McIntosh audio in a 914, Sound quality in a fourteener?? Options

[Rod]

Thought I'd keep you guys upto speed as some big changes have been made to the front of the system.. I don't know but my 914 could be the only one in the world to have HLCDs' or horns fitted??

So I had heavily modified morph speaker builds in and loved thise for a while, but wanted to try something different, so I wanted to put some speakers in the doors and tweeters on the A pillars and horns under the dash - not an easy task.

I didn't want the doors to rattle at all, so I deadened the hell out of them and then cnc'd up a 4mm steel panel which is bolted to the door and the speaker is bolted to that..

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Then the horns - These fit under the dash and sound best as far back as possible, so remove the lower dash pad and fit horns to metalwork..

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Then I stripped the lower pad and cut the lower half of the vinyl away, level with the top of the horns.. I then put a piece of speaker grill cloth from this cut - hotglued in (attached to a piece of baton the width of the car) so when stretched you literally can't see the cut/join between the two fabrics)) The grill cloth was then glued again to the underside of the horns following another piece of metal bar being ran from one side to the other to enable the grill cloth to flow smoothly. And they then look like this..

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To someone that doesn't know the car you can't see any speakers which was my initial want for the system, so I reckon It's nearly there... Tweeter builds on teh A pillars coming next - What do you reckon??

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[thesey914]

loving your work there Rod 8)

[Rod]

loving your work there Rod 8)

Thankyou (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) The Hifi is now finished and I need a project this winter - so come over, take me for a spin in your six and persuade me that I can't live without an engine change!!

[jsayre914]

Your system is awesome, I love the work and detail. Can you post a pic of the door once it is all back togeather? i cant wait to see the end result.

I am working on a system of my own as we speek. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Rod]

Your system is awesome, I love the work and detail. Can you post a pic of the door once it is all back togeather? i cant wait to see the end result.

I am working on a system of my own as we speek. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The last picture looking through the car is with it finished... I didn't want to be able to see anything in the way of hifi when it was parked up with the top off, so it all fits behind the standard door cards, which I have left totally factory apart from cutting away the board around the driver itself and then punched out holes covering the diameter of the speaker. The door cards are houndstooth and I removed the lower indentations in the fabric - so even if you look closely, you can't see there's anything there.. - It was then re-stretched and fixed back on the original door card (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I found another couple of pics, which may explain it better - if you look at the speaker, it's flush with the door..

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[johannes]

That's crazy stuff !!!! WOW !!!

[thesey914]

so come over, take me for a spin in your six and persuade me that I can't live without an engine change!!

You CANNOT LIVE without an engine six transplant (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . I only have Enrique Iglesias and Ndubs in my stereo though.

[Rod]

A new boot build has been done (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Now running three Soundstream amps.. I have built all this so the amps can be covered by a piece of carpet which is being made up for me.

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[Jon H.]

Install looks great. I have always wanted sound stream gear (remember the Tarantula?!) But it was always out of my budget when I was younger and now its still out of my budget and priorities (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) Have you ever thought about building a ported box for the front trunk and porting it into the cabin? I have been thinking about it but it would require a hole through the gas tank which could be be fixed by welding a piece of pipe or pipes (depending on design) though the tank giving you a tunnel to feed the port/ports through. Or run a fuel cell and you can use the existing tank area for the box and have much shorter ports. I do prefer sealed boxes but these cars are limited in space. An Isobartic design might be good too. These are just some things I think about while I build my car.

Regards'

Jon

[Rod]

Hi and thankyou!

I love these old Soundstream amps, they are all the Class A series from around 1994. One Picasso on each side and then a 10.2 running the sub. I loved these when they were new, but couldn't afford!!!

I have often thought about how I can improve the bass, and in my opinion a sealed box always sounds better for sound quality, ported boxes are great for spl, but a sealed one is tighter and more correct, so I'll stick with those.. What I would love to do is put a fuel cell in the spare wheel well, remove the fuel tank and put the sub in a metal baffle in the firewall, using the space the fuel tank once filled as the sub box. It would need to be well sealed and the correct size volume for the sub used, but easily achieved.

This is my next 'upgrade' but what I really want to do is get another 914 and go all out, removing the dash and putting the midbass in the firewall too. The horns could then sit even further back so the image appears beyond the screen.

[Mike Bellis]

I love amps from the early 90's too.

I recently picked up a Kenwood KAC PS 500F from the UK. Just awesome. Back in the 1990's amplifiers had real non-current limiting power supplies running real MOSFETs.

New amps suck!

Those early Soundstreams are very cool. They are hard to find around here.

[orthobiz]

This might be the right thread to post in...

I'm looking for something far less ambitious and I have a set of Dahlquist ALS-3 car speakers which fit nicely into the 914 mounting position. But they like power...

So, what are new options for a head unit/separate amp combo?
Seems like everything I search for is integrated and has 30W x 4 channels built in.

And I can't find anything on the Mc MX406 from their website.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Paul

[Mike Bellis]

This might be the right thread to post in...

