Upgraded Stereo

[Glen Mach 1]

Anyone retrofitted a stereo to your classic car.  Looking for suggestions.

I like Kicker as a brand, sub woofer, rear speakers and trying to get away form having to have door or kick panel speakers put in place, was considering tweeter speakers.

Welcome any opinions.

[GEOFF289]

I have an Alpine unit mounted in the glove box of my '66, with a remote so I can operate it from the driver's seat. AM/FM/CD also bluetooth for both phone calls and streaming music from my phone. With quality speakers in kick panels that come moulded for speaker mounts I've been happy with it.

I considered the Custom Auto Sound repro jobs that look like an original radio and fit the dash without cutting and have all the modern features but I wasn't happy with the sound.

You can get stereo tweeter set ups that are a replacement for the original mono speaker in the top of the dash but I'm not sure that these would be much good with just a sub, you wouldn't have any mid range.

[Dwayne]

A hidden Bluetooth module is also an option to consider:

https://www.facebook.com/gravelrashbluetoothmodules/

[Jason67]

Hi Dwayne,

Are you using the Gravelrash module? What is the performance like ?

[Dwayne]

I'm not using it, but the reviews I've seen have been good.

[SMH00N]

I have a 70 so probably very similar to a 69. It doesn't have a fold down rear seat.
Hertz is what I have used in mine; 10" subwoofer, amp, 6x9 rear and 4x6 fronts.
The amp sits on the diff tunnel (but could go anywhere in the boot) the subwoofer sits dead centre of the parcel shelf and the 6x9 sit each side. From memory, all I did was cut the cardboard/fabric parcel shelf to fit the speakers in, the steel shelf allowed them all to fit without any cutting. I had a repro shelf so wasn't too fussed on chopping it.
The car was a factory stereo car so the door cards were already cut. The Hertz speakers were the best I found to fit the holes without fouling the door regulator. They fit exactly into the OEM holes.
I used a Kenwood head unit, bought a repro radio surround and cut it out to fit. Made up a 'box' to hold the unit from ABS and glued it all up. No need to chop the side trims on the dash as it just fits in.

Hertz was new to me but I am very happy with the sound. With a 5 channel amp I can run this low or rattle the shop windows as I go past, and the sound is clear and crisp.
My wife has a Kicker setup in her opposition product and I find it needs to be loud to pull decent sounds. The bass really bangs up loud but looses out at low levels. We bought the car with it and it has 2 amps to run the double subs and door speakers and if you run it hard the amps overload. Never had that with the Hertz stuff and it gets a hard time, especially when grunge rock comes on. The door speakers really do not perform as well as I would expect for such a name brand. In short, I could have bought Kicker but didn't.

Best thing to do is to go to a decent stereo shop with your fav CD and listen to what they have set up. Everyone's ears are different.

[Glen Mach 1]

Thanks for the time outlining your set up.  I’m trying to avoid anything in the doors and from other post feel like I need to keep a 4” or 5 1/4” in the kick panel.  I have a fold down rear with a drop in speaker box but does not seal well.  The 12 inch sub I have sounds like it will do the job and will take a look at hertz.