Aftermarket stereo & speakers in C3

[78SilvAnniv]

I wanted to bring up this topic because there seems to be a lot of interest in making our sharks sound better. I am interested in learning what everyone has done to this effect.

Myself, I've installed an Alpine removeable face stereo, tape deck. I like to keep my CDs in the house and make tapes, but I may consider a remote CD changer later on. I also have hi quality Alpine speakers installed in the dash with "truck box" speakers in the back.

I have a 60w Alpine amp I want to install to push the dash speakers and I'd like to get a 200w amp and replace my rear box speakers with a custom box w/ sub and 8" speakers.

Currently, I have two 1"x4" boards laying across the wheel humps and the speaker boxes are on top of those.
I would like to have a one-piece box made that fits across that area, with the speakers angled more towards the seat backs and also have straps to secure it to the two metal loops on the wheel humps.
Anyone have any picture of this type of set-up?
Show us what solution you have come up with.
Heidi

This pic shows my rear deck area with the speakers and how I keep a bath mat over the carpet for protection, carry a blanket, sunshade and an umbrella. The three plastic boxes are for my 'glovebox items' since my glovebox is currently out, one is for my tapes and the other carries first aid supplies.

 

[resto75]

Is that a plant I see back there ? I didn't know they where part of a stereo setup. What sounds do they make. Are there two plants for stereo or is that just the center plant in a surround sound system ?

 

[Flared69]

damn thats neat.

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Why yes, it is a plant.

Is that a plant I see back there ?

It is actually silk flowers. The cardboard box keeps the speakers firmly wedged and the silk flowers were used along the front of the ttops in a parade I was in...I've just kept them in that box since then.
It's supposed to keep the husband from wanting to drive my vette...but it doesn't work very well, I've noticed!
H

Does anyone have a picture of how the original speakers were placed in these vettes? I have in the back corners carpet that sort of peels down with speaker wires behind them...but I haven't seen where speakers would go. Were 6"x9" speakers the standard?

 

[matchframe]

That's pretty cool how you have it now! It bet it will sound better when you have it angled forward.

When I was driving my Vette, I just had two speakers in wood boxes back in the corners. They were held in place with Velcro, but still slid around when spirited driving took over. Before I was married, I had a Tabby/Persian cat named DOC, that loved riding in the Vette. He would sit on the speakers so he could see out. I still remember seeing the silhouette of his ears in the mirror when I drove at night. One time I was going into an S turn, and I saw his silhouette slide from one wheel well to the other. I almost had to pull off the road because I was laughing so hard!

Bill

 

[irf]

I also have a 78 SA and the previous owner put in a great JVC CD/MP3 player. He also modified the rear deck with speakers. The sound is great and the CD player plays MP3 CDs which is great. Attached is a picture of the JVC CD/MP3 player.

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Mine looks similar to that, irf

It isn't the two-knob type, but a removeable face, with the original plate cut up. (was cut up by a PO, and I just cut it some more) It also has the capability to connect a remote CD player...and I am thinking about doing it if it will play MP3, because I like a wide range of music, not listening to the same artists in a row.

I laughed about DOC! =^..^=
My kitty Monze has had to visit the vet every week since early June. He WILL NOT go into a cat carrier, so I transport him on a harness and leash. He is very tall and about 13 pounds and the other pet owners in the waiting room get a kick out of him walking right in on his leash! I check for big dogs, first.
He likes to roam the back deck on top of the speakers or sit partly on top of the driver's seat and partly on my left shoulder. I have thick seat covers to protect the 78.

As to how I have the speakers now, I would much rather have a better sounding system and a box that is attached to the rings. Right now if I was in an accident those boxes would become projectiles.
Heidi

 

[KANE]

Heidi-

I came up with this- 6x9 boxes that fit in the factory locatons-

Essentially, its a small single speaker truck box that has the bottom most corner removed to allow it to fit next to the wheel well. Sounds incredible. Best yet- it only uses about four inches of the forward space that the original factory speakers used. Even better- you secure it through the factory screw locations!

 

[KANE]

Oh-

And here is the head unit. Its all black so it matches the rest of the interior and dash.

