Anybody ever bother to put a decent sound system in one of these cars? I get the bit about road noise and that's valid. I also get the bit about the car making the music, also valid. I don't feel that precludes the addition of a sound system, and with the upgrades some of us have made good sound seems appropriate.
So what'ya got?
Myself, I have an old but in good nick pair of Altec Lansing Voice of the Highway woofers. They are first edition and to some, the high point in car stereo. A one of a kind acquisition on ebay, never to be seen again. I think I'll put 'em in the rear bulkhead where they can be muffled by the folded down top.
Who else?
Jim
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My plan is to zip-tie one of these to the tunnel for around town and country driving, and remove for track...
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I recently got a new-to-me truck, and it could only play CD's, which I no longer have. So I called Crutchfield for a new head unit, and ended up $1400 later with a small amp, new speakers, and a (small, not into "thumping") powered sub. Took a week of evenings to install it all so that it all disappears and looks stock, but it sounds sooo good.
I know the feeling. I bit the bullet and bought the Audison APK-690 speaker kit which includes the AP 6x9 woofers and the AP-1 dash mount tweeters along with a crossover and some other bits. No grilles though, I thought that was a bit odd. The Audisons went in the rear bulkhead with some old Panasonic grilles and the A-Ls on the doors.
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And here's one of the tweeters with it's own angled surface mount. It fit perfectly at the ends of my dashboard spacer.
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I'd been planning to do that ever since I got the A-Ls, I just needed the rest of the stuff. And I had to cut off the front of my solid one piece walnut door pockets to do it but again, part of the original plan. Ever since the cones went out on my first set of A-L 6x9s I've felt the loss and that was prior to making the door pockets.
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Anyway in testing, the Audisons are nearly their equals but the A-Ls have an ever so slightly nicer sound. They do not have the raw power capacity of the Audisons however which is why they went where they did. At present I am waiting on an impedence matching circuit (2 actually, https://www.ebay.com/itm/166814777054?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20250417133020%26meid%3Dbb0c1afe61c74fbf91efb854dde2455b%26pid%3D102726%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D166814777054%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2DWebWithPSItemDRV2_BP%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p4375194.c102726.m162918 needed due to the Marantz's wacky input setup) to go between my vintage Marantz 7 band equalizer (SA-247)
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and my cheap Chinese head unit (Dongguan SX-5513, https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfi0BJKMUbcVha70DImZtYYW2m0XZekvpy8BBPMI1ppA&s=10
), and a set of inline fuse holders for the tweeters. I am very concerned about overdriving the speakers and amps. Even a cheap amp can blow an expensive speaker if it's abused, so on the tweeters I'm going to rely on 2-1/2 amp AGC fast blow glass fuses, and on the front and rear amps which are nothing fancy, just vintage Optima 50 and 110 watt units that are fitted with ATO style plug in fuses, I plan to measure the supply current and fit auto-reset circuit breakers of an appropriate value.
Jim
I have the system installed finally and have started setting it up, learning a few things along the way. First that my power circuitry was flawed, which I had only partially fixed by modding the EQ turn on circuit. I had issues with the external turn on wiring (remember the speaker fire?) and had to replace the light blue wire to the rear as well as re-route the power (ACC) wire to the head unit as it was tied into the green circuit, as was main power for the rear amp so neither one was turning on in the ACC position, or switching on the EQ or main amp. I removed the power and ground leads from the console to the trunk and will power the rear amp from the main power terminals I had installed on the bulkhead. That is also a handy battery charger connection spot. That should resolve the turn on issues. Along the way I've corrected a few wiring color issues.
Next is a feedback loop causing an audio tone in the system. I had dealt with the isolated (floating) ground in the connection from the head unit to the EQ as well as the impedance mismatch with isolator circuits (and I have a alternate isolator on the way in case this one is not good enough, they are cheap, around $20 or less) but neglected to deal with the exact same issue on the main amps. I overlooked it because those amps have an input gain control. But if you use the RCA inputs rather than the 4 pin connectors the shield side is grounded. That's fine for the inputs but not so great for the EQ's floating speaker output circuits.
So I now have to re-terminate the wires at the 4 pin connectors and hope it didn't fry anything in the EQ. My hopes are high since the system was wired this way before I tested the EQ on the bench. I think it should be OK. G assures me that the gain pot will also work on the speaker level inputs, which should allow me to balance the front and rear speakers.
So lots more testing and adjusting ahead. I'll use the signal generator to adjust levels at all 4 speakers once I have a clear no input status, do the same with the signal at the EQ inputs and then the impedance balancer inputs where I can also adjust levels to left and right, then move on to the head unit and bluetooth. At least the end is visible, if not all that close.
It'll be nice to get the console back in place finally so I can drive the car a bit and charge the AC system.
Jim
I don't have anything to say about protecting speakers specifically. But you mentioned wiring and circuit protection back on Sept 1, and that's my former area of expertise. Maybe these general tips will help someone.
When I was on the electrical engineering team of a major commerial truck OEM, my colleagues and I avoided:
(a) use of glass fuses for anything at all. Obsolete technology. (And that was >25 years ago.)
(b) SAE Type 1 automatic circuit breakers. When we were obiged to use circuit breakers, we used SAE Type 2 "modified reset" breakers exclusively. The difference is that T1 breakers will cycle on/off indefinitely by themselves whereas T2 breakers will latch in the open position until the driver cycles the power supply to "off". In some circuits T1 breaker contacts are prone to welding themselves shut, which may leave you unprotected and result in a thermal event. (If you're looking at decent quality automotive parts, breakers will be labeled "T1" or "T2".)
(c) using a remote circuit protection device to protect a device. Fuses and relays are very good for protecting wiring. If a device needs to be protected, that protection should be built-in. If the device doesn't have adequate built-in protection, use a different device. And btw this doesn't just apply to over-current. It applies generally to reverse polarity, RFI/EFI interference, etc.
For my own projects, I try pretty hard to avoid inline fuse holders. Too hard to find quality components or to integrate them in a tidy way. Tidy is important.
There seems to be some built in protection and the major components do have ATO/ATC type fuses built in whereas the vintage Marantz SA-247 EQ uses a glass inline fuse and I placed glass inline fuses in the tweeter leads. I doubt any of these draw enough current for a breaker to be suitable. I do have one breaker in the car but it is manual reset only and is a big-un. I agree glass fuses are old tech but sometimes they do have their uses and they are compact and simple. In a protected environment they can work pretty well. Under the hood, not so great. Better solutions are coming, refer to the gas sealed ATC fuse holders in Toyota's halogen headlight retrofit kit.
After much adoo I have sound. This required significant power and speaker lead rewiring and testing and the next part is clean-up and configuring the XS-5513 head unit for bluetooth plus adjusting the bias on the Mini 1969 TIP41C impedance matching boards and checking the heat sink temps. As class A devices they do get quite warm. In the event I don't like those I have a PAC LD10 Line Driver on order. I will see how things go with the bias adjustments. I'm looking for a reading under 185F on the IR gun.
So far the sound quality is quite good but it could use a bit more volume. The EQ's fader control could use a bit more authority but perhaps I have a bit more adjustment on the front amp's level that can help with that. I hope to get that all sorted today and get the center console back in place. Then Tunes to the Moon!
Jim