Stereo install

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superdart

superdart

Shade Tree Tinker Gnome.....
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
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DFW, Texas
The task today was to build a good stereo for the Dart. I already had the speakers and head unit in the car. The 10" JL Sub was laying around ever since I stripped it out of my old Ram, and it's backed up by a 1200w Kenwood Excelon amp.

This will blend right in with the interior once I carpet it, and it should sound great. Of course, none of that will happen until I redo the interior.....

Sub box 2.jpg


Sub box 4.jpg
 
That looks like a nice fit. What color are you going to do the interior in? Will that be a closed box?
 
Yes, the box is sealed.

The plan is to redo the interior in a black/grey combination. I am torn between doing the box in vinyl, or just carpeting it black to match the floor.
 
Just my opinion but, I think the vinyl will give it a cleaner look. Maybe throw a light grey line in there too. Keep us posted on your progress. I'm thinking of the same thing too. Are you going to drive the car speakers through the amp also?
 
Just my opinion but, I think the vinyl will give it a cleaner look. Maybe throw a light grey line in there too.
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Agreed. The box in the Ram was two tone light/dark gray and it looked good. The more I look at it, the more I think doing it in floor carpet will make it look like a store bought POS.

Are you going to drive the car speakers through the amp also?
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That is the plan. The amp is a 5 channel 1200w unit. I haven't decided if I am going to install front speakers, but if I do, they will be wired in too.

Keep us posted on your progress. I'm thinking of the same thing too.
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Roger that......
 
I couldn't really see in the picks but did you build the box with chambers to separate the by 9's from the sub??
 
It looks like he has, if you look close through the middle and right speaker hole you can see the bottom of the wall.
 
Yep.

My original plan (prior to putting any thought in to it) was to build just a sub box, and leave the 6x9s in the back panel. However, A) It would look cheesy and B) the 6x9s sounded horrible just being backed up by the trunk airspace.

I decided to go all out and build something I could blend in to look nice. I made sure the sealed volume of the sub chamber was correct for the sub (a 10W3V2). The 6x9s just got whatever space was left over, but it should be enough since I don't expect to get low bass from them. they are probably along the lines of 0.5 CF per 6x9.

Tonight I'll get it sanded and installed in the car. My battery is in the trunk, so running the amp power will be easy. :cheers:
 
Here is the old box from the Ram, with the vinyl covering. I am thinking of using a similar light gray on my new enclosure, as well as the door panels on the dart.

sub2.JPG
 
Awesome, well then it sounds like you have dabbled in doing sound installs before. just wanted to make sure before you got it all in and ran into a problem with the sub resonating through the air space and distorting your X9's looks great so far cant wait to see the finished result.
 
thats nice. long is it (between the wheel wells) i may have to try doin one like that. but if i put hydros in my sport like i want, id have to take the box out for the rear cylinders to fit
 
Help an old guy figure out what you're doin. Are you planning on reinstalling the back seat or just going to leave it down all the time? I have heard of subs firing through a back seat, but never 6x9s?

My current interior project started out as a quest to put a stereo in. So far I've replaced a floor pan, rust proofed the floor, put down sound deadener, recovered the seats (converted to buckets), mini-tubbed the rear (while the interior was out) and laid new carpet. And still don't have a head unit in it!!!

I put Boston Acoustics in the package tray and a buddy is glassing some 6 1/2 BAs in the kick panels, and I have 2 3 1/2s for the dash speaker area. Still need to pick an amp and head unit.
 
i think he's gonna put the back seat in and fold it down, and up when someone needs to ride in the back.

my sport has the fold down rear seat also so i got a 2 6x9s in sepreat boxes and a sub box, when i go somewhere i leave the seat folded down, but when i go to a mall or whatever, i flip the seat up so my stuff aint as noticeable for someone to jack it
 
could always do a false panel using 1/4 MDF, with areas cut out and covered by speaker cloth. that way you could pull the panel and put the seats in if need be and still give it a clean look.
 
Actually I have no intention of reinstalling the back seat. It's wrapped up in plastic with a liberal amount of mothballs added for good measure.

I will be fabricating a brace bar to install in the back. The car will get Corbeau seats in the front, the brace bar is where I will mount the seat belt retractors for their 5 pt harness.

The finished exterior width of the box is 41".

The Dart will eventually be getting a full custom gauge panel, and custom center console with floor lighting. I also think I am going to completely redo the underdash wiring when the interior comes out, and replace the crappy bulkhead connector with a cannon plug.
 
It's cool that everyone has different ideas of how this could be done. My 2¢ worth would be to carpet it with no visibile seam where the carpet would transition from the floor to the bulkhead. The carpet would be more sound absorbent and take more abuse from things being tossed into/around the back of the interior.

Seeing the color of your avatar, have you considered going with copper colored carpeting and cream colored seats & door panels? Got a Bentley at work with that combination. Very cool.
 
Hmmm.....hadn't thought about that combination.

The car is currently Spanish gold, but I am going to paint it modern PE5 (Sunset Bronze Metallic). I figured black/gray interior would go great with that color.

As for other updates, I have the system all installed as of tonight, and it sounds great. I decided to frame out the amp in some gray vinyl I had lying around from when the Ram sub box was built. It helps to clean up the install and hide all the wiring.

