Help me design a stereo system for MotiV8r

[andrewb70]

Here is what I found in my trials and tribulations with muscle car audio. I have a decent 3 channel system and it sounds pretty damn good when the car is parked. Once the engine is running and the car is moving, all the bass gets washed out big time. Take that for what you will, but unless you spend a ridiculous amount of time, money, and a lot of added weight, the odds of having a lot of bass when the car is moving are minimal.

Andrew

[68EFIvert]

Do you need rear speakers or are good front enough? My Volvo is a pretty small car but will have a small back seat that my kids will ride in. Would it be worth it to replicate the front setup in the back or some simple coaxial speakers?

[scott_fx]

I haven't run Rear speakers in at least 10 years. Rear speakers actually make it harder to tune and degrade the audio signal. A solid 2 way front and a sub is great for most situations.

[CKreations]

Go simple AND lightweight. A single 8" sub or 10" sub with a Jl Audio 900/5 and a nice set of speakers all he way around will be plenty for even an audiophile in the awful acoustics of a muscle car. Oh, and make sure to throw some sound deadening at it....

[mc84_zz4]

Many good relies already, I'll throw in my $.02:
- dynamat the interior and doors, roof, rear quarter, and rear bulkhead, 36 sq ft box = interior floor, 1 box for roof, a 3rd box for trunk and scraps here & there to reduce interior buzz.
- pick the better quality speakers you like, components in the front are best, higher end speakers may have external crossovers, like the components do. If you go with 2-way or 3-way speakers in front, angled kickpods help with the speaker placement, and open up the soundstage.
- match the amp to the power the speakers need, rule is to provide in the upper 30% of RMS, some quality speakers (woofers) can exceed 100% or RMS, tweeters usually do not like, crossovers can tolerate a little over, you can tune the amp gain to avoid excess..
- I prefer a single 12" sub in a sealed (1 sq ft) box, I insulate the interior of my subs w dynamat Xtreme, huge difference!
- if you want a sub that booms, most woofers use a larger ported box, sealed boxes give you more impact.
- sub specs will help you weed out thirsty subs, the higher sensitivity, the louder they play with less power, 87,90,93 sensitivity are 2x power stepping up to the next: 87 db sensitivity will need 2x the power to play as loud as the 90 db, The 87 will need 4x the power to sound as loud as a sub with 93 sensitivity.

My car has 3 boxes of dynamat Xtreme, a decent head unit for the time, an old-school EQ/amp balancer for ease of use, 6 1/2 3-way speakers in front kick pods, 6x9 3-way speakers under rear deck, 3.5" speakers in dash aimed at windshield, single 12" sub in trunk, and a 6 ch amp.
All speakers are 95/96 sensitivity Infinity Kappa, sub is 4 ohm, speakers are 2 ohm, drawing more power from the amp.
The Infinity take a month or so to break in, they are extremely clean, the single 12" with the sub crossover and gain are the most tweaked setting, as you can hear the difference in CD engineering.
Focal, Alpine, JL, Boston all have similar offerings.
You can get free component matching advice from Crutchfield.com, or a trusted local shop.

[junbug79]

2-way or 3 way components set up front. 10" or 12" sub for your rear fill in sealed enclosure. One 5ch or 6ch amp to power the entire system. Arc Audio XDI v2 1000.5 or 1200.6. Use good sound deadener, not made in china stuff the cheap stuff online. I always use STP and ground zero. Russian made butyl has the highest quality. Other deadeners mixes tar with very little butyl like dynamt brands are made in china. Some CCF also if you can swing it cost wise. All wiring should be 100% copper (power and speaker) not CCA wire. The most important part to having a audiophile system is sound deadening. reducing outside noise, rattles is to lower the noise floor. which in turn you dont need a high power 2500 + watt system to hear your music. you can do it easily with under 1000 watts rms system. attention to detail on installation and having quality equipment. It better to get great used equipment rather then new fair new equipment that promise these world claims in performance.