i'm trying to think up ways to put in a decent system complete with subs in my '87 240 sedan. has anyone done this that could show me a picture and maybe share some tips about wiring and sub box dimensions and placements? thanks!

 

how much are you looking to spend?

 

mine thumps, i spent about 2 grand but it was all worth it for my 2000 volvo s80 t6, 2 12 inch type E alpines, 600 watt rms infinity amp, alpine head unit, 1 farad capacitor, alpine type s 6.5 inch in the front, alpine type r 6.5 in the back, alpine 200 watt rms 4 channel

 

well...putting a system in a 240 isn't hard. What's hard is figuring out what brands to stay away from...and believe it when you hear that there are PLENTY of brands to stay away from (*cough* SONY *cough*). Just start reading up on it now. This is an expensive hobbies to be throwing money away with.

I played with a couple ideas in my 240 and the one that worked the best was to put all the door speakers on the front channel, a couple 6x9s on the rear channel (you'll have to come up with a way of mounting them to the back shelf), a 10" sub on a 240-300 watt amp on the rear channel RCA outputs and 2 12" subs on an at least 760 watt amp off the SubWoofer RCA output. All those subs are NOT about loud *** bass...they're about quality of sound and covering all your bases and lower frequencies.

If this is your first system, you won't need to spend more than $1300 to get it dialed in. The most important thing is to get a HIGH quality head unit...it's the brain of the system. Research them and try to find one that has an internal amp that you can shut off...and maybe a time alignment feature or an auto EQ. Once you get more familiar with what you're listening for, you'll come to a few concussions.....namely that a bitching system uses amps-only for sound...not the HU. But for now, use the HU.

 

I would never put a 10 and two 12's in a car. it'll cause more headaches then anything else. What is your budget? you could easily get away with a pair of 12's and 600 watts in a ported box. However... don't forget about the rest of the system, subs only cover about 2 octaves. if you want the real good stuff then focus on mids (and highs).

Also, dont put all the speakers on one chan.

my old system (has since been upgraded though) in my other car had a single 12" in a sealed box, a set of components up front, no rear speakers and a 3 chan amp, 75watts to the components and 300 watts to the sub. The system rocked with a relatively small investment, with the right music the 12 would push air past my head. granted it was a much smaller car and there was no divider between the trunk and the cabin... but you get my drift. you dont need to go over the top with speakers to get good sound. less is more. You'll get much better results by spending time on the install rather then blowing your wad on components. If you want to get crazy... we can talk about that too. You next step would be to run fully active and tune the system to your specific ride.

 

My trunk, I just dont know why it doesnt literally blow up.... lol
I have a 01 s80 t6 with a jl 1000/1 , 13w7 ported box, a 450/4, a 5 farad cap, and a jl cleansweep... This sub should have a warning label on it... lol, its so dam loud, and for its size its very accurate in note playing, it sounds amazing....

Check out the reviews at onlinecarstereo.com

 

The benefit of having a sub on the rear channel and subs on the sub woofer channel was gaining more pronounced bass and a different set of criteria for that bass. Depending on the specs of your HU, the SW channel is going to have an internal HPF that cuts out everything higher than 83 Htz...which isn't enough frequency to break out of that lower octave you mentioned. You eluded to the condition that most music has more than one octave of bass in it. Having a 10 on the rear channel allows you to hit all of those octaves since there typically is no HPF on that channel. (unless you've got a higher end HU)


True enough for anything bigger than a 4" speaker. However, at 50 watts per channel (closer to 20 watts RMS) in most standard head units, there's more than enough power to go around to push two speakers per channel.

Also, treble isn't directional like bass is. as long as you have something on that rear channel after the fact, balancing it out properly is a non issue. Not to mention that the speaker location for the rear channel in the 240 is crap...those speakers do no good back there so you may as well piggy back them to the front.


Agreed. No need to go over board if it's your first install. The set up I had in my car was 2 or 3 years in the making and trial and error. And it wasn't about loud, it was about refinement, trial and error, and curriousity. I started out similar to scott_fx.....one 10" sub on a 200 Watt amp and a blown front right speaker lmao! But it sounded AWESOME at the time!

 

Have you given any thought to upgrading your alternator?

 

HPF passes high frequencies and attenuates the lows, we're dealing with LPF's when talking about subs. 80hz should be fine for any car. As far as covering the sub frequencies, any quality 12" sub should play up to 60 (edit:100 hz) hz accurately... if not there is another issue, it's not the driver


you're totally wrong here. it's not an issue of power it's an issue of sound qaulity; though, impedance is a factor when wiring multiple speakers to a single chan. First off you're going to lose stereo speration and all imaging, second you're going to either half the impedance and rist burning out the amp and degrading the sound quality, or you're going to double the impedance and half the power...leading you to turn up the volume more... pushing it into higher distortion. Don't get me started on rear speakers either. They will not make it into my car. Also... 'treble' is actually more directional then bass. think about it. put a speaker in the middle of the room walk around the speaker... which frequencies change more? the highs.


no need to go overboard on any install. in car audio (and home) less is usually more. Just to qualify my statements, i've been in the hobby for a while now and have installed multiple systems in my cars. My last system in my other car wasn't just a 10" sub, 200 watt amps and a blown speaker. The install was done correctly with time taken to actually design the system instead of throwing stuff in there. My current system is much more involved, but the basics are the same. two tweeters, two mids and a single sub.

 

excuse me...I meant LPF. Aside from that... my point still stands. a 10" sounds better at 70 to 100 htz than a 12 does IMO. and it IS just that. My opinion. Just like it's your opinion that a 12" should be able to play anything down to 60 htz accurately. Again...IMO....I think 12s are better suited to 60-80 htz...or there abouts. no mater what your experience with this stuff might be , it's all going to come down to personal preference.

Do you know what the impedance is on old stock volvo speakers? You can say I'm wrong all you want but you should check that out and try it for yourself, in an old 240 like he's got. It works/sounds great. I'm guessing probably because we're not talking about a lot watts or amps to run those speakers.

Treble vs bass....which is more directional.....I can find about ten articles that contradict each other but given your example I'm inclined to agree. I'm remembering a debate I got into about this some years ago....conclussion was pretty much the same.

My comment about your first system wasn't meant to insult. Like you, I've got a few system installs under my belt....there's always something to learn. Some people go low tech, others go high. Some people go less equipment some go more. There's no ONE right way to do this....but plenty of wrong ways.

I guess the OP can decide for himself because I certainly don't feel like convincing him one way or another.

 

wsup man, i'm thumpin pretty hard right now, i have 2 kicker 15 L7's, a Kicker zx 2500.1 amp for the subs, a kicker zx 850.4 for the highs and mids,pioneera 5 farad capacitor, rockford 4gauge wires, alpine type r 5 1/4 components kicker 6.5 rs series i spent a little under a grand, i cut hair and i have huge clientelle, so i managed to shop at a verry low price. the kicker 850.4 and the 6.5's have not been installed yet, but sometime soon ill post.

 

oh btw i have a 2000' s70