Eric Henry

I have upgraded my entire stereo in my 89 convertible.
Alpine Headunit (not sure which model)60x4
Dash speakers 4" JL audio
Door speakers 6" polk audio
Fosgate 250w Amp
2 10" JL's
1). The headrest speakers quit working after I hooked up the alpine. Is there someway to coonect the set up on the console to an amplifier to power speakers in the headrest? If so what size speakers?

2). I now have no trunk space for anything. Not even a twenty pack of bud. I got an idea from someone to put your system right behind the seats in the compartment that houses one of your spare tires? Has any one attempted to do this? What speaker size works the best?

rx_7_driver

i have 3 10's in the compartment behind the seats.
i put the spare in the trunk and grinded out the spare tire holder and the bar that it is welded to. and my 3 10's fit in quite nice with a little room to spare. sounds awsome with the top up, but when the top is down u can't bearly hear them, only feel them hitting. it still sounds ok with the top down,just not enough bump for me

Eric Henry

Yeah, I can barely hear anything with the top up with them in my trunk. I figure it should sound better there vs the trunk. Where did you stick your amp? I've had problems with mine overheating and shutting off. Maybe I just need an amp that doesn't get as hot as quick. What about the bazooka amps that have coolant running through them?

RXSpyder

I want to put in subs too but dont know where i can put them. I have a vert so trunk space is minimum. I cant fit the spare in the trunk. So where can i put the subs, and what kinda subs and amps are good. I have a pioneer head unit that is 50x4.

13bpower

Quite interesting. I have been contemplating moving my 2 JL 10" subs from my trunk to behind the seat. Custom box = Big $$$$ though. Anyone have a price estimate on how much the box would cost?

stabben

Hello fellow "verters"!!

Here comes a long post, with some input and helpful ideas, I hope, since I have some experience to speak
from:

I have a 91 'vert and spent all of last fall replacing the entire sound system, except the headunit.
I managed to stuff a 10 inch sub, in an acoustically large enough, homemade closed speaker box, into the driver side storage well under the rear cover, behind the seat. In the other well I cleverly mounted 3 amps, one smaller Carver and two larger Alpines, one for the front component Kappa system, one for the rear Kappas behind the seats for rear fill, and one for the sub. On top of that, the spare tire fits under the cover as well, and I still have the trunk space for that famous set of golf clubs, or whatever. In addition, the headrest speakers still work independently of the other speakers, using only the stock amp and controls. Not that it's of any real use now, you can't really hear it over the power from the rest of the system anyway. And you can't tell that there are any audio goodies in the car, until you turn on the stereo...except for the door mounted tweeters. But those I made to look stock, so for the uninitiated, they just look 12 years old as well.

The system sounds loooovely with the top down, at full highway speed, at least until I blew one of the component woofers... Also, for a cleaner sound, ditch the stock head unit and run a low-level signal directly from the new unit to the amp(s). I also get some interference from the electronics in the car and really need to put a filter/cap on it. No big concern until I've switched out the bad speaker, though.

Last thoughts: My installation allows me to put everything back to stock, and transfer all the components to a different car, if I ever sell the 'vert. All the components were available from Ebay, including speakers, converters, cables, fuse box, battery and ground gold connectors, good power and signal cables, etc., and I REALLY saved some big bucks going that route: A super system with enough power for open top driving, with all good components, at the retail price of ONE good amp. And I built and designed the system myself...
Sort of like a turbo conversion, I guess. You gather all the stuff you need, slowly, piddle around some, make drawings, and then you just DO it!

How did I do this? Used line-level converters tapped into the stock headunit, good quality speaker cable and RCA signal cables strung under the door sills. You have to hunt around for which cables to tap into, just use a 12 V test lamp and some common sense. Also, I suggest you build your own sub box, to fit properly in the space available, and slap a JL Audio 10W0 in it, if you find a good price on Ebay. Best bang for the small air space I've found, so far. I'm sure there are other ways, though!

Have fun with it!
Joakim

rx_7_driver

remeber
that's where the amp went in that little room to spare (another one is on it's way )

rx_7_driver

RXSpyder is your spare the orginal? mine fits in my trunk nice and snug on the driver side where that indention is


and since there r alot of vert owners lookig at this what the hell do we do with out tire if we do get a flat? there is no way in hell i can get a 17' tire to fit in my trunk

cool3865

oh yay?? oh yay?? i have a complete stock stero except tha new head unit and a 10 cd disk changer but tha speakers a stock and i get mad bass yo!!!

V8RX7com

I have a few web pages and pictures about the stereo system in my 1991 convertible RX-7 on my website V8RX7.com

I did a few things you might want to check out, to give you some ideas.

http://v8rx7.com/sound.htm

BOOSTD 7

Here's my Vert install.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...&threadid=9211

I'm still in love with those CDT components. They're just so silky smooth. I'm upgrading the OZ 10" to an Audiomobile EVO-R 12" and building a new 1.25 cu/ft box soon. And doing as rx 7 driver said, and working the trunk to re-fit the spare back there.

Samps

The vert already has the spare storage area in the trunk right where it is on a coupe. It is just covered with the trunk carpet. The spare should slide right down in that hole. Although you will need to either get rid of the carpet or cut it to fit around the protruding spare tire.

Rx7Roadster

iTrader: (1)

I recently put in a new stereo system in my vert. Heres what I put in.

Alpine 7894 Head unit
Infinity Reference 605cs 6.5” component speakers
Alpine Type R 10” sub in custom box
Kicker 300.4 Amplifier

The 6.5" from the component speakers was mounted in the stock location in the doors and the tweeter was mounted on an angle on the little triangle piece on the back of the mirror. I built a custom box for the sub and put it behind the driver's side seat where the spare used to be. The amp went behind the passengers side seat. Overall it sounds great. I like it a lot. Ill post some pics later today.

V8RX7com

Yes this is true, but what are you going to do if you get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere? yes.... you will have the small space saver tire that will fit in the convertible's trunk to stick on the car,.... but you will need to stick the larger flat rim/tire somewhere untill you get it fixed.

just something to think about.

stabben

BOOSTD 7, you really went with some nice components for your system, and I really liked the idea of a Focal or A/D/S sub. Expensive, but verrry choice!!!

Will you lay out the new box in the entire area under the cover in order to obtain the required box volume? Could it be done in fiberglass?

Icemark

I am working on a fiberglass drop in for the hidden storage area to hold a single 8" in a sealed bandpass configeration, ported behind the drivers seat.

It should provide some low bass fill without using up all the spare and full size tire area.

But it most certinly won't be enough bass for some of you crank heads with three 10" woofers. But on the other hand, there really isn't even close enough air space for three 10" woofers back there so your probably forcing the "Q" anyway.

RXSpyder

Yea my spare is the original. But i can find a way to squeeze it into the little well that they have in the trunk.

I want to put in a system that will leave me trunk space and leave the spare tire in its well.

What kinda subs should i use?

RXSpyder

Stabben, What kinda of subs, head unit, speakers, and amps did you use?

stabben

I agree with Icemark here, there's only so much you can work with back there, in terms of the sound parameters.
The box I built is closed, with about 35 cu/ft, and I'm currently using a pretty cheap 10" driver (all I could afford at the time) and will upgrade this eventually. But even so, this configuration hits fairly hard and low driven in bridged mono at about 160 W rms (380 W peak) and is crisp enough for classical music and jazz. None of this sloppy bass crap. So, properly choosing the parameters of the box, and mating it with a proper driver goes a surprisingly long way without eating up all the space available. And the sound output is acceptable, at least to me since I'm getting old here...

stabben

RXSpyder,

I decided to go with stealth and a stock look, so I kept the head unit and just tapped the amp signals, converted them down and fed them to two Alpine amps (the older series, when they still where built in Japan, one a 3548 model and the other a smaller version of the same, but can't remember the model right now) and a smaller Carver (!) amp I found on Ebay. That meets my third criterion, building the system as cheaply as possible since the wife wouldn't understand why I was throwing good money at a car audio system anyway...
And, it was also an experiment, to see what the best bang could be for the buck!

