Speaker recommendations

The speakers being located in the doors are 100% not the issue. I'm not familiar with the Retrosound units, but do you know how much wattage is being pushed to the speakers? Infinity is a solid brand and with the right power you should have clear sound. It will be incomplete sound, and you could benefit greatly from adding a couple rear speakers in the form of 6x9s or something similar. A complete package would include a small subwoofer, not for mirror-rattling bass, but to allow for lower frequencies to be reproduced. The nice powered underseat offerings from JBL, Sony or the like would be perfect.

I think it may be more the muffling by the door pockets and maybe needed improvements in the enclosure, assuming there is one.  I don't think there are any places in the car where 6x9s could be fitted, but I will take some measurements.  Even 5.25s will be tough.

Yours being a coupe I wouldn't have first hand knowledge, but you don't need much room to squeeze in a couple speakers. Just a small cavity where the magnet can fit. The sound will have no problem coming through those door panels, again, this issue is most likely amplification.

If you have a model number for the Retrosound unit I can take a look at what it's doing. It may be that you could benefit from a small amplifier in order to get the most out of your Infinity speakers. I would just hate to encourage you to go through all of that and not at least get another pair of speakers in the rear. I don't care what you do, two small speakers in the front of the car just don't have the ability to produce a full, enveloping sound. Proper amplification and four speakers would be capable of producing more sound that you would most likely ever need. You'd be yelling over the top of it to talk to someone else in the car.

If it's not too much trouble to remove one of the door panels, it would be helpful to see if there's some sort of baffle that the speaker is seated in. If not, that's a $15 fix that will do wonders for you as well. But, you've got a coupe that's done to the nines, so I doubt that would have been overlooked.

Lane I have a full retro sound system with their 4channel amp and sub8100 under the back seat.

i have speakers in the kickplates back seat arm rest areas and tweeters on the AC panel

Speakers In the doors are fine albeit the highs are lost covered up so you would need tweeters higher up or a full range speaker under the dash

Now audison makes nice stuff that you can use as amplifiers with the retro deck.

Something that you might want to consider is to get two speakers full range in their own enclosure that could be placed wherever you want I saw a guy with a 66 Corvette have them either on his rear partial shelf or on his rear seat the sound quality was pretty good

But you’ll have to do some investigation as to what fits in your cabin and what of course you prefer.

Having installed my share of car audio systems in a former life, those door speakers won't cut it - They simply can't move that much air through that restrictive door cover and map pocket - they act like a muffler and if you hit them with enough gain they'll eventually start to buzz.

Cutting new openings in the lower forward corner of the door would be better, but since you don't want to do that and probably don't want to have a sub-woofer in there, either, the best compromise I can think of would be a pair of these somewhere in the back.  You could put connectors on them to remove them when you pull the engine cover, and they have 8" main cones (for decent but not kidney-batting bass) and a 1-1/2" coned tweeter for the highs.  I'm assuming the retro-sound head has an equalizer in it somewhere (it seems to have everything else) so you can tailor the response a bit to match the car's interior acoustics by ear.  They are also pretty responsive and you'll probably not need an additional amp.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...nd-R-TB8.html?tp=109

the only radio i needed was my A1 exhaust

As others have said I would say the deficiencies are lack of power and lack of adequate speakers.

You said the door speakers are 5.25” Infinity speakers but are they simply a simple cone, coaxial, or tri-axial speaker? The speaker being behind the door panel is degrading sound quality to a degree. High frequencies are directional and since they are behind the door pocket the highs are being completely blocked. Low frequencies are multi-directional and don’t need to be pointed toward you. I do believe though that being behind the door pocket it is going to muffle the sound a bit. That could be overcome with more power though.

As far as the speaker not having an enclosure behind it, I don’t think that’s a big issue. Midrange speakers move very little air and tweeters don’t move any air. A baffle behind the speaker might help a little but you wouldn’t see a massive amount of improvement. I filled both of my doors with about 5 lbs of polyfiber material to help create more of an enclosure type feel and increased the sound quality. It also made the doors sound less like fiberglass doors when they close.

I’d have to go back to the photos of your coupe to know for sure but I do believe you have room on the engine cover for some 6x9 type speaker enclosures. Or if you want to go all in I’d take the coupe to a stereo shop and see about having custom made fiberglass enclosures made for the rear area of the coupe. Other places are for speaker placement would be behind the seats or under the seats if they aren’t already on the floor. Custom made fiberglass kick panels could also be made to house a new midrange speaker and a tweeter.

