Foz'sRX-7

My B-day is Christmas, so my wife gave me an entire speaker upgrade!

I had stock doors & Boston Acoustics 5x7's in the rear with a Bazooka tube attached to an alpine amp and my Kenwood head unit.

She gave me Boston Acoustic Pro 6.5's for the doors, with Boston Acoustic Rally 6's for the rear. The tweeters are mounted inside the little triangle opposite the side view mirrors.

The sound is so crystal clear!

what speaker set up does everybody else have?

reboot

what? pictures?

AARotary

First of all I have to say that Boston Acoustics makes awsome speakers that is their pro-series lines. You have options of mounting their tweeters and their crossovers which in turn made decent sounds. That is why I have them in both of my cars. I have 5.5 pro-series in Front and 6.5 pro-series 3 way in back man couldn't be any happier with the sounds.

HedgeHog

Does the Bostons 6.5 fit in the door w/o problems? I thought they looked a little too deep to fit in there. Also, where are you guys mounting the crossover?

TIA.

AARotary

6.5 is a bit too big for the front but 5.5 will work just fine with minor mods to make it fit just about right. You can place the crossover where the speakers is, simple.

Foz'sRX-7

Everything fit with the stock grills.

6.5's in front with tweeters mounted on the little black triangle.

Rally 6's mounted in back. Special bracket had to be made for the Rally's in rear as stock was 5 x 7 and I replaced Boston Acoustic 5 x 7's that I installed five years ago. I was told that the Rally 6's were the matched set for the Pro 6.5's and that the round speaker provided better tonal quality than the oval. Is that true?

The mid's are so clear!

Will try for pix this weekend (Santa brought an Olympus 4040z digital for my daughter)

DamonB

My front setup is same as yours but with Vifa components. Those Bostons are very nice; you should be a happy man. I went ahead and mounted 5.25" in the doors, but am told the 6" will fit if you just make a small baffle to fit over the stock location because there is plenty of room yet under the stock grills.

On the passenger side there is lots of room to fit the xover under the "hump" between the grad handle and the dash. On the drivers side it was much more difficult. I think you could fit it in the bottom of the door itself, but I didn't want it "outside". I custom built my xovers and used fairly large coils, so mine are a little larger than some. I made one board for high pass and one board for low pass. I fit the high pass at the very rear of the drivers door about half way up and the low pass at the front of the door just under the side defrost vent. It was still very tight but fit in the end.

No rear speakers at all other than my subwoofer enclosure. Tweeters in angled cups on the triangles at the front of the door.

BigRed

The bostons are nice. But still not as warm as I would like. The highs are too tinny (tin-ee) for my taste. My Best bud just installed a new system in his '93 T-bird SC. He opted for the MB Quarts over the Diamonds. Those are what we demo'd, so that's what I'm comparing the Boston's to.

I bought my car w/ 2 pair of boston acoustics installed. A 5" component set in the front. Mids in the stock location, but the tweets were installed flush in the doors which is a pretty sucky location. Then he had a 6" component set installed in the rear hatch with the tweets angled towards the front. The rear stage is HUGE. which makes me feel like I'm facing the wrong way trying to listen to music! The crossover does have a
-3db setting for the high pass, but one of them are stuck to where I can't adjust it. Both pairs are powered by a 4/3/2 channel sony amp (4004x or something like that). With a sony xplod head unit. Even though I'm whining about the sound (I'm pretty **** when it comes to audio) it was a bonus when I bought the car. Eventually I'd like to install the following:

Diamond Audio Hex 5" component sets
Diamond Audio Hex 6" 3-way component add on. (I don't know where the hell I would put it though)
Diamond Audio MacDaddy 12.4
Haven't decided on Amps yet. Might keep it all diamond.
Alpine Head Unit (unless Clarion comes out with an XM ready model)
Panasonic XM reciever & antenna.

But that's going to take some time and $$$ (emphasis on the $)

Has anyone messed around with positioning within the center speaker area. possibly mounting tweeters in there angled towards the windshield infront of the driver & passenger? just a thought. Also has there been any other locations speakers have been mounted that are a little more un-orthodox? the doors seem like the most logical location, but with how small the FD's are, the driver's side door location is almost all but covered up by the driver when you're driving.

Okay.. I think I'm done

BigRed
------------------------
'94 Montego Blue Touring

HedgeHog

Hmm...so the 6.5 do fit.

I can't decide...my last set of A/D/S 320is was my favourite component set. But the new A/D/S cost a grip and a half. And B & W stopped their car line in the 80's. So the next sound quality champ I heard was the Bostons.

Foz, if u can snap some pix, it'd be most appreciated. I gotta yank out that crappy sounding Bose stuff!

