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From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
Infinity Reference 6032si 6-1/2" 2-Way Reference Series Shallow-Mount Car Speakers. Yes, with some minor trimming of the speaker frame they will fit right in and your kick panel will fit over for a nice factory look.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (track prepared)
C3 of Year Winner (track prepared) 2019
Originally Posted by resdoggie
Infinity Reference 6032si 6-1/2" 2-Way Reference Series Shallow-Mount Car Speakers. Yes, with some minor trimming of the speaker frame they will fit right in and your kick panel will fit over for a nice factory look.
I took my old 4 x 10 out of the dash. Bought high quality 4" rounds. cut the middles out of my old speakers and used them as brackets. Mounted the 4"ers on to the 4 x 10s and they work great. My 4"ers had small tweeters that sat a little high in the middle. I took my speaker covers (they are very availible to buy) and cut a hole for the tweeter to set flush. It looks very good and will run you out of the car with no amp.
From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
Originally Posted by fleming23
Any photos of this install?
Here is the right side. It's a tight fit but doable. The kick panel fits right over it. Same for the left side. I have an Alpine 10" subwoofer in the back all hooked into a JL Audio XD400/4 class D amp. Don't need dash speakers as the sound is pretty good from the kick panel speakers. I'm not an audiophile so I didn't bother with sound deadening matting. Sound works for me as is.
The pic below is what is holding me up for my replacement Focal 6.5" speakers.
Last edited by resdoggie; May 8, 2013 at 06:31 PM.
Anyone trying to get High-Fidelity sound from ANY speakers mounted to the inside of a C3 cockpit is either 'smokin' something' or very naive. Not trying to be nasty....just telling it like it is.
You can get sound that is a reasonable representation of rock n' roll music (heck...all the guitars sounds are "buzzed" anyway); but that's about as good as you'll do for sound accuracy. Volume is a function of what power the amp has. But quality of sound is VERY dependent on the space in which that music is played via a speaker system. And, a C3 cockpit is definitely NOT 'La Scala'....
From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
I have side pipes so I need a bit of a boost in sound, hence the amp. Sound quality is not as bad as you descibe but I agree it has its limitations. I will say this, the quality of sound is far better coming from kick panel speakers than from the dash speakers.
Last edited by resdoggie; May 9, 2013 at 07:48 AM.
I'll agree with that...to a point. The broader sound and particularly the mid and bass frequencies are best coming from the kickpanel areas. But, the best high frequency sounds are those that come from the dash speakers and are reflected [off the windshield] directly toward the passengers. High frequencies need to be directed toward the listener...they don't propagate well; and the dash speakers do that better than any other location in the car. I'm pretty sure that's why the speakers moved from the kickpanel area to the dash area. That did improve the high frequency performance---but it made mid/bass frequency performance very poor.
Polk DB651s (Slim Mount) 6 1/2". Kick panels (for cutting, originals stored) were $20.00 a pair on EBay. My local Delco dealer mixes the oxblood dye for me. As per 7T1Vette's comments I have 4 x 6"s up top in the dash.
From: Some days your the dog and some days your the hydrant.
Royal Canadian Navy
Originally Posted by 7T1vette
I'll agree with that...to a point. The broader sound and particularly the mid and bass frequencies are best coming from the kickpanel areas. But, the best high frequency sounds are those that come from the dash speakers and are reflected [off the windshield] directly toward the passengers. High frequencies need to be directed toward the listener...they don't propagate well; and the dash speakers do that better than any other location in the car. I'm pretty sure that's why the speakers moved from the kickpanel area to the dash area. That did improve the high frequency performance---but it made mid/bass frequency performance very poor.
Sound systems for any car in the '70's and prior were junk compared to today. The dash oem speakers were'nt worth the effort by GM but I can see where GM was coming from by relocating them there as you noted. Had I installed a component speaker system the tweeter would have been put in the dash but like I said, I'm not an audiophile.