Speakers in Spit 1500

[AlanT]

Hi All,

It’s time to fit a stereo. I’m interested to know where others have placed speakers and what type I.e. Pod type or sunk in type. I can’t for the life of me remember what I did 30 years ago (first Spitfire). @JosefI’m guessing you’ve sorted your car out with sound? 
Thanks

Alan

[dougbgt6]

The PO of mine wrecked the door panels by installing the speakers in the door, so I'm stuck with the installation. However, I've replaced the old card cone speakers for modern plastic but had to go for the same size. They work very well, but I wish he hadn't done it!  Others have put larger sealed units behind the seats, I quite fancy alternate seats with speakers in the headrests. But of course for originality some have put in a single mono speaker next to the radio.

Doug

[Pete Lewis]

there are twin coil elipticals around that fit the top dash of the 2000/stag  range   which i guess would fit a centre console as an altenative

Pete

[Josef]

I made some aluminium boxes angled slightly so the speakers point somewhat more towards the cabin than straight at the gearbox tunnel and riveted them through the bulkhead sides. Page 12 on my resto thread. I didn’t fit a traditional stereo as I want the car to appear mostly period, so the sound comes from an Adafruit mini amplifier (they’re sold for Arduinos / Raspberry Pis) mounted in a wooden box that fits into the radio opening on the centre console. There’s then a 3.5mm jack cable run into the drivers glove box that I can plug into my phone. 

[dannyb]

I have speakers on the side behind the seats above the wheel arc and speakers at the back of both glove boxes, which are made of vinyl covered aluminium.

Get a good around sound without actually seeing the speakers unless you look for them.

Danny 

[AlanT]

Thanks everyone. Behind the seats sounds the most practical but with the  genius addition of @Josefstyle front speakers. 
Been trying to avoid cutting the rear panel, door cards, so it all remains removable. 
Alan

[AlanT]

Just purchased some bookshelf speakers off Ebay to go behind the seat. Hopefully, their casing will give reasonable sound vs other options. Will knock up front speaker mounts as we @Josef

[Clive]

Late to the party here, but after trying a variety of ideas over the last 30 years, I bought one of these

JBL Charge 5. Although mine is now a few years old. 

Loud enough to hear at any speed. Charge lasts all day easily, as in 12 hours. And I reckon a simple cradle could be fashioned to hold it in place (I have an unusal interior, so I plan to use velcro to stick it to the carpet on my flat gearbox tunnel)

Links to your phone, all super easy and reliable. No holes anywhere, plus you can take it with you and play some mellow music whilest enjoying your picnic, or in the garden when you have friends round for a bbq. 

Really has to be the simple solution, all for about £100

[Mjit]

My fuel tank cover was junk so I made one out of a sheet of ply/foam/vinyl and fitted some mid-sized speakers into that.  Not bad with the hood up but muffled by the hood when down.

But the best swap was to Mk1 MX5 seats with built in speakers - could even hear them over the old wheel barrow exhaust at speed without having the volume up so loud it was embarrasing when you slowed down to drive through a village

[RichTeaBiscuit]

I have been considering doing similar, I hadn't thought about the hood. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Josef]

24 minutes ago, RichTeaBiscuit said:

I have been considering doing similar, I hadn't thought about the hood. Thanks for the heads up.

 

The hood on your car shouldn’t interfere with any speakers, I suppose unless it pushes against the back of some fitted in the rear trim panel. The later cars will be more affected cause of where the folded hood sits. 

[AlanT]

Will post pics of what I’ve bought from ebay. I’m hoping I’m on to something buying 2nd hand home cinema surround sound speakers. Very cheap and should sound good.

[Mjit]

13 hours ago, Josef said:

The later cars will be more affected cause of where the folded hood sits. 

That's what I was meaning.  Oddly if you shove a load of folded vinyl in front of the speakers it muffles them a bit, who's have guessed

[Colin Lindsay]

Try putting them in front of you, instead of behind. I fitted a pair of Radiomobile pod speakers in the glovebox tray areas in my Gt6 and they were amazingly good.

.

[Josef]

Yeah my footwell ones that Alan was asking about originally are surprisingly audible, I suspect rear mounted ones will not be especially given the behind-the-seats-and-maybe-under-the-hood position!

[AlanT]

These are the Sony home cinema speakers I’ve bought on eBay (£20/pair) that will go at the front somehow (not sure I’ve @Josefcraft skill). Kitchen roll in pic to show size.

They are over a kilo each so have decent cones in.

Awaiting the bookshelf speakers I’ve bought to go behind the seats…

[SpitFire6]

On 14/12/2022 at 21:36, AlanT said:

These are the Sony home cinema speakers I’ve bought on eBay (£20/pair) that will go at the front somehow (not sure I’ve @Josefcraft skill). Kitchen roll in pic to show size.

They are over a kilo each so have decent cones in.

Awaiting the bookshelf speakers I’ve bought to go behind the seats…

Hi,
those will be fine at the front with the standard 14 Watts per channel from a 4-channel radio.
I would fit an Amp bridged to drive a single rear Bass speaker; 10” -12”.
The spare 2 Ch would be used to drive two tweeters.
Cheers,
Iain.
 

[wimpus]

On my daily Spitfire i've fitted Pioneer speakers in 2013, in the footwells and in the rear panel.

Must say im very happy with the 'sound'.

Not the best pics, it was cold ! 😅

[PeteH]

Not done a lot (any) of thinking about ICE, But I have a Pair (somewhwere) of speakers with angled pods, designed to go in the footwells of a Mk3 Escort, they worked extremely well, possibly because they where angled to face (more) toward the rear than ones fitted flat?.

I might dig them out and see if they will fit a Herald, without fouling the size 9`s?.

Pete

[Stratton Jimmer]

These work well.