Let's talk center speaker. Worth it? Stupid? Upgrade?
 

Hey guys -

For no good reason I've been thinking about messing with putting a center speaker back in the car.

Stock the car has a fairly small (2.5"?) speaker in there. There's an amp that takes the front left and front right speaker signals, smooshes them together, then outputs to that speaker.

The stock speaker in 99% of FD's out there is probably done, it was a cheapo paper cone speaker to start with.

So, doing something with it, a new speaker would need to be sourced and hooked up.

Anyone think this is worthwhile? Make the stereo sound better?

Dale

First off, please excuse my ignorance on the subject. Do you have to remove the center speaker if you choose to install a gauge pod in the place of the speaker cover? I have seen people comment both ways on the forum.

If you can leave the speaker in, how would the gauge pod affect the attenuation and overall sound quality? Just asking if anyone can weigh in on this as I haven't done it myself, but planned to go with gauge pod install in center speaker.

I reckon anyone who enjoys listening to music in their car would probably appreciate a higher quality center speaker if it improves the sound. :icon_tup:

I don't know how functional that center speaker would be firing into a gauge pod. I think the original idea (I think it was in the Yamaguchi book) was that speaker would fire up and bounce off the windshield to the occupants of the car.

Dale

That's what I figured.

Personally I would value gauge placement over a center speaker. A-pillar gauge mounts just seem like they would be more cumbersome and distracting for taller people - hence the reason I plan to go with center speaker mounting.

You have to remove the speaker in order to run wire to the gauge. Perhaps someone can integrate a center speaker mount to the gauge pod, shouldn't be hard to do.

FWIW I upgraded the other speakers on the car several years ago. Seems like I put Infinities in the doors and they came with tweeters. I had them installed in place of that center dash speaker since it was toasted just as you described. They point toward the glass. I'm old and hearing isn't that great so not sure how it might sound against alternatives. But I think it's better than what was in there. :dunno:

I say go for it. A nice sounding stereo is a bonus in any car. A speaker that small cant cost much. Do it!!!

upgraded mine although after a few minutes.. almost always turns it off in favor of the exhaust and blow off..
never seems to get old.. whereas most songs do..
plus with this car... id like to hear everything considerng its age.. unrecognized noise equals time to troubleshoot..

Resurrecting this old thread...... So Dale did you ever find something that fit into the center speaker and was still able to utilize the Bose system? I know mine is fried and would love to put a new speaker in there but it has to work the Bose

Nope never got past the thinking about it phase :).

Anyone else have input?

One of my "one of these days" projects is to make my FD stereo happy again. It works but it sounds pretty meh. It's all 15+ year old parts, I installed that setup when I bought the car.

Dale

To be honest I'm pretty happy with miine, everything works as it should and gives me the sound I need at my age.

The only issue is the center Channel that crackles, a replacement would be great, or even if I could find someone that rebuilt them like Bose used to back in the day.

My only input is in comparison to other more modern cars that have a center dash speaker. My '14 Mazda 3 daily driver has the factory Bose system, which puts a rather large center dash speaker, which I think is a full range speaker, along with tweeters at each corner of the dash. That system also has woofers in the front doors, and full range speakers in the rear doors and hatchback C-pillars. I'm pretty sure all the rear speakers are 2-way mids/tweeters, but they might be full range, don't recall. Anyway, the sound quality from that system, along with the stage imaging is surprisingly good for a factory system - and still sounds great almost 7 years after the car was new.

Compared with the FD application, I don't think you would gain much with a center speaker because the space needed for a good mid-range/tweeter just isn't there. When I got my FD, it had no audio gear, so I had a blank sheet to work with, and am pretty happy with a Kenwood 2DIN head unit with pretty standard power (i.e., <20W/channel) & all the current features most head units have these days (e.g., touch screen, android auto/carplay, etc.). I'm using that to drive Infinity Reference series 6x8" speakers in the B-pillars and Infinity Reference 6-1/2" speakers in the doors. With the equalizer & sound staging controls the head unit provides, the sound stage imaging is really good, and the sound is good enough for me. I'd like to get a wee bit more bass out of it, but it's not so bad that a basic sub-woofer unit won't fix it.

So in my case, I needed that center speaker real estate more for a single CAN bus gauge than I did for a speaker. Funny thing is when I installed the Drake's center gauge pod, I found out the old center speaker & amp was still there and it looked like it's in decent shape - the only piece of audio gear in my FD that survived its 3 PO's :lol:

^My RX-8 has the factory Bose system and it's, hands down, one of the best sounding stereos I've ever heard. Gets loud without distortion, good bass and highs, music just sounds full and rich. It's all bone stock too, only problem I had was a failed relay in the driver's side door speaker amp which was an easy fix.

That is what made me think about doing something with the FD's sound system but I've got tons of other stuff I really need to do before that.

Dale

I have the Bose system in my '94 with CD and cassette. Never listened to either in the 11 years I've owned it. Think I turned on the AM a couple of times. :dunno:

I think a lot of people are missing the point here, its not whether or not you listen to music or the sounds of the car. Or if you rather gauges then the speaker.... Some of us like to keep things the way it came from factory, so that requires searching for different resources or options.