What and Where do you have front speakers?

[wantahertzdonut 10]

I am looking to upgrade my speakers for the car and currently only have two rear speakers that were butchered into the trap door on the fold-down seat. I am in need of front speakers and was wondering what you guys have and where do you have them?

 

I have deluxe interior and have seen other cars with it and had speakers in the lower front corners of the doors. I am a little hesitant to cut my door panels up however unless that's what is supposed to be done.

 

Are there any kick panel speaker mounts like what is available for other years of Mustangs? The dual speakers for the dashboard seem a little to weenie for me too, but I'm not ruling it out if I can get decent sound out from there.

 

Any suggestions?

[buening 63]

I've heard more bad things than good with the kick panel speakers. One is they are in the right spot to get kicked/dented in when applying the parking brake. Other is the thin depth speakers must be used, as clearance behind the kick panel to the steel is pretty tight. There is only a handful of low profile speakers and they aren't the best, but they are better than nothing. I plan on cutting my doors and deluxe door panels for some 4x6 speakers. I found a set of original speaker covers on ebay for $10 so it will all appear stock. I would recommend a nice dash speaker if you won't cut your doors.

[wantahertzdonut 10]

I've been a little shakey about the kick panel speakers myself for the reasons you mentioned, a thin cone and small magnet won't make the best sound. I may poke around and see if I can do something about the lower portion of the door panel since I think I'd prefer the door speakers anyway.

 

In regards to the dash speaker, I know there is a mustang supply company making dual-cone speakers to fit in there. Does anyone know who sells it?

 

Also, is there a standard factory mounting location for rear speakers by any chance? I'd like to eventually get away from the speakers being in the trap door.

[buening 63]

Well NPD has the dual speaker units for the dash, utilizing two 3.5" speakers mounted in a plate. They aren't a name brand speaker so i'm hesitant on purchasing them. I think i currently have a 5x7 speaker mounted in my dash. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head but it's a decent one like Infinity or Kenwood. I have a door that was cut from the factory for door speakers. Its the only door i have and is on my fastback at my parents house. If you need some pictures of the hole, let me know and i'll do my best to get some. The original door speakers were 4x8 and as you probably know they don't make that size anymore (except for the generic replacement speakers through the parts suppliers). I plan on putting some 4x6 in there, but don't have any on hand to measure to see if they fit the 4x8 hole. Hope this helps some.

[bnickel 10,004]

Well NPD has the dual speaker units for the dash, utilizing two 3.5" speakers mounted in a plate. They aren't a name brand speaker so i'm hesitant on purchasing them. I think i currently have a 5x7 speaker mounted in my dash. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head but it's a decent one like Infinity or Kenwood. I have a door that was cut from the factory for door speakers. Its the only door i have and is on my fastback at my parents house. If you need some pictures of the hole, let me know and i'll do my best to get some. The original door speakers were 4x8 and as you probably know they don't make that size anymore (except for the generic replacement speakers through the parts suppliers). I plan on putting some 4x6 in there, but don't have any on hand to measure to see if they fit the 4x8 hole. Hope this helps some.

 

you can make your own plate out of plywood or MDF or even ABS plastic and mount whatever speakers of your choice in it for the dash location, it is very easy to do. i did it on my old 70 cougar but i haven't gotten to the stereo stage on the stang yet. i think i'm going to modify my stock kick panels to mount a 4.5" speaker in them and keep the vents working. at this point i'm thinking about using abs plastic to make the mods. i'll also be using 4x6's in the doors and dual voice coil 6x9's in the rear deck with boxes built into the bottom of the deck and one of those spare tire mounted subwoofers in the trunk. i've been trying to figure out a way to mount some 4.5's in the rear interior quarter panels without destroying them and making them look like ass. whatever i do end up doing the speaker will be mounted to the back of the panel most likely with holes drilled in the panel to allow the sound to pass through and possibly perforate the vinyl as well, but i'm still on the fence about this mod.

[wantahertzdonut 10]

I did check out Mustangs Plus and they have the in-dash speakers and as you said Buening, they aren't any name brand. I had the idea to just buy that setup, remove the speakers, and put my own in but then thought what bnickel said, just make my own plate and put my own speakers in. I may try that to see how it sounds then consider making new lower door panels and cut those. I prefer to stay out of the doors if I can if nothing to minimize vibration in something that already shakes and rattles enough. If the dash speakers are crap then I may go for making my own kick panel setup as well.

 

Bnickel- I'm actually jealous of the coupes on this one, I don't have a rear deck in my car! I may look at cutting holes in my side panels since they're not in the greatest shape (found this after looking at them last night). I'll have to look for replacements and then I'll look into cutting mine up as experiments. Getting a nice 4 speaker system (with 2 or 3 way speakers) makes for great sound, and then I'll probably add a Bazooka tube down the road.

 

Mustangs Plus advertises the door speakers to be 4X6, which is widely available. However if the mounts were originally 4X8 then that could cause an issue. Making a custom mount is very easy if you have a saber saw and some abs or fiberboard. If I go into the doors this is what I'll do.

