Cobbling together a car sterio

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Oh, one other thing. I opened up the Scott speakers and the woofer is about 5 or 6 inch diameter round. Pulled the woofer out and the cabinet is stuffed with fiberglass insulation. Wouldn't that make them sound kind of muffled? Should I remove the insulation?

Then I wonder if I disconnect the tweeters and just run the woofers, if it would not be louder. Then I can use the front speakers for the high end.
 
The enclosure is stuffed with insulation to enhance the bass response by making the enclosure appear to be larger than it really is. Disconnecting the tweeters won't make the woofer louder, but it would probably be very detrimental to the overall sound quality from the speaker. If you plan on using the home audio speakers in your truck, I would suggest leaving the tweeters connected.
 
Well I got the cassette/radio unit in and the motorhome speakers. Still some buzz, but not too bad. Then I found the MP3 player had somehow gotten onto a different equalizer selection ("soft" vs "natural" that I had been running), so I switched it to "classical" which seems to work better.

The bottom line: mid-90s stock car stereos suck.

Funny thing is that the radio sounds a lot clearer. I can't blame the MP3 player either because I was cranking it out in my friend's Jeep on the subwoofer at very high volume and it sounded excellent!

The solution: park the F150 and bum rides from my friend all the time.
LOL.gif
 
WOW! I have great sound now. I hooked up the 100 watt Radio Shack amp with two cabinet speakers on the back floor. Running the MP3 direct into the amp with RCA plugs on an adapter out the headphone jack. Sound is phemonenal, even sounds clear with the MP3 volume nearly all the way up.

I guess I was scared to use the amp because of the partly melted fuse holder but I replaced that and noticed the old fuse holder did not hold the fuse tightly, which may have been the reason it was partly melted.

I am debating whether to hook the rear pillar mound speakers to the amp instead of the cabinets. Not sure I will get all the base of the cabinets, but I do recall the pillar mount was much louder under the old setup, so worth a try. Else I have to decide on the Scotts or the motorhome speakers rigged into the Scott cabinets--I have one of each right now, a 4 ohm on right and an 8 ohm on left.
 
I'm not trying to be negative but you're going about this completely wrong.

Rear speakers are useless unless you're going for shear volume or you carry passengers often. For best SQ (sound quality) use the front stage only. You would be better off taking the mids out of the box and mounting them in the doors. Same with the tweets. You'll get 100% better imaging and a better sound stage.

Don't upgrade an upgrade, buy only once. I learned this the hard way, I've been through several sets of component speakers. Honestly, the best for the money by a long shot are these: http://www.woofersetc.com/p6201/CTX65CS--Image-Dynamics-65"-Component-Speaker-System.htm

They literally sound better than some $800 sets. They have a silk dome tweeter for nice detailed highs but not harsh or fatiguing and the mids will surprise you with how much midbass they have.

Those along with a cheap 8" or 10" sub in a small sealed enclosure with a decent amp will blow your mind if you like the Radio Shack and the 80s speakers you have now.

If you shop around, you can do the whole thing for $350 or less.
 
Well I am pretty satisfied with the current sound.

Existing 2000 Ford speakers $0
Radio Shack 100 watt amp $2
New fuse holder $0 (pirated from something that didn't need it.
20 ga speaker wire $0 (had on hand)
Headphone to RCA line $5.50
MP3 player $12.50 (shipped off ebay 2 gig)

Total Cost for Bass Kicking car stereo: $20

I'll check out the speaker link as better speakers would be nice anyway, though the stockers are doing just fine.
 
Door speakers never have the bass that rear deck speakers do.
Obviously, because of the air space behind the rear ones.
I would love to have the fronts sound the same, but with almost no clearance in the door, it never seems to work as well.
 
Originally Posted By: mechtech2
Door speakers never have the bass that rear deck speakers do.
Obviously, because of the air space behind the rear ones.
I would love to have the fronts sound the same, but with almost no clearance in the door, it never seems to work as well.


Once you seal off the doors, they usually have good bass. It's the secondary backwave that cancels out the bass. I had this issue with my aftermarket speakers having no more bass than stock an it made all the difference when I put dynamat over the large holes, they don't need to be air tight.
 
I heard that adding fiberglass insulation behind the speaker makes it like the enclosure is bigger.

The factory 5x7 speakers seem to be taking the extra power just fine. Surely better speakers would be nice, but I run these for now. Just got done putting fiberglass insulation behind the speakers.
 
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