car audio redux

[dreberg@msn.com]

my 72 1.7 seasonal joyride here in the northeast has its original sapphire am/fm radio and original blupunct speakers. Hardly listen-to-able, even for news reports of current events. I'd like to replace the speakers and keep them in their stock locations? Any suggestions on what fits in there and where to get them? Slightly used are o.k. too. And how bout the radio, ideally i think an original looking cassette player that fits in the original place would be ideal but i think that would be a tall order. or maybe stuffing a new unit in the glovebox. Any suggetions? i've enjoyed looking at these postings, makes my old car more of a hobby than another toy in the box.

[RustyWa]

I was just playing around on the Crutchfield site, www.crutchfield.com, last night. You can input your car and it'll tell you what audio componants you can fit in the stock locations. Pretty easy to navigate. It gave me two speaker choices, 5"x7", for the kick panels.

Check it out. I've purchased from them before and have been very pleased with the service they provide.

------------------
Eric
'75 914 2.0L

[This message has been edited by RustyWa (edited 11-04-2001).]

[toman]

crutchfield is a reliable place to order from; they have great service. But, their prices can be high, so watch out and shop around. www.carstereoworld.com is a good, inexpensive place, as is online www.onlinecarstereo.com. You can fit 5 1/4" speakers in the stock kickpanels, if you don't mind cutting them a bit, or you can put them in the door panels. Whatever you do, don't expect any really decent sound... believe me, I know from experience.

[Joe Ricard]

LOL, good sound in 914!!! Just for kicks and to shut my son up we wired up the radio in his soon to be car. He wouldn't listen to me in that you ain't gonna hear nothing when the motor fires up. (no sound pads, carpet, etc.) Not to mention the solid core wires. Hey anyone got an idea about the facet fuel pump running when the ignition is switched. Them things are loud.

[Joe Bob]

Just put in some 5x8 Ford speakers....fit right in....

[T4 Motornut]

In response to the original Q...

I got very tired of the "poor sound quality" in both of my '73s and found that a 4x6 two-way (Infinity Kappas?) made a big improvement when fitted to the OE enclosures. More improvement came in the form of a decent amp, but still lacking any bass response whatsoever.

The first '73 had virgin and uncut door panels and I couldn't bear to hack 'em up. The second '73 did not and subsequently got a set of 5.25 mid-bass speakers bridged into the amp. Now it has some decent sound - if you wanted to you can roll up the windows and make your unprotected head orifices bleed...

Total expense wasn't that much, but of course it's all obsolete by now. The head unit is a Blaupunkt Dallas bought on a close-out sale ($120 1997 dollars), the 300w amp is from some catalog sale ($90 1997 dollars), the 4x6s were some bucks (maybe $130, and they're so small!!), but the mid-bass speakers were only around $45 each. Overall, the mid-bass guys made the most bang for the buck...

But as they say, YMMV...