Unfortunately this is likely to be one of those situations where function will have to come before form if you want really good sound. There could be a compromise in there somewhere. A quick trip to the local stereo shop might reveal an answer though.

I'll probably remove one of the door panels this evening and see exactly what I'm working with.  I'll report back later.

I have no intention of installing a sound system in my Speedster (for now anyway).  But since you have one installed already I thought I’d share my thoughts.

I believe it true that anything between you and the speaker will act as a baffle of sorts.  Similar to stuffing a rag into an air horn trumpet.  With that in mind I wouldn’t want to “see” speakers cut into door panels.  I feel that takes away from the aesthetic of the vehicle.  Perhaps mounting speakers in the door behind the door cards would be an option.  To lessen the baffling you could remove any batting and (forgive me) punch a pattern of holes into the visible surface of the door card.  Punching a few holes in the material would also lessen the unsprung weight of your vehicle (again…forgive me).

I have thought that if I do end up installing a sound system I would fabricate a panel and mount the speakers tucked up behind the dash above the knees if you will.  With the right angle and equipment I’m sure you could get a quality sound.

Take a look at the second pic - that's kind of what they did, but then the location puts it behind the door pocket, which covers the holes they put in the door panel.  I think that is seriously muffling the highs and mid range.  Base is ok, but the door's acoustics aren't great.  I'll see in a little bit if there's any kind of enclosure around the speaker itself.

I see it now.  That’s pretty much what I had in mind…with the exception of covering all the holes with another piece of fabric.  It keeps the clean look but surely it has a negative impact on the sound quality.

Ok I have Infinity Primus PR5012is speakers without any sort of baffling or sound enclosure.  The latter explains why the base is muddy but overblown while the low and mid range are attenuated by the leather door pocket.  There is no other place the they can be located in the door because of the inner structure and the window and latch mechanisms.  Pictures attached.  I need to investigate some sort of baffle/enclosure or move the speakers - probably the latter will be most effective.  Fortunately getting to them isn't hard.  The wiring behind the dash may be challenging, however.  For those of you who've fought with dash wiring on a Speedster, now add A/C, a stereo, a modern engine with all the electronics, etc.  Yeah, it's a bit, um, tight.  Hey @chines1, does Fincher have unusually small hands?

Link to speaker data page: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...PR5012IS.html?tp=105

Crutchfield sells this baffle:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_...e-2-11-16-depth.html

Remove the speaker, unhook the wires, pull the wire through the back of the baffle, insert the baffle in the hole, insert the speaker, and screw the speaker back into the door  

@Robert M is dead on. Get the Boom Mats. You'll want to use a hole saw to open up a 1" - 1 1/2" opening at the top or bottom for air to escape. You can feed your wire through this hole as well. I promise you'll immediately notice a much tighter and contained sound, vs. a sloppy mid/low and flat high end.

The thing with car audio is there's a million solutions, it really depends on what you want to do, or not do. If it were me, I'd scrap the coaxials and install some components. Flush mount the tweeter higher up on the door. This would alleviate the issue of your highs being affected by the leather in front of the cone. I personally doubt this is much of an issue, but you could always test the system with the door covers off and judge for yourself.

To bad your door pockets weren’t a basket weave instead of being solid so it wouldn’t muffle the sound I’d say put a mini amp and some good speakers back in the door but your interior  door skins are way to nice to mess with

No speaker install was done by both me and the guys/gal in upholstery.  Lidia is about 100lbs so she may have had a part in some of the smaller spaces...

As for speaker placement, yeah, there's not a lot of room left for audio after everything else.  BUT if you think that is tight, try rerouting your AC vent hoses.  I've got a full day in just 4 hoses.  It SUCKS!  Lots of blood sweat and cussing there

@JR_1979 posted:

@Robert M is dead on. Get the Boom Mats. You'll want to use a hole saw to open up a 1" - 1 1/2" opening at the top or bottom for air to escape. You can feed your wire through this hole as well. I promise you'll immediately notice a much tighter and contained sound, vs. a sloppy mid/low and flat high end.

The thing with car audio is there's a million solutions, it really depends on what you want to do, or not do. If it were me, I'd scrap the coaxials and install some components. Flush mount the tweeter higher up on the door. This would alleviate the issue of your highs being affected by the leather in front of the cone. I personally doubt this is much of an issue, but you could always test the system with the door covers off and judge for yourself.

I would have recommended components as well but I'm pretty sure Lane isn't willing to do that. Although they have a dizzying array of surface mount tweeters etc available if one isn't willing to put holes anywhere.

The trouble with car audio is that isn't usually something most people think of when building/designing a car and that's not a slam on Carey or anyone else in this business. The Speedster never came with a radio and wasn't designed to have one. If high quality audio going to be put in these little cars it needs to be designed early in the process. I managed to get phenomenal bass out of my car because I cut open the back wall of the rear seat and installed a subwoofer enclosure then covered it back up with the carpet.

If I were building this car from the ground up just about everything would be done brand new with fiberglass moulds. I would cut out the whole back of the rear seat area and build in a custom subwoofer enclosure with bendable wood forms then cover all of that with fiberglass and carpet. I'm using a 10" woofer now but four 8" sub-woofers would be so much tighter on the bass. The speaker faces would only be covered with speaker mesh fabric. Another alternative to that would be to cut and make narrower the shelf part of the package shelf. That would then be built back up with a fiberglass enclosure so an 8" subwoofer could be installed directly behind each seat in a forward facing manner. The package shelf would then be the correct size and the pad would fit as usual. The subwoofers would be behind the seat backs and out of sight. In the front foot box area I'd form custom kick panels as high up as possible with recessed speakers then cover all of that with speaker mesh to match the carpet. I wouldn't install a head unit as I'd find the best high quality bluetooth enabled amplifier and just do everything via bluetooth and an app. I know that doesn't reproduce sound nearly as well but it's a digital age and it does a good job or reproducing sound. Or if a head unit is desired I'd install that up under the dash similar to where I installed mine but I'd move it back a little further so it's more out of sight. The amplifier would be installed in the frunk, although mine is under the dash, and I'd install the electronic crossovers next to the amplifier or inside the custom kick panels where the mid-range and tweeters are. As an alternative, a valance could be installed along the bottom of the dash and tweeters could be installed there.

With this installation almost everything would be out of sight or barely visible if the materials match well enough. Either way it needs to be done early in the process so the fiberglass, levels, and everything else matches.

Somehow it didn't register to me that your door pockets are completely covering the speakers. I thought it was just the leather with the holes drilled. That's a shame.

Or you could send your door pockets off to ALB and get  some holes put in!!! Problem Solved!!! That will be $ 250.00 consultant Fee Thank You

@Former Member posted:

Or you could send your door pockets off to ALB and get  some holes put in!!! Problem Solved!!! That will be $ 250.00 consultant Fee Thank You

See the photo in Lane's first post. Door cards were already sent to Al B and returned. Or Carey did it in-house because of the US to Canadian exchange rate.

I cared about all of this once, I really did. I wanted the ultimate white-trash shophead dream - 50 series tires on 10" wide Cragar SSs, a thumpin' 'murican V8 with uncorked headers, and a Pioneer stereo that would peel the paint off my girlfriend's dad's porch. I spent a couple of endless summers (which lasted 3 months) pursuing just such a dream.

Then I got a job, got married, had kids, and spent 8-12 hrs/day in one mechanical (compressor) room or another for the next 36 years (and counting). Now, I'd just like to be able to discern what my grandkids are saying. As such, I got hearing aids a couple of years back (mostly so my family will be more patient with me asking them to repeat everything). They do a great job of amplifying all the sounds I don't want to hear.

Anyhow, when I'm road-tripping I like music as much as the next guy. I bought a nice pair of earbuds. By "nice" I mean I kept working my way up the Amazon Prime food chain until I was at the $35 level. I just returned the ones that didn't sound good until I got some that did. If Jeff Bezos really wants used Chinese earbuds with some old dude's crusty earwax on them, who am I to stand in his way?

The sound is far, far better than anything you're going to get short of spending the GDP of a small nation on car audio gear. The 35 bucks I spent wouldn't buy a souvenir keychain from one of the "real" stereo shops. They're bluetooth, so you can hear Waze alerts and hear your phone ringing.

Yeah, they're probably illegal - but bluetooth phone headsets (that also play music) and bluetooth hearing aids (ditto) are not, so I'm filing that particular law under the "come and get me copper" statutes (along with artificially low speed limits, $150 trailer plates, and most permits). It's far, far easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

I'd leave what you have, Lane. It looks cool, and probably sounds fine when people comment on it while the car is parked at C&C. Out on the road, I'd get some nice waterproof, noise cancelling, rechargeable $35 bluetooth earbuds and never look back.

Hey Carey, the small hand comment was about the under dash wiring. 🤣 I can’t imagine how any adult-sized hands did that.

Folks I’m not looking for high end sound as the engine noise (music itself) will prevent that.  I just want to be able to understand the lyrics.  I will probably try the in-door Boom Mat approach first.  If that’s not adequate I’ll look at relocating them.  My options appear to be under the dash, on the kick panels, or beside/behind the seats on the firewall.

