Speaker upgrade

Thanks to Bryan Barker for this one.

Alpine SXE-0825S and SXE-1025S Speaker Installation.

This article describes how I fitted a set of Alpine speakers to my (1986 onwards) Excel within the original grilles, thus maintaining the original appearance but gaining some modern power and clarity to the sound. In fairness the original rear speakers weren't bad, but the front ones, an awkward 3.5" size, were shot. So I bought a pair of Alpine 10cm SXE-1025S for the rear, and the 8.6cm SXE-0825S for the front. The speakers were £63 for both sets, from Dynamic Sounds.

The rears were a like for like swap, just screwed into place behind the grilles. The fronts were a bit more involved. I removed the door cards, although there's no need to actually remove the speaker grilles from the cards. The old speaker needs to be removed from the black grille, it is held in place with 3 small clips which are glued in place. These must be removed, break the glue bond and carefully lever them off. The Alpine speakers have two small mounting brackets as part of their frame, these need to be removed. Rather than risking swarf getting into the magnet, I just levered them back and forward until they broke off.

The speaker then fits perfectly into the black grille, make sure it is pushed all the way home, it is retained by the two silver spring clips on the back of the speaker. Apply 4 blobs of silicon or glue-gun type adhesive to the outer ring of the speaker frame to secure it to the inner surface of the grille.

The Excel speaker cables fitted perfectly onto the connectors, and then I refitted the complete door cards.

Soundwise, the treble and clarity is noticeably improved over the old speakers, bass levels are about the same. 3.5" and 4" speakers were never going to deliver earth shattering bass though, that would need a subwoofer too.