameters similar should keep the factory tuning as optimal as possible. So in my opinion, this would be the way to recommend the "best" replacement speakers for our Lincolns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multitask Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 I would think it is up to the 'ears' of the owner... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02LincLS Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 Funny this thread just came up. I noticed the entry chime sounded funny in my car over the weekend. Figured out yesterday the passenger front woofer is somehow blown. I have the base system unfortunately so I never really crank it. I have no idea how this happened. One other bug I noticed is the driver front tweeter will not play unless you momentarily turn the volume up. It will kick in and stay playing. I am hoping these are purely speaker failures and not APIM or amplifiers. I ordered a set of Infinity Reference 6530cx components just for ease of install as I didn't want to get into installing an amp and removing all the car's signal processing. I have always used their Kappa's in the past and loved them but Crutchfield says the Kappa 603cf's don't fit. I'm guessing that despite being shallower than the Reference's, the magnet is so huge, it's OD must interfere with something inside the door. I am fine with minor mods, and wouldn't rule out cutting the speaker opening bigger if that was the only issue to fit Kappa's. If anyone has the Kappa 6-1/2 components installed and can confirm this, that would be awesome. I searched the site through Google but came up dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy3906 Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 Hello I got Kappa 62.11i and they fit perfect. 02LincLS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02LincLS Posted June 15, 2022 Share Posted June 15, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, Izzy3906 said: Hello I got Kappa 62.11i and they fit perfect. Thanks for the reply! That's promising. I did a quick side by side of your speaker and the components I was looking at and the cutout diameter looks like the difference... Crutchfield says your 62.11's don't fit either, yet you say they fit perfect. Did you do minor mods to get them in? I'll search again for your pics because I did see them on my original search. This makes me want to spend more money and build a system. Return the Reference's or not...what to do, what to do. I apologize for derailing this topic a bit. I find TomV's plan to characterize the stock drivers pretty interesting. One concern is that the signal processing is heavily adjusted for cheaper driver limitations. Since the aftermarkets are so much more capable, it might be hard to find one with similar T/S. Since referring to a replacement only, and not adding an amp or anything else, sensitivity and resistance are probably the most critical. Unfortunately that doesn't say much for sound so replacements would likely need to be done at least as a pair anyway, even if just one is broken. Preferably the whole set of 4 locations. Edited June 15, 2022 by 02LincLS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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