Thanx all.

BTW, wrt amps...what's more musical nowadays? Looking for a 4 channel bridgeable into 2-channel for fronts + 1-channel for sub.

- Phoenix Gold
- Precision Power
- Rockford Fosgate

Foz'sRX-7

I also have a 91 Miata......just installed a Kenwood CD (V7017) and put 2 Infini 3"s in each headrest. I also put MB Quarts in the doors....Wow! was I impressed! Crystal clear and at 80 w/top down you still hear separation from the headrest. All without a separate amp.

I was gonna do the MB Quarts in the Rex, but my wife gave me the BA Pro's.

I'm Happy!

I rotate between the Rex & Miata, so I always have great tunes! 30 minute commute in the A.M. & 60 minute in the P.M.

At Home I run two Sony 400 CD Changers in tandem with the Sony ES series digital receiver & Klipsch speakers.

Hedghog, I'll do my best to get some pix. The Tweeters are mounted at an angle so they are staring at you!

badass7

Hey guys, what can I fit in place of the Bose center channel speaker?? I will be running a blaupunkt Honolulu CD50 head unit but keeping the stock crap front speakers and wave tube for now. I was thinking of just dropping a good tweeter in place of that crappy center channel speaker that has cracked on me twice already (i guess from the sun's heat). TIA.

foko

[QUOTE]Originally posted by HedgeHog
[B]Hmm...so the 6.5 do fit.

I can't decide...my last set of A/D/S 320is was my favourite component set. But the new A/D/S cost a grip and a half. And B & W stopped their car line in the 80's. So the next sound quality champ I heard was the Bostons.

Foz, if u can snap some pix, it'd be most appreciated. I gotta yank out that crappy sounding Bose stuff!

Thanx all.

BTW, wrt amps...what's more musical nowadays? Looking for a 4 channel bridgeable into 2-channel for fronts + 1-channel for sub.


i'm researching my rx7 system right now so i have some insight. the boston site claims a mounting depth of 2 3/8inches for their 6.5 pro driver (or just over 2inches with a baffle ring or custom baffle. i recently measured about 2.5 inches from the front grill to the completely lowered window. (if you don't care about lowereing the window all the way the point is moot). the boston is a particularly shallow driver. my personal perference in component sets is dynaudio, which imo blow the doors off almost everything else with the possible exception of ads components...but as you know, speaker selection is mostly a personal opinion. in my mind the bostons and the quarts are
way to harsh and fatiguing. also keep in mind that the install is critical....i've heard dynaudio, ads and focals sound terrible due to inadequate baffle isolation, poor positioning , etc.

tweeter positioning is going to be a nightmare....all the door positions are terrible with regard to imaging ....as well as phase problems induced by seperating the mid from the tweeter. kick panel installations are not ideal in the 7 due to space constraints. using the center location may be an option which i've just started to consider. there's a place in berkeley called the autophile which carries a high end "full range" speaker which i think may fit in the dash location. audio control makes (or used to anyways) a processor/amp to drive a center channel speaker. most high end installs are going away from the center channel concept because of phasing problems.

the system i have in my toyota truck is nakamichi head unit, ads 6 channel amplifier, dynaudio components, audio control eq and processor and a 10" alumapro sub in a custom sealed enclosure. this is a very "musical" system. ads amps are very neutral....but also look at nak, brax, genesis, macintosh (too big physically) and tubedriver (i wouldn't use a tube amp in the 7).

if anyone wants to talk more about putting a high end system in the 7, i'm alway interested in talking about it...since i'm about a month from buying parts to start the install.

HedgeHog

Hi Foko,

Thx for the info. At least i know it'll fit.

Nak heads (most of them) are awesome. My pre-CD days TD-700 had the cleanest preamp section I've heard (well, there's that crazy TD2500? ****). But given the FD's high noise floor, wide dynamic range and 0.001%THD won't be the issue here.

I had a old-school Phoenix Gold MQ430/MS2150 get up so I'll prolly stick w/ them for now. Like you said the warm and smooth sound of tubes (like TubeDriver or Milber) w/ their incredible staging and imaging won't last a lick in our stiffly sprung cars.

Now wrt speakers imaging, do you remember the recommended maximum distance between tweeter and mid? Was it 1/2 or 2x the wavelength of the crossover frequency? IIRC, most components allow up to 3" or 4". So if we mount the mids in the stock location, can we use the angled surface mount 1/2 way up the door and point it at the rearview mirror? That theoretically should produce a nice central image. (unless that darn steering column plays havoc with the left channel) What we need are miniature planar speakers like Apogee or Magnepan on the A-pillar/dash - that'll be cool.

Kewl...another audiophile.

Foz'sRX-7

Foko, will try to post pix this week. snapped several this weekend but haven't had time to post them.

My tweeters for the B A Pro 6.5's are mounted on the little black triangle piece at window level just opposite the side view mirrors. The location works great.......but they do block a bit of the door window defroster vents. Shouldn't be a problem for the window or the tweeter.

Dragueur

how are you guys fitting these size speakers in the front?? i have the 5.25 JL AUDIO components and it WONT fit....it hits the window(magnet)...and some peeps say u need spacers...is that true??? i have 2-10W3 in hte back...but cant hear nothing but bass....i need an upgrade and right now.....my components WONT fit....
anyone got suggestions?? and also....my stock speakers on the metal plate...it is GLUED on...how do i take it off?

foko

draguer
the jl web site doesn't give mounting depth's, but generally 5.25's shouldn't be an issue if you use a spacer or better yet a custom baffle. as we've talked about above, some 6-6.5's will fit. again, my quick measure shows about 2.5 inches between the door grill and the lowered window. that's not exactly the mounting depth of a speaker, but rather the overall depth of the speaker.

as far as removing a glued in driver.....all you can do is rip the thing out. you may ruin the speaker, but its crap anyways.

foko

hedgehog...
nice to hear another audiophile is around. i seem to recall that 2x the crossover wavelength is the accepted max distance. in practice, i try to put them as close as possible. unfortunately, its pretty much accepted that midrange information is more important than high frequency info for imaging. that's why many high end installs are using a mid and tweeter in the kicks , a mid-bass in the door, and an additional tweeter (heavily attenuated) in the a-pillars. kick panel drivers establish the central image because of minimal path length differences and the high tweeters widen and raise the image, thus avoiding the "rainbow effect" (good center image but narrow and down on the sides). those high tweets are typically cross fired, but not at the window... early reflections off the window will wreak havoc with absolute phase and ruin the image. the high tweets can be attenuated with a resistor in line, or by wiring them out of phase with the kick panel drivers.

in my truck system...the steering column changes the imaging significantly. it sounds great in the drivers seat...but imageing suffers greatly in the passenger seat. my mid-bass is low doors and my tweets are in the kicks. all dynaudio components.

all theory aside, i think i'm gonna get some ads 336 components and do some good ol fashion trial and error. dynaudio 6's won't fit...ads maybe. it'll likely end up with the mid-bass drivers in the stock spot and the tweets somewhere in the doors. given the constraints in the 7, and the fact that i'd like to spend most of the money earmarked to this car on performance, i doubt i'll end up with the sq i've got in my truck....but hey you never know. (btw...i'm gonna use a nak cd45z h/u...but still haven't decided on the others...maybe ads or nak amps, alumapro or image dynamics sub in a sealed enclosure...and some sort of eq) still mired in the decisions.

if i recall...infinity made some ribbon/planar drivers for car audio for a while. also there was another manufacturer which i can't recall right now. they were flops...though i never heard a real install with them.

take care...let me know how things work out...especially if those ads drivers fit ok.

fabian

Foz'sRX-7

should have pix on website tommorrow....bear with me....this is the first time I have tried to post pix from my own site.

NJDave

I have an 89 convertible and recently replaced my sound system (I was sort of forced to since the car was stolen and the radio taken). I was considering separates, but went with MB Quart coax speakers instead. I installed 4 inch MB Quart coax speakers in the stock dash locations and 6.5 inch MB Quart coax speakers in the stock door locations. I also installed a 10" RF HE2 subwoofer. For an amp, I chose the Phoenix Gold XS 6600 6-channel amp. I integrated the factory head rest speakers/head rest amp with the head unit (Sony CDX-M770 Black Panel). However, I never use the head rest speakers unless the top is down (and don't even really need them then). Everything (except the head unit) is totally hidden - the dash, door and head rest speakers are behind stock grills and the amp and sub are under the spare tire cover. No one can tell I have an after market system (until I turn it up!).

The tweeter dispersion of the MB Quarts is excellent - the sound stage is centered perfectly on the windshield. With the head unit, I can make the sound stage as deep or wide as I want and can center it in front of either listening position or in the center of the windshield. Given the relatively "noisy" environment of the RX-7 (especially the convertible), there is absolutely no need for separates (in my opinion), as long as you get good coax speakers with good dispersion. The Quarts really sound awesome and I highly recommend them.

Foz'sRX-7

Well, I know the camera is crappy but it's a start.

Here is the link to my pix.....where you can see the location of my Boston Acoustic Pro 6.5 Tweeters.

You can also see my Brushed Aluminum dash overlay.

Let me know what you think.

Travel to Mazda Maniacs for my pix