Best sound stage in a car is just under the dash pointing at your ears, for tweeters and midranges. Coax speakers work well here, they either use drivers that are designed to work together or have fancy crossovers to tailor the frequency response curves.

If it was my car, Lane, I'd find something good in an enclosure that fit the space, or have enclosures made that fit the space. Then send them to the elves(100 pound Lidia) in Bremen to cover them in appropriate Lane interior colors.

Hook them up to the other two channels of the Retro-sound unit. Buy the behind speaker cups recommended above for the door speakers. Play with the fader until happy.

If you still need a bottom end get a self-contained amplified sub under your seat or get two, one under each seat.

^{... or, you know... send $35 to Jeff Bezos...}

Regarding the seats, I'm not sure there's much under under there.   Under the dash may be an issue with getting in and out.  I have some cogitatin' to do.

Michelle is deaf in her right ear and can't use earbuds. This dictated my bluetooth system in my Spyder. Audiopipe class D 100 watts rms x 2 to 6.5" Polk patio speakers. It loses bass the faster I go(and the wider the throttle is opened) but works for our needs.

Where the speakers are mounted, they're almost invisible since the footwell is deeper than a Speedster. The soundstage is perfect, on the back side of each inner fender. I sometimes wish for a sub but then I think why?

Stan is right, the best sound is from noise reduction earbuds. I got some wired Audiotechnica(ATH-ANC-23 or something like that) for about 35 bucks. I care not if they're legal, you can't see them when I have a hat with earflaps. That is what I used in the old Spyder(pre-Michelle era).

@Lane Anderson posted:

Regarding the seats, I'm not sure there's much under under there.   Under the dash may be an issue with getting in and out.  I have some cogitatin' to do.

Under dash as high as possible, and pointing at your ears!

Ok, just ordered the Boom Mat baffles - only $7.99 each.  Thanks for the link, @Robert M!  I'll keep y'all posted on how they do.

Send your Coupe DeVille up to me. I'll try to fit quality desk top computer speakers under the dash ...but don't mind the extra 100 or so miles that may accumulate in the name of checking sound quality ~

@DannyP posted:

Under dash as high as possible, and pointing at your ears!

I wasn't clear, but I was commenting on the under seat suggestion for the subs.  Tweeters should be easy to place.  Anything larger, not so much.

It's funny that no one has commented how silly it is for me to be worrying about how the stereo sounds instead of the usual sorting issues that are so commonly discussed on this forum.  That should tell you something about the job they did on this car.

Yeah, I'm a cheerleader.

I hope not, that's not an image I care for. The word is "fanboy", yeah, that's it. Fanboy.

Pompoms Lane now that is funny

@Lane Anderson posted:

It's funny that no one has commented how silly it is for me to be worrying about how the stereo sounds instead of the usual sorting issues that are so commonly discussed on this forum.

If that's not the goal of every owner, I've clearly misunderstood the point

We added an amp to a local client's speedster with the same head unit and speakers and it was a night and day difference.

As you can see int eh door, due to it already having 10 lbs of 5h!t in it, there isn't much choice for speaker placement.  You COULD find a bare spot in the erar firewall and fabricate an enclosure separating a pocket from the engine and add speakers there.  It would not be difficult, BUT look above and below and be sure not to impede removal of the engine cradle.

Carey,  Unit number two will be modified to accommodate speakers I’m sure,  then you can get Lane in to do it,  he’ll wear his pomponne outfit. Just kidding of course but you are sure to bring all kinds of improvements going forward with each new build.

@chines1 - What amp did you use?

See above - I ordered the baffles and will let you know what sort of improvement they bring.  As for cutting holes in the rear firewall, I'd rather not.  If I can find a decent enclosure that I can make look like it fits the rest of the interior I'll go that route, but only if the baffles and/or an amp don't do the trick.

I just realized something - the door panel appears to be sitting on the speaker surface itself .  That could be contributing to muffling/distortion.  I'll look into some sort of spacer to make sure the speaker cone can move freely.

This is the setup on my speedster.  There are speakers in the doors as well as the kick panels.  There is an amp up under the dash as well.  I don't know the specifics off the top of my head, but Carey would know exactly what was installed.  This has been more than adequate for me, even at highway speeds.

The one I mentioned above, the client provided an amp which I believe was from Retro Sound.

For our normal hidden stereo builds we use a Soundstream Stealth 4 channel amp (that is what Stuman has in his car).