Car Stereos: aftermarket speaker substitute, infinity speakers, infinity speaker

Question
Hi Brian, I am replacing a blown single cone woofer from an Infinity speaker (with an amplifier attached to it) that was in my Jeep Liberty door.  I can't seem to find a 2 ohm 1 way speaker anywhere like the blown one.  Can I put an Infinity 2 Ohm TWO WAY speaker in it's place without any problem?  Any idea what effect the unwanted center tweeter will have on the sound?  
Jim

Answer
Jim,

There's no reason you can't replace the factory Infinity speaker with an after-market replacement, but it's hard to predict what effect it will have on the sound.  After-market Infinity speakers don't have much in common with OEM factory Infinity speakers.  It's likely that the sensitivity characteristics of the new speaker will be different than the old one; you might find that the replacement speakers sound noticeably louder or softer than the OEM speakers.

The presence of a tweeter (on the 2-way speaker) isn't likely to have much effect.  The factory amplifier includes a crossover network, so the high frequencies will probably be filtered out before the audio signal reaches the speaker.  In that case, you won't hear much from the tweeter at all.  (You'll definitely want to keep the amplifier in the system unless you're replacing the factory radio with an after-market upgrade as well.  The amplifier is the power source for the dash tweeter and rear door speaker on that side of the vehicle also, not just the front door speaker).  

The only prediction I can make is that you aren't likely to damage anything by installing the after-market speakers, so there's no reason not to go ahead with it.  You'll definitely want to replace both front door speakers, though; not just the blown one.  If you stick with one OEM speaker and one after-market replacement, you're likely to end up with a pretty unbalanced sound.

I hope this helps.

Brian