 

[Yoda]

Here is a past thread that has some pretty good idea's about speaker placement. In another thread there is one of our members I believe it is the same one with the custom rear speaker mounts that put his amp control in the ashtray compartment

Rear Speakers in a Shark check out 81C3's rear speaker setup

Bud

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Bud, that was FABULOUS!

I loved what 81C3 did! I think I would be able to do something similar with 6" speakers and I like the sub in a compartment idea. I will definitely mull this over.

I also want to crawl into the back of the 78 and see if I can find the mounting hardware, it might still be there...
Great ideas!
Heidi

 

[1974vette]

well, since we are discussing changing speakers in C-3s i didn't know if anybody wanted to change head units also. if so, Vette Specialties www.vettespecialties.com has a bezel to allow modern stereos to fit in them...attatched is a photo of the bezel with the cd player in it. i have purchased one. when i get it put in my vette, i'll post a pic.

 

[1979toy]

The factory setup allowed you to mount a pair of 6 x 9's in the rear corners. There are tabs welded to the plate in front of the gas tank that fit the adapter bracket, then the grill fits the adapter. I've got everything except the speakers and time to install them, besides with sidepipes I couldn't hear them anyway.

 

[Brack]

Speakers......

Here's a pic of the speaker set up in the 82 I just bought....gonna have to over look the faded carpet...last couple of owners thought it needed to stay outside..

 

[Last Ride]

Hey all. This has been discussed on another post, but I figured I would throw my $.02 worth here. 82C3's setup is similar to the designs I have for my car (money is the factor that has not allowed me to complete the project yet ). I am planning adding two 8" subs where 82C3 has his 6x9's in the rear. With the holes for the factory rear speakers, I think you would have the rear speakers even more recessed for even more cargo room. I think I am going to have the rear box made of fiberglass. I plan on stuffing three amps along the back wall. Two will be for the subs, and a third two-channel amp will be added for the 6.5" components I am putting in the doors. The in-door design requires cutting out the map pockets, and I am cutting out the entire carpeted section of the door panel to add some rigidity to the panel. I am cutting my dash as well. I plan on putting in an Eclipse CD head unit. To top it off, I am going to install an MP3 jukebox like the NEO and add it to the system to act as a giant "CD changer". Custom labor will probably be $500-$750, so this is not for the faint of heart. There are much more economical solutions that will sound just fine! Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[nj7000]

I started by putting in an after-market sony cd player w/ a 10 disc changer, then I replaced the front and rear speakers w 120 watt speakers in the front and 150 watt speakers in the back. Well of course if you're going to put in those new speakers I had to put in an amp, and of course I put in an 8" sub to give it some more depth. Every kind of music sounds better now, it's great!

 

[70 VETTE 454]

Heidi,
if your thinking of subs in place of your 6x9's, you could use pretty much the same setup you have now. all you would have to do is make the 2 boxes into one with your openings for the subs, and a divider plate inside the box (makes a big difference) to separate the air space for each sub, and so they work independently and not as one. oh and make sure you get a air tight seal, by caulking all the edges inside the box with any type of sealant or silicone.

based on my past 10 plus years of doing this, personally not professionally, mainly for friends and myself, I found that the best sound for sub direction placement is facing the rear of the car. since sound decibels travels, especially in low frequencies like subs, there is no real placement that you can go wrong with.
WELL unless you compete professionally. then it dose matter. I did help a friend redo his award winning custom mini, but that's another topic.
actually your subs facing up toward the way the 6x9's are now is a good option, causing the sound to bounce to you, which is ultimately what you want to accomplish with subs. facing them back toward the rear will just bounce the sound forward too, but in a different direction. but yours will work just as good facing like that.
now the ones that you do want directionally facing you and your passenger are your dash mounted ones if possible and door or kick panel ones. the sound should cross, meaning your driver side mids and highs should face in the direction of the passenger and the passengers side mids and highs should face the driver, for a true complete sound.

my other vehicles have a minimum of 2 Amps, Power Capacitor, Fuse Blocks for both POWER and GROUND, and custom boxes to fit its application. but all this is only required if your running over 500 watts, in order not to sacrifice any voltage power to your car. Actually I'm running 1000 watts in my truck, and 900 in my honda. So my Vette wont be left out either when done. That will be a custom all its own, due to the limited rear space in my 70.

ok, back to you, sorry....I really love this stuff!!!!!

well I hope this helps you out, and I didn't get too in-depth, but if you still need help or a better explanation, I'm here almost everyday. but ill do my best to answer you and if I don't know, well I just happen to have a friend who is a certified professional audio installer, who's just a phone call away.
Dave

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Great information, Dave!

