zeravla

Since so many people ask for advice on what to do with their stereo, I thought I'd post on what I just ordered for my non-bose FD.

Keep in mind my goal is clear sound, good vocals, and enough bass that I won't feel like I wished I got a sub. Also, I want to stay as stock looking as possible.

Here's what I ordered off ebay (all supposedly new in factory boxes from a store with 99% positive feedback and thousands of transactions... hopefully I don't get ripped):

$329 Nakamichi CD400: cd player with amber lighting
$220 JL Audio e4300: 45x4 amp
$159 JL Audio xr525cxi: 5.25" coaxial for doors
$169 JL Audio xr570cxi: 5x7" coaxial for rear sides
$877 total

Speakers have tweeters that pivot so should help with imaging (I don't want separate tweeters in the door panels to draw attention from theives). In case I decide later I need a sub, I can run rears off deck and bridge the rear chanels of the amp to run the sub. Mounting depth of fronts are 2.375" and magnet is 72mm O.D. Based on what other people have fit into their doors, this should fit, especially with a reputable installer doing it.

I realize I won't have enough bass to pick up school girls at bus stops, but it should sound pretty damn good

Will keep you posted on how it comes out.

Tony

ps - Has anyone used any of the items I ordered?

EVS.TurboTuner

Sounds good. My goal is to have the same quality sound as a Lexus SC430 Mark Levinson system. That is a truly bad *** OEM stereo. Enough mid and low bass!! Never heard another factory system as good. Personally, it sounds better than most aftermarket systems. The problem lacking in aftermarket systems isn't the lows or the highs, its the mid bass kick! I think the SC430 achieved this by adding mini 6" subs in the doors.

spyfish007

Looks good. I would have gone with the "slash" series amps instead of the "e" series. You really nice head unit and speakers, why not the amp too? I think you will be happy regardless. Good luck and post some pics.

I am really confused .. sub or no sub?

zeravla

I agree many aftermarket systems lack midbass kick. Case in point.... on an 87 Rx7 I owned many years ago, I got 5.25s in the doors and 6.5s in the shock towers, all running off an amp. These were not simple bolt ins, so I paid a "pro" to do the job. I get the car back and it sounded like I had 3.5s all around, if that. All midrange and high. When I complained, the guy said the reason it sounded like that was because it needed a sub. I got home and took it apart to see what he did... the speakers were just suspended in mid air... nothing separating the front from rear airwaves!

I went back, and we finished the install together. We sealed off where the speakers mounted with sheetmetal. We used some sort of caulk to fill any small gaps, and backed the metal with some sort of sound insulating material.

Let me tell you, it made a TREMENDOUS difference! I am going to a much more reputable installer this time, and will make my expectations clear to them up front.

I have not heard the Lexus system you mentioned, but I have read that it's regarded as the best factory stereo out there.

zeravla

Spyfish, no sub in the plans for now.... just a 45x4 amp powering 2 sets of coax speakers. The point I was making was that if I choose to add a sub later, I have the flexibility to do so. The deck could power the rear speakers as fill with the rear channels of the amp powering the sub.

I was under the impression the amp I got is very good and the amp you mentioned is more extreme than what I need. True, the Nak is really high end, but there's not much out there that matches the dash. The speakers I got are high end for coax speakers, but I had a hard time finding a lesser speaker that had enough kick, swivelable tweeters, and matching (other than size) between front and rear.

HEns

not a bad set up, personally im not a fan of irregular shaped speakers. and the rx7 isnt really a huge car you probably could have gotten away with spending a bit more on ur front splits and not worrying abt rears, thats just me tho.
again very nice deal with the nak, mp3 is overrated anyhow, 1 thing to note tho, the nakamichi amber isnt 100% matching to the amber on the dash, but thats just me being fickle.
have fun with it all tho

hens

SpeedKing

iTrader: (4)

Tony: You could have gone 6.5" and 6x8!

I just re-did my audio system and am running Boston Acoustics' SL65 up front and SL80 out back.

BTW, I have the same CD-400 source unit and I think you'll love it. Sonically, it's VERY clean, especially with CDs, and it elegant looking in a simple kind of way. However, because it's Nakamichi's entry-level model, IMO the face is lightweight, cheaply built, and the rotary **** is kinda cheesy. Also, and I know this is nitpicking, but the amber illumination matches the surrounding lights on the A/C, but is not as bright as the backlighting on the tach and speedometer so it looks a *little* off. If I had to do it over, I probably would have spent more and gotten Nak's CD-700II or Alpine's CDA-7998.

HEns

hahahah, the nak700II is very nice, but its alot more then the 400, ditto the alpine, infact it should be more then his entire setup atm

zeravla

Speedking, I get thrown off by the whole 5x7/6x8 thing. Several speaker manufacturers that sell this size don't specify whether it's indeed 5x7 or 6x8. I assumed that the 5x7 or 6x8 midbass driver itself is the same size, but the mounting holes are able to accomidate either a 5x7 or 6x8 cutout.

Not sure if what I said makes sense, but look at the mounting tabs on the speakers I got (enlarge the pic and you'll see what I mean about the mounting tabs):

http://www.jlaudio.com/evolution/XR570CX.html#

Their middle VR series 6.5 would have fit up front, but not the 6.5" XR series I got (too much mounting depth). There is no VR series 5x7/6x8. I'm not sure how picky I was being, but I thought it would sound better if the front and rear speakers were of the same brand and series so their tonal characteristics would match.

