anyone have a good stereo system? I am looking to install a stereo system in my 1966 Dodge Dart 270. it is a 4 door, it needs work in many departments, but I do something to it (big or small) on every day off i have. I have been without any music of any kind for quite some time now.

I have some parts laying around currently and they include:
2 Eclipse 6x9s
2 pioneer 6x9s
1 aiwa stereo CD Receiver model #cdc-x217yu

now i took the aiwa and the 2 pioneer speakers out of an old van i had, and those together sounded real good.

the face plate says the aiwa is a 45W x 4

i guess my question is this: should i use the aiwa with the eclipses (since they are wired in) go to best buy and purchase an amp and maybe a 12 inch subwoofer for my trunk, and additional speakers for my kickpanel?
or purchase new stereo with all 4 new speakers ontop of new amp and sub?

any advice would be helpful.

Caesar

Well my advice is for now dong get an amp or subs. I have my 68 4dr dart set up with a set of JVC 6X9s and a set of 4" in the kick panels with a JVC head and they are sounding way better than my Total Eclipe system in my show car.(2004 Grand AM GT1)

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Stock 68 dart 225.

My sound configuration is this one:

Alpine CD receiver
2 6x9 Audiobahn Speakers
4 5 1/2 Audiobahn Speakers
Remplaced stock dash speaker with a new Audiobahn
8 Audiobahn Tweeters
4 12" Subwoofers
4 2,000 watts amplificators
2 Crossovers for the 6x9 speakers
4 Crossovers for the 5 1/2 speakers
1 Crossovers for the dash speaker
1 10 channels equalizer

Thats all

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Mopar Muscle is well defend by Slant Six!

Valiant Duster 1971

And how big is your alternator??????????

I wouldn't think that your battery would ever get charged up...........

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

sorry I forgot to put that info too

2 80Amps Alternators
2 Gel Batteries

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Mopar Muscle is well defend by Slant Six!

Valiant Duster 1971

the real question is...why? =) seems it would just have "steal me" written all over it. Are they stealth or something? Not putting down your ride, just seems like a lot of "visible" cash in your nice car.

MJ

Interesting, I'm planning to put a better stereo in my Dart, and it's a '66, 4-door Dart 270, too. I still need to figure out what I'm going to do for a head unit - I've got a Kenwood tape deck that I bought secondhand, but would like one that supports a CD changer. Since the previous owner hacked up the dash, I'm not sure if I want to try putting in a better shaft mount head unit or hack things up further for a DIN installation.

But as for speakers, I've heard for best sound, you will probably want to mount speakers on the front kick panels. You'll want both woofers and tweeters there, not dual cone speakers. The easiest way to install speakers is in the rear package tray, but the sound won't be nearly as good. I think, though, that I might put a set of decent coax or maybe dual cone speakers on package tray to fill in the sound. (Right now I've got a set of cheapo Pioneer dual cones there.)

The 45 watts is pretty optimistic for a head unit - a lot of the manufacturers tend to rate theirs for a lot more power than where they can actually deliver good sound. Still, you may not really need an amp for the front speakers. But you will definitely need an amp for the subwoofer. Not to mention a box. I'm planning to build my own ported box. I don't want to run one of the bandpass boxes that you often see at Best Buy where you can see the subwoofers through a plastic window - they tend to play a few notes well and fall off pretty rapidly above and below that.

Here's a couple sites you may want to check out:

http://www.bcae1.com

BCAE stands for Basic Car Audio Electronics, and it's a pretty good tutorial.

http://forums.carreview.com

Their Car Audio section has several very good audio gurus. I'm also a member there - my handle on those forums is Slanter. But I'm definitely not one of the gurus when it comes to car audio. Just learning.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Build a box and put two of the 6X9s in the trunk. Those things can hit if wired properly. Put the other two in the package tray and get two 6's two go in the kick or door panels. Don't put a 6X9 in the middle of the dash in the place of the original dual cone speaker. It will rattle like crazy.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

rear speakers are under acustic carpet so they aren´t visible, middle speakers are also covered by acustic carpet in the rear side panels, front speakers are almost visible in the kick panels, stock speaker is not visible, tweeters are visible also the CD receiver

Woofers and amps are in the trunk, woofers in acustic boxes.

