Aftermarket Stereo ideas..

[jdc1687]

Hey guys,

The Bose thing is making me crazy. The left channel barely works, the right one is really loud. The subwoofer doesn't really reproduce different frequencies, just one droning "sound". And, the center channel speaker just crackles all the time. I have little patience for this kind of thing, and I am not going to bother with the Bose Amps. Period.

I haven't taken apart the center speaker yet, and was wondering if you guys could tell me how big of an area is back there if you take that speaker out...

-jer

 

[D'Ecosse]

Well, the speaker itself is pretty small, only about 4" - you might be able to squeeze a single 5-1/4" in the same space, but not much more. You can get a good idea of the space by the shape of the outside shell of the trim panel and the speaker grille itself.
What did you have in mind to fit back there?

 

[Malibu Rapper]

That center speaker is small (I think maybe 3.5") and doesn't have much mounting depth. I would guess you have about 2" of mounting depth because I think there is a plug and a metal bracket that come into play. My tiny little Bel RX75 radar detector speaker barely clears the depth. It looks like you have more room than you really do. If you just took it out completely, you would never miss it but it makes a great home for by Bel speaker. Or if you have a navigation speaker it would work well in there as well. But if you were just planning to put a regular speaker in there, the dilemma you face is how do you accurately send it a center channel signal unless you are doing DSP. It would degrade your imaging nearly all cases. Get a good set of door speakers and a subwoofer first to see how you like it and to see if you want to put anything in there after that. My guess is that you wouldn't.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Aahh - picture's worth a thousand words Bradley!

With decent imaging, I concur you won't need anything in that location - I can honestly say that almost everyone who has experienced my system is looking to see what's installed "back there" and are surprised when they realize there's nothing!

 

[jdc1687]

Aahh - picture's worth a thousand words Bradley!

With decent imaging, I concur you won't need anything in that location - I can honestly say that almost everyone who has experienced my system is looking to see what's installed "back there" and are surprised when they realize there's nothing!

Thanks guys..

It is small, and it sucks. This is not a surprise to me I wasn't sure if it was a second subwoofer or something of that nature, and wanted to see how much space is in there for "growth".

My plan is to get good speakers for the doors, and put a sub in the footwell spot. Then where do you put the amps though??

 

[D'Ecosse]

...My plan is to get good speakers for the doors, and put a sub in the footwell spot. Then where do you put the amps though??

Trunk or behind the seats ...... lots of pics on this forum, browse through for some ideas.

 

[jdc1687]

Trunk or behind the seats ...... lots of pics on this forum, browse through for some ideas.

I was hoping to be able to mount an amp in the area of the center speaker, but that looks impossible..

 

[jdc1687]

Here is an idea, a little .. "odd", but let me know what you think..

Speakers:
Good door speakers.
A dual voice coil 8" in a custom box in the passenger footwell.
Ditch the Center channel speaker.

Headdeck:
A good headdeck with a decent internal amp.

Amp:
None!
Front channels run the door speakers.
Rear channels connected to each voice coil on the sub.

What do you think??? I'm just trying to avoid extra complexity.......

-Jer

 

[specrtd]

so none of you guys think a 8inch sub speaker would fit in the center speaker area with some cutting and still tryin to keep the oem look? Has anyone done this? I know there isn't much room but it was just a thought. I'm sure you guys have gone over this plenty of times but I'm still partial to the idea, because the footwell sub to me is kinda ehhh....

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Headdeck:
A good headdeck with a decent internal amp.

Amp:
None!
Front channels run the door speakers.
Rear channels connected to each voice coil on the sub.

It'd be nice to not have to buy an amp but there are very few head units capable of delivering the power you need. The only head units I can think of are the older Alpines where they had a separate power amp built into the head but it only put out about 25 watts RMS into 4 channels.

Regarding putting an 8" into the center panel, you will not be able to do it without re-fabbing that center panel. It's more work to do that than if you just went and bought one of the subwoofer enclosure options. In addition, you need to make sure that thing is bolted down tight in case you get into an accident and it becomes a projectile. You can do it, but I honestly don't think it's the best option out there.

 

[D'Ecosse]

You'll never drive a sub using that method
1) you should never apply different signals to the two VC's
2) there is nothing like enough power to drive a sub from an on-board amp
3) On-board amp will not drive quality speakers either.

My recommendation would be to include an amp; get a 4-ch and bridge two channels to drive the sub. If you go this route, may as well get a 10" sub. There are a couple of good options now available now for ready-made sub boxes for the NSX.

 

[Briank]

The best and cheapest solution is to repair your Bose system. It’s a good system when working at 100%. PM me for pricing :smile:

 

[D'Ecosse]

so none of you guys think a 8inch sub speaker would fit in the center speaker area with some cutting and still tryin to keep the oem look? Has anyone done this? I know there isn't much room but it was just a thought. I'm sure you guys have gone over this plenty of times but I'm still partial to the idea, because the footwell sub to me is kinda ehhh....

If you search, you should be able to turn up a couple of things I recall from memory - one was a large sub (10 or 12 I think) in Ginak's car; the other was I think a 6" sub facing up. The first looks nothing like retaining the OEM look, the latter maybe closer but not convinced of the value of a 6" sub.

I'm not sure I understand the "ehhh ..." comment re footwell sub - is this from a performance perspective? Aesthetics? or ????
For performance it really doesn't make much difference where it goes - you can't locate the physical source audibly; subs are pretty impervious to location & directionality- consider in home systems these can even go under the couch! I would probably give an exception to that general rule however re centre location in NSX - I'm not sure I want a large sub that close to my right ear.
Aesthetically, there is nothing that makes the footwell location a problem - there is no other method that can give performance yet be completely unobtrusive, no more visible than the OEM speaker in that location.

 

[Big_nate]

What do you think??? I'm just trying to avoid extra complexity.......

-Jer

Jer, I don't know exactly what you mean by 'extra complexity' but if its just reluctance based on a lack of experience, thats exactly what I went through. I did the head unit and door speakers only at first because I really didn't want to tackle an amp install never having done one. You may want to try that first and see if it meets your expectations. I was reasonably happy with that set-up, so much better than my one functioning BOSE speaker, but was forced into the amp upgrade when I picked up a used footwell sub. If you follow all the excellent DIY's by Malibu Rapper, D'Ecosse, and Vega$ NSX its really not that bad of a job. I think the layout of the car actually lends itself to a fairly simple install behind the driver seat. The biggest challenge for me was fishing the power wire through the forward firewall. After two hours of frustration, sweating, and cursing I finally figured out the easy way to do it . In any case best of luck, you'll be happy with the improvements :smile:

Nate

 

[specrtd]

I'm not sure I understand the "ehhh ..."

What I meant to say was that I didn't really like the look of the different kinds of sub set-ups near the footwell. I know many people like the footwell sub set-up and I have seen some really clean ones, just not to thrilled about it being in the passengers footwell, thats all. Thanks for the good info and ideas though. :smile:

 

[zetoolman]

I went through the same idea stage with this car. See this thread to see what I did. The amp fits in tight in the side area of the trunk.

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51190

Plus, I have a custom fit sub enclosure with or with-out a sub. It is at this thread. But, I am re-designing it!

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51846

Any questions, let me know!

Hey guys,

The Bose thing is making me crazy. The left channel barely works, the right one is really loud. The subwoofer doesn't really reproduce different frequencies, just one droning "sound". And, the center channel speaker just crackles all the time. I have little patience for this kind of thing, and I am not going to bother with the Bose Amps. Period.

I haven't taken apart the center speaker yet, and was wondering if you guys could tell me how big of an area is back there if you take that speaker out...

-jer