Sound

[Alfadog]

I'm looking to find the right setup for speakers in my car, as currently it has none...

2ManyZs and Daniel both said that speaker panels are the way to go, so I'm probably going to have to do that, but whereabouts do you have yours and what can be done about putting speakers in the front?

[2ManyZs]

Well, Daniel said he has put speakers under the dash, I've used plywood to replace the kick panels and built small boxes to hold the speakers there. You could make a speaker box to set behind the seat but with a series 1 car you would have to work around the tool storage, or if it comes down to it and your door panels aren't perfect you could mount them in the bottom front corner of the door. My preference would be under the dash or in the kick panels so you don't have to do any cutting. Hope that helps.

[AxtellZ]

There's a local guy here that runs "the install shop"- he mounts front speakers in front of the doors, angled back toward the passengers. Takes up a little more room, but the sound is good. He also has built a combo speaker enclosure/strut tower brace in the hatch. That burns up ALOT of space, but really stiffens the back, and leaves a huge amount of space for speakers...the one i most recently saw used 12" woofers. Really loud, and good quality sound, but IMO, way overboard.

But if your into thumpin' music, its an option!

[2ManyZs]

You know now that you mention it, I haven't seen the speaker boxes you used to be able to buy that mounted speakers in front of the wheel arch behind the seat in years. I wonder if any still sells them? There would be another alternative for the rear speakers.

[Alfadog]

Yeah I was thinking about something just under the dash, but there's hardly any room in the driver's side!

Anybody got time to get some pictures to help explain ?

[Mike]

When I was in high-school, I just set two Cerwin Vega speakers in the back. They were pointed up and sounded GREAT! Great bass response and sound bounced up off the hatch and into the cockpit.

Only problem was cargo space and when I hit the brakes... the speakers would slide forward!!

After I got out of that stage, I decided to build a box that fit between my strut towers. It actually worked out very well. But, the TWO woofers were pointed toward the cockpit. I rattled my brain to hell (perfect for that time in my life), but, it didn't sound soo good.

I really like the speaker box that is sold by Motorsport Auto. It's a bit pricey, but, looks great. It fits under the rear hatch right next to the tail-lights.

Speakers in the front are a bit more difficult. I actually saw a guy who put a couple of tweeters INSIDE the air vents. He suspended them with a piece of metal and it didn't affect the airflow (he could still use the vents). But, that's tweet... you'll need some mid-range up front, too.

The best place is in your doors. They won't fit large speakers, but, you might want to try and find a spacer kit that will bolt on to the door.

The Z wasn't designed for the best acoustics. The damn thing only came with ONE speaker in the rear. It was paper and didn't do much but play AM stations. Now that I think of it... it was probably HI-TECH for AM at the time.

[byunique]

I myself knew putting large speakers in the front would be a challenge since the cutouts in the door panels will not accomodate large speakers and I didn't want to cut a lot of metal out of my doors. I eventually ended up putting 6.5 woofers in the doors along with separate surface mounted tweeters. The trick to putting a large speaker like this in is to use a 3/4 inch spacer under the speaker, minimizing the intrusion of the magnet into the door. This way you can go way beyond the 5" speaker limit.

For the back, my 73 has those storage bins. I ended up cutting holes in the storage tops and sinking 2 x 6.9 inch speakers in them along with the grills to protect them. I can still place items in the storage bins, but sometimes it is a bit tricky because the magnets have an affinity for them when taking things out.

Along with that I have a 4 channel, 35 watt/channel amp that powers the Pioneer CD head unit. All in all, I am very pleased with the sound coming from this Z. The speakers in the front doors present the correct soundstage for the car and the 6x9 speakers provide plenty of bass. 6.5 inch door speakers make a big difference over any 5" speaker, just a whole lot more bass. Most importantly, the 4 channel amp makes it all possible w/o it there would be too much road noise. I mounted the amp behind the passenger seat for the lack of a better spot. It is bit too big for underneath the seat which would be my first choice. I am very happy with my installation because it is very unobtrusive and I have plenty of good sound quality.

[Mike]

Do you have pictures you can show us in here?

[Alfadog]

Pictures would be wonderful

I'm not too keen on cutting up the doors... I'd much rather mount them somewhere else in the front if possible ...

Tricky..

[Rattfink]

I posted a similar question in the "interior, etc..." forum. Daniel responded with an interesting idea of building something that goes above and behind your head where the dome light is. Check it out if you wish.

L8-r

'Fink

[byunique]

Here is my speaker mounted in the door with the big spacer, the tweeters are surface mount ones mounted above, sorry forgot to take pic of that!

Here is the 6x9's sunk into the storage bins

and the amp behind the passenger seat.

[Ed]

I managed to mount a pair of 4" speakers under the dash by the heater core/center console. I used some plumbers tape to make brackets. Didn't have to drill or cut anything. You just have to use a little bit of imagination. In the rear the previous owner had cut some 6x9 speaker holes in the rear panel. Looks almost like the speaker panel from Motorsport. I replaced the old ones with some new ones. It was sounding pretty good until a friend gave me a speaker box and amp that fit perfect behind the seat and in front of the shock towers. The speaker box had 2 10" speakers, tweeters and some horn looking things. Now It sounds great. Sorry no pix.