SHOW US your Long Hood Audio (hidden or not)

[rsrguy3]

I've been puttering on my 71 T now for a long time and I'm just about to the point that it'll be a dry weather DD.
Until now the motor has been my car audio, with an 80's vintage Sony and sorry speakers. I've never had a decent sound system in either of my vintage cars, so it's time. I've wanted to do something for some time, but just never pulled the trigger. Some of my ideas


1. Blue tooth with speaker for hands free calls (not music)
2. Phone connection to amp via Aux cable for streaming and podcasts.
3. Speakers and placement?
4. Permanent on board lossles music library accessed with the phone.
5. To head unit or not, is there actually a solid vintage-ish looking unit that sounds good?
I've read a bit about lack of audio quality in the retro-sound units

What have you done (recently) to your early 911 to get good (or awesome) rich sound? Do you have photos you wouldn't mind posting? Please include pics of speakers, subs, amps, heads, etc and any you might have of your installs.

Thanks,
Guy
Whose getting his duck tail in a row

[[email protected]]

these cars are worth so much these days that we are all going back to the original units. IN my 1970 911 T I installed a restored blaupunkt frankfurt, an hirschmann antenna, and a factory speaker in the dash, and a cable for an ipod connector that plugged directly into the back of the bulkhead plug. The problem with putting an audio system in a long nose is that there is just no where to mount speakers without cutting into the door panels. Years ago, clover made what looked like a dual rear headrest arrangement that would mount on the rear hat shelf and contain two speakers. It sounded good and did not intrude on the interior, but one still had the problem of the single front speaker.

[rsrguy3]

I get the value thing, I won't be adding holes for speakers, but I'm not excited about paying serious dollars on a vintage restored Becker or Blaupunkt.... all for the privilege of a visual throwback and lowsey sound. So, unless there's a solid performing option for $350 or less I'm learning towards going to the delete.

Speakers, the po had already stabbed holes in the lower forward door pockets, damage done, absolutely repairable to the point it would be indistinguishable but I'll use it till I'm done with the car(I'm considering doing a splashed mold, from those pockets to make actual glass boxes that can be removed in minutes to go back to the stock, repaired pockets).
Its likely I'll use the rear mount option above the seats, unless there is a legit audio reason not to.

In the end, I want to get it done with no further mods, I'm not going to even drill mounting holes. For that I'll be using click bond studs.

I'm looking forward to seeing photos of your install and others, it should help me get my head wrapped around the project.

[raygreenwood]

Very good thoughts here.

The late 80's into early 90's....the head unit Audio quality has not got any better than what was out there then. Yes...more bells and whistles now. and some more tunability...but the actual clarity and sound range...no.

One of the finest head units I ever had I sold lightly used back in 2000. It was a Blaupunkt Lexington CM84 and a 10 disk changer. Sweet.

The last of the Blaupunkt speakers right before the manufacturing AND design changeover to Bosch and mfg in China were still about as good as anything out there now in build quality.

Between the Blaupunkts, The Denon's, The Beckers in the Euro cars, and the Nakamichi's......there were some sweet high end stereos out there in the late 80's through the 90's.

I have been collecting the stereo for my 412 for a couple of years now.....3 pairs of original NOS Blaupunkt Velocity 6.7" speakers with carbon cones a pair of Pioneer MS650pros's...all components.....still working on the amps. But since my tastes have changed to even higher fidelity ...along with bluetooth, satellite, HD etc....The head unit is a Kenwood KDCX998....with all that and a 13 band equalizer.

But...no matter what you get....retro, original or new.....the one item you MUST have that will make the VERY BEST sound.....is this. This is the automotive equivalent of the digital audio controller than all audiophile level home stereos use.

You head unit goes to the amp...if you have one...or not....and then goes into the DAC.
It allows you to control actual output level to each and every speaker....upwards to about 10 channels.....and adjust every threshold level and all gain levelsby the "hz" for the entire sound spectrum for each speaker.

No they are not cheap.....but what I have seen them do for two pairs of killer speakers with a head unit with decent power and no amp....is just unbelievable.

Audi control is one of the best names out there.

Like these:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161LCQ1B/AudioControl-LCQ-1-Black.html?tp=61658

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161DQDX/AudioControl-DQDX-Black.html?tp=61658

If you just have two speakers or two channels with a front and back on each...you can get them in two channel

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161EQXB/AudioControl-EQX-Black.html?tp=61658

Or if you have six speakers....you can get them in 6 channel and treat and tune each speaker like its own channel.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161EQSB/AudioControl-EQS-Black.html?tp=61658

Or if you have a huge system.....and you want to run seperate amps for each speaker...even if they are small amps....you can split your head unit output to feed the amps...the amps to feed the controller...the controller to feed the speakers. This one has 6 input channels and 8 output channels. You can tune what comes in and how it goes out.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161DM608/AudioControl-DM-608.html?tp=61658


Either way....take some time to read up on what a simple $250 controller can do...especially for something retro. Ray

[rsrguy3]

Ray...... Absolutely awesome! I have a dac on my Marantz Reciever here at the house, it only makes sense to add one to the car, but a dac AND an eq, in one unit.... damn sweet..

I can almost hear Ramble on right now perfectly balanced staged and separated!

Do you have speaker placement suggestions? I was thinking 2 in the original center dash location, one in each door, a sub under the seat and 2 more above the rear seats.. Totally not sure on that.

If, I do a head unit I'm stumped, the last head unit I lusted over was a realistic 12.-1929...
Other than solid audio and good power from a head unit my only real requirement would be a 2 post design that didn't look too God awful out of place, that puts me in retro auto sound territory.

Whats the general consensus on actual BT fidelity? Would you use it when streaming tunes or stay with aux or USB cords?

[raygreenwood]

[[email protected]]

one cannot beat the modern radios for features sound quality and power. There are many radios for about a hundred bucks that are blue tooth, hands free, cd, and will fit perfectly in the 911 dash. Again, however the speakers are the problem. Many just get a self powered Bose blue tooth speaker and park it behind one of the seats and use their phone

[raygreenwood]

[rsrguy3]

Just ordered the KMM-BT728HD. I'have the BP speaker set with x-overs you recommended. Currently I'm looking at a pair of 6x9 subs (ordering later this week) the epicenter and an amp dsp combo. I haven't come to a conclusion on the dash speakers as of right now.

I'm somewhat excited about the Kenwood HU at this point as it's a fraction of the cost of the retro sound units, has more features and I can run it remotely by app on my phone, so its going in the glove box.

At this point I'll be using a radio block off and fixing the trim vinyl so radio delete!

[rsrguy3]

The audio control was discontinued, so I will now be running the dayton dsp, I've read a lot of good things on it.
I pulled the trigger on a set of cdt speakers. 2 ohm 6x9 subs, unity 8's for the dash, and a set of new 2020 production 4" es4-cv's.
At this point the missing pieces are the amps. Im leaning towards a set of Kenwood Excelons, a mono and a 4 Channel... Unless I find a reason not to the d class kw's seem like serious SQ amps.

[Trevor P]

I ended up buying this setup for my ‘70. Pretty happy with it other than the fact there’s no Bluetooth. Still considering buying an original radio and having it converted though.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Classic-Stereo-Radio-Earl...xyyghQ72G-
_________________
53 Canadian standard oval
56 Wolfsburg PG/SG
57 Oval, 2332 & Berg 5
70 911T
91 Westy

[rsrguy3]

It's a vintage cool HU to be sure. In my final analysis I chose to get the mechless Kenwood head unit for these reasons
1.I don't need to have a radio in the panel for aesthetic reasons (factory delete look is perfectly fine)
2. I'm concerned about longevity with retro & classic (I've read about them... A lot)
3. My #1 concern is sound quality the aurora retro and classic don't have any signal
processing
4. Price, with hands free all are over $300, the pioneer with dsp is under $300
5. With a modern hidden HU I can control the HU from my phone app, with the others you have to memorize a bunch of twisting and pushing to change anything... I'm too forgetful to be able to pull that off.

[rsrguy3]

Now if there is a way to install an original BP radio just for looks lighting and radio, I might go that route, if I had the know how to make it play nice with the hidden stuff, and if I could find a clean one in excellent condition for less than a $100.

[rsrguy3]

Try reading the OP

[rsrguy3]

Back to the build...
Anyone have experience with these? Just got one ordered last night to run my 6x9 subs. The speakers came last week.