Here's a simple solution to center speakers

[par4tom]

My 3 year project has finally gotten to the point that I get to do my favorite part of the install...the audio / visual system.

Here's the current status of my truck and today I'm working on the center channel Accent Fill.

For starters, I'm an "old" audiophile with many years of competitive experiecne in both Iasca and Usac events. These were popular around 15 years ago.

And my project now is a 1961 Chevy truck, standard cab. From the picture, you can see the stock opening for accent fill...

[par4tom]

Here's a photo of the underside of the dash...as you can see, there is not much to work with at first. But we'll quickly change that...

[par4tom]

As you can see from the post above, there is nothing to bolt the center channel assembly on to. So for starters, here is what I did...

I took a measurement of the stock speaker grill opening and cut a piece of 1/2 MDF slightly larger...in this case the piece I cut was 4" x 8"

[par4tom]

I then marked out about a 1/2 inch frame around the outside, drilled some pilot holes for my jig saw blade and then cut the opening. On the second picture, you can see the piece relative to the opening in the dash...

[par4tom]

For the next step...I took a piece of 1/4 pvc black plastic, a piece of 3/8 inch mdf and measure my cutouts for my speakers. In this case, I am using a pair of CDT Audio 2" accent fill speakers.

For this install, they require a 2 1/2" opening. But you can change the opening for whatever speaker you are using.



I marked the center of the opening in my frame for the speakers here...

And then drilled the 2 1/2 inch holes for the speaker mounts. I also drilled four holes along the perimiter of my mounting frame. They hold small 2 " bolts which will hold the entire assembly.

The picture just below that shows the PVC plastic faceplate with the CDT's mounted.

I then epoxied 2" PVC end caps to the back of my 1/4" mdf. These will be the chambers for the backs of these drivers and is what Ken at CDT Audio recommended for my accent fill...after that, I mock every thing up to make sure my assembly will fit together...

[par4tom]

To mount the frame under the dash, I used 5 minute epoxy GEL (it doesn't run like regular epoxy) and lathered it onto the top of the frame like icing a cake. I let it flash for a couple of minutes before sticking it to the underside of the dash...

After that, I wiped off any excess epoxy in the grill opening and did my final assembly for the speaker mounts. I'll seal off the holes for the wires on my next day working on the truck.

The bottom two pictures show the final assembly bolted into place. One is from the bottom and the second one is the best side-view photo I could take...

[RetroMfgWil]

Thats some clean work...

Just an FYI: there are Dual voice Coil speakers now available out there to get the Stereo output for cars that used to only have a mono speaker setup. Its an option if you don't want to do a whole custom setup like this. Its an easy bolt on and you can choose from 4x10s, 4x8, 6x9, 5x7 or a 6.5"

[par4tom]

Here's a couple more photos of my center channel setup.

The crossover includes 6 settings and a seperate volume control to use during setup. The crossover takes both left and right channel inputs from my Zapco 4 channel...

[par4tom]

And here's the box for the speakers.

[darqnez]

Great choice in speakers! CDT makes some good stuff, I have quite a bit of it, also the worksmanship here is stellar!

[par4tom]

I had heard these speakers back in about 2004 at CES show, and because I had had the opportunity while working at Zapco to see all of the cars, their CDT car stood out in particular. As I mentioned, I'm an audiophile type of guy and these were very exceptional.

I have not done a system in the past quite this way so I am eager to get started. Hope to update this soon.
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[king-918]

Cool thread

[tdangle]

I did something very similar in my 1970 truck, which worked great until I fixed up the AC ducts and hoses. Now my speaker setup no longer fits due to clearance issues.

[par4tom]

I'm moving forward a bit on my stereo system now as the truck is getting closer and closer to being finished. All of the mechanical is done and the wheels and tires are being ordered today.

Here are some photos of the accent-fills that CDT Audio has engineered. These are a very specialty driver, with an extremely high crossover point of about 8khz. Each tweeter is pointed directly at the center channel drivers and the intent is to pull the "stage heighth" up over the top of the dash and stabalize it over the center channel.

For the laymen on here, in competition systems, one of the key factors in having a winning system is for the stereo system to create an illusion for the judge that he/she is at a live performance and that the performers are directly in front of them and at or above eye level.

In serious sound quality systems, competitors use all kinds of tricks to do this. However it is done, the objective is to have a sound that appears to originate over the top-center of the dash and is stabile over the top center of the dash. This means, that when listening to critical sound tracks, that the vocals from the lead vocalist don't shift to the left or right side. This is much easier said then done when dealing with phase issues and accoustics in an automotive environment.

In simplest terms, the system I am building is designed to have imaging up over the top of the dash and squarely in the center. This is why I am using this center channel setup with the tweeters mounted high in the A pillars and aimed directly at the center channel...

Here are some pics of this process. I'll cover over these little pods once I get to installing the headliner...

Here is the A pillar after cutting a 2" hole

[par4tom]

Here is the tweeter cup I'll be using. I wrapped this with blue masking tape about 20 times so as to give me enough clearance for the headliner material once I go to mount everything up for the final time...

[par4tom]

The next three photos are just me roughing in the tweeter pod. I use Rage Gold and just a bit of Duraglass mixed in at about a 1:1 ratio...

The first photo is with 40 grit paper (I use this to rough in my shapes as the cheese grater won't fit into these small spaces.

The second photo is at 120 grit...

And the last photo is with the tweeter cup test fitted...I'll final sand this at 120 grit to work out any imperfections. I'll be covering this with an 1/8 closed polycell foam plus material...so I don't sand beyond 120. Plus, with 120 grit, it gives the glue a bit of edge to grab onto...

[BR3W CITY]

Ugh this makes me miss my Zapco 2k MonoBloc
Class A comp amp, rated at over 2k watts and probably put out close to 3k. I could pound 4x15's all day off 2 optimas.

Sadly some crackhead stole it...So somewhere out there a dboy has a badass system courtesy of the black market.

[par4tom]

That 9.0 was a beast!!! 2000 watts continuous rms, sorry to hear it got stolen!

[BR3W CITY]

Originally Posted by par4tom

That 9.0 was a beast!!! 2000 watts continuous rms, sorry to hear it got stolen!

It would get HOT though. Its the size of a skateboard deck and could fry an egg on it (if the truck would stop vibrating long enough to keep it in place)

[par4tom]

Didn't like many of the boxy designs, wanted something sexy but not too big. Settled on doing a split-level console...here's the pics...

Started with cardboard to get lower level piece ideas going...originally I was going to go with the jump seat in the middle as you can see in the last picture but with all the electronics...I had to ditch that idea about half way through so as to keep the stereo serviceble...

[par4tom]

Got a "sexy" line on the bottom piece, then set about how to mount an Ipad and bolt the thing to the floorboard...just mocking up here...

[par4tom]

More mocking up. Once I got the bottom tier done, I wrapped it in carpet that matched the carpet of the truck. I did it this way to minimize the look of the center console as a whole. I felt if the piece was all vinyl...it would look bulky and boxy...

[Low Elco]

Any more on this? Sounds cool.

[par4tom]

I do have some updates and will post them here soon. Was able to get the sound system fired up just this week and we are in the process of tuning now... Here is an updated pic. Custom built center console with IPad mini embedded in the dash. CDT audio speakers in custom kicks with Pioneer DSP head unit. Truck was not ready to play as we were up late the night before still doing assembly...

I'll post a couple more pics and maybe start a build thread...ill show my most recent pics then backtrack through the past year of fabrication. I did all the fabrication myself in my garage...if I can do it you can probably do it too!!!

[par4tom]

And pic of truck...