240 front speaker upgrade with OEM look

90 to 93 240s have a different grille setup and a 5 1/4" speaker vs 4" from the earlier setup. There's a few drop in speakers like eclipse that work decently well & are stealth.

It's tricky to keep the early grille with different speakers due to the way it attaches.

The problem lies with the lack of distance between the speaker and the window.

Recently installed some Kahplenke brackets that fit 5.25” speakers in the normal 4” mounting hole.

Finished product, once I buy the second piece of this kit, should look something like this

these kits are NOT cheap, but in my opinion are the ultimate stealth upgrade.

also found I’m losing some mid bass currently with the bracket mounting situation, but if your aim is stealth and not strictly sound quality I’d recommend these.

https://www.bneshop.com/collections/240/products/240-5-25-speaker-bracket-and-grill

After cutting the bracket up, they're only good for positioning the cover, which is now held in my hot glue.

Worked a treat.

I ground off the old, dead, Volvo speakers from the frame with the Dremel and a little cutting wheel (as shown partially by the yellow lines).

Then I filed the resulting hole so it was flat with respect to the back of the plate. (no pic)

Next, I fitted new 4 inch, 4 ohm 20W RMS Kenwood speakers to the frames.

This allowed the OE speaker grille to be used and it looks completely OE.

Total cost? About 2 hours faffing and $50.

Couldn't see much point getting higher powered, more expensive speakers in my case, since 20W RMS was more than the OE Volvo radio was capable of.

Best is Focal splits , tweets on pillar in pods and mids in doors. Same up back with mids in shelf pods in pillars and a small sub in centre fold down bit. Amp for front and rears and one for sub.

I'll add my voice to the dremel option. I also took the grille off and pressed it into a more concave shape to give more room for the tweeters, then superglued them back on. Worked a treat.

I highly recommend Polk. I paired them with these 4 inch mid-bass drivers by Dayton Audio, which I mounted in the c-pillars beneath the stock grilles (this required a lot of modification and careful positioning...). They produce about as much bass as you'll ever get from a 4 inch speaker, which is not a whole lot.

There are cheaper aftermarket brackets on ebay and Skandix have them too (out of stock at the moment). They look exactly like those that came in the 1990-93 models. Very expensive though.

Not to stray too far off topic, but what are people using for headunits, to keep a close to OEM, or at least period correct look, but still have AUX, USB and possibly even bluetooth? Plus better sound quality.

I've seen this https://www.auslandervlv.com/accessory-shop/radiokit though it's not cheap.

GreenGL

Not to stray too far off topic, but what are people using for headunits, to keep a close to OEM, or at least period correct look, but still have AUX, USB and possibly even bluetooth? Plus better sound quality.

I've seen this https://www.auslandervlv.com/accessory-shop/radiokit though it's not cheap.

Drill a hole in the glovebox, and out one in there

I have an Auslander unit coming so I’ll report my experience when it arrives ?

I have had the original unit rebuilt and Bluetooth installed by Craig from SA. Check the national club magazine for info.

Also regarding the speakers, if you try to be sneaky fit the late model 5 1/4 speakers and mounts to an early model be careful regarding the window winders as they may hit each other. Electric windows fixed that problem.

GreenGL

Not to stray too far off topic, but what are people using for headunits, to keep a close to OEM, or at least period correct look, but still have AUX, USB and possibly even bluetooth? Plus better sound quality.

I've seen this https://www.auslandervlv.com/accessory-shop/radiokit though it's not cheap.

I wanted something more simple as I have put the newer Sony or JVC units in a couple cars and I hate the fact that they don't retain settings when I disconnect the battery and too hard to even turn on and off while driving (tiny button somewhere?) So I ordered one of these recently. Haven't decided whether I put it in the yellow 79 245 project (depends on whether the original old-style Volvo radio works) or put it in the ES for a simpler alternative to what I have in there now. The nice thing is since it doesn't have a CD player, it's only about half depth so plenty of room for wiring etc.

Pretty basic, but may suit some people. $145 is pretty reasonable.

BarelyRunning

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179213#Comment_179213

Drill a hole in the glovebox, and out one in there

I prefer not to take that path myself, I actually put things in my gloveboxes. Still, a good solution for those who want modern functions, yet keep the OEM radio for the factory look.

ljk346

I have an Auslander unit coming so I’ll report my experience when it arrives ?

I'll be keen to hear if they are worth the coin

dmc

I have had the original unit rebuilt and Bluetooth installed by Craig from SA. Check the national club magazine for info.

Also regarding the speakers, if you try to be sneaky fit the late model 5 1/4 speakers and mounts to an early model be careful regarding the window winders as they may hit each other. Electric windows fixed that problem.

Can't say I'm aware of a national Volvo club? Did the wattage of the factory radio get upgraded in the rebuild too?

carnut222

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179213#Comment_179213

I wanted something more simple as I have put the newer Sony or JVC units in a couple cars and I hate the fact that they don't retain settings when I disconnect the battery and too hard to even turn on and off while driving (tiny button somewhere?) So I ordered one of these recently. Haven't decided whether I put it in the yellow 79 245 project (depends on whether the original old-style Volvo radio works) or put it in the ES for a simpler alternative to what I have in there now. The nice thing is since it doesn't have a CD player, it's only about half depth so plenty of room for wiring etc.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VDO-12v-RADIO-USB-AUX-4x20-watts-RMS-TR711U-BU-auto-machinary-truck-PN-101-270/322431251274

Pretty basic, but may suit some people. $145 is pretty reasonable.

Looks like a good solution, just needs adjustable backlighting to match the 240's instrument lighting.

If the VDO radio is as good as their gauges, thats nice value there.

GreenGL

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179214#Comment_179214

I prefer not to take that path myself, I actually put things in my gloveboxes. Still, a good solution for those who want modern functions, yet keep the OEM radio for the factory look.

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179215#Comment_179215

I'll be keen to hear if they are worth the coin

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179218#Comment_179218

Can't say I'm aware of a national Volvo club? Did the wattage of the factory radio get upgraded in the rebuild too?

https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/179220#Comment_179220

Looks like a good solution, just needs adjustable backlighting to match the 240's instrument lighting.

If the VDO radio is as good as their gauges, thats nice value there.

It's blue so it should match the Volvo gauges OK...earlier cars were sorta blue...later ones white I guess?

@GreenGL writes:

Can't say I'm aware of a national Volvo club? Did the wattage of the factory radio get upgraded in the rebuild too?

The quarterly magazine, "Rolling", is sent to members of all the official Volvo clubs in Australia. In fact, the multi-talented @carnut222 is the editor of this excellent publication.

Craig (from the SA Volvo club) does conversions of Volvo OE tape decks to MP3 / USB input for an extremely reasonable price. You can buy a unit for him and he also will modify your existing unit. He may be contacted at csrasmussen [at] bigpond.com with that and other questions about increasing the audio output power.

FWIW, I plan on replacing the OE tape deck in my 242GT with one of Craig's modified units.

Major Ledfoot

@OhNoesAVolvo writes:

Can't say I'm aware of a national Volvo club? Did the wattage of the factory radio get upgraded in the rebuild too?

The quarterly magazine, "Rolling", is sent to members of all the official Volvo clubs in Australia. In fact, the multi-talented @carnut222 is the editor of this excellent publication.

Craig (from the SA Volvo club) does conversions of Volvo OE tape decks to MP3 / USB input for an extremely reasonable price. You can buy a unit for him and he also will modify your existing unit. He may be contacted at csrasmussen [at] bigpond.com with that and other questions about increasing the audio output power.

FWIW, I plan on replacing the OE tape deck in my 242GT with one of Craig's modified units.

Thanks for the kudos! :) Mag goes out 6x per year - I wish sometimes it were only quarterly...although I'm not doing the layout any more as I have one of our younger club members Jeremy Kenneally who does that now...more of a creative eye than I have! :)