I already have a base Crossfire in Michigan where I switched out the base Infinity head unit with a single DIN Power Acoustic CP- 71W. In that case, since the car only had 25K miles and was garaged so the door speakers were fine, I installed Fosgate 6.5" component speakers (facing forward) in the back panel powered directly by the radio. Seems to be fine with spatial control of both the back and front speakers.

I am rolling down to Florida in a day or two (a little slow based on the MI snow storms) to the SRT roadster that I picked up this summer. This is a stock unit with the navigation radio and unknown speaker condition (21k miles mostly garaged).

So, I have figured out the audio options based on all the previous learnings from the forum and my previous experience.

#1 Leave everything as stock and repair the cones if they need to be done (eBay $30)). I could try to navigate the car (for fun?) with the navigation CD (and use the vintage CDs that I have)

#2 Install the CP -71W ($160) and get all the Android Auto features and drive the "reworked 4 channel Infinity Amp" (labor and extra wire) with the +2 volt low level outputs from the CP-71 (front and sub) or (front and rear). If there is not enough output, then I could use the noisier high level outputs of the CP-71W. This will provide bass to the back two speakers and two channel stereo to the doors. As I understand, it will utilize the "increase the volume based on speed" circuit because the Body Control Module is still hooked up. Illumination variation will based on the clock of the new CP-71W radio. I can use the original back (reworked or not) speakers in normal position or rotate them facing forward with the CHIMYLOU adaptors ($150). An alternative (if the original woofers can't be utilized), is to substitute some 2 ohm Kicker 6.75" woofers ($200). Either option should provide increased tunable bass. The weakness of this overall option is the "max 2 volt low signal level" not producing louder music with the top down. The other limitation is the stereo sound only from the door speakers. A long, long time ago I fell for the "four channel surround sound" and that would be missing. I believe the equalizer on the CP-71W affects all channels, so the stock Infinity amp would keep bass to the back in the woofer option, but I probably would use bass blockers for the door speakers to clean up the sound.

#3 Install the CP-71W ($160) and get all the Android Auto features and drive the speakers with a new 4 channel amp with variable input voltage (front and back) addressing the CP-71W low level voltage output weakness. There are various small 4 channel amp units ($160) that fit in the stock Infinity Amp space with plenty of power and the back speakers could be woofers (as above) or full range units ( Kicker 6.75" coaxial $159). These 4 channel amps have different roll off curves for front and back speakers fixing the muffled front door speaker issue. The full range back speakers would give the 4 channel mixing (and speaker closer to the ear with top down) but with a loss of bass response. But the CP-71W does not increase volume with speed as compared with the stock Infinity unit. Some of the Chinese radios I have tried used GPS speed to adjust volume, but not the CP-71W.

4# I want to avoid a separate subwoofer enclosure if I can.

So, there is going to some compromises (somewhere) when I get down there to Florida in a couple days.....

.....Any wisdom?

 

Well I got to Florida. I am charging up the battery and I peeled of the cover on the back woofers. For sure one cone is delaminated. I am going to wait for a bit more charge before I watch the motor on the woofer to be sure the stock amp is driving the woofers. I will be looking into peeling the covers off the doors to see what the cones are like on the doors.

In the meantime, I asked the Power Acoustic folks (via email) on what the output voltage of the low level inputs. Have not answered in a couple days. I though they may be the best source for that info. It is either going to be 2V or 2V.

 

Well, I have validated that the CP-71W does have 4 volts at both the subwoofer and regular low level inputs.

I turned on the original stereo and the original amp played fine through the door speakers. So I will do the four channel conversion of the original amp and hook up the repaired woofers to the subwoofer output of the CP-71W through the separated back channels. The radio supposedly can adjust the subwoofer output +- 10 so that will help on the balancing.

Right now, I am planning on hooking up the door speakers to the front speaker low level RCA jacks via the separated front amp connections on the modified stock amp.

On my previous installation, where I used Kicker component speakers on the back of a base crossfire, I inset the tweeters higher up on the plastic panel. There was some room behind the panel for the driver for the tweeters to fit. I will be looking for some place on the back panel to inset a shallow 3.5" driver (4 ohms) for possible back panel speakers. Looks like I need 1 7/16" depth behind the panel in a 3.5" circle to fit. I won't know until I get the back panel off. If I do find a place, I will hook up the 3.5" driver to the high level back speakers wires of the CP-71W. With the fade and balance controls, I should be able to balance the front and rear speakers. The radio supposedly has 15 watts out and the 3.5" speakers (Kickers) are rated at 25 watts.

This arrangement will allow the stock amp to adjust the sound level based on speed for the woofers and the door speakers (body control module). The back panel speakers will be more of a fill in speaker (per my old Miata), so they won't adjust for speed in this wiring arrangement.

I am still looking at capacitor installation for the front door speakers (installed near the stock amp since everything is open there) and then a capacitor at the new 3.5" speakers on the back panel (if they fit back there). I need to check that the capacitor sizing is not a function of impedance.

I am sticking some Dynamat material in the back cavity and am considering putting the forward facing mounts for the rebuilt woofers.

Also, if there is some kind of voltage mismatch there is a two channel RECOIL line converter that would work on high level or low level outputs for the back woofer.f

If the woofers fail the rebuild, there are some 2 ohm 6.5" Kickers that I can substitute......

 

After reading all of this, I'm glad I'm old and happy with my base Crossfire and my new Kenwood radio! LOL
Best of luck to you!

 

Thanks for commenting! I have done a radio conversion job(s) on my base Crossfire up in Michigan.

I got used to Android Auto with my daily driver, So I was going to try it again. On my previous 1989 Alfa Spider, I embarked on a single din Chinese radio journey (don't ask how many) that never seems to end.

I too am old and retired, but I am always looking for nirvana. This may be the last journey...... The CP-71W is pretty nice and I would like to integrate "well" with the SRT. I am trying to build off of all the previous efforts on the forum.

The Crossfire hits about the "sweet spot" in "internal combustion technology development". Somewhat complicated, but before a bunch of the latest IC engine fiascos.

The good thing about the Crossfire is its hidden heritage, advanced technology, classic styling and a seasoned forum to handle some of the "gifts" and "quirks".

Back to the garage with my shaky hands.....

 

When you're finished, maybe you could post a couple of pictures. It's interesting to see what people do to their cars.

 

I have taken out the back woofers and cleaned off the foam surround material. The new surround material should be here Monday. Bought all the connectors and shielded RCA cables to get from the head unit to the stock amp. In the meantime, I added the extra grounding cable from the battery to the bellhousing as recommended in this forum
This is the planned configuration (unless it does not work.

The output of the original (separated) front amp will go to the door speakers after coming from the front low level speaker outputs of the head unit.

The output of the original (separated) back amp will go to the refurbished woofers after coming from the low level subwoofer outputs of the head unit

and I am going to try something different that has not been recorded in this forum...

The high-level back outputs of the head unit will drive a pair of "exciters" directly that are mounted on the back side plastic panel covering the bottom of the roll bar. I have used "exciters" before on my electronic pinball cabinets by coupling with the side panels of the cabinet and they sound good. This Dayton units are compact and fits easily around the rollbar supports. You don't know they are there. Inherently, they are full range speakers, but frequency response varies based on the panel size and mounting. The off-center placement of the transducers and the complex structure of the plastic panel should minimize standing wave issues. These "exciters" are 4 ohms and should match well with the head unit's output of 15 watts.

I think they should provide the surround sound with the main focus of the stereo being the door speakers.

This configuration in the CP-71W should give the subwoofer a +- 10 db control with the head unit and a speed adjusted bass output by the original Infinity amp
This configuration also gives me front and rear fading between the door speakers and the back panel "exciters"
I will also have the option to install caps (bass blockers) for the door speakers and the back panel exciters to further tune the sound.

I will keep you abrest during the steps...

 

That's a cool idea! I never even knew about them.

 

Two steps forward and one step back.

Installed the small backup camera in the lid. There are two holes in the underside of the lid with grommets in them. I used the driver's side hole and put the camera in there. Ran the wire down the cable wrapping on the passenger side and on through the back seat area.

I rebuilt the surround on the two back woofers It seemed like things were going good. Got things partially back together and utilized the original head unit. Noticed a buzz on the driver side woofer during heavy bass. Took the woofer cage apart and it appears that the voice coil was dragging. (shucky darn).

So now I have switched to the Kicker subwoofers solution, and I ordered the forward-facing mount from the forum. Just have to wait for them to arrive.

BTW, the radio antenna is a standard connector on this original Crossfire GPS radio as compared to the European connector on the Crossfire base model radio. Looks like it has the capability of a CD changer based on the connector. On my other car, the European connector caused problems withthe original Chinese radio.

 

Forward facing subs are an amazing upgrade. Trust me, you’ll be extremely happy with the improvement to sound quality.

 

Had a lot of family over the holiday, so I got sidetracked. Got the front facing woofers installed. I placed some sound absorber mat inside the body cavities. I chose to use the factory wiring harness to the woofers. I added an extension to the four wires per woofer and drilled a hole in the side of the 3D printed woofer adaptor. I slid the extended wiring through the hole (outside to inside) so I would have enough wire to install the speaker after the carpet was put back. Tested the new woofers with the old head unit and wiring. Seems good, although I will be putting bass blockers on the door speakers. I still have some booming from the doors and I will be putting some sound dampener in the doors. Hopefully, the stock speakers are in better shape than the woofers (different surround material?). Will get some pictures of the exciters mounted on the back panel.
Getting ready to dive in on modifying the stock amp wiring.

 

So I have refigured out the speaker wiring. I will be using previously recommended Metra adaptor to connect my head unit. The only audio signal going through the adaptor will be the 5 volt signal from the front left and right RCA cables from the headunit. (White and Grey). The other two supplied RCA cables (purple and grey) are clipped off near the adaptor. This low level signal which will be separated by the previously mentioned "4 channel amp mod". This will be the signal going to the front door panel speakers. I plan on installing some 300 hz bass blockers in the wiring going to the door speakers. I will probably put the blockers in the doors and install some sound damper material at the same time. So the performance of the front speakers should be the same as "the cheapest sound fix".

The rear right and left rear output will be some wires from the other connector on the rear of the head unit (rear right [purple/ purple black] and rear left [green / green black] ) connected through long wires to the exciters (speakers) mounted on the back panel below the roll bar hoops. These back panel speakers have a bass blocker (capacitor) that keeps frequencies less than 300 hz from going to the exciters. The inline blockers are held down by Velcro in the cavity under the rollover hoops. The amp in the head unit will drive these exciters directly. I think it is 15-20 watts which should be plenty for the exciters.

So in this configuration, the preamp on the radio will have an equalizer and fader for these two sets of front and back speakers that can be adjusted. The equalizer setting is for both set of speakers, so I can't have one "equalizer curve" for the front and another for the back, but I will have balance and fade

I replaced the subwoofers in back with forward facing Kicker 2 ohm dual voice coil units. The are connected with the stock wiring back to the original Infinity amp that has been modified to be a four channel amp. The inputs to the stock amp are some RCA cables plugged into the left and right subwoofer outputs of this head unit. This head unit has separate subwoofer controls for frequency and loudness adjustment. The sound output from the 5 volt RCA cable setup combined with the modifed original amp and forward facing woofers. should be pretty good.

I should be able to retain the speed sensitive volume levels with this setup

So I just have to finish the wiring and test connect it before buttoning everything down.....

 

Got most things working. Did the 4 channel conversion on the stock Infinity amp and hooked up the subwoofer outputs to the back channel on the amp. Hooked the head unit back channels directly to the exciters on the back panel. Front door speakers used the stock hookup and wiring. I have not put bass blockers or applied sound absorption to the doors yet. Still have a bug with the backup light/camera wiring.

Sounds very good, but I have not taken it on the road yet. Seems to have no problems with signal level from the various outputs.

The radio did not need the software update for the Android Auto and Carplay

Two other parts that I had to order to convert the antennas (GPS, AM/FM)