Audiophile help

FOCAL makes excellent car stereo speakers, actually they make excellent speakers period, so you might take a look at those. If you're looking for simplicity that still sounds good, using coaxial or triaxial speakers might be the better choice as opposed to a component speaker system. Coaxial and triaxial speakers have separate speakers all in one package and typically have resistors to block out the different frequencies so each speaker in the system plays what it was designed to play. You could put a couple of 6"x9" speakers in the parcel shelf, a pair of 5.25" round coaxial in the center tunnel, and some tweeters in the dash. You'll need an amplifier in there somewhere as well.

I think the best bet though would be to contact a local stereo installer and get their opinion on what to do. Seeing the car would give the installer the ability to design a system to match the car's aesthetic.

Robert like this?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0/Focal-RCX-690.html

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0/Focal-ICU-130.html

I need to keep the amp small.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0D/Sony-XMS400D.html

I have always been a huge Polk Audio fan for both home and auto.

I have an old set of 3 piece RM3000 sub/satellite in the garage.

I have a small 6 speaker set in the living room.

I built a 2 amp/5 speaker system and concealed all the parts in my Vanagon Westy. Custom sub box under the back seat with JL Audio sub. Yeah, that one did some ear damage!

I have 6.5" patio speakers under the dash of the Spyder, mounted by the wheel wells.

Polk are reasonably priced for good speakers.

Marty, under dash is no good unless the tweeters/midrange are pointing AT your ears.

I love Crutchfield.  They are located 10 minutes from my house in Charlottesville, Va.  They are so helpful with car and home audio.  I was struggling to install a double DIN stereo with Apple Carplay in my Fiat 500 Abarth and I brought the stereo and aftermarket Double DIN dash kit there and they helped me with some needed fabrication for a very reasonable price.  Of course I had bought the stereo from them a few days earlier.

A guy in Charlottesvile started Crutchfield in 1974.  He has the remains of his old Porsche 356 in the showroom!!!

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-...N/about/aboutus.aspx

I agree with Danny.  Polk Audio are great speakers for the price.  I have installed them in many cars.  I have them on my deck in Charlottesville.

I really envy you guys.

My hearing aids make everything sound the same, and going without them does a fine job of replicating the experience of listening to music while laying in bed with a pillow over my head (which, as an aside, is the one upside of hearing loss - background noise is zero issue while sleeping).

When I'm flying solo, I put in $20 Amazon earbuds and further damage the hearing I've got left. I've always listened to music at ear-bleed levels, which is a not insignificant part of how I ended up here, deaf as a post at 59.

The upside is that I've saved a boatload of money over the years in stereos not purchased. The downside is... well, I really miss how music is supposed to sound.

@Marty Grzynkowicz posted:

Robert like this?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0/Focal-RCX-690.html

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0/Focal-ICU-130.html

I need to keep the amp small.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...0D/Sony-XMS400D.html

Yes and no. I forgot to ask if the plan is to have the speakers mounted behind the door card with a perforated or integrated speaker grill. Or are you were going to surface mount the speakers in the door and the rear package shelf. I'm asking because the coaxial speaker that you linked to are nice speakers but the tweeter sits a little proud of the speaker surround. If those are going under the door card they may not fit. If you are going to surface mount them then that's not an issue. Older cars may have less space behind the door card to fit a speaker.When your car was built the speakers were small and very thin so that was never an issue. newer speakers have larger magnets and deeper mounting space requirements.

You could do a half component system half coaxial or triaxial system. What I mean by that is that FOCAL makes a 6x9 component woofer for deeper notes that you could put in the rear package shelf and put in a coaxial speaker in the door to play the mids and highs. The Sony amp you linked is wired so you can use the rear channel for the 6x9 components that will filter out the higher notes and the coaxial will have an integrated filter to filter out the lower notes and retain the higher notes of the middle and high frequencies.

FOCAL 6x9 component woofer or FOCAL 6x9 Component Woofer

Older cars can be easier or harder depending on what you're trying to accomplish. If this is going to be a completely stealth setup you'll need to know the door depths etc. If this is a non-stealth setup and the speakers will be surface mounted you will definitely have a lot more leeway. Adding sound deadening in the doors will help a lot with the sound quality. Or you could add speaker baffles to help tighten up the sound. They have an added benefit of keeping the speakers dry if water leaks down into the interior of the door because of rain or washing the car.

I won't discount the quality of Polk Speakers but I think you'll find that the FOCAL products are rated higher in almost every category. The phone call to Crutchfield is free and I think if you were to call them their customer service people are pretty knowledgeable about the products and designing a system that will sound really nice in the Alfa. Or better yet, head over to one of the many custom shops where you live and pick their brains. Car stereo system have gotten quite sophisticated and extremely technical in their advancements over the years. It's very important that you're matching ohms and impedance carefully.

Front speakers go here not in doors. I’ll probably leave out tweeters.  I like the ideas of a coaxial front speaker if they don’t have the center cone stick out, needs to be more flush. The goal is only decent tunes not stealth audio.

And I have decent room for deep bass 6*9 in back shelf.

I think Crutchfield rates the Focal speakers very high. Much higher than the Polk Audio speakers. They’re expensive but not prohibitively so. Crutchfield knows car audio. Get the Focal speakers. Man that’s a beautiful interior.

@Marty Grzynkowicz posted:

Front speakers go here not in doors. I’ll probably leave out tweeters.  I like the ideas of a coaxial front speaker if they don’t have the center cone stick out, needs to be more flush. The goal is only decent tunes not stealth audio.

And I have decent room for deep bass 6*9 in back shelf.

Definitely go with the coaxial then that you selected. They'll be surface mount based on the photo so the center tweeter won't be a problem. For a more old school look you might try to find a plain black speaker grill without the fancy schmansy grill pattern and the brand name of the speaker showing.

I would also use speaker baffles behind all of the speakers. That will tighten up the response and give the sound a better feel.

@Stan Galat posted:

I really envy you guys.

My hearing aids make everything sound the same, and going without them does a fine job of replicating the experience of listening to music while laying in bed with a pillow over my head (which, as an aside, is the one upside of hearing loss - background noise is zero issue while sleeping).

When I'm flying solo, I put in $20 Amazon earbuds and further damage the hearing I've got left. I've always listened to music at ear-bleed levels, which is a not insignificant part of how I ended up here, deaf as a post at 59.

The upside is that I've saved a boatload of money over the years in stereos not purchased. The downside is... well, I really miss how music is supposed to sound.

Hear, Hear.

Speakers, Smeakers. So 1900’s.

Bonus: they have “noise canceling” mode for those of us that drove convertibles/motorcycles and played loud music all our lives and now have tinnitus as a result  

@dlearl476 posted:

Hear, Hear.

Speakers, Smeakers. So 1900’s.

Bonus: they have “noise canceling” mode for those of us that drove convertibles/motorcycles and played loud music all our lives and now have tinnitus as a result  

It is illegal to cover both ears with headphones or earbuds while driving in most states except: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Marty hails from Illinois so it's a no-go for Marty to cover both ears.

@Robert M posted:

It is illegal to cover both ears with headphones or earbuds while driving in most states except: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Marty hails from Illinois so it's a no-go for Marty to cover both ears.

That's 33 out of 51 (counting DC) where it's legal.

While it's technically illegal in the other 18 states, I've never heard of it being enforced (at least here). Cops here are generally delighted with anything that keeps a phone off somebody's head.

Consider that earbuds go into the ear canal, just like the speakers on my hearing aids... which are also Bluetooth enabled, meaning that I can pipe music from my phone into my hearing aids (which shut off outside sound while in Bluetooth mode) and be 100% legal. Further, many hearing aids look almost exactly like tan earbuds, with the entire apparatus down in the ear canal.

I wouldn't drive around with a set of Beats earphones on... but I road-trip in earbuds.

_{Full disclosure: I also speed on the public roadway, and encourage friends to do likewise.}

While Massachusetts is on the "Don't wear um" list, in one of my soireés to the RMV, I found that it is OK to wear earbuds here IF you are using them to navigate, like when they're attached to a GPS or phone in GPS mode giving you turn instructions.

Like that makes more sense or something.........

@Gordon Nichols posted:

While Massachusetts is on the "Don't wear um" list, in one of my soireés to the RMV, I found that it is OK to wear earbuds here IF you are using them to navigate, like when they're attached to a GPS or phone in GPS mode giving you turn instructions.

Like that makes more sense or something.........

Proving my point.

@Stan Galat posted:

I wouldn't drive around with a set of Beats earphones on... but I road-trip in earbuds.

_{Full disclosure: I also speed on the public roadway, and encourage friends to do likewise.}

The JBL buds I have have three modes:

• noise canceling
• talk through
• ambient aware

The second and third mostly are like not wearing anything, with turn by turn gps notifications amplified. I’ve found that the noise cancelling works great for minimizing an annoying air leak I have in my convertible top that I’ve been too lazy to address that i believe is close to osha standards for sustained db levels. And I doesn’t affect my ability to hear transient noises like sirens and horns.

These aren’t your dad’s earbuds.

ps: I’m old enough to remember when the DOT and most states banned halogen headlights. Authority ≠ Wisdom.

What about headrests with built in speakers ?

or at one time they had “snap over ” headrest speakers that were a left and right speakers connected to an elastic band that goes over the stock headrest…..

@dlearl476 posted:

Hear, Hear.

Speakers, Smeakers. So 1900’s.

Yeah, not everyone chooses to be illegal, nor do earbuds work for every person.

I got pulled over for wearing earbuds in my work truck once in NY state. If I only had one  bud in he would not have stopped me. I got a warning. Didn't seem to matter that I could hear all the ambient noise anyway. In 30 years, I never got pulled over for any other reason.

My wife is hearing impaired and cannot wear in-ear buds. That's the only reason I installed the amp, speakers, and bluetooth receiver in my Spyder. But, they work well enough for me too. And it's legal, in all 50 states.

These work great for me while cycling. I can hear cars coming, talk to my buddies, etc. I have some mild hearing loss and tinnitus, but these work well. Also, legal as far as I can tell.

https://shokz.com