I'm not new to car audio but I am somewhat in the 3rdgens. All 5 I've had either factory radios or nothing... my 91 Z28 being one that had nothing in it.

I bought a used Alpine deck (CDE-9852) and put it in my 91. First off, since I've not really heard much music in any thirdgens, I can't say if what I'm hearing is more the car, or more the deck. The sound is VERY biased to the rear. The 6x9s are some mid-level Pioneers and I assume the dash spkrs are stock. Even fading the music more towards the front still doesn't make it sound equal - The rears just overpower the fronts. Is this normal?

Second, I must say, I think the Alpine in my SRT4 has spoiled me. In 2005 I bought a CDA-9855 and have had it ever since. It sold me on Alpine and having the infinite adjust ability that this one has has made me look at head units completely differently. This new one, say 5-6 years ago would've been great for me, but since having the other one, this 'new' one is just plain boring... its wierd how much it just seems entry level... hehehe...

Just kinda ranting, but I am curious about the sound bias.

 

Unfortunately i'm in the same boat as you, New speakers in the back, stock up front with a new deck. Sound is definitely rear heavy.

But its stock up front so i don't mind, they don't exactly sound great.

I'm *hoping* once i put new 4x6's up front that it'll help balance it out, I'm not banking on it though.

 

Well fortunately for you the sound in a third gen f-body can be very good. As far as its stock form it has very poor sound dampening capability. To get truly good sound the first thing you will want to do is dampen the car with a tar-mat. Wheel wells and under body with rubberized undercoat if it hasnt been done already. I'm sure you have heard of dyna-mat or company alike. This is your best friend in car audio. You will want to put it anywhere the sheet metal is thin. Use extra behind speakers/mounts. Mainly behind side panels behind the pillars and doors. You will also want to do the roof and roof pillars along with the kick-panels on the floor boards, and behind the rear seats. You could to the floor too but undercoat, carpet, and carpet foam usually does a decent job in dampening. This will eliminate road noise, exhaust, and some engine noise along with keeping the sound inside the car and improved harmonics.

One you have that taken car of you can move on to planning your approach. Take a look at your budget there is nothing wrong with using ebay/amazon speakers if you know what you are looking for.

Not to going into too much detail. Try and shop for component speakers, they are not spread like the 2-way 3-way and 4-way counterparts they have a purpose and carry out the purpose without having to accomplish other tasks as well. A component system is composed of a woofer, a mid, a tweeter or woofer and tweeter. These components are housed separately allowing the parts to act the best they can. The woofers do not have holes in them to house mid/tweets. They are solid and produce good bass.

Also I highly suggest using an amp. The factory amp inside aftermarket head units is very weak and usually is not the best at pushing aftermarket or even some stock speakers. The system might sound OK but really is not performing to potential. You will get distortion, and break up at high volume or high bass. To control this you would use an amp to utilize after market speakers to their full potential. You never want to under power a speaker. When a speaker is underpowered is when it last the least and sounds the worst.

When choosings amps and speakers remember never to look at max watts. Always look at RMS and try to match the amp and speaker system by RMS as close as possible. EX. 4speakers at 75wRMS each would use a 4ch amp of ~300+ RMS or 4x75wRMS.

Make sure head units are grounded properly to avoid feedback as well as any amps or EQ's.

You might come to realize you do not need SUB/AMP combo if you go with an amped component system. The bass output of these systems is usually more than you would expect when done correctly.

This really is just a light touch on how to setup a good sounding system that works properly. IF you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

Well fortunately for you the sound in a third gen f-body can be very good. As far as its stock form it has very poor sound dampening capability. To get truly good sound the first thing you will want to do is dampen the car with a tar-mat. Wheel wells and under body with rubberized undercoat if it hasnt been done already. I'm sure you have heard of dyna-mat or company alike. This is your best friend in car audio. You will want to put it anywhere the sheet metal is thin. Use extra behind speakers/mounts. Mainly behind side panels behind the pillars and doors. You will also want to do the roof and roof pillars along with the kick-panels on the floor boards, and behind the rear seats. You could to the floor too but undercoat, carpet, and carpet foam usually does a decent job in dampening. This will eliminate road noise, exhaust, and some engine noise.

One you have that taken car of you can move on to planning your approach. Take a look at your budget there is nothing wrong with using ebay/amazon speakers if you know what you are looking for.

