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    #16
    Originally posted by His Royal Ghostliness View Post
    Knucklehead, it's really no extra work tho - if he doesn't have speakers in the doors, and he wants them, he'll be running wires regardless of what he does with the head unit. If he had premium sound with door speakers in already then yeah you can say he's going a bit overkill, but he's speakerless right now, so wires will need run regardless. Also with a full BT input amp he won't have to mess with wring the inputs from the head unit to the amp, so that's actually LESS wiring there.

    Adam, you still didn't answer if I understood your plan correct or not?
    Totally missed that somehow.

    Save money and retain the OEM look; really though now since I don't have door speakers I am not sure which way to go. 4 channels is plenty and that makes putting a head in the cost effective solution.

    My doors have the pockets so I don't want to put speakers there, the front dash location is good enough and the rear deck is fine. However I have seen reference of speaker locations in the rear side panels; are there mounts there for 6x9? If so I might be inclined to run a 6 channel BT amp and use the rear deck opens to port in a coupe of woofers to balance out the stage. To be honest this not going to be a comp build and anything is better than the portable BT speaker currently rolling around on my rear floorboard. Also Rockville does not have a 6 channel, that was the Lanzar I was looking at which is reported to be under powered and overheats. So I might just step back now and do an $80 pioneer head and run fresh leads to the dash and rear deck, going to have to think on it more. I have time before I get into this project.




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      #17
      THe stock door speakers were simply wired in parallel with the dash speakers, so its still a 4 channel setup.

      No speakers in the rear sail panels, there was never a mount spot back there. Not much depth in there either, I seriously doubt you'd have room for a 6x9 in there.

      Doors could be had with pockets and speakers. The speaker mostly talked to the maps though.
      86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
      5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

      91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

      1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

      Originally posted by phayzer5
      I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

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        #18
        Interesting they had amp options but just paralleled the front speakers. I was mostly considering this from an aftermarket standpoint and would have ran 6 individual channels plus the woofers. Looks like a good head unit and 4 speakers is the better option for this car, I really wanted to maintain the OEM look of the dash but I think I would be spending more money then I need on a BT amp for just 4 speakers.


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          #19
          I don't really think there was ever a 6-channel amp option, pretty sure I've seen all box factory options at one point or another and not a single one of them has had speakers in places other than dash and front doors (wired in parallel) and rear deck (them would be the 6x9s).

          With good speakers, I don't think an amp is needed, the head unit if powerful enough will drive 6 speakers just fine. If you wanna liquefy your brains then yeah, an amp would be in order.

          So it kinda depends on which way you wanna go - personally I'd just add a good head unit and speakers and skip the amp and the rewiring for the time being, then add them at a later date if I feel I actually need them.
          The ones who accomplish true greatness, are the foolish who keep pressing onward.
          The ones who accomplish nothing, are the wise who know when to quit.

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            #20
            There wasn't really a point in adding more channels honestly. Its still 2 channel program material, split into 4 just for control reasons. It would be a lot more difficult to do level control for 6 channels vs 4. The pots are more involved for one, but 4 channel gives a simple front/rear fade control, along with a left/right balance control. trying to do more than that you end up with level controls per channel and thats just beyond what most people are interested in dealing with. Consider that most people just want the radio to play and they want to be able to operate the thing without much fuss or bother. One volume knob and some basic tweaking controls that can be set and forgotten is perfect.

            The front channels also typically were set to have lower output power vs the rear just because of proximity reasons. I actually graphed out the response of the JBL amp once and it was dramatically different. They had different EQ curves too based on the speaker size. I've never done the two different premium sound amps, but I would be surprised if they also didn't have different output levels per channel, and possibly some EQ stuff going on too.
            86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
            5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

            91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

            1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

            Originally posted by phayzer5
            I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

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              #21
              Makes sense, hadn't thought of it in that light; these cars were marketed to a crowd who wanted comfort more than anything. Thanks for the input everyone, that's why I post these ideas before I buy anything; what sounds good in my head my have issues I haven't considered.


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                #22
                If you're planning to run door speakers (and new wires all around anyhow), don't even worry about the stock setup and just get 6.5" speakers for the doors, 6x9 for the rear (that can be bottom mounted if you plan to re-use the rubberband or bolt them in as the bottom mount won't disrupt the rear deck carpet. You can bypass the fully populated 8-wire plug altogether and use the power plug with an adapter set as long as the head unit requires the same fuse as the stock system (I think it is 10 or 15 amps on that line). I love my old Kenwood eXcelon deck, but they're not available any more and the new ones don't have the really friendly list of crossover frequencies for running subs. At this point, the question is do you want to run subs or not and what do you really want out of it. For these cars, most 25Wx4 head units will more than blow away the stock system (even the premium sound system - the JBL system was pretty good though (top audio option). The question is what level of clarity do you want from the system for the old rattle traps that these cars are. The speakers will be your biggest choice. For the low budget (not complete cheap out) Pioneer makes good mids (what I'm running in my cars) and ok highs and lows. Kenwood speakers made really good lows and mids and ok highs (same price range too ~$60 a pair). Infinity typically have really good highs and mids with ok lows (great fodder for adding subs). It really depends on what level of sound and what type of tunes you jam to. For me, I do lots of rock, dubstep, ultra-low bass techno, and some metal... so loud is how I like it and I'm find with 0.5% THD and I think my current setup in the 93 is running THD at about 0.1% including the subs. So I like it.

                Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                Originally posted by gadget73
                ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                Originally posted by dmccaig
                Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

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                  #23
                  Audio upgrade without touching the factory head and wiring.

                  For this car nothing ground shaking; I am in the middle of swapping out the stock speakers in our Suburban and went a really different route than I had in the past. The Bronco is full Fosgate but to save some money on the Burban I went with powerbass 3ways mid and rear with, of all things, Pyramid pro woofers up front. Swore I would never use pyramids but they got decent reviews and honestly for what they are running off the JVC head, they do really well. The mid doors are still left to do but just replacing the fronts and rears really improved the system and gave me just enough bump to vibrate the tow mirrors. I am leaning towards doing just a full set of PB 3ways front and rear in this car and not do the doors since they don't have anything now. I had considered at least some woofers but the 4 speakers are probably enough.


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                  Last edited by adam.w.ackerman; 12-23-2016, 08:59 PM.
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                    #24
                    Factory JBL stuff (when actually working and with speakers that haven't disintegrated) actually sounds pretty damn decent for 30 year old car audio. Beats the hell out of an ugly aftermarket headunit any day.
                    2020 F250 - 7.3 4x4 CCSB STX 3.55's - BAKFlip MX4
                    2005 Grand Marquis GS - Marauder sway bars, Marauder exhaust, KYB's
                    2003 Marauder - Trilogy # 8, JLT, kooks, 2.5" exhaust, 4.10's/31 spline, widened rear's, metco's, addco's, ridetech's 415hp/381tq
                    1987 Colony Park - 03+ frame swap, blown Gen II Coyote, 6R80, ridetechs, stainless works, absolute money pit. WIP

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                      #25
                      In your spot, I would replace the stock speakers with some decent ones and plop in a head unit that I liked with a factory adapter harness and just run it. Just note that there are no 5 inch speakers out there that will fit the dash spots. I had better luck fitting 6.5's in the doors and just running the dash wires into the doors on my 88.
                      Attached Files

                      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                      rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                      Originally posted by gadget73
                      ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                      Originally posted by dmccaig
                      Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

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                        #26
                        Everything I see list the dash as 3.5inch...


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                          #27
                          Yup, that's what they are, baby speakers. IIRC not enough depth available to drop some nice fat magnet ones tho.
                          The ones who accomplish true greatness, are the foolish who keep pressing onward.
                          The ones who accomplish nothing, are the wise who know when to quit.

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                            #28
                            I think the factory were actually 4", but shallow with small magnets. Funny mounting too, and I do not believe the mounting adapters are commonly made anymore. Conventional speakers are round with 3 or 4 holes, the stock had 3 "ears" that were not equidistant so you basically have to pull one out and trace it to make yourself an adapter plate. Its not much, the ones you used to get were just a flat piece of sheet metal cut into the right shape with a hole to drop the new speaker into.
                            86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                            5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                            91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                            1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                            Originally posted by phayzer5
                            I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

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                              #29
                              Audio upgrade without touching the factory head and wiring.

                              So what have you guys been putting in the dash?


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                                #30
                                My '87 CV had 6 1/2" speakers in the dash that some previous owner put in. This was about 16 or 17 years ago, but if I remember right they were above the dash pad with long ass screws that went way down to the metal plate below the dash pad. Round speaker grilles were attached to those speakers. Even better is that my '87 had stock non-premium sound head unit, so I'm not sure why someone stuffed those speakers in there.
                                Even with a terrible falling apart dash pad, I just couldn't do the same to any of my other cars.

                                '90+ had the redesigned dash which did not have dash speakers. After going from my '89 to a '91 I kind of missed those dash speakers; it was like there was something missing from the sound in the '91. Although after 4 years I'm used to it now.

                                I also recall those '89 and down dash speakers being listed as 4" somewhere. I can't confirm if they are 4", but they are shallow to fit the limited space where they mount.
                                Vic

                                ~ 1989 MGM LS Colony Park - Large Marge
                                ~ 1998 MGM LS - new DD
                                ~ 1991 MGM LS "The Scab"
                                ~ 1991 MGM GS "The Ice Car"

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