[buening 63]

I don't have a rear deck in my car! I may look at cutting holes in my side panels since they're not in the greatest shape (found this after looking at them last night). I'll have to look for replacements and then I'll look into cutting mine up as experiments.

 

I have a nice non-folddown setup with the package tray. You can trade me that useless folddown rear seat setup for mine so you can have rear speakers ;)

[coz 108]

here are some panels for speakers - no personal experience with them but may look into a set when I do the interior this spring.

 

I do have door cutouts right now so the cutting has already been done so I may just enlarge the area for 4.5" speakers.

 

have a custom built box for the back speakers with 2 6x9's and a 10" sub with amp.

 

http://www.kanterperformance.com/html/65-73_kick_panels.html

[bnickel 10,004]

here are some panels for speakers - no personal experience with them but may look into a set when I do the interior this spring.

 

I do have door cutouts right now so the cutting has already been done so I may just enlarge the area for 4.5" speakers.

 

have a custom built box for the back speakers with 2 6x9's and a 10" sub with amp.

 

http://www.kanterperformance.com/html/65-73_kick_panels.html

 

yeah i've seen that but it's that price thing again. i'm not going to pay 99 bucks for a cheap plastic dash panel that will fit a CD player but looks like ass and i'm not going to pay 75.00 for some cheap abs plastic kick panels, even though they may have speaker mounts. i'll just modify what i have or build new stuff that suits my needs and budget. i have many more things i would rather spend that amount of money on.

[buening 63]

I do have door cutouts right now so the cutting has already been done so I may just enlarge the area for 4.5" speakers.

 

May i add that you need to be careful when going to larger speakers than 4". I had added a set of 4" speakers to my fastback and the lower front window bracket hit the speaker magnet. Unless you have some low profile speakers you will have the same problem.

[70vert 17]

Well NPD has the dual speaker units for the dash, utilizing two 3.5" speakers mounted in a plate. They aren't a name brand speaker so i'm hesitant on purchasing them.

 

I just ordered the spendy-spendy Pioneer dash speakers from NPD, I think this is the one you are talking about, the "pile driver". part #18808-2D, p. 17. 60 watts each!, $93.50.

 

http://www.npdlink.com/modules.php?name=Mustang_Catalog

 

I also ordered the door speakers at the same time - they look stock enough (they were an option) and they should do something . . .

 

That should do it for now. I was previously using the speakers that some hack butchered into the rear quarter panels.

[70vert 17]

Got the Pioneer 60w in-dash speakers today; should have them installed by tomorrow and I can give everyone a review tomorrow night. We'll see how they do with the top down on the freeway, we've had nice weather the past 2 days so I'll give it a try.

 

The door speakers came too but grilles are on backorder, so that little project will have to wait.

[bswor 76]

Dont forget the peeeectures...

[70vert 17]

but they're pretty nice. I'll get out the camcorder one of these days and do a video of them installed on the street and on the freeway so you can see what they sound like.

 

they sound like, well, powerful small speakers coming out of the center of the dash, which is to say not that great, kind of a weird sensation. The noise is adequate but it's coming out of the wrong place. Hopefully the door speakers balance it out when I get those done, but they're 30w, from NPD, so 1/2 the power of the dash speakers. Maybe I should go kick panel speakers as well?

 

I didn't do the install myself, as I had other stereo issues - basically, a jerry-rigged stereo done before I got the car 15 years ago - so I decided it was time for some professional attention. The shop (a nice one) complained about some of the wiring being a fire hazard. :rolleyes:

[countryboy45683 10]

70vert-

 

So you are not happy with the pile drivers? My dash in my 69 is shot and I have a nice one but the only issue is the center was cut out for a single speaker. I was thinking about mounting one in there and it will make the dash look better. Did you get a chance to try them with speakers in the door or kick panels? I currently dont have any speakers in my car. The only thing set aside is a 1400 watt kenwood amp that I had in my pickup truck. I had to take it out of there. It was too much .

[buening 63]

FYI everyone, i just bought a pair of barely used Polk Audio MOMO 4x6 speakers for $31 that will go in the doors of my mach. These are the plate type with the 4" round and the tweeter and are pretty much top of the line speakers as far as 4x6 speakers go. I'm getting ready to send back my Dashes Direct door panels (received a set that was 1" too short) and when i get my correct panels back the doors will be ready and i'll be putting in the speakers. I'll make a post with some pics.

[70vert 17]

70vert-

 

So you are not happy with the pile drivers? My dash in my 69 is shot and I have a nice one but the only issue is the center was cut out for a single speaker. I was thinking about mounting one in there and it will make the dash look better. Did you get a chance to try them with speakers in the door or kick panels?

 

I'd have to tell you after I get the door speakers installed, and I'm waiting for the bezels right now and have had other stuff going on. I'm hoping the door speakers will balance everything out and if even that doesn't work maybe I'll try kick panel speakers as well. I imagine if I can rig it so the fader fades from the dash speakers in the front to the side speakers I can keep the dash speakers from overpowering the side speakers.

