Help with aftermarket stereo and speaker placement

My car is too noisy for good audio so I enjoy the sound of Lampredi instead. But if I was looking for a good sound I would install a 10 or 12" woofer in front of the spare wheel mounted on a good solid baffle and a pair of speakers (as big as possible) on the shelf behind the the seats.
 
Getting a bit off topic here I suppose. But I love bass. As far as music goes I'm still stuck in the heavy metal era. My home system has incredible subwoofers along with a range of other supporting speakers. Years ago I had the neighbors call the police complaining about their house vibrating too much. :p Likewise, I've always installed subwoofers in all of my cars, along with the rest of the custom audio system. However I have decided not to install a subwoofer in any of my current vintage car project builds. For two reasons. My current builds all happen to have very small cabins without great locations for a sub. And they are noisier vehicles (read as "they have louder exhausts") compared to my past builds, along what Bjorn just said. Therefore I'm keeping the sound system very basic; a nice head unit in the dash and one pair of good 6.5" rounds in the kick panels (angled out toward the occupants).
 
So, back in the 80's, I was at a car stereo shop and they were finishing up a custom box for a Porsche 914. Like us, not much space for a subwoofer. However, this place put the subwoofer in a shallow box in the front trunk and vented it into the cabin. It was very loud and hit hard. Downsides of this are you loose a little bit of the front trunk, and there is a 3" hole into the cabin as well. However, you get to keep the spare tire.

Just another option I have seen

I also used to work for a car stereo shop back in the late 80's, and did a number of panels for doors with MDF. Spacing it out a bit to squeeze in a 6.5" mid. I am sure with work, as Dr. Jeff is saying, you could have a good system and the looks don't detract.

Good luck!
 
Steve Thomas said:
It is but since they are next to the ear, they don't need to be large. I am going to to try this set up and will report.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The shelf speakers do not need to be big and the stereo effect would be very good. However, a woofer would add a lot to the the total sound picture.
In a car you need to compensate for road, wind and engine noise by amplifying low and high frequencies rather than the mid-range. Low frequencies are the hardest to produce as lot of space is needed to host the large speaker elements. On the other hand the bass speaker(s) do not need to be close to your ears and they do not add much to the stereo effect. That's why most systems have a single woofer. But putting it in the frunk is a bad idea.
If you are not willing to sacrify the spare wheel for a bass speaker, there are a lot of (flat) woofers on the market that would fit between the seat and Firewall.
719O9JvqBoL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
 
Steve Thomas said:
It is but since they are next to the ear, they don't need to be large. I am going to to try this set up and will report.
Click to expand...
After testing three or four pairs, I settled on these - well rounded with a decent midrange and highs that aren't too harsh under power. Combined with the subwoofer in the spare wheel compartment, it sounds very nice. PS - these are mounted in custom made, wood enclosures which sit on top of the ledge:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CPW4VFV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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