Not to going into too much detail. Try and shop for component speakers, they are not spread like the 2-way 3-way and 4-way counterparts they have a purpose and carry out the purpose without having to accomplish other tasks as well. A component system is composed of a woofer mid a tweeter or woofer and tweeter. These components are housed separately allowing the parts to act the best they can. The woofers do not have holes in them to house mid/tweets. They are solid and produce good bass.

Also I highly suggest using an amp. The factory amp inside aftermarket head units is very poor and usually is not the best at pushing aftermarket or even some stock speakers. The system might sound OK but really is not performing to potential. You will get distortion, and break up at high volume or high bass. The control this you would use an amp to utilize after market speakers to their full potential. You never want to under power a speaker. When a speaker is underpowered is when it last the least and sounds the worst.

When choosings amps and speakers remember never to look at max watts. Always look at RMS and try to match the amp and speaker system by RMS as close as possible. EX. 4speakers at 75wRMS each would use a 4ch amp of ~300+ RMS or 4x75wRMS.

Make sure head units are grounded properly to avoid feedback as well as any amps or EQ's.

You might come to realize you do not need SUB/AMP combo if you go with an amped component system. The bass output of these systems is usually more than you would expect when done correctly.

This really is just a light touch on how to setup a good sounding system that works properly. IF you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

Thats good to hear, everything else I've read on the subject says third/fouthgens have horrid speaker placement

Also, Underpowering a speaker will never damage it. But to not drag this out that's all i will say.

 

Well I didn't mention anything about speaker placement. But essentially with work you could place speakers wherever you want. Also matting will help with equalizing sound and harmonics.

Also what I meant to say instead of under powering a speaker can damage the speaker was using an overpowered speaker ''can'' cause damage to your amp. This would be called saturation or pushing an amp beyond its limit. Poly-switches can help this as well as breakers. But they don't always prevent full damage.

Thanks for the correction. Although you don't want to under-power speakers either as they will not reach their potential and can sound tinny.

 

i just mentioned the placement, because hes referring to thirdgens specifically. Which naturally have a heavy bias since the sail panel is so close to your head.

You'll have to work some magic with electronics to correct that, I just set the fade on my deck to the front more and live with it myself.

Ive seen people on here build kickpanels for the doors, mounting tweeters in the a-pillar. Both of which would balance it out more i believe.

 

Yeah that makes sense. Im not 100% sure on the sound in third gens. Last year I did a major weight removal project on the car and removed a lot plus 100% of the sound system that didnt have a head unit since I bought the car.

In the past I have installed and listened to killer sound systems in a few f-bodys. I don't do sound in cars anymore but I'm still installing and fabricating boat sound systems now in the summer. Also have my own line of wake tower speaker pods I sell to a few local marinas and shops.

 

The 4thgens do have better placement when it comes to their front speakers. I would recommend a "Plate" setup for the dash. Having had lots of these cars over the years I have found that the best option for me is Infinity's 4x6 plate setups. Available on ebay for around $60.oo or so, BTW.

 

it doestn matter what kind of speakers you have the placement of them sucks, you could go with kick panel speakers like a 6'" to help, the problem is for one we have 6x9's in the rear, AND theyre firing toward the middle in the back seat, however the fronts are firing at the glass AND they get muffled by our dash with a smaller speaker, its a lose all around. Id suggest adding some kick panel enclosures and putting another set of speakers in there, most companies make them to fire in and towards the seats a bit so there's better sound distribution, like said above dynamat is your best friend, rear speakers, trunk, floor boards if youre really looking to deaden the sound, and the doors help A TON, once you dampen the road noise you wont have to turn up your stereo as loud which causes distortion of the speakers.

An amp will also be a good addition, however if youre going for a decent system you dont need to go the component route, just some normal 3 ways, a set of subs and a 5 channel amp to power all your speakers to give you some great sound, im gonna warn you though 5 channels run in the $400-$600 range, you could go with a 4 channel, put the subs on 2 channels and then double up the speakers (2 fronts on one 2 rears on one)

now im just throwing ideas out there for you so if you just want speakers and an amp id go with a 4 channel and just put each on their own channel, with the amp and the dynamat youll have a completely different sound, make sure you swap the fronts out with a similar pair to your rears or just get a new set all around