The speakers are all Infinity Kappa, the CMMD Plus One series, with 60.3cs components up front, and 42.3i full range behind the seats. The woofer is crap, and I would like a single JL Audio 10W0 for the air space I have available in the small driver box. The parameters should match nicely.

stabben

RXSpyder,

I decided to go with stealth and a stock look, so I kept the head unit and just tapped the amp signals, converted them down and fed them to two Alpine amps (the older series, when they still where built in Japan, one a 3548 model and the other a smaller version of the same, but can't remember the model right now) and a smaller Carver (!) amp I found on Ebay. That meets my third criterion, building the system as cheaply as possible since the wife wouldn't understand why I was throwing good money at a car audio system anyway...
And, it was also an experiment, to see what the best bang could be for the buck!

The speakers are all Infinity Kappa, the CMMD Plus One series, with 60.3cs components up front, and 42.3i full range behind the seats. The woofer is crap, and I would like a single JL Audio 10W0 for the air space I have available in the small driver box. The parameters should match nicely.

BOOSTD 7

Thanks, I chose the Nak CD-45Z for two main reasons. The Burr-Brown DAC's, and it has a classy look that fits with a FC interior. The whole thing came together great. I used quality interconnects, soldered every connection, used Teflon Cat5 cable for speaker wire, Dynamat Extreme all over the doors. It sounds great! I'm still bouncing around ideas of using an ADS instead of the Audiomobile for the sub upgrade, but I really don't think in a vert that you would notice the difference in SQ of a sub ... but you would notice the difference in SPL.

That amp was bench tested to put out a solid 346 watts with a bridged 4 ohm load. That'll push just about any sub that will fit ... it might not push a Brahma or a Mass, but one of those wouldn't really fit anyway. The magnet structure is just to big. Mainly I just want to upgrade the sub to a 12" for extension, and to build a more proper box.

Quote:

Will you lay out the new box in the entire area under the cover in order to obtain the required box volume? Could it be done in fiberglass?

I'm not sure yet ... gonna play and see what I can do

stabben

BOOSTD 7,

That upgrade must have cost you a pretty penny! I applaud your good taste!!

I like ADS and contemplated using either a 4 or more channel single amp for my entire system, I think some nicer Volvo systems come with that, together with Danish Scan Speak components, but these plans exceeded my budget at the time. Ideally, using Focals all around, or perhaps Scan Speak speakers, tied to an ADS amp with a nice DAC, headunit and active crossover network would be very nice, I think, or something along those lines, but the expense would be prohibitive and hard to justify!

Also, I agree that in a convertible there really is no point in going too upscale due to the huge spatial, dynamic losses with the top down. SPL would probably be more important in order to compensate. That's one reason, other than space, why I decided to go with a smaller, closed box and a 10" driver rather than a ported, larger setup, using a sufficiently powerful amp to drive it with. I think a 12" driver certainly is possible, but how much space do you then have left under the cover?

stabben

Oh, I forgot to mention one point of interest here, related to the losses with the top down:

Many people complain about the electrical system of the RX-7 not being up to par when installing a beefed up audio system. The alternatives are then to beef up the alternator, install caps and so forth. In a convertible this problem is magnified, particularly with regard to the lower frequencies it seems. I here think it's crucial to look at the efficiency of your components, and to pick them in such a way as to gain maximum output with the least electrical drain. This is all obvious I guess. But I have noticed that a lot of the components out there, particularly the inflated flashy ones, are rather inefficient and draw a lot of current. An efficient system usually is more expensive, but that should also be offset somewhat by the cost of an upgraded alternator, etc.

Take the older Klipsch home speakers, the corner horns, for example. Using only a few watts, these are certain to rattle your windows. That's efficient! And all due to good design. Go with an established name brand, known for conservative output ratings, and you'd be happier in the long run.

I also think it makes sense to look at the reserve power your alternator can produce and design your system as efficiently as possible based on that, with a margin built in. I think I'm pushing somewhere between 500 and 1000 watt peak, right now (just a rough estimate), drawing somewhere around 30 amps. And I have so far not noticed any alternator problems, battery drain, etc., and have not yet seen a need for a capacitor, other than as a possible DC noise filter.

Just my two cents...

Rx7Roadster

iTrader: (1)

There are pics of my install here.
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=108314