Hopefully the Nak isn't too far off in lighting. I'm kinda annoyed that my Pettit boost gauge's lighting doesn't blend in well (too dimly lit and the whole face lights up rather than just the numbers). We're all so picky, lol

Hens, I have read that round is superior to oval, and I actually thought about just foregoing rears altogether and going with 6.5 JL VRs up front. There are SOOOOOOO many different configurations to consider and I was taking so long to make a decision, I finally just made my purchase because I found good pricing on everything.

spyfish007

One trick the "slash" series amps gives you is its crossover. It has a 24 db/oct crossover that you can run down to 50 to 60 hz and really get those fronts moving with some midbass. Seal the door with roadkill and add QTC baffles and bingo ... midbass. Just because you got coax doesn't mean you went midlevel. Those are some nice speakers.

On a different note, I always overpower my mids and highs. I had a set of Boston 5.4 proseries that were rated at 50W RMS. Well I powered them with 150W RMS and that ultra low 24db/oct crossover and the car had some series midbass. I also powered them with a McIntosh amp @ 110W RMS and a 18db/oct filter that I ran at 62-65 Hz. The speakers more than held up over a LONG period of time.

tobecontinued

iTrader: (4)

The mounting depth for non-bose enclosures in 2.5" right? And you can use 5.5" or 6.5" speakers in them?

So boston acoustics 6.5" pro series with 2 3/8" mounting depth should fit, right?

Anyone running these speakers?

You should take a look at the new alpine 9831-33-35 head units, they have 512 possible colors and play mp3's.

spyfish007

The boston's fit.

zeravla

I just got everything professionally installed and my biggest impression is I'm really disappointed with the lack of midbass... it sounds like I'm running 4" midranges all around and I feel the way the speakers were mounted may not be extracting all the midbass the speakers are capable of.

First thing I checked was the crossover setting on the amp. It was set with all 4 speakers playing 150hz and above. I lowered it to 80hz which helped somewhat. I tried lowering it to 55hz, but couldn't really tell a difference between 55 and 80.

I popped off the rear panels to see how the speakers are mounted. Just like Max Cooper points out in his write-up, the rear speakers are suspended in mid air... see pics at: http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/...rs/index.html. The grills are supposed to form a seal against the speaker to separate front/rear airwaves, but that looks half-assed to me. Maybe I should put some foam as Max suggested between the edge of the speaker to form a better seal with the grille edge.

Also I noticed the metal mounting supports from the car that suspend the speaker in midair are coated with a metallic looking material.... Dynamat I suppose. Also, this same material is completely wrapped around the back side of the speaker (and done so very snugly). What is this supposed to benefit? Doesn't the speaker need more air than that behind it?

Something has to be wrong here and I'm not sure what. My front 5.25 speakers have more bass than the rear 5x7s and all other factors between the speakers are equal other than how they are mounted. I don't even really enjoy listening to the stereo because it's all highs and mids.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm wondering if the shop deliberately set it up to minimize the bass so I'd feel the need to get a sub and spend more money with them (the fact that they had the xover freq set to 150hz and above was very odd to me). That's why I'm asking your guys' opinions about if they should have installed the rear speakers any differently.

spyfish007

You need more power and you need the QTC baffles.

sectachrome

hmmm... i got 6.5s installed in the back, and 4's in the front, they are both just stuck right in. no insulation, sealing, or anything. the guy at the store also told me it was because i need a sub. did you just seal off where the speaker mounted with the sheet metal? did you put insulating stuff on all the bare metal in the shock towers? im not really clear on what you did.

SpeedKing

iTrader: (4)

Tony: You should have gotten the biggest sized speakers that will fit: 6.5" and 6x8. Generally speaking, bigger speakers = more overall volume.

Anyway, have you tried playing with the BASS and MID settings on the Nakamichi CD-400? And have you turned the LOUD setting on?

zeravla

Yes... screwed the sheet metal to the door, then sealed around the edges where the pieces met.

I stuffed the rear speaker shock towers with some kind of fill material... don't remember exactly what it was as this was back in the early 90s.

zeravla

As far as I know, the way the back side of the rear speakers are currently wrapped appear to accomplish the same thing that the baffles would accomplish. I think I was being overly critical of my system.... with a single 8 it should sound exactly how I want.

Thanks,
Tony

zeravla

I just got a JL Audio 8w3v2 (8" sub) installed in a custom ported box by a local audio shop (Audio Communications in Pittsburgh, PA) and now I am very happy with my system overall in terms of sound quality, volume, and stealthness.

It now consists of:

Nakamichi CD400 in dash cd player
JL xr525cxi 5.25" coaxials for front doors
JL xr570xci 5x7" coaxials for rear sides
JL 8w3v2 8" sub in custom ported box
JL e4300 45x4 amp

The amp is stable to 2 ohms, so I have my 4 coaxials wired in parallel off chanels 1 and 2, thus getting 37.5 watts per corner. Since this loses the fader control, I took advantage of the external coaxial crossovers to compensate... the fronts are set with the midrange and tweeter to high, and the rears have the midrange set to low and the tweets disconnected. This creates a primarily frontal soundstage with just enough rear fill to sound to my liking. Chanels 3 and 4 of the amp are bridged to run 150 watts to my sub. The box is designed well enough that it sounds more like I have a single 10.

Even though I chose coaxials, I am still happy with the imaging thanks to the swiveling tweeter mount design. I feel as if I am centered between the sound regardless whether I sit in the driver or passenger seat.

Although the speakers use an aluminum tweeter design, they are not nearly as harsh sounding as with most metal tweeters, but still not quite as smooth as silk. They strike a good balance between detail, smoothness, and efficiency, IMO. At 90db efficency rating, they work well with my modest power input of 37.5 watt/corner.

Just wanted to let you know I am very happy with this setup in case anyone is trying to figure out where to get started.