Upgraded my Pilot's Speakers to Polk Audio 6501

I thought I would share some recent upgrading I've been doing to my Pilot. The stock speakers are pretty much crap...the usual for stock systems. I bought 2 pairs of Polk Audio db 6501 component sets. I also installed sound deadening on all doors. I plan on getting a new sub and amp later. I bought this set after hearing them at the auto show display, and liked the fact that they are upgradable on my car for future needs. They were more expensive than I had originally planned on paying, but I figured I might as well get the best speakers I'm willing to pay for, and slowly upgrade everything else(sub and amp) as the time comes. I'm glad I got these! These speakers can be had cheaper on ebay and such, but Crutchfield's customer service is second to none in my opinion. Plus, they offer everything needed to mount to your car, which usually brings the price right back to any other cheaper seller. One pair on CF costs $199. I picked them up while they were offering buy 1 get the second pair half off, which put me at $300. For getting 4 speakers, 4 crossovers, and 4 tweeters, it was worth it.

Anyways, here are their specs:
-Component speaker system includes two 6-1/2" woofers, 2 tweeters, and 2 crossovers
-Dynamic Balance polymer/mica composite woofer with butyl rubber surround
-Kapton voice coil former
-1" liquid-cooled silk/polymer composite dome tweeter
-Flush- and surface-mount swivel cups
-Neodymium tweeter magnet
-Electronic tweeter protection circuit
-2-way external crossover network (12 dB/octave, 4,000 Hz high- and low-pass)
-ABS wheel-design grilles
-Stainless steel mounting hardware
-Certified for marine use
-Power range: 10-100 watts RMS (300 watts peak power)
-Frequency response: 35-23,000 Hz
-Sensitivity: 92 dB
-Includes adapter rings for 6-3/4" openings
-Top-mount depth: 1-11/16"
-Warranty: 1 year

More coming up!

Here are the speakers, and comparison to the stock speakers:



As you can tell, it's a huge difference! Actually, the new tweeters weigh as much as the whole stock speaker unit!

For the sound deadening materials, I tried something new that I was told worked really well on multiple car forums. It's a product sold at Lowe's called Peel & Seal. They come in rolls of 6"x25' at less than $17 each! A bargain for how well they work! I installed my own Dynamat on my old Jetta, so I'm familiar with it and what it feels and dampens like, so I was unbelievably surprised at how well these turned out!
Here are some pics of the P&S: (note, most of these pics were taken half way through each process, so they had more P&S on them than shown).






During the installation of the first speaker, I realized that the speaker's connection terminal came into contact with the doors speaker frame. Not wanting to trim the door, or cause a short in the future, I had no choice but to flip the speaker upside down. The problem with this is that the top screw mount that hold the speaker bracket now came into contact with the speaker and would prevent it from mounting. So, I ground the speakers a bit:


I didn't think to take a photo of this, but after completing the first door, I realized that the speaker sat about 1/3" above the stock speakers, which meant that the flush-sitting door panel speaker housing would prevent the door clips from holding the panel to the door frame. I had to trim the door panel's speaker surround by a bit more than 1/3" to make the door panel clasp on to the door frame properly, as well as to prevent vibrations. Worked real well, but, as I said, I was stupid and didn't take any pics.

That was it for the door speaker part. I then moved to the tweeters. I didn't really want to use the tweeters on the door, and much preferred the stock dash mount area, so I kept the location the same. I swapped out the old for the new... here's the installation:

I first tested them to make sure they worked properly:

Sounded pretty good, but they didn't have any crossover filtering.

Proceded with cutting and trimming the stock mounts to allow the flush-mounted setup:




Hot glued everything to prevent anything from coming loose or causing vibrations:

The finished product, which turned out way better looking than I had imagined:

The next step was taking the crossover unit apart to build a more compact setup to fit in the tweeter housing.

I first tested all the settings, +3db, neutral, and -3db. This was the neutral setup, which was easy to follow on the crossover board:


The -3db sounded better, so I tried to create it. This took me hours because my brain just wasn't up for reading this board and tracing the pathway AT ALL! I went through at least 15 diagram drawings before I got my brain into memorizing and knowing how it worked...it seriously defied my past knowledge of how connections could be made. It didn't make any sense, so I would get ticked at it and start all over. I kept coming back to the same path every time...that's when I realized...I HATE CROSSOVERS!!

Here's the cleanest drawing I have of the crossover to stay permanently at -3db:


Here's the final product. -3db crossover:



The whole setup sounds...AMAZING! I'm not a fan of bass overpowering vocals and sounds that are suppose to be heard. I like clear audio with a wide spectrum setup, and natural levels of bass and treble. This setup does just that and please my ears in every possible way...and I don't even have an amp going to them!

Like most good setups, it's not a mere plug-n-play setup to get the best sound out of them. They do require a bit of tweaking, but once you do, you will appreciate your own effort. If given another chance, I would buy these again without a doubt.

Very nice, iggibar! Thanks for sharing.

cwa107 said:

Very nice, iggibar! Thanks for sharing.

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Hey! I saw that switchup you pulled!;P Thanks! I actually had fun doing it. I know there's a few audio people on here that might like it.
There's apparently an "audio genius" on the pilot forum that seems to be refuting my claim that I like my new setup. Huh? Say what!? I almost want to ROFLMAO! I almost can't tell if he's being serious...it is almost April 1st...

iggibar said:

Hey! I saw that switchup you pulled!;P

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I didn't realize you weren't finished posting and didn't want to disrupt the flow.

Thanks! I actually had fun doing it. I know there's a few audio people on here that might like it.

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I always like seeing projects like this - always fun to see what kinds of creative solutions people come up with.

There's apparently an "audio genius" on the pilot forum that seems to be refuting my claim that I like my new setup. Huh? Say what!? I almost want to ROFLMAO! I almost can't tell if he's being serious...it is almost April 1st...

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There's a lot of self-proclaimed "geniuses" on that forum. It makes me appreciate this forum that much more.

Nice! I put the same speakers in my Subaru when I bought it 2 years ago. Had to do some of the same trimming in the door panel. I put my tweeters in the doors though, as there was a factory space for them there.