 

Oh, I have speakers in the rear quarter panels that a previous owner hacked in there, so the fader would fade from the dash speaker to the door speakers and the rear quarter speakers and balance them. As it is I can't even tell if the rear speakers are on unless I'm sitting back there with my ear up to 'em.

 

When the guy hacked up the dash, I hope he didn't remove the plate and screws that one of these dash speakers would mount to . . .

[buening 63]

Since most head units only have LF, RF, LR, and RR speaker wires are you gonna splice in the dash speaker or are you running an external amp? Haven't quite figured out how i'm gonna do that with 5 speakers and only four outputs from my pioneer CD player :confused: Maybe you have more audio experience than i and have some tips. Since the dash speaker is in the center, splicing into the left front wire will only give you sound that the left speaker puts out (obviously). IMO that would make the system be out of balance. I may just not hook up my dash speaker unless i go with a two speaker dash unit (mine is a 5x7 oval fosgate).

[70vert 17]

No, I just have LF, RF, LR, and RR. The dash speaker is wired into the LF and LR - a 60/60 dual speaker unit. Currently LR and RR go to my rear seat speakers, but eventually I will splice into LR and put in L-Door and RR and put in R-Door. I had a shop do it since I suck at electrical and have had lots of issues with the way the stereo was installed 15 years ago. I'll upgrade the unit eventually, but baby steps as they say . . .

 

I don't know a lot about power handling but I assume when I use the fader that distributes power from (LF/LR) to (LR/RR), right?

[robbiedog 0]

Hey Buening,

Can you post the details of your Polk Speakers? I'm looking for some 4x6 speakers that will fit in my doors also and want to do some research. If you already know yours fit that might save me some time. What's the model number, etc? Thanks! Rob

[buening 63]

Hey Buening,

Can you post the details of your Polk Speakers? I'm looking for some 4x6 speakers that will fit in my doors also and want to do some research. If you already know yours fit that might save me some time. What's the model number, etc? Thanks! Rob

 

Polk MMC460 like http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5850134229&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

 

As far as fit i haven't received the speakers and it may be a month or so before i get them installed. Too cold out right now to start cutting

[indianfiremach 170]

On my 69 convertible I sold a few months ago, I had NPD's pile driver dual dash speaker and the stock replacement speakers (also from NPD) in the doors. It was a factory AM/FM car, so the holes and covers where already there. I had a custom autosound secret audio system, and kept the AM/FM unhooked in the dash. The sound with the pile driver center speaker and door speakers was rather poor. You could hear everything very well even with the top down, but the sound was coming almost soley out of the center of the dash. I had planned to hook up the door speakers as the front speakers and take out the Pile driver unit, I think it would have sounded better that way. Ford just didn't design these cars for good sound. A coupe would be easier with the package tray, but on the Mach 1 I don't have that due to the fold down. However, someone cut rear speakers into the rear seat side panels (the common front ones that they reproduce). He put them in the area beneath the armrest, facing the front seats. They look good there and appear factory. I was planning on replacing them with uncut panels since I'm doing a stock restoration, but may not after all since I bet they sound nice.

[borobb 10]

I have a Kenwood speakers in the kick panels, (2) kenwood 6x9's hidden in the back panel (non-fold-down rear seat) and also behind the rear seat I have an 8" amplified bazooka tube. Oh, in dash I have a Kenwood CD receiver. I had the speaker holes in the door welded in and painted over. The previous owner butchered the doors trying to put in some 6" speakers. You can see some of the system in my pictures in the gallery. It's the bright yellow fastback. My system sounds pretty good. The kick panel speakers are angled a little to aim more at the listener. But all in all I am very happy with the sound.

[FMACHI 10]

Hey buening, are you running an amp with these speakers, if not whats your inbuilt preamp like. I blew the inbuilt pre-amp in my Clarion head unit years ago by hooking up 2X50watt fronts and 2X80watt rears. The deck was pre-amped (is that even a word) to suit 4X15Watt speakers. Fine at low volume, but as soon as I got it past 1/4 volume (could hardly hear it while driving) it started to smoke. Just curious in case it was a one of experience.

[buening 63]

Hey buening, are you running an amp with these speakers, if not whats your inbuilt preamp like. I blew the inbuilt pre-amp in my Clarion head unit years ago by hooking up 2X50watt fronts and 2X80watt rears. The deck was pre-amped (is that even a word) to suit 4X15Watt speakers. Fine at low volume, but as soon as I got it past 1/4 volume (could hardly hear it while driving) it started to smoke. Just curious in case it was a one of experience.

 

Wow, i don't think i have ever heard of the head unit's amp blowing. No i am not running an amp with mine. I have two way pioneer 6x9 in the back (soon to be changed) and soon to be Polk MOMO 4x6 door speakers powered by my Pioneer CD head unit. I think the pioneer is 4x50 watts. Eventually i'll be adding an external amp but for now the pioneer handles the speakers quite well.