Searching for a modern sound system

I went ahead and chopped new speakers into my truck.
Well Max did, under my directions.
We added a set of components from Kicker that have a 6-3/4" mid range with a 3/4" tweeter.
These came with a crossover that tailors the signal for the speakers they are hooked too.
That part is mounted inside the door panel between the door frame and door panel.
We do need to finish up the wiring with it passing though like a stock vehicle instead of just running the wire around the door jamb.

We hooked them to a simple 50w x 2 amplifier that I had from long ago.
It is more than enough to fill the cab of the truck with music.

It does need a subwoofer or two to fill in the lows that are missing and we will be accounting for that in the near future.

Here you can see the tweeter mounted near the window crank and the woofer down lower in the door.

I’ll I to check out Crutchfield.

How about keeping the stock radio and plugging this in-line?

https://www.classicindustries.com/product/1983/chevrolet/truck/parts/14923.html

410 John said:

I’ll I to check out Crutchfield.

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I've been a Crutchfield customer since 1997, back in the days of shopping catalogs and writing down part numbers.

To date they have never disappointed me for home and car Audio/Video needs.

I believe if you use this link, they give you a small discount on your first order if it's over a certain dollar amount:
Crutchfield Link

ETA: If you buy from them take the time to create an account to track your purchases & it helps when you need tech support later down the road.

CalSgt said:

I've been a Crutchfield customer since 1997, back in the days of shopping catalogs and writing down part numbers.

To date they have never disappointed me for home and car Audio/Video needs.

I believe if you use this link, they give you a small discount on your first order if it's over a certain dollar amount:
Crutchfield Link

ETA: If you buy from them take the time to create an account to track your purchases & it helps when you need tech support later down the road.

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Samsies.
They have been super easy to work with on purchases, returns, and issues.
Last thing I purchased was missing the control knob.
I called and made the claim.
They had one out to me in the mail that day.

I leave the radio soft, who needs loud music when that sweet 496 is rumbling.....

good thing about using rca cables is you don't have to run as many cables, and you don't have to worry about all that speaker wire running to your amp before it goes back out. Less likely to short out the speaker cables and taking out the left/right channels on the amp as well.

I bought this Bluetooth receiver from Amazon: UWAYKEY Bluetooth Amplifier Board 2.1 Channel Class D AMP Module with Dual TPA3116D2 Chip (ZK-TB21). I split the power from the original radio and placed the receiver in the glovebox, so the stock radio still shows the time but is not hooked up to any speakers and the receiver is hidden, to keep the original look. Then I bought a 4x10 speaker made by RetroSound to go into the dash where the original speaker sat. It gets plenty loud (even when I was running without any carpet and watching the pavement roll by under my feet through the rust holes in the floor) but the low end was lacking - I blamed the speaker. I had some 6.5 inch Kenwoods that I bought for my daily but never installed, so I bought these mounts from ebay: Behind Seat Cab Corner 6.5 ROUND Speaker Mounting Brackets 73-87 Chevy C10. Installed those and this significantly increased the low end. I am very pleased with the sound. It is not a competition set up but I'm in for less than $200, and at the ripe ol' age of 36, I am not looking for mega-bass anymore.

Another option I considered is: 1973-1979 Chevy Trucks w/ AC Kick Panel Speakers - Empty. But I decided to go with placing additional speakers behind the seat as there was already sound coming from the front of the truck through the dash. If I was "just" going to put speakers in one location, it would probably have been in the kick panels.

As others have said, the key is to get more power to your speakers. You need a new amp to do this. The receiver linked above has a smaller built in amp. There are other options where the amp is larger. This level of amplification was fine for my application, but in retrospect, I should've gotten of of the the larger amps in case I wanted to upgrade in the future. The good news is, at $30-50 each, I can still afford to and very well may do so to get a little more power to those rear speakers.

I looked at lots of options and ended up with a Retrosound radio. It has Bluetooth audio and phone, but still maintains the factory dash and 2 knob look. It has all the inputs and outputs for modern stereo accessories. Installation is fiddly, but not hard. Overall, I am pleased with it.

My recent(yesterday) too much bass experience. We just got my son a 2018 Chevy Trax. He has the bass set for his rap music. And it really has some nice bass for a factory radio. Well, after driving with him, we made him shut off his music or put the radio on. So, with the rock station on, the bass was so unnecessary and sounded awful. And he claimed to have turn the bass down. But still, I may not want a powered sub woofer for my metal/rock.

Crutchfield has always gotten it right with vehicle specific install kits and would still be my go to if doing a vehicle specific install. On any newer vehicle where using OE stereo pigtail/ speaker wires etc. And they’ve been good on newer vehicles getting the right stuff to keep functional steering wheel controls etc.

IMO none of that applies to putting a new stereo in an antique vehicle. Especially if using external power amps. You gotta run all your own wires and power etc specific to your system.
I’d still buy from Crutchfield if they got what you want, but they’re not any sort of advantage IMO in a build your own scenario.

We ran with a retro radio as well. Lots of plug and play options with them at a reasonable price. Also gives you all the features of a modern system with the original look. As mentioned before it was a little finicky to get into place, but overall manageable. We had great customer service out of them as well. We picked up 2 boxes for behind the seat and a new oval for the dash as well as the radio. There is enough punch to rattle the metal cruising through town.

My old 56 2dr wagon with the "30-30 Duntov" rattled the canopy and the windows at the local drive-in bad enough, that the Lady owner came out and told me to "shut that damn thing off"...........that sound was music to me and better than ANY sound system I have ever had!!!!!!!!..........now I'm old and can't hear sh!t

410 John said:

My recent(yesterday) too much bass experience. We just got my son a 2018 Chevy Trax. He has the bass set for his rap music. And it really has some nice bass for a factory radio. Well, after driving with him, we made him shut off his music or put the radio on. So, with the rock station on, the bass was so unnecessary and sounded awful. And he claimed to have turn the bass down. But still, I may not want a powered sub woofer for my metal/rock.

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That is all equipment tuning to the music you listen too.
I like metal and all kinds of music.
My subs emphasize the punch of the bass drum in the metal and rock as well as the bass tracks in the pop and rap we listen too.

I however do not like the modern rap that seems to just use a subwoofer and a set of tweeters.
No mid range at all.
Those types of systems that get built are boring and only sound "decent" for that one style of music.
This sounds like what you are describing above.

I like my bass to boom when Sir Mix A Lot tells me about big butts, but I also like the double bass drum speed punches in Metallica's One. To the full range sound that most musical experiences provide.
Those one note wonders just don't cut the mustard.

It boils down to research.

You wouldn't just buy stuff from the speed parts catalog for your engine and expect them to work for your exact application without doing the research. The same thing applies to a car stereo built to do what YOU want it too do.

Crutchfield also has many great articles that can help guide you to what you are looking for in a stereo system.
From the simple task of finding out what matters to you.
All the way down to how to wire your subs to the ohms that match the power output of the amp you are running them with.



When you select the Articles & Videos on that list you get this: