I believe I have answered two questions for myself:

- what should I do with the black bars that came with my roadster roll bars (now installed in my coupe)?
- where might I put a set of "rear" speakers?

I was looking at the bars after I installed them and it came to me - there are a few speakers on the market that have a triangular cabinet that would fit into the black bars if they're put on the roll bars backwards. And if I could find a speaker enclosure that fits in the space, it would be a great way to get better imaging from my stereo and use those rear speaker leads that came with my aftermarket head unit without making any holes in the interior panels.

So I did some long hard searching to see what I could find. And I found two interesting possibilities:

- Infinity TSS-SAT450 or TSS SAT750


- Klipsch Quintet III


That's right - satellite speakers for surround systems...

Here's my reasoning - I want:

- fully enclosed to mount in the roll bar space
- high quality but small enclosures
- at least two-way speakers

The primary reason for these speakers is to help with soundstage imaging. That's what they're made for in surround sound systems.

So either of these will probabably work fine. I listened to the Klipsch at Best Buy and they're great - nice and clean and good quality sound even at low sound levels. I can't find the Infinitys locally but expect they're probably much like their small 4x6 mounted speakers I have already.

Anyway, I'm trying to source the Klipsch speakers separately and then have a go at installing and reviewing them.

 

Most home speakers are 8 ohm and car systems are 4 ohms. Not sure if this will be a proble or not.

 

The head unit manual says "Load impedance ...................... 4 Ω (4 Ω to 8 Ω allowable)"

These speakers will not be as loud but being behind my head, that's OK.

 

I like your plan but I dont have the roll bars. They would have to be functional bars for me to do it. I like the Klipsch speakers,but that is what I have in the house. They look a little better than the Infinity ones too.

MikeR

 

Actually our car runs a 2 ohm factory stereo system, unless your running an aftermarket head & amp.

 

The quote was from the aftermarket head specs.


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what is that by the e-brake? and under the airbag light

 

I previously installed a harman/kardon Drive + Play. I located the controller **** below the surface of the console in the depression next to the parking brake:



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I drilled three holes to hold the **** mount and one to pass the wire through. When I removed this installation to integrate the iPod controls into the head unit, it left the holes. So I installed an ejector seat switch and placed a Chrysler logo over it to conceal it from Odd Job.


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The logo was a left-over piece from the modification I did to my center caps.

I installed over the air bag light panel, a Karmann badge to acknowledge the role Karmann played in producing this car (significant role).


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I decided to ditch the idea of using the Klipsch speakers. They're not typically sold separately and all the ones coming up on eBay have "issues". Also the impedance did reset my expectations - with a clean but admittedly low-powered head unit (22W per channel/50W Peak) and a fairly long wire run, I probably would not be happy with the sound.

So I moved to considering a couple different Infinity speaker solutions. I liked their Reference series 4x6 plate speaker but found that the way I was installing them, they'd be about 1/2" from the back of the seat and really would not disperse enough sound to make it worthwhile.

Finally, while finishing the enclosures that I had intended to use the 4x6's, I also found that I had not paid enough attention to the size. I had planned to use the metal bar that is between the roll bar to secure the speakers. This meant building an enclosure that's triangular with a flat side to mount the speaker and the triangle side to fit in the bracket.



Well the enclosure came out great and fits the bracket but intrudes about an inch over the edge of the bulkhead. Not good for six-footers with the seat all the way back.

I found that if I mount the speakers with the triangular side facing forward and the flat side facing back, it fits very well and looks pretty good (it's nearly invisible from the back).



The bonus is that I have two surfaces facing forward at 45-degree angles, which puts the sufaces facing to either side of each seat.

I measured and found I could fit two speakers in the enclosure, one on each flat of the triangular side. This gives me four 3-inch speakers and four 1.5" tweeters, facing front with good clearance around the seats.






Now I am wondering if I want to put a left and right channel into each cabinet or run lefts on the left side of the car and rights on the right side of the car...? If I put a left and a right on each side, I might get an interesting stereo effect on either side of the passenger or driver's heads. Not really sure though it would probably be easy enough to try both ways. Alternatively I guess I could put in a switch that would let me change it on the fly....

The cabinets are drying - the sanding sealer takes a while to harden. I have the speakers on order and need to get the right sized hole saw. Still contemplating finishes though I suspect I will match the color and texture of the rest of the interior so the speakers will "blend"...

More as it develops...

 

I calculated the enclosure size for the speakers and found the optimum size was almost exactly what I built:

 

Closing in on being done.

Here's the drivers installed in the finished enclosures.

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Dare I say "Done"? Yup.


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As always PPro, very nicely done.

What did you coat those enclosures in to make them have that finish??