Adding Speakers
 

I am interested in installing additional speakers in my car, so that when I drive with the top off, I can hear the radio. I want to keep the original look of the car, so I don't want to cut the door panels for placement there. I am considering adding speakers under the dashboard, and wonder if anyone out there has any better suggestions. Thanks in advance for your help.

I encountered the same problem with speakers so what I did was take the original grilles, measure their dimensions, measure how much extra space and clearance I had under the dash, and then fashioned my own enclosures similar to the factory grilles and I now have 6 1\2in. JBL's in them with a single 8in. bass tube ran with an amp. This proves to be more than enough for the small interior. I also removed the center pad and constructed a bigger console to house a cd changer and to hold cassette tapes. Finished everything off in matching carpeting and it turned out fine.

Blaupunkt makes a nice "euro fit" speaker that will fit in the stock position. Its a 4 x 6 like the original with a non-paper cone(no moisture worries)and the sound is pretty good to without having to cut or make anything.

PS. If you put a speaker in the stock position make sure to put stuff behind it so that the sound comes out of the speaker and not into the wheel-well.

Since you want to keep a fairly stock look, start with quality replacement speakers behind the grills in the factory locations and add an appropriate size amp to your sound system. Be sure to match the speaker output (i.e. watts) with the amp or you will destroy them in short order. You may find that you have all the sound you need when the top is off without having to make serious modifications to your interior.

Thank you all for your advise.

Regards,
Keith

I found a nice speaker made by Boston Acoustics. The speakers fit in the original space. There is a 4" speaker with a 1" tweeter mounted above.(not in front the other speaker) The speakers are amazing clear for such a small set. (but then again their not Kracos)I installed a Blapaunkt face off CD player With no amp. Be sure to get a system for two way sound, not 4 way. or your system will sound strange. Alot of big and powerful sound systems require 4 speakers to work. Unless your willing to make some radical alterations, keep in simple. We had a toyota MR2 in the shop once that had 14 speakers inside the cabin. (two 10" woofers glassed in behind the seats) After a week in the shop fixing the custom paint, the stereo wouldn't work. I consulted the installer who instructed us to charge the battery. I seems the the battery had enough power to start the motor but even with the alternator at full boost, By the time the 7 power boosters turned on there wasn't enough power left to turn the lights on in the stereo face! Like I said, You may want to keep it simple.

When I got my car, the PO had two cheap kenwood 4x6's in the stock grills. I replaced the head unit with an Alpine Cd unit. My car has a custom center gauge panel that is under the dash, I installed my two Infinity 6.5 in. two way speakers in the console, one on each side. This location does not give the best imaging, but being better and larger speakers they really help fill the low end sound. In the stock location I mounted a matching pair of Infinity 4x6's that round off the highs. With the top off at speed on the freeway I can run the stereo at a comfortable listening level without distortion. Also check out
http://members.xoom.com/Narfy/brian/p914.htm under the section titled Car Audio there is a guide to installing a 10 in. Subwoofer in the passenger footwell of a 914. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by 7391417 (edited 05-20-99).]

[This message has been edited by 7391417 (edited 05-20-99).]

If anyone is interested in a fairly inexpensive way to get a lot of music out of your 914, i just happen to have one.
-clarion 4x6 proaudio plates in the kick panels running 400hz and up
-kicker 6.5 inch "subwoofers" installed in "7"x"5"x"21" boxes that run lengthwise in the outside of the footwells (not too badly in the way)running 400 hz and down
-a decent 2 channel amplifier (i've got a sony 2x50 watt,and it works fine)
-crossovers, these are my pride and joy..... never ever buy crossovers, they are very easy and fun to make, there are thousands of websites dedicated to this. i made 18db/octave 2 way passive crossovers with impedance stablilzation and they sound awesome.

I did everything (yep there's a whole lot) for about 500$ canadian(like 300$ american or something) and it sounds very flat and very loud. The imaging is good and the bass is very tight and punchy. I was running the 4x6's off of deck power and i couldn't hear them at all over about 55 mph with the roof off, now 100mph with the roof off and the horns of the tiawanna brass come shining through. Not to mention the bass hits of busta ryhmes. whatever