I have an '87 IROC-Z TPI 350. The car's all stock. Where the rear speakers go in the car, I take off the coat hook and the padded piece to see the padded piece is actually a speaker grille for a 6X9. But there's no speaker there behind it. It's just the plastic trim, a solid piece of plastic trim, not even an indentation for a speaker. Anyone know if this is factory? I bought the car as a race car shell, and the wiring for stereo is all there, the antenna hole is there, but there is no stereo installed. There are speaker harnesses in the dashboard for the 4X6 speakers. It's weird. Anyway, my question is basically what two 4X6 speakers sound really good by themselves, without the 6X9's in the back? Thanks

 

I like the Infinity's. Youll need to amp them. You can get the 6x9 boxes from cruthfield and put em behind the seats. Then you can get a 4 channel amp. It'll be tons better than just the front speakers.

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'89 Chevy Camaro
305 TBI
COMPLETELY stock

 

i personally hate rear fill. in my car i only have front. when you go to a concert, are there speakers behind you? no. for a good sound stage ditch the rear speakers. i did and it sounds great. note, you will have to get used to it but it will definetely grow on you.

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91 Z28, 305 TPI, SLP cam & runners, 3.73 gears, Hedman headers, BBK 58mm TB, k&N, tach, speedo, Hurst short shifter, NICE stereo, alarm w/ window module, MSD 6A, HP Alt., Ported WORLD Heads, Ported and Port Matched Intake Manifold. 99 C5 Rims 17"s in front 18"s out back
EAT, SLEEP, BREATH CHEVY

 

ahhh, but if you go to an auditorium for a concert, then the sound fills the room and seems to be everywhere, not in front of you, not behind. It's all about how you use the space that you are given.

If you plan on only running 4x6's: I'm sorry, but if you care at all about the music that you listen to, they can't cut it. The best 4x6 speakers out there are still inadequate when it comes to mid and low frequencies. While many people in this forum will debate the necessity of rear fill in an upgraded system (like 6.5" components in kicks), I doubt that anyone would advocate the use of 4x6's on their own.

If cost is your issue, then yeah, don't worry too much about the 6x9's: get some REALLY cheap ones just for the midrange support, and then spend more on better 4x6's (preferably of the same brand). But don't ignore the 6x9's or you'll be disappointed.

If cost is not as much of an issue and you'd just like an option that would give you some decent sound without 6x9's, then get some of DJ Sexay's kickpanels and put some 6.5" speakers in them. At that point, you can consider eliminating rear fill (6x9's). Keep in mind, though, that most people who ditch rear fill also have a subwoofer installed.

 

True, but the sound is produced in the front, and all other auditory cues are from reveberation and reflection. Simply sending duplicate information to a rear set of speakers will cause a greater variation from that original concert hall experience than simply using 2 speakers.

A properly recorded concert will have microphones placed in a position similar to where your speakers would be in a conventional 2 channel home system. So, what comes out of those speakers at that position is what went into the microphones at similar positions in the concert hall. The result is that a great deal of that reflection and reverberation can be reproduced. The problem is, your listening area has completely different acoustics than the concert hall, so those reverberations and reflections don't sound right when they start bouncing around in your own room. This can make the soundstage fall apart pretty quickly. But, the soundstage will hold up much, much better with just 2 channels than if you try to introduce additional channels. Spreading a 2 channel recording across 4 channels will almost never be able to reproduce what the recording intended. Last time I commented on this I got flamed hard by people that insisted that I don't know what the original recording engineers intended, blah blah blah. Well, it's true, I don't share a brain with them, but I do stand by my opinion that the vast majority of 2 channel recordings were produced with the intent of being reproduced on a 2 channel system.

This isn't to say that listening through a 4 channel setup is wrong, but just not necessarily as the producers intended.

Personally, I prefer to have an accurate soundstage with crisp imaging over a mish mash of sound coming from all over the place in a haphazzard, non predictable fashion.

