Saab 9-3 dash speakers upgrade

[Squall75]

After stumbling onto this post recently I decided to upgrade my front dash speakers. Like most people have pointed out the Boston Acoustics S35 are no longer sold. It looks like they don’t make any more car speakers. So I thought I should mention what I found worked well for me. I ended up ordering the Infinity Reference X REF-3002cfx. They fit perfectly and sound great. It is well worth the upgrade from the stock speakers and is not difficult at all to do for those that are out there still thinking of making the change.

[Squall75]

Setup was similar to the description given, just in my case Infinity doesn't give you a wire to connect the speaker plug. So I had to put my own together.



Final result, went in nicely with a little room between the tweeter and the speaker grill.

[#1SAAB12-17-11]

I installed the same Infinity 2-ways into the dashboard corners... a nice simple upgrade in sound.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice regarding the best/easiest method to upgrade the bass sound, perhaps adding an aftermarket sub-woofer? I know the head unit can be trouble for these sorts of upgrades.

[Kevin Rood]

For anyone interested, I just installed a pair of Kicker 40CS354 in the dash. They fit perfectly and sound great. Then again just about anything would sound better than the stock speakers. I bought these from Amazon for $40. Thank you Frank for the step by step guide which made installing these very easy. I used your idea of removing the connector from the stock speaker and soldering speaker wires to it to create a makeshift speaker adapter to the stock connector in the dash. Worked great!

[rtyall]

I've just installed a pair of Ground Zero GZTF8.7TX 3.5" speakers into the dash, so thought I'd share.
The speakers just fit into the slot, I think I've got some slight fouling from the speaker wire causing the speaker to not sit totally flat against the hole without any pressure. There is a rubber surround on the magnet which can be removed, in hindsight I should have done that and it probably would drop in perfectly without having to manipulate the cable or screw the speaker down to make it snug fit.
After tightening the speakers down they do now sit flush, also the tweeter is low enough that it doesn't foul the grill when putting it back on.
The cable that comes with it is rubbish, it's gossamer thin and you're better off attaching some spade connectors to the original wires.

Now I've installed them, they sound a lot brighter than the stock speakers, cymbals have a tad more definition and the tweeters are a good improvement. The mid range is only marginally better, but the sound may be muddied by the 4" centre speaker so that might improve once I've removed it.

Overall, not amazing speakers but worth the £25 for a bit more clarity, definitely an upgrade on the stock ones.

[wdc897744]

I'm following this tutorial to replace my front dash speakers with the Kicker CS354s. Got the speakers removed and the female connectors cut off. Before I solder the new speaker wires to the female connectors, is it necessary to remove the old soldered wire from the terminals to get a good connection? Or can I just solder the new right on top? Kinda new to soldering. Don't worry, I'm practicing first on the cat. Thx!

[nordwulf]

When you melt the existing solder on the connector, the old wires should easily come off. Just put the solder iron on the solder and it should melt after a few seconds. Soldering is pretty straight-forward. Make sure the solder melts all the way, don't move until it gets hard again and make sure not to overheat everything so things start melting.

[hawk8485]

What an AMAZING thread! I have been trying to get good info on what is inside my 2005 Saab 9-3 Linear for a sound system with little luck until I stumbled onto this thread. Most car stereo people either just scratch their heads or they tell you things that simply may not be true about your particular Saab. I was very excited to find Wulf's explanation of how to get into the dash compartment to change out the speaker. As my Saab only has the base (4 speaker) system, the sound is downright terrible--3 1/2 whizzer coned in front, 4" whizzer cones in back. I have settled on getting some Alpine 410s for the back (4" coax speakers, but I am coming up dry for new 3 1/2" for the fronts (the Bostons are long gone). Any suggestions?

[dspargo]

Boston Acoustic S35 3 1 2 Speakers 090283357205 | eBay

[dspargo]

I think these are better though:

Infinity Reference X REF-3002cfx 3-1/2" 2-way speakers at Crutchfield.com