I'll admit I know nothing about stereos. I want something a little louder than stock. The car is loud now and I'd prefer a stereo a little louder so I can hear it over the car. What I do not want to do is add weight, so I don't really want sub boxes or anything like that. I would also like ot get rid of the CD changer in the trunk. Any suggestions for a setup?

 

8" component set in the doors, well dampened (will add a bit of weight) and a 100-150 watt per chan, 2 chan amp. then just add a nice head unit and call it a day.

 

Just corious...how mich is a bit of weight?

What does well dampened mean?

So I should only worry about the speakers in the door? Not the ones in the trunk? And they are 8" speakers? Any specific brand speakers, amp, or head unit I should look for?

 

you know, i don't actually know how much weight it's going to add. certainly not as much as a woofer and box... not even close. you should contact rick at raamatt and have him suggest the most weight conscious application for your car and needs.

speakers, it's always safe to go with dyn or focal but it depends on your budget really. amp... i usually don't recommend these bud the alpine digital amps are small and light weight so they may suit your needs perfectly. for the head unit, i'd go with eclipse or the pioneer 880 prs

i'd just take out the rear speakers, i don't run them and i prefer the sound that way. as far as the door woofers, you can get away with smaller like a more standard 6.5" but since you're not going with a sub, the 8" will add more of the oomph. the reason why you need dampening is so that it'll strengthen the midbass and bass from your woofer and stop your door from sounding like a box of screws

 

scott makes great suggestions... whats ur budget to work with

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll start shopping around. Any good places to start looking?

You know I haven't really given it any thought. I know I'd like to keep the price reasonable since I am not going to go over the top with a whole system but at the same time I don't want to buy cheap stuff that will not make me happy. I think I paid somewhere around $700 for the stuff I didn in my Camaro (alpine head unit, polk speakers, mtx amp) and was very happy with the way that sounded. Can my goal in the Vette be reached for around $1000-1500?

 

Good suggestions so far, and yes: you can have a nice system in your car with $1000-1500 on tap.

Figure the Pioneer PRS-880 is about $330 shipped. A good two-channel amp will cost about the same, depending on brand, power output, etc... If you go with the PRS you can get a 4 channel amp for ultimate control over each driver. (Variable crossover settings, time alignment of the drivers, EQ, etc...)

As for the speakers, it's a subjective answer. As others have said, it's really hard to go wrong with Dyn or Focal. (I run the Pioneer 720 PRS's and they sound great. I would recommend them as well.) You can also buy raw drivers and make your own component set... and get as good or better performance than what you will buy from your local brick-and-mortar store.

I have bought stuff from Sonic Electronix and they have been good to deal with. Flea-Bay is a roll of the dice, but good deals can be found. There are also some supporting vendors on here that might get you a decent price... especially if you tell them that you want a total package deal.

So what kind of music do you listen to? How loud do you want it?

Mark

 

I listen to most any kind of music out there. Plus with friends that listen to all kinds of music pretty much anything can and will be played. I really don't like that deep bass sound from a big sub, which is why I am lind of leaning against it. Not sure which way to go with it but if I get one it has to be able to come out easy. When I take the car to the track in the fall for new best times I don't want all the extra weight in it. So any amp will come out and if I have a sub that will come out too.

I was very happy with the setup I had in my old Camaro. I really don't know anything about this stuff but this is what I know about it. It was an Alpine head unit (65x4watts)and I had 4 Polk speakers in it(I think they were 6") with a max output of 180watts. My amp was a 400 watt 4 channel MTX amp.That is pretty much all I know about it but with the t-tops off going down the highway it was still loud enough to clearly hear over the car and road noise. If I can match that sound I will be happy in the Vette, since it is not as loud as the Camaro was. My stock vette stereo can not do that and if I crank it up the sound quality just isn't there.

So I guess the concensus is 8" speakers up front and nothing in the back and a good amp to power them. For a head unit, do they make them to fit right in the dash? I know the stock ehad unit is bigger than a normal head unit.

Thanks for all the advice so far guys.

 

you would be saving a lot of money if you went with raw drivers (not getting a prebuilt system with passive x-overs), the pioneer i mentioned, and a 4 chan amp. you could get a nice dayton 8" woofer for about $55 a pop (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=295-366) and the Vifa D26NC55 that spkrboy praises for about $35/ea.
you need to double check that the woofer will play high enough for that tweet, though. i dont know the specs off the top of my head)
this suggestion is largely based on you getting the pioneer that i suggested (or similar hu that has a beefy x-over/eq function)

 

8" woofers will fit in the door? how are they mounted?

 

just like you'd mount a 6.5" use the stock speaker as a template, cut it out of wood and cut a 8" hole into it. (the stock woofer is an 8)

 

The C5 door has a pretty big opening to be able to fabricate a speaker plate and mount up to an 8" driver without cutting anything.



The numbers you see are the depth dimensions from the door to an internal obstruction inside the door. (Window, frame, etc...)

Hope this helps.

Mark