Unconventional Audio Experiment in ’95 Mercedes S600 – Fresh Perspectives Wanted

[Night Owl’s Murmurs]

To Mods: Apologies if this post is in the wrong section. I wasn’t sure where it best fit, but I genuinely wanted to hear fresh perspectives outside the usual car audio circles. Appreciate your understanding and allow at least to see if it got any responses at all.

I acquired a car with a “professional” audio system already installed. Its Mercedes s600 1995 I know this particular model very well. Despite the fact that the sound system was built according to all the car audio standards, its sound quality is worse than that of the same car in full factory condition with the original amplifier. Front doors have 6.5” audison prima woofers, but its perform worse than factory ones (i just dissasembled one door and returned factory box with factory speakers )

Car audio has become so entrenched in its misconceptions and commercial interests that it’s nearly impossible to find truly professional answers on forums (with all due respect to this one). Truly high-quality installations are extremely rare. I’m conducting an experiment—stepping away from all the traditional rules of building a stereo system in a car. I’m curious what someone who has never done a car installation might suggest. For example, the idea of placing large tweeters under the rear window—why not?

Initial conditions:

• Door volume: 60 liters
• Factory front doors have factory ported plastic enclosures with 4” midbass and 2” tweeters (~2 liters), which can be expanded to 3 liters or removed entirely to use the full door cavity.
• Rear doors have 2–2.5 liter enclosures with 4” speakers from factory
• Dashboard allows tweeters or possibly up to 3” drivers

• Trunk is connected to the cabin through 4 factory speakers in the rear shelf (Mercedes uses non-standard sizes): 4 openings of 5.5 inches. Can favricate box in trunk, like basically build bookshelf at rear, maybe 2x woofers + 2x big twitters?

• A small subwoofer may be placed in the passenger footwell — about 10–12 liters available for a custom enclosure fabrication or maybe passive radiator


All current components will be removed, im not even telling (until someone asked) to keep experiment clean. What setup would you propose, considering the available installation locations and volume constraints?

Ask if any clarifications needed about initial inputs.

I want use dayton speakers, looking at reference or epique series. Most doubts about midrange and tweetera. Skip amplifier suggestions, most interesting is your suggestion abt speaker setup.

Bugdet is infinite (no im not that rich, just wanna see best possible setup as reference)

Thank you everyone!

 

[Night Owl’s Murmurs]

Common “gold” setup by caraudio standards is 6.5” woofers + tweets at windshield pillars or 3way front as diamond setup. Then ppls blaming everything but noone even think what overpriced crap they just installed. Look for example audison brand. Speakers cost 200$+ but look at characteristics.. Only goal is to make robust speakers that will play with no enclosure and cant be blown. look at specs https://audison.com/product/ap-6-5/ These i have installed, 200$ pair

 

[ChrisG]

I've been pretty impressed with the Bose audio system in my Mazda. The front-seat system consists of a 4" midbass hidden in the footwell, 2.5" mid in the door, 1" tweeter in the corner where window meets the A-pillar. There's also an up-firing "full-range" driver in the centre of the dash, and a subwoofer in the boot/trunk.

Compared to 6"/1" systems, where I can often hear the two distinct sources as acoustically separate, the Bose/Mazda system integrates the drivers rather well: it's far less obvious that there are separate drivers playing.

For the Mercedes, then, I'd aim for something similar:
- Tweeters in the A-pillar
- Mids in the door, as close as you can get them to the tweeters
- Bass in the door, wherever it fits nicely

Alternatively, 3" coaxials in the A-pillar, and then bass drivers in the doors.

You might find that there's enough LF output from the door speakers, so I'd only consider a subwoofer once you've got the rest up-and-running.


I also think it's worth noting that car audio drivers do differ in design parameters compared to home audio: cars may be subject to temperatures well below freezing, and the interior can get hot enough to bake cookies. Humidity levels can also vary wildly.
So, while a home audio driver will work, I'm not sure they would last as well.