I am just looking for better quality sound, so I think I'll keep my system under 300. I had a system in a '74 Camaro that would make the lights dim in time to the bass...I am not looking for a repeat.
Would you explain a bit more about the placement of a sub? Specifically the direction it faces. Why would it sound better pointed towards the back of the 78 than pointed towards the front passenger area?
Did you mean using 2 subs?
I understand the concept of air-tight speaker boxes, especially if I will be linking (I'm assuming) 3 'boxes' together into one large box, woofer-sub-woofer, and the woofers would need to be air sealed against the sub to prevent the sub from air-forcing the performance of the speakers against their own duties.
Heidi

ps, what is a cross-over and when is it needed?

 

[70 VETTE 454]

Heidi,
I understand perfectly what you mean. but for me, the more I got into it, the more I wanted. so in my case the more power the better, right.....

as for your camaro, your lights dimmed because of no energy being stored to restore the used energy by the subs. that's the purpose of a capacitor, it absorbs the energy taken by the subs and still dose not draw any extra from your cars power.

sub placement.
subwoofers, and subs, and woofers are all the same thing, people just call them differently and they go by any of those names.

you would only need a box for two speakers. not 3. you can use 3 but there is no real reason to. and if your concerned about space, you can achieve the same sound with just one sub.

a woofer is anything over 8". so its all the same as far as sounds go, but the lower sound you want, the bigger the speaker or sub has to be. but the bigger it is the more airspace it will require. keep that in mind.

I'm getting so much out of my 10" I have in my Honda. and my box for it is just under a foot cubed.

Reason for placement of subs towards rear:
Sound travels in waves, and the deeper the frequency, the longer the wave. This is why tweeters are so directional, and lower range speakers are not(subs).

Another factor that comes into play is the fact that pointing the woofers into the trunk "loads" the woofers, which makes them give more output, just like when a home subwoofer is placed in a corner. Any surface that you can bounce the bass off of usually makes it sound like it is louder, much like putting a tight bend on a water hose will increase the pressure.
Finally, reflecting the bass off of the rear of the vehicle allows you to hear the bass further into the length of the wave, allowing you to hear a deeper portion of the bass from your position in the front of the car.

hope that helps.....

a crossover is used to adjust your many different levels of the sound curve. from low pitches to high pitches. its sort of like making certain sounds stand out over others. its just a preference thing.
my 1000 watt system has one and my 900 watt system dose not, and you cant really tell the difference, until I do something like put all high, and no lows or all mids and no lows.....
it just gives you variety of a sound range for you to adjust, one frequency at a time. for your application, the standard one that comes with the radio will be more than enough.....

Dave

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Met a neighbor's son today...

...home for a visit from the Navy.

Anyhow, I kept hearing a low bass sound and I thought other neighbors were playing music and when I commented on it, he pointed to his car that was just a few yards away!

I asked to see his system, and he had 10" woofers facing the rear of his trunk, I think his total W was under 250?, maybe only 150!...and when I asked about subwoofers, he pointed at some TINY speakers in the door's window frame! He had 2x3(?) dash speakers and 6x9s in the door kick panels in addition to the 10s and the little woofers.
He didn't demonstrate its' capabilities, but the bass really carried, and the volume was pretty low, I couldn't hear the words to the song, just the bass.

Could I get better sound without going all out?
I just want to be able to turn my music up enough (without distortion) to drown out my non-existent singing voice.
My husband would be pleased, too.
As for woofer speakers, I understand that the smaller the speaker, the crisper the response. This is why I'll probably keep between 6-10". I need to crawl into the back of the 78 and see if I still have the tabs for the 6x9s...and if I do, perhaps I can have seperate boxes mounted that will look nice and free up my back deck space.

Thank you for asnwering my questions and elaborating on the reasons.
Heidi