I've recently purchased my first vette, a 2001 vert. I think the car is a blast, but the audio system doesn't sound as good as I would like. I've followed this forum as I've tried to develop an improvement plan. I want to keep the original head unit because it looks "right" to me with the rest of the dash and I find it reasonably intuitive to use. I don't really want to fill up the back of the car w/ audio equip/boxes, and I don't want a lot invest in improvements that wouldn't be noticed with the top down. I'm considering adding a 5 channel amp with 4 channels driven by the preamp outs from the HU prior to the BSP and the 5th channel signal fed by the BSP subwoofer output. I would replace the Bose subwoofer w/ another 8" sub, the front 3.5" Twiddlers w/ a 4" component w/ the 4" speaker next to the sub and a 1" dome tweeter mounted somewhere between the existing speaker grille and the A pillar. I would replace the rear 5.25" Twiddlers w/ 6.5" 2 way speakers with the mounting moved inboard to about where the seatbelt bracket is and rotated slightly to fire forward. Would this work, would it be an improvement, would the existing HU be able to control it, and are there any suggestions for an imroved setup? Thanks

 

Some details of your system are missing. You don't describe the new sub system completely. What exactly are you NOT going to use in the system?


Why do you think you need to use the BSP at all? I need to know if the 5th channel of your amp has the ability to be fed two inputs? If not, you can connect together two of the HU pre-amp outputs with say two 5k ohm resistors. You would connect the "new" sub amp to the middle of the two resistors. This will feed the sum of those two channels. If you use four resistors, you will feed the sum of all pre-amp outputs to the amp. You should switch the amp internal EQ to low pass.

You need to decide how you will connect the new 8" subs to the amp. You can connect them is series or parallel. It depends on the amps capability. If put in parallel, you will get more power, but the amp must be 2 ohm stable and well ventilated.

The best place for the Tweeters is pointed at the passenger and drivers head. If you mount the Tweeter low in the door it will be a dissapointment.

 

I am not sure what amp you are planning to buy... but some of them have a "input" switch so you can tell the amp to send a signal from the rear inputs to the sub output .... I know that some of them do... I am unsure which though...

I would jsut recommmed that you make your setup so that if you decide to , in the future to upgrade.. its a simple plug and play.... I found out the hard way when I tapped the wires directly w/o making RCA connections... and I had to run new RCA's.. its not hard.. just tedious...

Many people done upgrade their HU's for sound quailty.. because with 99HT's instructions the sound is great... but I wanted a HU w/ MP3 so I upgraded...

 

I don't describe the sub system completely because I don't know enough to do so. I've read your posts back to mid December and the bulk of my understanding of this subject is based on what I've read on this forum. I'v been leaning toward either a JL Audio 500/5 or a Rockford Fosgate 600.5 amp. I believe that both a stabe down to 1.5 or 2 ohms, and I would like to mount it in the rear center compartment. I was hoping there would be enough ventilation there if I drilled a few holes in the compartment cover. For speakers I was looking at a JL Audio subwoofer (solely because they advertise one designed for infinate baffle applications, which I believe this to be) and either JL Audio (XR series) or Boston (ProSeries) for the rest of the speakers. From some of the posts it appears that the front tweeters sound best when mounted about dash height; I had assumed that final placement would be sort of a tuning thing. I had suggested feeding the sub amp from the BSP because I don't know any better, and would abandon it in a heartbeat if the system would be better w/o it (at minimum add'l cost). I did wonder if the loss of stereo signal to the subwoofer would matter, and also if the tweeters should be aimed at the near or far seats.

 

I have the exact speaker setup you described except I also have a 12 in a box in the back. I have played my system without the box but with the 8's on and it sounds real good. More Bass then with the blows system. I do have a aftermarket Z828 stereo though

If your going to go through all the trouble of replacing the speakers you might as well by a new head unit also. You should be able to sell the stock head unit for $140