Speaker installation in 2000 300m

There's a thin plastic latch on the side of the connector at each speaker - to unlatch the connectors, catch the latches with a fingernail and pull outward while pulling the connectors to demate them - easy to do once you know about that latch.

You'll probably be OK, but the 6012si's are 4 ohm speakers. The factory ones are 2 ohm, so the 6012si's may not be balanced (in their output volume) compared to the other speakers in your M (the 4-ohm speakers may sound weak in comparison).

There's a good thread on the 300M Club forums

in which the Infinity Kappa 652.7i's were installed in the doors with good results by several people. They are 225 watt, 2 ohm. If it's not too late, I'd forego the 6012si's and get the 652.7i's instead. Coincidentally, I just took delivery on a pair of 652.7i's today - choice was based largely on that thread on the 300M Club.

They are 2-way with a separate crossover. But your M probably has either the Infinity I (240 watt amp in passenger side kick panel) or II (360 watt amp in trunk) system, and the amp has crossover filtering built into it. The recommendation has been to leave the crossover (that came with the speakers) out and the tweeter of the 6527i's unconnected since that channel from the amp has the higher frequencies filtered out (i.e., the tweeters would not be doing much even if you hooked them up). You have the tweeters at the top of the doors (running off of separate amp channels). You could run wires (separate tweeter channels from the amp) from those tweeters to the tweeters in the 652.7i's, but that's probably not needed and may unbalance things if both sets of tweeters were to be used (however that might be a consideration if the factory tweeters are also blown or if you just want to disconnect the factory tweeters, but you'd loose the spatial separation, and I think the

652.7i's tweeters are 2 ohms whereas the factory tweeters are 4 ohms).

If your M is like most, your center dash speaker is blown. If so (i.e., if it's crackling), just disconnect it (at the amp - snip snip) and leave it disconnected - everyone pretty much agrees that it does not add much, i.e., is not worth replacing.

If you decide to go ahead with the 6012si's, I don't know if they have a separate crossover to give you the option of leaving the tweeters disconnected. But it probably wouldn't make any difference since the amp won't by providing any high frequency to that output channel (due to its built in crossover). In other words, having the tweeters built into the new speakers connected won't make any difference.

That thread on the 300M Club mentions an alternative component set including mid-range speakers equivalent to the main speaker of the

652.7i's and two separate tweeters. It would make sense to get that and just not use the tweeters, since they won't do anything anyway if connected to the same output channel - but that set costs more - so people are buying the 652.7i's and leaving the tweeters unconnected instead of getting that component set (the tweeters that come with that component set would not easily mount in place of the factory tweeters - I think they are 2 ohm vs. the ideal 4 ohm too).

A good model is also mentioned in that thread to replace the back oval speakers if you decide to upgrade them in the future.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Ummm - you're welcome?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')