Help with aftermarket stereo and speaker placement

J

John in Iowa

Low Mileage
Hey tribe! So I am putting a new stereo into my '86 X 1/9. When I say "I"...I mean, im paying someone. :) I have a question for the group, In addition to the 4x6 speakers behind the headrest, the installer suggested door speakers using these surface mount speaker modules from Crutchfield: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-MhBgh...SDH-uERRhwfF3E9fmQjF8IelrAOKm9-BoCtTUQAvD_BwE

Is this what you all have used?
Is there a best practice for the X 1/9?

Whatcha got for me? :)
 
I have a car with non-flush speakers in the door. They require the use of crappy aftermarket window winders because the stock ones hit the speakers. My advice, make sure that you don't have the same problem.
 
I just have the rear shelf speakers in my 85X. Of course, I am not an audiophile. Set it up however you want, but do check to see if the proposed speaker placement will rub on you while you drive.

I wouldn't recommend the method the PO of my 78 employed. It has no shelf speakers, but does have some 5 or 6" inch round speakers in the side walls of the footwells.
IM001790.JPGIM001792.JPG

They look good, don't interfere with my feet and sound Ok. However, when I took the car apart for a long term project I found that the way they achieved clearance for the speakers was less than ideal. They basically can-openered a hole into the inner body panel. Nice. :eek:
20220926_095141.jpg

I do have a couple spare tire sub woofers I bought, but never got around to installing one. Maybe someday. :)
 
Maybe times have changed but I've never heard decent sounding speakers that will fit an X door. I put my front speakers in the foot wells. Currently using 6.5" two way units although I've got some 6"x9" three way units that I'm thinking of squeezing in.

1974 X19 right kick panel speaker.jpg
 
I'm going to disagree with Jimmy a little. First, I'm not fond of door mounted speakers. Typically they interfere with other things; as others have mentioned, the driver, the window winders, etc. Second, they typically require cutting holes in the metal door structure and the door trim panel (more on that in a minute). That's not necessarily a bad thing IF it is done right....which is almost never in my experience. And third, I'm with Don, they don't sound great to me.

On the other hand, kick panel mounted ones seem to work much better. They don't interfere with anything. The location allows larger speakers that sound much better. While holes may still need to be cut, this is no different than with the doors (see the following comments).

Regarding cutting holes to mount speakers. Some owners refuse to do any cutting on their car in order to maintain complete originality. However that must not be your case otherwise you would not be wanting to install a new sound system. So some cutting will likely be needed regardless of where you locate the speakers. It is the quality of the cutting work that makes or breaks the whole install.

That being said, there is a difference in cutting the doors vs the kick panels. For the doors you will still be very limited on what speakers you can fit even with cutting. Mostly due the the shallow depth available. Therefore you might end up having to also use "spacers" (the surface mount modules you linked) AND cut the doors in order to get any decent speakers in there. And the more those spacers stick out, the more they interfere with things. By comparison there is a LOT more room behind the kick panels. Depending on the choice of speaker, you could get away without any cutting if shallow spacers are used (see link below). Or only a small hole may be needed to clear the magnet. Or if you want to go big and get great sound then there is room to cut a lot and have massive room....like this:

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Then you can add new kick panels with new mounting tabs for even more rear clearance:
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And the new big speakers:
017 - Copy.JPG


Alternatively speakers spacers could also be used on the stock kick panels to avoid cutting into the metal behind them:
 
I have two in the door and put these small shelf speakers in the back behind both seats so that I did not have to do any cutting. Not booming but get the job done.
 

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I made particle board baffles to mount my speakers in the foot wells. This allows more flexibility in placement and does not require cutting as much metal. The only holes in the sheet metal I needed were the size of the speaker magnets as they were the only thing protruding through. I found that the cavity inside the hole I cut stays completely dry (I installed these in Auguest, 1974 and dry the last I checked in 2019).
 
John in Iowa said:
Hey tribe! So I am putting a new stereo into my '86 X 1/9. When I say "I"...I mean, im paying someone. :) I have a question for the group, In addition to the 4x6 speakers behind the headrest, the installer suggested door speakers using these surface mount speaker modules from Crutchfield: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-MhBgh...SDH-uERRhwfF3E9fmQjF8IelrAOKm9-BoCtTUQAvD_BwE

Is this what you all have used?
Is there a best practice for the X 1/9?

Whatcha got for me? :)
Click to expand...
I have 2 door cards with speakers ready mounted, fabric is in a good shape and door cards are new, if you are interested.

FS Door cards late model style with new speakers

Door cards late model for sale, no rips, and ready to install, speakers are new, less than a year. price 150.00 + shipping (price of shipping will be determinated according zipcode) PS DS DETAIL pm if interested Thanks for watching. Riccardo.
xwebforums.com
they have a 2 INCH SPACERS, so plenty of room to place a bigger spakers or use as is.
IMG_20220405_165147.jpg



regards
 
Footwells for sure. And, I prefer custom boxes behind the seats, slightly angling the speakers into to cabin and not reflecting off the window.
 
