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The old car had a relatively new Blaupunkt Honolulu stereo receiver with pop-off front, hidden CD slot, and a Creedence Clearwater Revival CD. I gave back the CD.
The previous owner had installed a pair of excellent Infinity speakers in the doors. He used RatShack speaker grills to discourage theft.
Unfortunately, the left speaker cone had cracked and it periodically cut out, and the window winders scraped on the speaker grills. I got rid of the Infinitys when I replaced the door panels.
This photo shows one of the Boston Acoustics Micro 80X II "home" speakers I installed below the dash. The speakers sound great and neither driver nor passenger bang their knees.
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| I also installed a pair of Pioneer TS-TRX40 self-contained speakers in the back seat to fill in the sound field and give me more volume to overcome road noise. (Upholstery color is distorted in this photo.)
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Here's the Delphi SKYFI XM satellite receiver, and an ashtray converted to hold a cellphone.
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I was never happy with the volume of the system. An open car with a high-revving engine makes a LOT of noise. I also didn't like the look of the XM receiver on the console. So in the Spring of 2008 I made some major changes.
I replaced the Blaupunkt radio with a Kenwood KDC-MP338 that had built-in XM (after adding some parts). It also can connect to my iPod, has remote control, is Bluetooth ready, SAT Radio-ready, HD Radio-ready, can show text displays from a CD, and will do everything except provide back-seat sex. My only criticism is that the display can get washed out in the sun glare, but that won't cause me to lower the ragtop.
I was amazed at the low price -- just a bit over a hundred bucks without the XM hardware. I expected to spend twice as much.
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| The Boston Acoustic speakers sounded OK, but they were too inefficient to play loud enough. and the grills frequently popped off. I tried some alternatives, incuding tiny tweeters above the dash, and PC speakers below the dash. I ultimately settled on some no-name speakers in the same positions as the Bostons.
I was never happy with the look of the Pioneers in the back, and they were too close for good separation, so I moved them father apart. I made some metal brackets and strapped them to the vertical tubes of the roll bar with stainless steel hose clamps.
For more OOOMPH to counter road and engine noise, I put a big-watt Opti-Lanzar 2X150D power amp in the trunk, connected directly to the battery.
The combo sounds LOUD AND CLEAR. Sometimes I just sit in my driveway, put in a Dire Straits CD, selct, select Money For Nothing, turn the volume up to near-painful and close my eyes. Some of the neighbors think I'm nuts but others understand.
All the gear came from Starlander Beck in Milford CT.
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