I'm looking for something far less ambitious and I have a set of Dahlquist ALS-3 car speakers which fit nicely into the 914 mounting position. But they like power...

So, what are new options for a head unit/separate amp combo?
Seems like everything I search for is integrated and has 30W x 4 channels built in.

And I can't find anything on the Mc MX406 from their website.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Paul

Are those vintage speakers? I've never heard of that brand of Car Audio. Perhaps it is a home hifi brand?

If they are vintage, that might not be worth installing. For vintage car audio, amplifiers are work keeping and restoring but speakers and head units are not. Speaker technology has improved over the years along with head unit features. Amplifiers on the other hand have gone down hill as manufacturers look for ways to reduce costs per watt.

Additionally if they fit in the stock 914 location, the audio quality will not be great. Not for any speaker that will fit in that spot.

If you just need sound in the car, they may be just fine. It all depends on your level of audiophile within.

[Rod]

I think that the standard 914 speaker locations are actually pretty good! They are of a good path length (distance from drivers ears) and can be remade to point on axis pretty easily! If you're not after huge bass then just get a pair of 914ap speaker panels and use them. I started with a pair of these, but found that they wern't on axis enough for sq, so made a wooden baffle and then used fibreglass to build up the angle correctly, then covered in vinyl. In the 914 this is definitely the best location as you don't have to deal with door rattles, (because there are no speakers in them!!) and it looks very cool too. I made a second pair of fully fg baffles recently for a pair of KEF drivers, these were much more in depth!!

If the bass isn't enough for you, then make up a fibreglass sub box in the footwell. A good 6" sub can be surprisingly effective, I have used an 8" too (cdt) and now have moved to a 10" (Velodyne)

Don't use those speakers you mention, get a set of car audio coaxials (tweeter in same basket as the midrange) and just put them in the kicks using one of the ways described above..

With regards to headunit, anything goes really - most do have a built in amp these days which is sometimes enough for some people, just be sure the HU you buy has preouts, so you can hook up an amp of your choice if you need more control/sq/volume.

In a 914 the three things that are very useful to have in a HU are -

TA (time alignment) - you'll be able with a pair of coaxials to get a very decent sound with a good central stage.

iPod or iphone Bluetooth connection - safety first, but also easier to change tracks on your phone than leaning over to change the cd.

Internal active preouts - then you can upgrade and fit amps and use the internal crossovers to control them.

I have loads of 914 builds over here sat in shelves that maybe useful to you guys, but postage from the uk to you would be quite high!!

[orthobiz]

Are those vintage speakers? I've never heard of that brand of Car Audio. Perhaps it is a home hifi brand?

If they are vintage, that might not be worth installing. For vintage car audio, amplifiers are work keeping and restoring but speakers and head units are not. Speaker technology has improved over the years along with head unit features. Amplifiers on the other hand have gone down hill as manufacturers look for ways to reduce costs per watt.

Additionally if they fit in the stock 914 location, the audio quality will not be great. Not for any speaker that will fit in that spot.

If you just need sound in the car, they may be just fine. It all depends on your level of audiophile within.

Dahlquist speakers are vintage, from the 70's, one of the early time alignment baffle-less speakers out there. Saul Marantz came out of retirement to be the president, and I used to work there when they were on Long Island so I'm partial to the memory of them.

The ALS-3 was a three-way box speaker of conventional design, without special time delay features, etc. But they are built like trucks, extremely heavy and durable with a high quality metal cabinet. I found a pair on eBay for 10 bucks in excellent shape (still in the original box!), they still normally go for much more. Because they were made for auto/marine installation they have pretty robust surrounds and don't disintegrate just because they are old. They are from Germany and sounded really good in my 1980's installation. And with a couple of flat pieces of steel they mount perfectly and easily in the normal speaker location, especially when they still have the U-shaped mounting bracket.

Everyone's advice has been good, thanks. I had hoped there'd be more options for a head unit; seems like bypassing the amplifier that's built in already is just a waste! And it seems like few companies are separating things like they used to.

Paul

[housepumpinpc]

Hi guys...I'm new to this. Not to crazy about Macs(My dad's friend LOVED Macs and Carver he would love that set up) I'm partial to Krell and Magnepans but that's another topic. Bought my 72 1.7l from a former co-worker, who had it for 20 years prior. Look I'm an audiophile first(since 12yrs old) always had some cutting edge stuff in my cars and sometimes at home. I myself installed recently a Kenwood head unit and some Pioneer 6.5 in the kickrests. Looking to put a sub and amp behind the seats(why not). Don't really want to load up the trunk space. I know the Mac is efficient, but class A Soundstream (or any class A for that matter) calls for a lot of power and heat!!! What alternator/batteries are you guys running. Thanks.

Milton (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[monkeyboy]

Love the old Soundstreams... I have my Class A 10.0 and Class A Picasso that I bought new back in 94.

Still running them in my truck, and would love to run them in the 914 if I cannot get the Monolithic I found to work.