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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
Custom Thirdgen Subwoofer Enclosures
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

I like some rear fill, however, I have a DSP so the sound from my rear speakers isn't Exactly the same as from the front.

 

sound like the panels were from a bose car, they didn't have speakers in the sail panels, instead they were on the rear locking floor cargo cover.

 

As far as running rear speakers or not...it might depend on your type of music.

Let's say you listen to classical, or blues or jazz........well, then you should be trying to duplicate, in your car, what a real concert would be like. In this case, little or no rear fill might be a good way to do it.

But what if you listen to dance music, for example? This type of electronic music is ALWAYS played through speakers....there's no "real musical instrument" that you're trying to copy. Probably the most real "concert" of dance music is a nightclub....which has speakers all over the place.........so that's what you'd want to duplicate in your car.

Markolc,

Like Bluemeanie said, either your car was originally equipped with a Bose stereo, or someone replaced the original panels with Bose ones, or maybe it came factory with no stereo at all.

In any event, if you cut the plastic away, I'm pretty sure there will be the normal place to mount speakers back there. If all you see is a rectangular hole...you need to get the metal brackets that hold 6x9s....dealer or junkyard.

 

My uncle just took the engine and tranny out of an '86 Z 305 TPI for a Monte SS project...it had NO rear speakers...there wasn't a sail panel cover either, as this was a base interior. Interestingly, it also came with the console clock (last year was '86).

Your car, if there are no holes in the trunk panels for speakers (Bose systems started in '87 I think), came with the base, 2 speaker AM/FM radio originally...odd for a 350 TPI IROC. I would assume the car had Bose originally?

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Jason E

'89 Camaro RS
-Medium Grey Metallic
-2.8, A4, T-tops, 95k miles
-Hypertech chip, Accel 8.8MM wires and coil
-K&Ns with gutted airbox
-Alpine 60x4 with Boston 746s and RX97s

'97 Z28
-30th Anniversary package (white with orange stripes)
-LT1, M6, t-tops, 46k miles
-Eclipse CD and 10" Eclipse Aluminum sub in JL Stealth box, Boston RM6 speakers, Xtant 403a amp, all Monster's goodies

Speed Kills...Wanna live forever? Drive a Ford.
Long Live #3...

 

The 86 had the console clock? 85 was the last year for that as far as I know. But in any event, the console clock usually came on cars only equiped with an AM radio (also not available in 86 AFAIK) because the AM radios didn't have any sort of digital display for a clock. This is how my IROC came equipped. My IROC had 6x9s in the back, but they weren't stock. One thing that struck me as odd is that my IROC didn't have the metal 6x9 brackets that my 86 Firebird had. Off the top of my head I can't remember if my 86 Sport Coupe has those brackets or not. Anyway, I'm guessing that my IROC didn't come with rear speakers either, because I can't imagine that AM radio having 4 channel capability. It also didn't have a constant 12 volt feed in the wiring (previous owner long-since demolished the factory harness ) so I had to run my own.

------------------

The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
Custom Thirdgen Subwoofer Enclosures
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

Jim,

Maybe my uncle was confused and got an '85 instead...he only paid $200 for it.

Come to think of it, maybe it was an '85...I don't remember if it had a 3rd brakelight or not, but it did have an 85 MPH speedo...were those available on '86 TPIs, or were they all 145s??

 

In my opinion, a system with no amp, no 6x9's, and no sub would sound like **** no matter what kind of music you listen to. 4x6's just can't put out enough bass.

 

No, the car's a 1987 IROC 5.7. It did come with AC originally and a radio. Not sure If it was a Bose system or not. I don't see Bose badging on the car anywhere and the trim is all original. And there aren't speaker ports anywhere in the hatch area, so I'm pretty dumbfounded. Anyway, I'll do something to get music in there. This car is NOT my daily driver. What I'm going to do it put 4x6's back in, wire 'em up straight to an amp, and have my laptop play mp3s while I drive (and run diagnostics). Like I said, It's not a daily driver, a weekend warrior, that's it. So what's a great all around 4x6 speaker?