I think they are well hidden., what do you think NewLancerMan? and yes, I spend a lot of money in the high standard sound in custom cars.

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Mopar Muscle is well defend by Slant Six!

Valiant Duster 1971

I run 2, 3.5 inch speakers in a bracket I built in the place of the 4X10. Never had any kind of problem with rattles. I built the bracket out of a piece of masonite.

My head unit is a Pioneer. I did cut my dash to put it in though. I like pioneer and have never had a problem with any of their products.

2 Pioneer 6X9's in the rear deck.

Pioneer Amp and 2 12" subs in the trunk. There's not a lot of wattage running to the subs but they still sound good. One is a Pioneer and the other is a Audiobahn that got from a friend for a steal.

As for putting the 6X9's in boxes in the trunk, why not stuff them under the front seat? I've thought about doing this many times because I don't want to hack up my door panels, just my dash .

kenwood cassette deck
400 watt sony 4 channel amp
1 kenwood 6x9 in dash
1 kenwood 6x9 in the middle of the rear shelf
2 sony 6x9 in rear shelf
1 sony discman
1 fm modulated XM radio

You can't see anything other than the deck and the discman wire coming out of it. The wire disapears under the dash so it isn't real noticiable. The fader has to be set mostly to the rear or the steel dash buzzes but it is decent. I actually like the sound quality in my valiant a lot more than a 2006 Civic I inspected this morning.

I run 2 6X9 memphis 3way speakers in back, (had to cut holes in fiberboard, but there were already factory holes for speakers in the sheet metal)
2 5" round 3way power acustic speaker in kick panels
tweeters on the front pillars
2 12" audiobahn subs
1200 watt amp (runs subs only)
50 watt X4 panasonic head unit (with sub controller)
This set-up sounds great in the dart
the old car seems to have alot better acustics than my bmw (same set up)
this set up wasnt too expensive,and it doesnt fill up the entire car with audio equipment (stock alternator and battery)
If you just want a good sounding stereo system put the 6x9 pioneers in the back, get a good set of 5" speakers for the kick panels. disconnect the in dash speaker and concentrate on putting a little money into a decent set of subs and amp(not the $49.99 walmart specials )
well theres my thoughts for sound. Good luck with your project

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

In my 67 dart conv. I have the original radio unplugged. I went to Crutchfield and ordered a JVC unit (that plays mp3's)
The prior owners of my car had installed JVC into the door panels and this sounds pretty good. This had no bearing on my getting a JVC unit.
It had what I wanted in a stereo.

If you use Crutchfield, they won't have an installation kit for your car, but they do give you a free black under the dash kit. This made my installation look pretty good and left the dash intact.

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67 Dart GT convertible
"225 Slant 6"
Super 6 and 2.25" exhaust.

In the 67 valiant I have 2 jbl decade 6X9 UNDER the rear shelf, with fabric covering the holes.

In front, I have 2 6.5" kicker impulse (It was a impulse buy)

Then 2 10" mtx something subs in a homemade box... Fits perfectly on top of the rear axle.

Head unit is an older, but dang expensive clarion, but I will change that to something with mp3 and wma.

1 4x90 watt phoenix gold amp for the small speakers, and an audiobahn(?) 2x400 watt for the subs.

1x1 farad somebrand cap.(not connected yet, too lazy )

1 big ass battery in trunk.

0 gauge to run the car and charge battery.

100 amp alternator.

It isn´t much, but it sounds good, and it will make your ears bleed, if you let it.
Visibility out windows is a problem when driving.

Don´t know if it is a badly screwed together car, or if this is normal

Doesn´t matter. I like to listen to the car when driving.

You might not even get any benefit from hooking up the capacitor. The amount of energy you can get from the cap is tiny in comparison to what comes from the battery. The math works out something like this:

The capacitor is supposed to release energy when the voltage drops from alternator voltage to battery voltage. Going from 14.5 V to 12 V means that the capacitor can release 2.5 Joules of energy. A watt is a joule per second. So, if you needed 250 watts more than what your alternator supplies, that's 1/100th of a second of power that you can get out of the cap. One oscillation of a 100 Hz bass note.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair