Scottd

1982.....I need door speakers in the 100-125 watt range to go with my new 5 channel amp. Any suggestions as to what will fit wit little to no modification?

Easy Mike

C3s did not have speakers in the doors. My advice would be not to attempt to add any; there isn't much room to work in the doors.

You should have room behind the kick panels for speakers. You can also go the optional rear speaker set up route.

Scottd

Argh. Thats what I get for not being able to look at my car for the last 6 months!

What size goes in the kick panels?

Easy Mike

4x10s were installed on the 68 and 69s behind the kick panels. You can also get 4x6s behind them. You won't have to cut up the kick panels.

The optional 79-82 rear speaker set up used a pair of 6x8s.

Scottd

So did the 82's have any speakers in the kick panel? I know there are 4x6 in the dash.

Easy Mike

No. GM gave up the kick panel location after the 69s.

leadfoot4

5 channel amp?

I'm thinking 4 4"x6" speakers, in the dash and kicks, and a small sub in the hatch area....

Scottd

Close.....2 6x9's and a 10" sub in an enclosed box in the rear....and I still need to figure out what and where Im installing up front.

The 5 channel puts out 125wattsx4, so I need either room for a 6x9 up front , or a real strong 4x6....or something that will fit the kick panels

Shark Racer

Amplified 6.5s in the kicks and an 8-10" sub will be more than enough sound for the average person in one of these cars.

I had this setup in my 02 Corvette and could blow my eardrums out if I felt like it. It was good.

Scottd

1) 454 with sidepipes and T-Tops which are always off. Need Loud stereo.

2) My music isnt average, and when Im not in a congested area, I prefer to listen to it so loud that my brain goes numb. 8*)

I think Im going to search around to find some 4x6's that can handle 60-100 RMS Watts. Do the front 4x6 need to be a shallow mount speaker? I remember there being very little room on the drivers side...

If I cant find an appropriate 4x6, Ill try something in the kick panels.

7t2vette

Good luck finding 4x6 speakers that sound good at elevated volumes! Forget the 6x9 rear speakers, go with 2 subs instead. The interior of these cars are so small that rear fill speakers (6x9 or any other small coaxial full range speakers) are simply not needed. Put one or more subs only in the rear, and put a decent component set (seperate mid and tweeter) up front, at least 5.25". Put the mid in the door or the kick panel, and the tweeters in the dash. Don't waste your time or money on coaxial speakers in any size, especially the smallers ones. Think about it, when have you ever seen a decent set of home speakers with coaxial drivers? Always seperate woofer, mid, and tweeter. The best sounding systems usually have a minimum number of drivers in it; each part is considered a driver - each tweeter, mid, and woofer/subwoofer.

I would buy a 4 channel amp with built-in variable crossovers, and run the front speakers off 2 channels in stereo using the high pass filter, and the subs either in stereo or mono with the other 2 channels using the low pass filter. This is a very simple system that will sound great, exactly what I have in my Corvette.

Since you already have a 5 channel amp, you could biamp the front soundstage by using 2 channels for the tweeters and 2 channels for the mids/mid bass speakers, and the 5th channel for the subs. Assuming your amp has built-in variable crossovers for each set of channels, this would give you complete control over what frequencies each set of speakers would recieve. Just like a great running engine, the secret to a great sounding system is all in the tuning.

In the late 80's and early 90's, I was a competitor on the IASCA car audio competition circuit. I competed for sound quality. Sound reproduction is very subjective, everyone hears things differently. When designing my Corvette's system, I found that the front soundstage sounded much better with the mids in the doors rather than the kick panels, but that is my subjective opinion. I also prefer my high frequencies to be "bright", so the dash is perfect for me because the soundwaves from the tweeters bounce off the windshield directing them to ear level. The higher the frequency, the shorter the distance the soundwave travels; I have always found that kick panel mounted tweeters sound muted because they are so far away from your ears. Again, that is my subjective opinion, your results may vary!

I have a '72, and my rear window is always out, so I needed the shelf to still operate in case I needed to put the window in for any reason. Here is the sub box I built for a couple of Rockford Fosgate 10" Punch subs, the kind made for small enclosures. I can still use the rear window shelf, and the t-tops fit, barely,but they fit. These subs kick ***!



My amp is mounted on the back wall.



My Kenwood head unit, and you can also see where I mounted the bass eq control for the amp. The switches and indicator leds are for my electric fan and driving lights.



Where I mounted the cd changer.



The MTX 5.25" mids are in the doors, and the tweeters are in the stock dash locations.



The front crossovers are behind the kick panels.

CWerner

Here's my setup.... and thread that tells all http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...s-of-pics.html

Shark Racer

4x6 speakers are generally pretty awful and the area they're mounted in the C3s gives horrible imaging. The kicks are much better overall - better stage, bigger speakers.

I've done long drives with the tops off and my 6x9s have more than enough volume to overcome that obstacle. I have not driven my 78 with a side piped 454, though.

Scottd

OK, so my final setup is

Rear Box- Sony Sub 300 RMS
Kenwood 6x9's 120 RMS
Front kick panels- Sony 6.75's, 75 RMS

Now my amp puts out 4x 65 RMS and 1x150 at 4 OHMS.

Am I underpowering these speakers or is it a modest combination?

Stupid question- All components are rated for 4 Ohms...what happens if I put the Amp in the 2 OHM setting?

Still havnt decided on a head unit yet. Thats for next months budget.

Shark Racer

don't know what will happen. The speakers will continue to have 4ohm impedance though.

You should do more power on the amp side than what the speakers are rated at and adjust the gain on the amp to avoid speaker clipping.

Reason is, a clipped input is much more damaging than a clipped speaker. Clipped amp signal goes square wave and ruins speakers fast. That's why you want more amp power than what the speaker can produce, because you can then manually adjust the amp down.

CWerner

check speaker depth on the 6.75". You may end up needing to trim some metal, or go with different speakers. My focal's were a shallow mount depth, and just worked.

Scottd

Now Im getting worried that Ive just wasted a bunch of money...

So, is the the amp going to be underpowered and ruin my speakers?

Rear Box- Sony Sub 300 RMS
Kenwood 6x9's 120 RMS
Front kick panels- Sony 6.75's, 75 RMS

Now my amp puts out 4x 65 RMS and 1x150 at 4 OHMS.

Based on my math, my 6x9's and sub will be getting about half their rated RMS...please dont tell me Im going to have to buy another amp......The first one hasnt even been delivered yet.....

mds3013

These Polk's fit and have very good specs.. mike...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...o-upgrade.html

Scottd

I just found out the MINN rms on the sub is 50, Ill be giving it 150, and the other 4 speakers will be fine. Im stoked.
Biggest challenge will be making the 6.75 inch speakers fit in the kick panels....Ill make em fit...somehow.....

Shark Racer

The likelihood of ruining your speakers depends on how hard you try to push the amp. Just passing along general info. Much better to push a good strong signal through weak speakers than a bad strong signal through good speakers. Both are bad, the latter is worse.