Thread: Roadster owners- what are you doing for tunes in your ride?

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Steves32- I was considering Secret Audio because I don't want to be able to see the sound system. If there is something else that I can hide but has better performance I am all ears. Thanks.

Sorry, I didn't mean to jack the thread.

What I have found is- nearly anything out there will have better sound than SecretAudio. The idea of hiding it all behind the seat is what attracted me to it in the 1st place. The difference is AQ between SecretAudio & a quality Alpine head unit is like night & day. Plus- SecretAudio will suck your battery dead in 2-3 weeks. You have to use their CD changer, the display is so small- it's not worth the trouble- plus, it's not backlit at night (the new ones are)
SecretAudio system is expensive. Add a 4 channel amp like I did & you are at $600.00 & that doesn't include speakers or installation. I'm having the head unit installed on passenger side as high as possible so I can see display while riving but you can't see it walking around the vehicle. It will have a full feature remote.

Thank you Steves32, that was very helpful.

We will now rejoin our regularly scheduled thread.

I have a Secret Audio. It is under the dash out of sight unless I swing it down. The unit is in the trunk to stay dry. I paid less than 2 bones for it and it has survived several of Florida's toad stranglers in over 3 years. The speakers are in full view on the kick panels near the fire wall. 60mph and under they do pretty good but faster than that I hold on and enjoy the ride.

Update on the install. He's had the car 4 days, should be done tomorrow. He's repairing some loose panels for me too & added Dynamax to floor & some blue sound material in sides of car. It had nothing before.




This is the Alpine 6 disc CD/MP3 changer going behind the seat. You can see the crossovers for rear speakers on each side.




Close up of one of the MB Quart crossover for rear speaker




Passenger side MB Quart component speaker. These will be at about shoulder hight or so. Panel will be redone in leather & perforated- no grille.




Here are MB Quart kick panel speakers. Amazing sound BTW. I wanted them high & out of the way. I wanted them perforated too but lost that decision because of the pleats. We may redo the panel later.




Here, below the fuse panel on pass side of dash is where the head unit will go. It will be hinged & removeable for access to wiring. It's an Alpine CDA-9883 unit w/ a cord for Ipod hook-up. Ipod will be controled by head unit.



More to come.

That's very clean Steve32. Thanks for the pictures. It makes me want to see the rest of the car.
Bill

I need to get this thread going again. I need ideas for the main circuit board and the radio speakers. I have already cut the dash holes for the radio and quad instument panel as well as a plan for a seedometer right in front of the steering wheel so with the tiny '29 dash ('32 style) it will be tight in there for the circuit board if I use quarter panel speakers. I realize it is folly to expect high-fidelity sound in an open car and in the past I have just concentrated on wattage. I note that in the neat new '32 Ken Thurm is building there are holes in the side panels which I assume are for speakers. In the smaller '29 cockpit it seems to me that the passengers would block the speakers with their bodies so the kick panel location seems better for the speakers if I can figure out where to tuck in the main circuit board, probably up under the dash somewhere. Sooo if anybody has more pictures I would like to see them. C9X have you intalled your audio yet? Here you can see the holes in the dash and there will soon be another in front of the steering wheel. I am just waiting to finally line up the steering column location and then install the wiring.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

My last roadster had a great sound system!!!!! I had a roller cammed 408 in it with Flowmasters and 2 1/2" stainless exhaust, made some great sounds!!!!! When I wanted surround sound, I opened the dumps on the headers!!!!!!

Don---It isn't going to make much difference what sound system you use in a roadster. Above 40 MPH you aren't going to hear much anyways. I have my speakers in the doors., towards the bottom, by my legs so that my body does not block the speakers. I truly believe that if you want to hear your speakers at any speed, you would have to mount them in the dash, aimed directly at your head, and even then it would be pretty iffy at any speed. ---Brian

The speakers at shoulder height can be heard while driving, the ones in kick panels go quiet at about 40. If I crank it up & have the BopTop on the car- you can hear nice tunes at freeway speed. In the end- it was worth it & I'd do it again.

Thanks Brian and DennyW. I'll bet those windwings have a large effect on the sound! Steve32, what do you mean "at shoulder height", behind the seat? When the top is down on my Sunfire I can hear the CD player at 65 mph on the Interstate when I turn up the volume but it is pretty sleek compared to the flat windshield of the A. I mainly want the audio when parked and waiting for something. Thanks for the comments, I thought if I mounted the speakers on Luan plywood in the kick panels I might get some good volume from them. The speakers in the Sunfire are down low on the doors just above my ankles. The roadster doors are a bit too thin for speakers and I recall Brian actually has sedan doors which I think are not as thin, but on the other hand putting them in the sides behind the door should give a bass rythm "gut feeling" feeding right into my left rib cage as it would seem in the Ken Thurm '32 on his thread. Maybe there just is no really good place for them in the tiny '29 cockpit so it doesn't matter much and maybe the kick panel is the easiest place. Thanks for your comments, I will mull this over while I get the D-bar on the steering. The order is: 1) install D-bar and steering column, 2) cut the hole for the speedometer after the steering wheel is in position (centering sighe through the hole in the wheel) and 3) mount the speakers and electronics board wherever they will fit! Just thinking out loud here while I think this over.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don---this is my speaker location---Brian

Brian, yes I looked at them on an older thread. Yours are about where my Sunfire has the speakers, but this new picture shows the added thickness of your sedan doors. The roadster doors can't be more than two inches thick at most. Nice pictre, I am probably going with similar maroon leatherette to roughly match my seat without recovering it.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don---A little tip---When I built the 27T, it had the ultra skinny roadster doors. I used a router to turn a peice of 3/4" plywood into an oval, tapered frame, which glued to the cockpit side of the roadster luan mahogany inner door panels, then mounted the speakers on the side of the plywood which faced the interior of the car. The taper was put in so that the face of the speaker angled back towards me, to give a bit better sound triangulation, and the added thickness of the plywood frame was enough to fit a pair of speakers into the doors. (the speaker magnet cleared the inside of the door by about the thickness of a cigarette paper). This presented a bit of a challenge when I uphostered the door panels, but it really did look and work quite well. The only problem encountered was that the roadster was channeled 4" and when I set in it for any length of time, my left knee wanted to occupy the same space as that damned speaker in the drivers door (which of course set about 1" proud of the doors inner surface)!!!.

Today I measured the doors and cowl area of the Bebops '29. Surprisingly the bottoms of the Bebops doors are thicker than the tops and my speakers only require about 1 5/8" depth so the 2 1/4" thickness at the bottom of the doors could house the speakers but would require hinge cables so it looks like the lower part of the kick panel area is the best location. The radio is rated at 165 watts so I guess I can turn up the volume as needed! I actually have four speakers and could install the other two in the rumble area but to what purpose?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder