Speaker suggetions

[Piece-it pete]

Someone might groan as I mention it for the millionth time but I've had very good luck with NOS Clif Designs speakers. Because they're NOS they're a level up for the money, my experience anyway. I'm currently running them in my 03 and had them in my old 85 TC.

I see a pair of QX6550 6-1/2s on amazon for $50 delivered, and if you watch you'll find a pair of QX6950 6x9s for less than a hundred, they pop up often. I think I know an ebay seller with them. You could get a 5-1/4 component system and get the tweeters on the dash.

I've had a number of Infinity 'Kappa' series speakers over the years and I like them. Hard to see how you could go wrong with them. I tried a pair of Kenwood 6x8s in the back of my 03 a couple years ago, and was disappointed, but don't remember the model. They wouldn't have been the cheapest though.

Gadget you ain't kidding, I tend to lean towards minimalist in the signal path (as my equipment allows, I don't seek it out) but cars are such a mess I think eqs have a place. Maybe even one front and one rear. I remember when Bose came out with factory systems for..... Camaros? in the 80s their pitch was, each speaker was eq'd specifically for the car and speaker location. It makes a great deal of sense, but then too which position is it eq'd for, driver, passenger, somewhere in between? I say, screw the passenger

Pete

[turbo2256b]

Never had one in a car but have found adjustable 2 or better yet 3 way crossovers are about as important as equlizers.

[IPreferDIY]

... I still gotta do something about the rear deck. Are there any speakers that I can drop in from the top or do they all have to go in from the bottom?

AFAIK, 6x9's are made to go either way. They would generally be ready to be dropped in from the top. Some might have a separate plastic oval to put between the speaker and the deck when bottom mounting, but I doubt that top mounting would ever require special consideration. As for any idiosyncrasies in your car's deck, I can't speak to that.

If you want to get fancy like me, you could cut a piece of high quality carpet underpadding to act as a gasket between the speaker and the deck, though I couldn't tell you if it actually makes a difference.

[turbo2256b]

Using the factory mount set up I carefully cut the louver holes out of the fiber board to improve the sound. Wetting the fiber board can help a bit dont over do it though. stepping it up a level later cut a piece of luan 1/8 or 1/4 thik to fit between the fiber board cover and the metal deck under neath bolted it to the metal frame to make the deck more ridged.

[Mr Bean]

I am planning on using a 92+ rear shelf cover with speaker grilles so that's not an issue.

[IPreferDIY]

I think even the most ardent skeptic would have to agree that putting carpeted fiberboard over a speaker is a bad idea from a sound perspective. I was compelled to take a photo of my solution to help those who want something better. I would argue that my setup would even be an improvement over at least some stock grills from a sound perspective.

[miamibob]

There is a fabric that can be placed over the speaker that will not negatively affect the sound. It is the same stuff used on audio home speakers so you simply need to get a matching color (that's the hard part!).

[IPreferDIY]

Technically, one could do what I did without using the fabric if they didn't mind having the speakers exposed and didn't care about stuff getting into the speakers. For me, the fabric was simply for keeping dust and anything else out of the speakers. I should note that my grills were quite fragile. On at least one occasion, I had to fix some damage that a nephew had caused. If you keep the wood, fixing them is only a minor inconvenience.

[gadget73]

I'm somewhat partial to real speaker grilles vs the cloth. The cloth tends to sag after a while and it looks silly if you don't have some sort of wood bracing under it. Lincolns at least had the sense to use grilles, the cardboard and carpet that the Vics got was crap. Its better than the painted cardboard with holes in it though. That was terrible looking and sounding. Later style rear deck carpet with metal mesh grilles would probably be my fix, or just cut the original rear deck and use the grilles that typically come with the speakers. If its the plastic slatted grilles, those can EAD. The plastic gets brittle and falls apart. Some had cloth over plastic slats, and the plastic warped away from the cloth, making it look silly. The Mark VII has that setup.

[IPreferDIY]

Never had one in a car but have found adjustable 2 or better yet 3 way crossovers are about as important as equlizers.

Adjustable crossovers are a lot of fun. With regular speakers, you can dial them up and down to remove and add low frequencies and hear the effect. With subwoofers, you can do the same to add and remove higher frequencies. For those interested in gaining audio experience, I would highly recommend finding an audio shop with adjustable crossovers set up and playing around with them.

[IPreferDIY]

... Cars are quite frankly horrible for accurate sound reproduction anyway. The "enclosure" is not sealed in any meaningful way, and it is made of resonant materials. Best case, you're going to end up needing a fair bit of equalization to make it sound reasonably flat. I did some testing on the Mark VII JBL amplifier, and found that it's output is waaaaay far from flat. Its got peaks and dips across the range. I suspect this is purposely done to tailor the sound to the car, the speakers, and the head unit itself so that it comes out sounding right. It does sound quite good when its all together and working correctly too. ...

... I kind of wonder if there are people out there that can actually tailor the system so that it accurately reproduces sound given all the various shortcomings. I know with some home audio stuff, people use microphones and software to work out an analysis of what the system is really doing so they can adjust it to come out right. No clue if anyone does that for auto setups or not.

I could probably go on all day about various stuff, but I'll try to be brief. It's entirely possible that the JBL system was specifically designed for the car, and that's the ideal way to go, but presumably not very economical for the car companies. I've had some good luck with my system, but that's probably because my hearing has become more dominant than most people's due to having lifelong eye alignment issues. I can practically get a visual sense of how the sound will travel. When speaking, I'm aware of the environment I'm speaking into and modify my voice accordingly. This is probably the sort of thing people do without thinking about it, but I happen to be aware of it. I should probably note that judicious sound absorption is probably at least as important as EQ. The EQ settings in my car are actually not that severe. I use 1/3 octave EQ's and tune them by ear. Many of the settings stay flat, and probably all of the rest stay within a few dB of flat. The biggest problem I have is a nasty resonance around 3kHz. Car audio pros actually use 1/3 octave analyzers that give a graphical representation of the frequency response when playing pink noise (which is pretty much playing all frequencies at the same time), and this lets you make adjustments based on what you see. Some people get into time correction stuff, but I can't be bothered with that. The enclosed space in a car can actually be a plus for low frequency performance. When I have things set up just right, the drum parts at the start of "Limelight" by Rush actually produce a great resonant response in the frame. For me, that's the big payoff from all the messing around.

[marquis_82_withneons]

with 150 being you limit, you can get some damn nice ones. however if you want any of that performance to shine you wanna go to an aftermarket headunit. doesnt have to be fancy, but you want that to get the ost efficiency out of your speakers. best bang for buck i think is Infinity Kappa Series. tremendous highs and good mids/lows. id recommend them to any one of my friends. ive done about 10 custom full system installs and for the average consumer i was most impressed by infinity. and youre only looking in the $75-100 range. if you do decide on headunit, id say sony or kenwood for good somewhat inexpensive parts. i like pioneer but their newer user interface is a bit weird.

if you need any help or pointers let me know. im pretty experienced with products and tuning, with a dream to open my own shop someday.

[turbo2256b]

Adjustable crossovers are a lot of fun. With regular speakers, you can dial them up and down to remove and add low frequencies and hear the effect. With subwoofers, you can do the same to add and remove higher frequencies. For those interested in gaining audio experience, I would highly recommend finding an audio shop with adjustable crossovers set up and playing around with them.

I have also found that certian conditions like weather conditions in the home cause need to adjust crossoves for best sound.

[IPreferDIY]

I have also found that certian conditions like weather conditions in the home cause need to adjust crossoves for best sound.

I get that sort of thing in my car, though I don't bother adjusting stuff. Some days it sounds awesome, some days not so much. I also get such variation in the way my car runs too. Some days, things seem smooth as silk, other days, things seem like I need to get something checked out. I would presume there is a subjective element to this sort of thing too, depending on mood etc.

[IPreferDIY]

One point I intended to make but haven't made yet is that for some people, their car is the only place where they can crank up their music without getting complaints from neighbours etc. That was the big reason for my transition from home audio to car audio.