Speaker Options 4 '80 Cutlass Surpreme...What have you done?

[silent_orchestra]

Hi there,
I'm trying to decide on speakers for my Cutlass and was just wondering what you guys have used in your G Bodies? Just need some ideas...

Thanks!

 

[84GP455]

This is what i did for some sound up front in my GP. I had some 4" speakers that died in the same spot so when i upgraded to 5 1/4's and tweeters they ended up hitting the cross brace of the window track so i had to space them out with a 3/4" speaker spacer. I really didn't want to but i had to cause they were hitting, the holes where already there from the 4" speakers so i had to do it. You can probably fit a 5 1/4 in a different area on the door panel where it might not hit anything down near the bottom but i'm not sure as i only had one area to fill. It didn't come out that bad i think, plus they are right in my ears! As far as the back goes, i have 6x9 adapters for the rear deck and up front i have replaced the 4x6 in the dash with two 3" jbl's with a speaker adapter that goes from 4x6 to two 3x3's.

 

[silent_orchestra]

that's pretty sweet, I'd like to hide to everything though. There doesn't seem to be much out for there for 4x10's...but maybe I'm just missin' them.

 

[axisg]

6.9's on the rear parcel shelf ( with the plastic adaptors ), 3.5's in the dash and a set of highs hidden in the vents

 

[84GP455]

Forget about the 4x10's they aren't that good, too oblong and they can't handle that much bass. Get yourself a pair of 6x9 adapters for the rear deck and throw an amp at them and you'll be happy. Here is what they look like.
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_430 ... 41069.html

 

[84GP455]

6.9's on the rear parcel shelf ( with the plastic adaptors ), 3.5's in the dash and a set of highs hidden in the vents

that setup is good but it lacks mid range fill where you need it the most, in the drivers seat.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I run the Buick Regal's Concert Sound II setup with different speakers. It uses 5.25 in woofers in the doors and 1 in tweeters in the stock locations in the dash. In the rear I have 6x9's with adapters, and 2 10 in subs. Powering the whole setup is a 500 watt amp for the subs and a 75x4 amp for the satellites. I don't have a pic of the grilles on the speakers just yet, but here they are in a test fit after I cut the doors for the grilles and installed the speakers to the door frames:

As for what speakers they are, they are Phoenix Gold speakers I got off E-Bay. Right now, I am not too impressed with them, but for $65, I don't have too much room to complain either. They seem to sound too "muddy", if that makes any sense. It may be the deck, but I dunno yet.

I'll also say that it depends on what kind of music you like to listen to. If you are into booty music, you will want the most ridiculous set of subwoofers (preferably multiple sets) you can find, powered with a 5,000,000,000 watt (RMS) amp, and augmented by some sort of other speakers to play the range of sound above 100 hz. :lol: If you like music with more range than that, you will want to concentrate mostly on the satellites and buy a low end sub with a modest amp to power it. The head unit is VERY important. A poorly chosen head unit will never let the rest of the system live up to it's potential. So, don't just buy the cheapest CD player they have at Wal Mart. Get a mid range model from a major name brand like Pioneer, Alpine, JVC, etc. Also, get one with a separate subwoofer channel ( 6 pre-outs), and a USB input on the front. This is important as it lets you use either a flash drive or a MP3 player to store your music instead of having to carry a bunch of CDs. CDs and cars are not usually a good mix as the environment typically damages them in short order. Plus, an MP3 player will let you store an amount of CDs that would take up your entire back seat in a device smaller than 1/4 a CD jewel case in size. I have a 4gb iPod (I bought broken and rebuilt), and it probably stores 40 whole albums on it. You also want a built in equalizer that will let you tailor the sound to the car's acoustics, and the drivers you have chosen.

 

[silent_orchestra]

Very cool I'll have to check out those adapters for the 6x9's...

And then for fronts what should I use? 3.5's? or 4's?

I'm not looking for insane amounts of bass... I've thought about using like a 10" shallow mount of some sort and hiding it under the rear seat if there is room or sticking in the trunk and try to hide it, or make it less noticable. I figure out of everything the amp will be the easiest to hide so I'm not worried about that.

At the moment I've got a Kenwood head unit and 10 disc changer, but I'm going to upgrade to something newer with a USB and everything else too.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The front 3.5's are wholly inadequate to produce decent sound. You really need to put something in the doors either using the stock CSII mounts from a Regal, or aftermarket lower door panels.

 

[Peter]

if i had to redo what i did this is probably what i would do

aftermarket 3.5's take some serious fabrication to get them to fit in the dash wholes, i would probably throw 2 inch or so tweeters up there

down on the kick panels or lower door panels put a pair of 4 or 5 inch speakers there

in the rear this a little different of an idea, i would mount a box up there that held 2 4 or 5 inch speakers per side so you'd end up having 4 rear speakers. I'm not exactly sure how much better it would be that 4x10's or 6x9 if at all but i feel like it would probably be worth a shot

however if you do want to use 4x10's i would highly recomend these
http://www.amazon.com/PLG41-3-4-Inch-10 ... 321&sr=8-1
i use these and have been very happy with the sound quality and their durability