not to take any business away from Lucid.....but i'm more of a DIY type guy....

has anyone run into problems when trying to put rear speakers in the panels DIY style?

i looked on his site and found that $170 for the panel speaker and install is relatively a good price

my real question is ....is it that hard to measure and cut the hole to save some money? or should i just pay the man..........

 

It's not hard at all. I did mine years ago, don't have pics anymore.

Just remove the panel and see what's back there first. If I remember correctly there is a brace that will limit the size & depth of the speaker.

 

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=282310

Oh, I still bought my plug and play harness from Lucid. IMO, that's the only way to go. I tried the soldering thing on the back of the HU, but it's not easy and the wires detached only a couple of weeks later. Besides, the Lucid harness made it possible to mute the rears speakers when you use the "mute" button. Just soldering into the rear output pins won't do this. The rear speakers stay "live" when you use the "Mute".

 

sorry for the noobish question, but do you have to run wires from the head unit to the speaker leads in the rear if i were to add speakers?

 

You have a 2005 car. I think you already have wires in place behind the HU (maybe even down the center console) for rear speakers (optional head rest speakers?).

 

Is there a problem with cutting into that rear brace that is behind the panel? I know that if you actually want a decent set of 5.25's to fit there your going to have to cut....

 

You don't need to cut anything to get 5.25s in there. In fact, you can get slightly bigger ones than that without cutting.
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26699

Those braces are important to the structural rigidity of the car. You don't want to be cutting those in any way.

 

Like I said, if you want a DECENT speaker back there, one you can actually amp loudly, your going to have to cut.

 

The stock front 6" speakers fit beautifully. I also found a pair of Power Acoustic components speakers NEO-65 they are 6-1/4 with a compact magnet structure. They fit beautifully with no clearance problems. I like the idea of components. I mounted the tweeters (silk) in the headrest at -3db setting and the sound is smooth. There is just enough highs that it sounds great at all speeds with the top down.

 

Judging from "chris2002", I guess you don't.
Maybe you're not mounting them right. In any case, cutting the metal brace that can compromise the structural rigidity of a car that performs the way it does because it is rigid, is never a smart thing to do.