Amp final.jpg


Box installed1.jpg
 
very true indeed, taking a lil extra time to clean up the wires always makes the job a lot easier on the eyes and lets the whole job look great. very nice job with the amp cant wait to see the finished job with the box.
 
I have never installed a quality stereo system in a car before. Is it better to box all speakers? What determines the size of the box? I know a little about resonance, but how does it relate to the size and shape of the boxes? Should mid and high range speakers be aimed at the listener or does it not matter as much inside a car? What does one look for when shopping for speakers, power amps, radios, etc? How about wires? Antennas? It seems that the most modern stereos use a computer port for some sort of download. Is that for an ipod or a memory stick?

Man, I hope all these questions don't bother you guys too much, but I am a self-confessed electron moron.
 
lol hey there is nothing wrong with that fish we all have our areas that we are moronic to. lets see if i can answer all your questions for you. for your question about the port on most modern head units some have a port that hooks to a sat radio receiver, some have a 1/4" jacks for use with i pod adapters and some have a usb port for again ipod adapters as well as thumb drives. as for wires there is a vast selection that range in price and quality in both speaker wire and power cables for amps. you've got your low end that would be installed into most average everyday rig unless you want to dish out a lil more for better quality, and then you've got the high grade stuff that is used in your bigger sound systems. as for what you want to look for when shopping for speakers, head units, subs, amps, pre amps and all other components that got in to building a sound system....1st look at your pocket book figure out how much you want to spend be it in one shot or over time. that was one of the first things we asked people at the sterio shop i use to work for. the second question would be what type of music do you listen to. there is a wide range of mid and high end speakers that vary in type of sound and quality of sound. to find what works for you with the type of music you listen to you will just have to listen to them.this will also be affected by the types of head unit, pre amps and amps you go with. this is due to the power of the signal that is put out. everyone has their own opinion to whats good and whats not. your typical chain stores will all carry the same brands with a small variance. the quality ranges from crap to decent. if your looking for something more i would suggest going to a specialty shop and looking. it also helps to do a lil research on things as well. ok now lets get into your boxes......the size and shape of the box is determined by a few things. 1 the shape of the area you will be installing the box. 2 the air requirements the sub needs to sound its best. 3 the type of box your using be it band pass ported or sealed. and last the frequency that you want your box tuned to. again that is all determined by the size, the type, and the power for the sub. for example if you take a 10" dual 4 hm coil sub that you have 800 watts to in a sealed box tuned to 34 hz then take the same box and put a 10" single 4 hm coil with 800 watts you will have 2 different sounds. as for the direction of mid and high ranged speakers the positioning of them does have some impact on the acoustics inside the car but unless your getting into a bigger sound system you shouldn't have to worry about them too much. again its all up to you and how it sounds to you. hope i got all your questions answered for you fish.
 
Thanks, Dingo, that sure was an eye opener. I understand the old axiom, "you get what you pay for." Back in the old days, an off-the-shelf no-name cassette/radio and a couple of 6x9s was a big improvement over what the factory put in our cars back then. It seems that the components available today are light years ahead of what was available 30 years ago.

So, basically, one should start with a budgeted amount of money. Then:

1) Search for an appropriate stereo/amp.

2) Get speakers to match the output of the stereo/amp.

3) Use fat speaker wires.

4) Build speaker boxes to the correct frequency of the speaker, at least as much as placement permits. That would be the tricky part for me. I would need to do some research on speaker box design. Most of those I have seen seem to be made of MDF, which is a solid product, but very dusty when cutting and shaping (ask me how I know).

Thanks again. Now, I have a place to begin.
 
lol correct MDF is the perfect material to use for speaker boxes. 3/4 is ideal size. as for box design it can be as simple or as complex as you want. if you do just a standard simple sealed box all you have to do is build it to the the air space it requires. most companies will list this information on their sights ( this is for sub woofers). oh and as for the speaker wire size size is something to look for but the wire material itself is what you want to keep in mind.

here you can check out some of their things that are out there from the shop i use to work at as well as see the types of things you can do.

http://aifresno.com/
 
How much you have to spend makes a big difference in what you install.

A decent set of 6x9s in proper boxes can create good overall range for the "normal" consumer. The big key is to buy an amp. Head units (even good ones) only put out a limited amount of power. Turn them up too high and they start to "clip". Using pre-amps to a seperate amp, even one of moderate power, will usually give you much better, cleaner sound.

The only way to get true low audio is to go with a subwoofer.

While I currently have a good amp (Kenwood) and sub (JL Audio) my head unit is a cheap Panasonic POS ($70 on clearance) and a decent set of Pioneer 6x9s. Nothing spectacular, but they were better than what I had (nothing). I plan on doing a full custom dash on the car, and when I do I am going to install a good head unit with USB, and stash a USB drive in the glove box. Currently my amp is fed only by A&B channels, since the cheap head didn't have a dedicated sub pre-amp...as a result, I think there is some quality I am missing out on. That will also get fixed on the new head unit.

As dingo mentioned, the sub airspace is what's critical..the 6x9s...not so much, but just having them backed by the trunk will sound like ***....ask me how I know THAT one.
 
I have my 6x9s mounted in the package tray and plan on running a 40x4 Alpine amp. I am interested in how I can keep them from "sounding like ***" also?!?!

I have a 10" JL sub tube also. I don't listen to rap music or anything, but the way it fills the bottom end is awesome!!
 
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