hey Rcurley. i did not know anything about this how deep thread untill i just read it.
for the record i have been installing for 15 years. and like a 5th gen prelude the outside flange of the speaker looks to me to be the issue. i think what you were trying to point out is simply that if you hacked up the door enough you would be able to get a speaker that size to fit. but in doing so you would not be able to return it to stock. also from the looks of the speaker you would have a mounting flange that is larger in diameter than the stock grille would cover. the grille would not fit over the speaker mounting flange.
i had a similar argument with a local shop i went to with a friend of mine that had a 2000 prelude. they said the exact same thing about some boston 6.5 pro speakers. not only are the magnets too deep to fit the door but the prelude has a similar issue in that the speaker actually mounts to the door panel and not behind it or in a separate rain guard housing. because of this ONLY a speaker with the outside mounting flage that is the same size as the OEM speaker will fit. reguardless of the magnet diameter or depth. the speaker sits in a recessed hole in the door panel. the recessed hole is the same 6.5 " diameter of the outside diameter of the mounting flange of the speaker. the door panel actually is the speaker mount and also holds the grille. the outside diameter of the speaker mounting flange is 6.5 inches where as a boston pro is 7" in diameter. to get this speaker into the door of a prelude would require cutting all of the inside of the door panel out making it impossible to reinstall the factory speakers. this was a leased vechicle and he did not want to cut up the door.
FWIW buckman is wrong and right. yes you can get a larger speaker in the door but withought distroying a door panel in the process.
i have been doing installs for 15 years and if i had a doller for every kid i worked with that has been doing it for any number of 10 years or less they all think they are experts. you and i have talked about this before. you cant tell them they are wrong. just like any teenager they "KNOW" they are right, the best thing you can do is just leave them alone. sooner or later their cocky attitude will bite them in the ass in some shape or form.
anyway in continuing with the story and as an example i ran into this installer that was trying to tell me he had installed the bostons in a 5th gen prelude. we were at a local place where guys in town gather on saturdays for a car show.
this guy and i were talking and i had not remembered he was the same installer initially.
after sdome talking about systems and i showed him mine, he said to me that the guy with the prelude i was with that day came back in the next day and they installed thoes boston pros in the doors of his prelude.
well what the guy didnt realise that the guy i was with happend to be my best friend. the truth of the story is that after the shop with the bostons we went to another shop and bought some kenwood dual mags and they dropped right in and sounded perfect.
i did my friends whole system from front to back and also bought all his equipment through hook up's i had. so i know exactly was was installed and who did it. I DID!!
the point im making is some people will go to no limit to prove they are right even if it means tell you a bold faced lie.