speaker replacement ideas

[eedwards]

I ended up taking out the rear deck 5 3/4" x 8"s to put in component 5 1/4" mids, 1" tweeters, and crossovers. I built a shelf to lay on top of the existing deck; the bottom of the mids fit into the holes left by the 6 x 9's and the tweeters and crossovers either fit into the new 3/4" shelf or on top. Shelf is 6" x 38" and I used the existing grills to shape the ends of the shelf, then covered it with black fabric. Pics are from testing phase connected to home system. I sure CAN hear 'em now (lol)! Box to house 10" sub is being built by a carpenter customer of mine and will be done this week. Woofer element itself weighs 12 POUNDS! Oh yeah, and I still have to put on my new license plate holders! Front door speakers are done (and in use) except for minor tweaking - will finish tomorrow and post pics, weather permitting. Then the fresh 14-guage wiring, amps, head unit... hard part is done!

Please give me some input... might work for a few of you.

 

[eedwards]

couple of more pics

 

[VPStang]

couple of more pics

you sure are putting a lot of emphasis on the rear speakers....

how is that shelf fitting in.... does it just sit on top of the rear deck?

What kind of mids and highs are you running in the front...?

Don't want rears to over power the front...

Damn...all McIntosh setup....nice...how much did u spend on all that...do you also have Mcintosh amps and head unit?

more pics?

 

[VPStang]

I ended up taking out the rear deck 5 3/4" x 8"s to put in component 5 1/4" mids, 1" tweeters, and crossovers. I built a shelf to lay on top of the existing deck; the bottom of the mids fit into the holes left by the 6 x 9's and the tweeters and crossovers either fit into the new 3/4" shelf or on top. Shelf is 6" x 38" and I used the existing grills to shape the ends of the shelf, then covered it with black fabric. Pics are from testing phase connected to home system. I sure CAN hear 'em now (lol)! Box to house 10" sub is being built by a carpenter customer of mine and will be done this week. Woofer element itself weighs 12 POUNDS! Oh yeah, and I still have to put on my new license plate holders! Front door speakers are done (and in use) except for minor tweaking - will finish tomorrow and post pics, weather permitting. Then the fresh 14-guage wiring, amps, head unit... hard part is done!

Please give me some input... might work for a few of you.

OK--I just re read your post. Dude...why don't you mount everything from underneat so you have a stealth installation. My personal taste--I don't like seeing speaker grills and what not exposed in the cabin...unless absolutely necessary. Hide the crossovers and run some grill cloth over those speakers....if u want put those cool little Mcintosh badges on the outside....

Thats just me though....you've obviously spent some money on the equipment and effort into the install...might as well make it as custom as possible...

 

[MerkurNut]

Ahhh Stickers and LP brackets. They are just an advertisement of what the theif will be getting. Kinda like a shopping list.

Will never catch me with any stickers. Maybe that is why I still have all my stuff and have never been jacked. Plus you can't go around beating it right where you are going to park.

A friendly FYI

 

[eedwards]

Thanks for input; plan A never works, anyway! So to answer questions... deck fit as planned, but didn't fit Mustang (lol). I assumed rear deck was flat, not actually so. Plan B: small mounts to sit over holes from stock speakers in rear, mids and tweeters only (grills over mids are for protection, but I don't mind flaunting the Mc logos and, besides, I'm in a rural area and nobody around here ever heard of Mc! lol). Crossovers will be underneath, mounted on a board with, yes, Mc amps. Bigger one to power fronts (50W continuous RMS X 2, remaining two channels bridged to 100W for, yes again, Mc 10" sub. Smaller Mc amp for rear deck speakers, 30W continuous RMS, so emphasis is really on the fronts and sub. I think I worked out a sweet mount for the amps and crossovers, will post pics as I progress. Head unit is, guess what, McIntosh! (still waiting on delivery). Sorry, but I AM obsessed! Front door speakers are McIntosh 5 1/4" coaxes with separate crossovers, so there IS at least some emphasis on the front. God, it's refreshing to hear from someone who's actually heard of McIntosh! My roomies and I at college 20-some years ago used to do the music for sorority parties with all Mc equipment.. it even made US nerds seem hot! LMAO. Total projected out-of-pocket expense: $1600 all Mc purchased used or online, my own labor expenses, total retail close to $4.5K. ....thanks for the input!

 

[VPStang]

Thanks for input; plan A never works, anyway! So to answer questions... deck fit as planned, but didn't fit Mustang (lol). I assumed rear deck was flat, not actually so. Plan B: small mounts to sit over holes from stock speakers in rear, mids and tweeters only (grills over mids are for protection, but I don't mind flaunting the Mc logos and, besides, I'm in a rural area and nobody around here ever heard of Mc! lol). Crossovers will be underneath, mounted on a board with, yes, Mc amps. Bigger one to power fronts (50W continuous RMS X 2, remaining two channels bridged to 100W for, yes again, Mc 10" sub. Smaller Mc amp for rear deck speakers, 30W continuous RMS, so emphasis is really on the fronts and sub. I think I worked out a sweet mount for the amps and crossovers, will post pics as I progress. Head unit is, guess what, McIntosh! (still waiting on delivery). Sorry, but I AM obsessed! Front door speakers are McIntosh 5 1/4" coaxes with separate crossovers, so there IS at least some emphasis on the front. God, it's refreshing to hear from someone who's actually heard of McIntosh! My roomies and I at college 20-some years ago used to do the music for sorority parties with all Mc equipment.. it even made US nerds seem hot! LMAO. Total projected out-of-pocket expense: $1600 all Mc purchased used or online, my own labor expenses, total retail close to $4.5K. ....thanks for the input!

Yeah, McIntosh was hot stuff back when I was installing and into the stuff. It was like a myth, we'd seen pictures of it, knew it existed, but never actually seen or heard it in real life. LOL Mind you, this is back when 1000W was actually considered a lot of power. Did you have to hunt down older stuff, or do they still have new items on the market? And how do the mids/high's and subs sound. All we ever heard about back then was the H/U and the amps. Didn't even know they made speakers.

 

[Nitrous N20]

Nice,
I think the MC4000M is still the holy grail of amplifiers IMO. The focal Utopia is probably a better spekaer but you would have trouble findind better amps than McIntosh. I wish I had money...

 

[eedwards]

Well eBay isn't just for housewives! lol I think I bought every piece for the car system off of it. My first McIntosh was a new 105 wpc amp bought in 1977 (it recently tested at 140 wpc); it's a workhorse and still performs flawlessly powering my center channel and sub in my home theatre system. I'm also still using 20 - 25 yr. old McIntosh speakers as well, and can't say that I've really heard much better. The longevity of the stuff, all hand-assembled, gave me plenty of confidence to buy used, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Speakers were never very popular I don't think, but I don't know why not: almost all Mc has virtually no distortion and is perfectly flat over the entire 20-20K frequency range. New products are available, go to www.mcintoshlabs.com. For used but fully tested and functioning as-new, try www.audioclassics.com. And then, of course, http://buy.ebay.com/mcintosh . Too rainy for any progress tonight, hopefully will just about finish over the weekend and will post more pics.

 

[MerkurNut]

As you mention no one knowing about it. Once I had some black guy come in with their 6 channel amp. I asked him where he got it. You could tell it was pried up off its mount. Said he got it at the pawn shop. said he paied $30 for it since it was some junk brand. Said he would give it to me for $45. I thought about it, but I knew it was stolen and passed.

 

[eedwards]

OMG! I think I would've taken the chance! Merkur, I really respect your posts... I'm negotiating for a 6-channel Mc car amp... 4 channels x 50 wpc at 4 ohms + two channels at 100 wpc, also at 4 ohms, but stable, published to two ohms, I estimate fully functional and safe at 1-ohm loads, so possible output is minimally 4x what's stated (from personal experience with Mc, stated output is about 70% of actual, so total continuous rms could be as high as 2000w). Approx. $1500, but brand new (lists for about $2500, and if I recall, Mc runs at about 38% gross profit, which would make cost somewhere around $1700). What's your opinion? thanks. .....eric


Oh yeah, and if I go for it I've got a 4-channel, 50wpc continuous RMS McIntosh car amp for sale! lol All reasonable offers considered!

 

[VPStang]

OMG! I think I would've taken the chance! Merkur, I really respect your posts... I'm negotiating for a 6-channel Mc car amp... 4 channels x 50 wpc at 4 ohms + two channels at 100 wpc, also at 4 ohms, but stable, published to two ohms, I estimate fully functional and safe at 1-ohm loads, so possible output is minimally 4x what's stated (from personal experience with Mc, stated output is about 70% of actual, so total continuous rms could be as high as 2000w). Approx. $1500, but brand new (lists for about $2500, and if I recall, Mc runs at about 38% gross profit, which would make cost somewhere around $1700). What's your opinion? thanks. .....eric


Oh yeah, and if I go for it I've got a 4-channel, 50wpc continuous RMS McIntosh car amp for sale! lol All reasonable offers considered!

I would try and keep mids and highs at "normal" impedance levels on an amp. The lower the resistance load--the amp's dampening factor drops pretty bad...which is usually not a big concern on subs but can effect quality on mid's and high's......don't know how pciky you are--but just thought i'd drop that tid bit of opinion/knowledge...

 

[Infinity]

Damn! I love those old-school amps. Brings back memories of the systems I built around Adcom, McIntosh, PPI, REAL Fosgate, Linear Power, Genesis, Monolithic, Hafler, or even the vintage SoundStream, Phoenix Gold and Orion. OK, I'll take my cane and hobble on out of this thread now

 

[eedwards]

New plan as install is approaching completion (as if that'll ever happen)! LOL I'm not even close, as it turns out, to the original plan, and I don't think I can even remember what that was! Here's what's done: 1) 10" sub in sealed box in trunk, mounted to passenger side but movable 2) 5 1/4" coaxes in front doors, crossovers in compartments underneath front door armrests 3) 1-din head unit functioning in padded cd player carrier bag (PITA on front passenger seat or center console, to be replaced by 2-din unit in-dash - waiting on harnesses and dash kit) 4) new 6 1/2" mids in rear deck, tweeters yet to be positioned (still deciding where...) and mounted 5) new 4-channel x 50 wpc amp driving fronts and bridged for sub, temporary 30 wpc amp driving rears (to be replaced with second 4-channel x 50 to drive rears and possibly an additional set of tweeters - waiting on amp repair) mounted with rear crossovers to 3/4" MDF and hinged to swing up and latch for show with rear seatbacks folded down but also able to lay flat for concealment and better ventilation with seatbacks up (in and functional but needs some finishing touches) A couple of pics...

 

[eedwards]

couple more...

 

[eedwards]

and the sub: