Finaly found some 4" speakers that packs some punch /56K at own risk

[Zandro]

I have for a long time been looking for some 4" speakers for my 87 Camry
that can handel more than 30w peak power, and i finaly found a someone that
makes quality high power speakers that fits the original mounts. A Swedish company
called MDS has a 4" model called FD-210 that i ordered from a Norwegian reseller of
MDS products, i handles 70w RMS and 140w peak witch matches my new rear JBL
6x9 speakers ive taken a couple of pics of the new speakers. Notice the aluminium heat sink

Back view of the MSD FD-210


Front view of the MSD FD-210

[JetspeedCamry]

They look pretty chunky! But are you sure there not just for looks? Theres TON's of speakers/subs here in shops that look like that, and better, but are not better than the lower end noname brands...Have you heard them in your car? What do they sound like?

[Zandro]

When i first looked at it i thought the same thing, i got even more sceptic
when i picked one up i expected it to be real heavy but it weighed in at approx 350grams!
But the reseller told me MDS had used a new type of magnet that is 12 times stronger
than the ordinary magnets used in normal speakers, the magnet itself is about the size
of a half marshmallow, but it needs cooling so thats why the fancy aluminium ribb is there.
It costs about 680 NKR (Norwegian kroner) or 100 USD (US Dollars)
Pioneer and Sony 4" costs about half of that.

Edit:

Erm.. I mean that I'm putting them in today, damn how the time flies by..

[ModifierMR]

why not convert the door pockets to 5-1/4" components with tweeters in the 4
holes?

[atobe]

or just put some tweeter into the door panels.

[Zandro]

OK i mounted one of the new speakers on the drivers side and kept the old
one on the passenger side to compare them. I was really impressed with the
power level the MSD speaker could handel, it had much better control too,
the bass was real firm no thumping noises. Being a 4" speaker i didn't expect much
bass but it really helped in the lower midrange witch was pretty much absent in the
Pioneer speakers. Gonna put in the other one tomorrow.

The new ones to the left, the old ones to the right

[JetspeedCamry]

Cool! If your happy, were happy.

[Zandro]

Got a major setback today, i was gonna test the speakers for real and both
speakers where mounted inn, but when i tried to play loud the plastic started
to vibrate a lot, then i discovered why. The special pioneer speakers i had in before
had a ring with a groove in it that fitted into a retention ring bellow that prevents
vibrations, damn! so i have to put back the special pioneer speakers that i got
for it about a year ago. Arghhh!! i really wish i had a gen3 camry now...

[Chancer]

So these babies would mount in a gen 3? I'm an idiot and bought a $2000+ sound kit about a year ago, and got six inch front ones but never bothered to cut holes int he door or buy those mounts or anything and would prefer these babies.

If they're plug and play, no custom stuff, why not? I could even be a good member of the community and post pictures! Or video with sound comparisons.

[Zandro]

The reason why i whish i had a gen 3 camry is that it has standard sized front speakers
in the doors. The Gen1/Gen2 camry has them i the dashboard and in the puny 4" size
and they have to be special made to work properly (like the pioneers in the pic above)
The gen3 Camry uses standard sized speakers in the doors wich means that you can
choose the speaker you want not having to think about special mounting brackets
or shit like that.

The pioneer speakers has a realy good sound but the reason why i
wanted to exhange dem was because they didnt have a tweeter and that i wanted
a better low midrage response and of course something that could handel more power.
But since the MDS speakers are missing the retention ring they are basicly hanging in
the air with only 2 screws holding them in place, resulting in severe panel vibrations
I will take a pic of the MDS speakers before i put back the pioneers so that you can
see what the problem is.

[Tom 2000]

When I had my Gen2, I installed these 3.5" blaupunkts up front. These were pretty cheap, but I was pretty impressed with the sound they delivered considering how small they were (3.5"). I sold the car, but it these actually had pretty decent sized magnets for this sized speaker.

The factory speaker box that the front speakers mounted to were actually a pretty interesting design. It had a chamber filled with some sound deadening (looked like carpet padding). It helped. Anyway, if anyone is looking for just stock replacement speakers, these arent bad.

[JetspeedCamry]

^ Yeah i agree man..ive got JBL GTO 3.5" speakers in mine and they sound fantastic.

[Zandro]

I wanted to go JBL all the way but they didn't have smaller JBL speakers
than 6,5", But at least they had JBL CS396e speakers so that i could throw
out those crappy Sony Xplod 6x9 speakers that annoyed the hell out of me.
But those JBL GTO 3.5, you say their fantastic but what was the difference compared
to the "old?" ones? did they improve the front sound image so that the rear speakers
wasn't so dominant?

Is this the speaker that youre talking about? (JBL GTO 326e)


OK promised some pics of the problem earlier

The area marked in red is the gap between the retention ring bellow
and the speaker itself, the only thing that supports it is the 2 screws
on each side of the speaker, so its hanging in mid air resulting vibrations.

[JetspeedCamry]

Yeah thats the ones. They sound excellent. The have a great high end treble sound, that compliments the rear stage. The mid range is good, solid. Theres not much low end/bass. And if you do pump up the bass on the front channel (mine are amped) they distort. They fit into the standard cutouts, and are retainted because my standard 3.5"'s had a plastic retention ring that you could use for these. My car though doesnt just have the speakers, but a acoustic box. The 3.5" goes into this box, and it has a dummy 4" cone (EDIT: see below) below it. So it looks like theres 2 speakers, but there 3.5" is the only powered one. That 4" cone/plate vibrates back and forth to produce some amount of low end, since the box is sealed. I have Alpine S-Type 6.5's in the back, also amped.

EDIT: The boxes my car has are called Dipole Passive Radiators..:

[Zandro]

Cant say Ive ever seen a Camry with dipole passive radiators, the ones here
in Norway came with noname low fi 4 ohm speakers that said 15W max on
the magnet (still think i have them stashed away somewhere) really poor sound.
i threw them out the same day i got the car, and ordered the special Pioneer speakers
they sounded 10 times better than the original and had no problem keeping up with
the Sony speakers i had in the back. But as i mentioned above the Sony speakers
where crap. So about a month ago i thought it was time to upgrade the speaker system
so i bought new speakers in the back (JBL CS-396e) but they didn't have JBL speakers in 3.5" size (only 6.5" and bigger) so i ordered MDS 4" speakers instead ( i really don't like to mix brands) and discovered that they really didn't fit properly.
I'm about to order a new headunit (Pioneer DEH-2800MP) to exchange my trusty old Pioneer DEH-P2530R so I'm going to see if i can find if there is a shop that sells the JBL GTO 326e (3,5") speakers. Thanks for the recommendation mate.