Convertible Speakers

A common conversion. Of course, many people are doing the opposite, repairing such holes. I have put 6x9 in there, but the 4"" fits very well. Paint the grilles to match the upholstery.

I think I have 5.25 inch round speakers installed back there (I'd measure but the car is in the shop).

I didn't put them under the ashtray but further back, below the mounting for the top carriage.

I think the round speakers look better than 6X9s would, but to be honest, I have never seen a set up that I thought looked great for rear speakers in a convertible. For a while I just had speaker enclosures that I sat in the back seat, it didn't look great but it did have the advantage of being non-invasive and the acoustics were quite nice.

If I were starting from scratch, I'd just put a very good dual voice set-up under the dash and be done with it, but younger me needed his tunes good and loud and from multiple directions.

I used Alpine 6x9s because that's what I had left from the package tray in my totaled '68 coupe. I first tried mounting them in a fast and nasty homemade trunk divider. With the top up and no well-liner this worked well enough. With the top down ... well you can imagine. Really more of an experiment. I then got the boxes from a car stereo shop. Put out plenty of sound.

I didn't have more than one passenger very often, but if I had, I bet that their size would have been a pain. I'd consider going smaller if I were doing it from scratch.

One other plus of the box method is that you get to point the speakers at the front seat. I think that gives you greater perceived volume at lower power (and lower overall volume, which is a plus for the neighbors).

One downside, the reason I moved to speakers mounted in the rear interior quarters it that I had to park outside at my Mom's place and someone stole the speakers and boxes, scalping the top to get to them. This is another reason you might want to go with smaller speakers/boxes since they would be easier to stow in the trunk should you have to park in a sub-optimal location.

I have no idea about contemporary options as far as design and brand.

I've got 6 1/2 in the kick panels and 5 1/4 in the rear panels. I don't know the depth. JL Audio brand if that helps. They fit well, sound good with an amp.