stereo, what do you have and like?

[dantye]

What about the tweeters? I find that it is voice that I loose the most @ roadspeed with the top down and I been taking notice that most newer luxury cars all have tweeters located in and around the "no-draft" window area of our spiders - any advice on how this could/couldnt benefit our cars?

IMHO, tweeters are somewhat irrelevant in an open convertible at road speed because of the Doppler effect, unless you have "earphone" speakers built into the headrests.
Rolling up the side windows and adjusting the side vents to minimize noise can reduce this effect and help a lot, but it depends on the range of sounds involved and the car and wind speeds and directions.
Some folks laugh at the idea of a radio in a fiat, but missing just one hail storm or flash flood warning, or even a traffic report could change their mind.

[dantye]

One consideration is that, with a mechless receiver, you can rip about 300 CDs to mp3 or wma files onto JUST ONE postage stamp-size 16GB SD card. This would cover a lot of folks' entire CD collection, whereas hauling 300 CDs around in a Fiat could prove to be problematic.

Who has a stereo that has great navigation for MP3? My buddy has an MP3 compatible head unit. I plugged both and iPod and a flash drive to it, but it didn't let you scroll through your albums. Just played random or in order! So you'd need a flash drive for every album. Which is silly. LOL!

Keeping in mind that ANY receiver's navigation options will be impacted by HOW the downloaded tracks/albums, CDs or vinyl LPs are organized in folders on your digital media: Even my cheap DUAL mechless lets you scroll through albums (on the SD card - I don't use an iPod, so can't say.) But this unit doesn't have alphabetical ID info, so you need to memorize numbers of your favorite album folders. Some of the more expensive mechless receivers have better annotated displays of selection navigation. The reviews on Amazon should have more detail.

[Daniel]

What about the tweeters? I find that it is voice that I loose the most @ roadspeed with the top down and I been taking notice that most newer luxury cars all have tweeters located in and around the "no-draft" window area of our spiders - any advice on how this could/couldnt benefit our cars?

Can be added but it's a tricky subject when it comes to matching them correctly to your speakers you already have
if you going with component speakers then your ok but add tweeters to a car with coaxial speakers that have tweeters
built in them already would cause problems . Component speakers would add a great deal of sound quality to any
car if installed properly !

[opus10583]

I've yet to take a highway trip, and the exhaust I installed makes music all its own; but I can't imagine what else I might want in a sound system, and for the money I can't think of anything I might need.

Wanting some tunes, but knowing the limits, I've gone this route: Sony DSX-S100 iPod controller receiver ($110 on sale), Polk DB521 marine rated co-axials ($45 open box) with Boom Mat neoprene speaker cozies ($10), 6" Bazooka sub ($50 eBay), Dual XPA2100 amp for the Bazooka ($60).
[...]for <$300 I don't think I went too far wrong.

Ciao,
Mark

[kepler323]

i have to alpine mids highs in the stock spot. but the 2 red switches on each side of the stereo deck when both up let power go to the rear dual 10 in and 4 in subs and mids. the switches are so that i can remove the box and put in the back seat in the winter with the hard top.

[kepler323]

i realized that you cant see the subs cuz they got cut off so heres another pic/

[Ragno124]

To keep my Spider simple and get the sound I wanted, I went with high end component speakers in the front footwell above the map pockets driven by a 4-way amp mounted in the trunk and I find I get the bass and treble tones needed to overcome the wind noise at 60+ MPH. I have MB Quart 6.5" Premium series component speakers and they provide all the bass needed without having to have a separate subwoofer. To me, sound quality is ALL in the speakers and the amp driving them, not the stereo head unit. I could put the cheapest head unit on my MB Quarts and they would still sound great. In fact, I am still using the old Alpine unit that came with my car and the only reason I have not changed it is it's not something anyone would want to steal! My speakers are hidden and I left the old crappy ones that were installed in the door panels in the car for "show" only to keep anyone from wanting tear into the car and steal my setup.

[dantye]

I like our little Dual cheapo mechless radio and Pyramid speakers enough that, now that I have made a wind deflector, I am looking to use the other outputs to put another set of the same speakers in the rear quarter panels as a Spring project. That way we can still carry folding chairs and other luggage items in the "back seat" without covering up the rear speakers.

But I can't seem to find photos of such installations. Does anyone have a link to such photos and/or comments on the success of such installations?

Thanks

[txSteve]

Steve,

I am curious what you did with the tweeters in your MB Quartz component setup. Did you mount them in the foot area as well?

[Ragno124]

Steve,

I am curious what you did with the tweeters in your MB Quartz component setup. Did you mount them in the foot area as well?

For now I have the tweeters located in the "coaxial" mount in the speaker to keep them stealth. The MB Quarts have a coaxial center post that you can rotate to provide some directional aim to the tweeter to help distribute the sound. I tried this first to see how it sounded and it was fine so I left them there. I was going to mount them in the dash, but that would expose the fact that I had premium sound system and I decided against it. I have the crossover's mounted in the trunk on either side of the battery and I have the high-to-low level converters mounted in the passenger side footwell so I can easily adjust the sound output between the tweeters and the mid-woofers. Here is a link to the ones I have... http://www.mbquart.com/qline_speakers.html

Steve

[MrWampus]

The first thing I did when I got The Mistress was replace the stereo. The original one was vintage 90's and was tired. Since the car doesn't lock I told the guy at BB that I wanted "inexpensive" but not cheap. He fitted a base model Pioneer unit w/ a CD player and a front aux intput for MP3 players. I think that was $79. For speakers I got a 5.25" pioneer 2-way mounted in the front kick panels above the map pockets (not in the doors). For the rear I have 6.5 pioneer 2-way mounted in the side wells. The pioneer speakers were each about $59/pair. Both sets of speakers had very shallow mounting depth so they all fit nicely with no interference. The installation cost as much as the parts but it was worth it to me. The sound is much better than I would have thought. The stock stereo has plenty of power to drive the speakers so I get good bass response, mainly from the front speakers since they are fully enclosed and very clear mids and highs, mainly from the back since the directional sound doesn't really make it out from under the dash all that well. Overall, I'm very happy with the sound especially for what I paid.

I also bought an additional XM radio antenna and power supply so that I can swap the little Sportster unit I keep in the Subaru. When I stop somewhere I can pull the faceplate off the stereo, unplug the XM reciever and put them both in the locked glovebox. Oh, and for the deterence factor, I left the old "Jensen" speaker grills on the rear speakers. Who in their right mind would steal a pair of Jensens from the 90's?

Aside from having decent sound in the car, my BIGGEST concern was not having something anyone would want to steal. I am far more concerned about the cost of potential damage to the interior of my car than I am about the cost of replacing the radio.