Doors or footwells are pointless. Utterly pointless unless all you want is volume. No stereo possible cos physics. Plus cutting holes etc. Spend the money on those behind your head as although size limited, they are at least placed so that good sound is possible. No, loud and good are not the same thing. There are some very good small speakers these days too.
 
Steve Thomas said:
Doors or footwells are pointless. Utterly pointless unless all you want is volume. No stereo possible cos physics. Plus cutting holes etc. Spend the money on those behind your head as although size limited, they are at least placed so that good sound is possible. No, loud and good are not the same thing. There are some very good small speakers these days too.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Placing speakers on the rear shelf behind the seats offers no more stereo imaging than in the kick panels....unless your X1/9 has a single center mounted seat. :D Mounting them in the kick panels at a angle toward the main cabin provides very reasonable sound quality, not just noise. However the biggest factor by far is the quality of the speakers regardless of where they are mounted.
 
Steve Thomas said:
Doors or footwells are pointless. Utterly pointless unless all you want is volume. No stereo possible cos physics. Plus cutting holes etc. Spend the money on those behind your head as although size limited, they are at least placed so that good sound is possible. No, loud and good are not the same thing. There are some very good small speakers these days too.
Click to expand...
You can't put a speaker any place in a footwell and expect it to sound good. I placed mine in direct line of sight to my head so the stereo imaging is just fine and no issues with high frequency attenuation. There are probably many cars where speakers in the foot wells would not work out but the X is not one of them. One thing that helps quite a bit is that you are basically sitting on the floor so the speakers have a good shot to your ears.
 
I am not sure why you need to cut metal out of the door to fit speakers. I have some, admittedly not that big maybe 4 inch I think, and all I had to do was cut the door card. So those plus the speakers on the rear shelf seem to work out ok. btw this is with the later style electric windows. Maybe they give a bit more space.
Stereo effect does work, when I drive by myself I offset the balance point a little, but not when I have company.
Its loud enough and clear enough that if you turn it up to hear over the engine on a spirited run, you get the ringing after effect :)
Queen is a good band to check the stereo effect. They did this to extremes on several of their studio tracks, but no space to do the 4 person bohemian rhapsody car video!
 
JimD said:
I just have the rear shelf speakers in my 85X. Of course, I am not an audiophile. Set it up however you want, but do check to see if the proposed speaker placement will rub on you while you drive.

I wouldn't recommend the method the PO of my 78 employed. It has no shelf speakers, but does have some 5 or 6" inch round speakers in the side walls of the footwells.
View attachment 82082View attachment 82083

They look good, don't interfere with my feet and sound Ok. However, when I took the car apart for a long term project I found that the way they achieved clearance for the speakers was less than ideal. They basically can-openered a hole into the inner body panel. Nice. :eek:
View attachment 82081

I do have a couple spare tire sub woofers I bought, but never got around to installing one. Maybe someday. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice!
 
Thanks, y'all!
So we went with surface mount speakers on the doors. They stick out - but it only affects my old legs getting in and out, and dont interfere with driving. Those coupled with the new 4x6" in the factory spots behind the seats....sound pretty good. As many of you suggested, it's not kicking..but thats ok. Let's be honest, I dont need NPR to be kicking. :)
 
Dr.Jeff said:
I disagree. Placing speakers on the rear shelf behind the seats offers no more stereo imaging than in the kick panels....unless your X1/9 has a single center mounted seat. :D Mounting them in the kick panels at a angle toward the main cabin provides very reasonable sound quality, not just noise. However the biggest factor by far is the quality of the speakers regardless of where they are mounted.
Click to expand...
The combination of both gives the best results. It’s simple to test - just play with the forward/back setting in a car which has both and it will be wildly clear how much they complement each other.
 
I don't get on very often because my X is sitting in my basement waiting for me to have some time, but if you have someone creative enough to create a mount, you can remove the old 4x6 speakers and replace with some good ones. But I opted to try and fit some 4x10 speakers. Drawback here is that the Gas Tank sits up so high, that you would either have to drop it, to have clearance for the speaker magnet, or create an adapter to bring it off the back wall some. Of course as noted before, this is not an audiophiles dream car for certain. Best I was gonna hope for was some loudness and to install a sub somewhere.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
I disagree. Placing speakers on the rear shelf behind the seats offers no more stereo imaging than in the kick panels....unless your X1/9 has a single center mounted seat. :D Mounting them in the kick panels at a angle toward the main cabin provides very reasonable sound quality, not just noise. However the biggest factor by far is the quality of the speakers regardless of where they are mounted.
Click to expand...
It does. Put 3 or 4 speakers on the shelf..... Each seat gets a pair.
 
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