Polk PLK DB650 door speaker install

[Viperdriver]

These speakers drop right into the door. Easiest install ever. However, contrary to convention and the Service Manual the black wire gets connected to the "+" terminal of the speaker. At first I thought they got it wrong in China but wired backwards the Polk's had much better bass. ( I tried both ways.) Now the radio sounds MUCH better. If you want to save your stock connectors Crutchfield wire harness P/N 12071030 will work. But you've got to cut off the connectors and solder them onto the speakers backwards. ( Black wire on "+".) Don't waste any wire, the Crutchfield connectors are barely long enough.
The Focal 165CA speakers don't fit so I have a pair for sale.

 

[JKNUST]

Thanks! I was going to search soon on good drop-in replacements.

 

[Viperdriver]

Now if someone can come up with a drop in for the woofer life would be great. Curiously, DC used a dual voice coil woofer.

 

[MannyC]

I simply swapped out the head unit and the stereo sounds fantastic to me. It doesn't have super bass, but it is crisp and loud and the reproduction sounds great from CD's. I just spent $15K on stereo equipment on several of my cars and felt no reason to change anything in the SRT10 other than the head unit (which has built in XM and NAV and controls a 6 disc changer.)

Did you find the audio quality in your car to be poor?

-M

 

[Viperdriver]

Yes, I thought the sound was mediocre considering the price of the car. My '03 Tahoe costs less than half what the Viper costs and it has a much better radio.
What head unit did you put in?

 

[MannyC]

I ended up putting in a Pioneer AVEC1. It's awesome!

 

[Viperdriver]

Do you mean AVIC-N1? I can't find any information on an AVEC1.

 

[Viper IV]

Picked up a pair of the Polk speakers last night at Circuit City for $79 (on line price). Simple install and improved the sound quality. Nice suggestion, thanks.
Bob

 

[Viperfreak2]

Dayum! I paid $99. Don't they have a price guarantee? I want my $20 bucks! I haven't tried switching the wires yet, gonna do that this weekend.

 

[Viper IV]

It said "on line price only", yes they were $99 in the store. Glad I looked on line first, placed the order and picked it up on the way home. I don't think a price garantee would work in this case.
Note, the drivers door speaker worked great black wire to positive but the passengers door had less volume. I re-connected the black to negitive and it worked fine on that door. strange

 

[Viperfreak2]

Sounds like we might have a wiring harness problem from the factory. Someone wired one side with the wrong color. Black should always be ground. I'm gonna try experimenting on mine. They seem to sound fine with the green on +. (both sides)

 

[WANTED]

did any wires need to be cut, looking at buying a pair today, lmk
thanks, tom

 

[Art 138]

In my case I disconnected at the speaker wire connector(inside door); took the speaker out; unwelded the old and rewelded the Polk wires into the positive/negative guides.. If you look very closely at the stock speakers, you will see positive/negative positions.