Speaker replacement in Legacy GT

Large speakers into the doors can be sorta challenging, but you _should_ be able to fit pretty much whatever you want into the rear deck. I have installed 6 inch Infinity Kappas in these cars w/o problem, with the tweeters surface mounted to the deck panel.

You will have to make new screw holes as the Subaru speakers use a three screw pattern. This is the most troublesome part of the job. A right angle drill motor simplifies this, but you can make at least three of the holes with a conventional cordless drill. Do without the fourth if you must.

My advice:

Pull the rear seat/seat back to get good access to the rear deck and deck panel.

Cut out the perforated areas of the deck panel and use the grille supplied with the aftermarket speaker. Mount the speaker thru the panel, rather than below it. Drill pilot holes before dropping the speakers in place to minimize the chance of putting a driver bit thru the speaker cone. Also, watch that you don't put a drill bit or screw thru any wiring beneath the deck, and aim to miss the torsion bar springs for the trunk lid as well. Having a screw touching one of the springs will result in an annoying buzz/rattle.

For best results, get a pair of the foam speaker baffles (from Crutchfield or where ever), and use them either below the deck panel (best appearance) or above (easiest installation). This is especially important if you plan on placing a subwoofer in the trunk.

IMO, decent speakers are the best upgrade to the sound system in these cars, and should be installed before spending $$$ for a high performance head unit. A modest sub in the trunk adds a lot of solidity to the sound as well. For cost, performance and ease of installation, it's hard to beat the Infinity Basslink; $100-$150 on ebay.

Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like more nfo on this.

ByeBye! S. Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Try Crutchfield.com

quite an assortment of speakers both in 6.5 and 6.75 inch varieties. I didn't bother sorting out the front versus back items as I'll leave that to you. From personal experience; if Crutchfield says it will fit; they are right. I've had *one* variation; it was on a "first run" Ford Ranger pickup that was weird in many other ways as well. Even then, using the adapter ring under (instead of over) the factory location worked

"Thinner" overall larger speakers can fit smaller holes with proper adapter rings. Sometimes the adapter rings go behind (or in your case under) the existing mounting hole. It was common in the 60's and 70's to see adapter rings to put 6x9 speakers under the rear deck where 5x7's (or smaller) existed.

As an aside: How did you measure the speaker diameter? Even the speaker manufacturers can't agree on the sizes of newer speakers; let alone what the screw patterns are.

You have it fairly easy, at least you have existing holes. Back in the old days before stereo; cars had either none or one speaker mounting hole in the center. Putting in stereo speakers meant spending some extensive quality time upside down in the truck with a metal-cutting saw. There is no way to shield your face completely from those chips.