stereo upgrades

i know we dont build these cars for the stereo, but for a street car ya gotta have some tunes. im just wondering what you guys have done with the stereo in your cars.

now that ive got my car on the road im starting to gather some stuff to put a better stereo in my 44. 4x6 speakers by design suck, so i had to come up with something different. ive got a pair of the speaker frames from the 10 speaker system and just ordered a set of 968 map pockets with the grills in them for a 10 speaker system. i havent yet decided what im going to put into them yet, ive got a set of arc audio 5.2 components that would fit nice, however i cant seem to get a 3 way component system out of my head. still undecided there. also dont know if what im doing in the back, weather i should stick with a 2 way 6.5 component system or drop a 6" midbass driver (or even an 8") in the sides, along with a tweeter. the rear is going to get a 10" sub in the spare tire well, unsure if im going to build a ported box or not, i have the space for it. gonna run a 5 channel amp, and im going to try out one of pioneers digital media receivers (no cd).

nobody does anything stereo related? i find that hard to believe. well, this is going to be my stereo thread then.

i started with the rear speakers, i went with a set of ARC audio xdi 6.5 components. was just enough room to trim the body and mount them in place. part of the old 4x6 hole is still there, i could have made a plate to block it off, however i just used some sound deadener, works just fine. the only reason for doing this is to seperate the front and rear of the speaker. the 10 speaker system used a grill that bolted to the interior panel and housed the tweater. i took the grills apart and epoxied the new tweater rings to the plastic in the grill and put it all back together.
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thats all ive gotten done so far. right now ive got it feeding off the deck, an old pioneer 940mp (great deck, 6v pre-outs, but usb/ipod is on add on modules). it sounds a ton better already. as i get more done ill do some more updates. i have a set of Arc audio Arc series 5 1/4" components to go in the doors, i would have liked to go with a 3 way component set to replicate the 10 speaker system, but 5 1/4" is the biggest i can fit in the brackets, and i didnt want to spend $800+ on the morel set (gotta remember, its more about performance of the car, tunes come second). i also have a 5 channel amp and a sub on order.

I put in a Kenwood head unit with bluetooth and Alpine front speakers. The speakers stick out a little, need to make a gasket to put the covers on. Still haven't done the rear speakers but I will, eventually.

did some more this weekend. got the front speakers in, they were being a giant PITA so i didnt think to take any pics. the speakers i used were arc audio ARC series 5 1/4 components. i know ill have it apart again later to try and get the panels fitting better so ill get some pics then.

also got a sub box built
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i designed this to fit my spare tire well. initially i wanted to do a fiberglass box to use the entire spare tire well, however i calculated out the volume and it wasnt quite enough to work well with a ported setup for my chosen sub, but too large for sealed. the box ended up at .81 cubic feet, the upper end of whats recommended for my sub for sealed. once i get my sub and amp ill be building a top trim plate to finish it off.

so this showed up today:

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from the first thought of putting a stereo in this car i had this amp in mind. its an impressive little package, 100w x 4 and 500w x 1, and the cool thing is ohm load means nothing, it puts out the same power from 2-8 ohms. i have its little brother, the pdx5 in the cobalt, its been in there for 7 years now without the slightest issue. as for the sub, that was a little different story, ive never really played with alpine subs, but i know they are decent, and i was looking for a good sq sub, i figured id give the s type a shot. im not after huge bass, just a good clean sound.

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thats how it works with the box, sort of. ill be building a top trim so the sub and amp will be flush.

I've a pioneer bt head unit, pioneer coax 4x6 in front, JL audio comp 6.5s in the back, jl audio 8" micro sub in they're ported enclosure all ran from a fusion 5channel A/B D amp.
I'm no audiophile, just wanted something better than standard.
I'm currently chasing wind noise from seals and sound proofing but all makes for a nice daily driver.