What size are the outdoor speakers on Rockwood Ultra Lites?

[markb422]

Totaly agree Mr Havercamp. We mostly camp in State Parks. On the last TT we had outdoor speakers mounted through the wall. Depending on how far the fire pit was we had to turn the music up in order hear the music or the ball game. Late evenings we did worry about the volume.
On our new MH, the outdoor entertainment system was optional and I opted to not have it. It is prewired for one and I could add my own system later if I wish. I did buy a small portable boom box with bluetooth, sd card, usb, aux input, am/fm, rechargeable lith. batt.. Now we can carry the music/radio to the fire pit. Sounds good even at low volume.

[Archicamper]

Sometimes a nice Bluetooth speaker can be a better solution that trying to upgrade the exterior speakers depending on the audio source.

[Nurek]

I'm a total sound geek. I've had awesome sound systems in all my vehicles.

After I replaced the crappy speakers in my 2306 I was happy with the improvement.
I was planning on adding a sub to the system before I ever took my unit out camping.

After I got to my first site, beside a lake, I quickly realized how much a sub (in coach) would disrupt the peace. Bass frequencies have a longer wavelength and the farther away you get from the source, the more noticeable it is. I didn't want to be "that guy". So I just decided to forget about adding a sub.

Sometimes I forget that I have the outdoor speakers on when sitting inside listening to music or watching a show and pop up out of my comfort spot to go turn off #3. Funny thing is that the level on the outdoor speakers is much less than the indoor and I'm not really disturbing anyone.

Just my 2 cents.

[RangeMaggotBob]

Originally Posted by Mr Havercamp

Rockwood uses the exterior speakers in these pictures. The base / flange of the housing is 5 -1/2", the speaker inside is more like a 3". Its a stretch to call them 5 - 1/2" speakers, its an even bigger stretch to call them speakers at all.

Sooooo- the speaker on the bottom- 5 1/2 " I believe- I can use those with some sort of ring extender? And those will replace the two in the pic above, correct? I'm like you- gotta be Polks, JBLs, or maybe Infinity's. I'm hoping to just be able to take the old ones down and install the new ones- no hassles, no cutting, etc. etc. And can I use the same setup inside? Thank you Mr. Havercamp.

[RangeMaggotBob]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

I have a different situation but did mount the Polk db651's to the ceiling in my coach using 1/2 inch trim rings double up to be 1" thick and this let me mount the db651's without haveing to cut where the 3" speakers were before and gave me a little more air behing them for better bass. Just a thought that either one or two rings on your mount might let you mount the 6.5 as well which is definitely worthwhile. Like others have said...you'll find a real improvement of sound quality but if you want to crank some bass in the open air...I'd suggest a POWERED subwoofer. They have some slim models as well as a wide range of Bazooka type models if you have a larger space. they are easily disconnected when not needed. EXAMPLES:

How come I'm seeing connecting hardware on the bottom of that Infinity? I've got the same question for you that I had for Mr. Havercamp- can I simply remove the stock speakers and replace with these Infinity's? Inside or out? Thank you! (Seems like a lot of us had the same idea this XMAS- try to get some decent sounds in our RV!)

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by tdst51

How come I'm seeing connecting hardware on the bottom of that Infinity? I've got the same question for you that I had for Mr. Havercamp- can I simply remove the stock speakers and replace with these Infinity's? Inside or out? Thank you! (Seems like a lot of us had the same idea this XMAS- try to get some decent sounds in our RV!)

On the outside you can cut in any size speaker you want with some careful planning. The issue as you are aware is the depth. Some have a wood baffle built in an overhead cabinet inside just deep enough to hide the magnet, some are located in a dead space such as behind the fridge. Go to a dealers lot and look at older units or another brand of RV that has full sized exterior speakers. Find a Keystone Passport or Bullet and you can see the baffle they use in their cabinets.

[camaraderie]

Originally Posted by tdst51

How come I'm seeing connecting hardware on the bottom of that Infinity? I've got the same question for you that I had for Mr. Havercamp- can I simply remove the stock speakers and replace with these Infinity's? Inside or out? Thank you! (Seems like a lot of us had the same idea this XMAS- try to get some decent sounds in our RV!)

Those are POWERED subwoofers for deep bass impact. They require their own 12V power since they each contain an amplifier. They are NOT required for better sound than you have now and they do require some planning and insallation skills.
The first step in better sound is a quality 6.5" speaker like the Polk db651 which you can fit on your RV with either:
1. cutting a larger hole to accomodate the increased size OR
2. using trim rings to stand off the speaker up to 1" so that only its' magnet has to fit in the existing hole and thus avoid cutting. I did this on the ceiling of my coach and documented it HERE:
http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...nd-111346.html
and there are links to the installed photos. If you think of my ceiling as your wall...you've got the gist of it.

Good luck!

[RangeMaggotBob]

Thank you so much. Thank you everybody.

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

2. using trim rings to stand off the speaker up to 1" so that only its' magnet has to fit in the existing hole and thus avoid cutting.

The reason I would not go with trim rings @ the exterior is now you have 4 caulk joints to worry about as opposed to 2. The trim to the wall and the speaker to the trim......X2.

Cutting the opening larger is not all that hard, other manufacturers install speakers like that without any trim rings or pods like Rockwood uses.. Like I have previously said they always locate those speakers where the back is in a dead area or cabinet because they have to. They need to get the wiring to it. On our Keystone the front speaker's magnet extended into the upper cabinet about 3/4". They took two pieces of 1" X 3/4" pine and attached that to a piece of the interior paneling the height of the inside of the cabinet and about 10" wide, then screwed that into the sidewall over the magnet. The rear speaker projected into the air space above and behind the fridge. Just put a metal blade with fine teeth into a jig saw and it cuts through the sidewall like butter. You could actually cut it just with a razor knife.

[markb422]

On our last tt we had 5-1/4" speakers that where mounted through the wall and into the end section of the overhead cabinets. The end sections where partioned off with 1/4" luan plywood and when the speakers where on even at a moderate volume the cabinets vibrated. I killed most of the vibration and some but not all of the sound inside by removing the partions and stuffing the dead space behind the speakers with fiber fill. The fiber fill is the same as I use as dampening material for building a set of hifi speakers which is a hobby of mine. The dampening also helps to improve the bass response of the speakers. If you have limited space behind the speakers you can use dynamat.