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I've gained alot of very valuable advice and information on this sight in
recent years so I feel obliged to support a great cause. I've also shared many of my experiences in the hope that others will benefit.
In light of that, there have been several posts about audio systems in my model year -1999 9-3S(base)- and I have posted some photos in members gallery and will be adding more. My audio project was a fun piece of work in a twisted way! I didn't have a big budget a few years ago but I did have alot of shopping savvy and alot of time. My goal was to build a respectable system that 1. remained nearly invisible -a stock looking interior. 2. didn't take ANY of my coveted hatch space and 3. brought the soundstage up to the drivers ears to the extent possible.
What I had; stock head unit, stock speakers, no door speakers or amp.
What I installed; Rockford/Fosgate 4.6X 4-channel amp (now discontinued)
modified SAAB cable with 4-channel RCA plugs, Peripheral LVT (low voltage trigger for amp turn-on), 4-gauge amp wiring kit, 12-gauge speaker wires, 1 farad capacitor, Optima Red Top battery, Infinity Reference 605cs speakers -6.5" in custom-made baffles in the doors, 1" silk dome tweeters mounted in interior door trim covers, Infinity Reference 6953i 6"x9" in the rear position.
For dash speakers I opted to replace the stock speakers with Infinity Reference 3012cf two-ways, with Bass Blockers, driven by a Teac 20 watt/channel amp mounted in a suspended fashion on the right side of the dash in a space inside the glove box trim. Signal is provided by the speaker level output on the head unit. I really wanted the mid fill-in and the extra set of mylar tweeters (drummer with high frequency hearing loss! What's that you say?)as I'm generally not fond of two-way systems.
Comments; Overkill on power supply, I know, but if I ever need a more powerfull amp I won't have to upgrade any wiring, besides, the 4-gauge kit was $15.00 more than the 8-gauge, enough said? The Rockford amp puts out VERY clean power and at only 50 watts RMS per channel, people can't believe I don't have a subwoofer. Medium quality on the speakers, they're not Kappa's or MB Quart's, I just didn't have the money at the time.
Overall I am very pleased with the end result. I have to roll off the bass response to about the 9 o'clock position on all but the weakest bottom end recordings. Installing good clean power and good after-market speakers and taking advantage of the door mount speaker position is something everyone must do if you really love music in your car. It really brings the soundstage into the driver's seat. I am also very pleased with the way the silk domes work in the doors. My objective was to get the high end pointing at the driver's position and this mounting combined with the 3.5" dash mounts washing off the windshield really round out the system.
One final note, the baffles for the door speaker mounts were fashioned out of two layers of 3/4" Dupont Corian, the countertop material. I chose this because it's a nice solid material that isn't too heavy and machines easy.
I've always hated the plastic rings all the stereo shops sell. I think the thin plastic lends itself to vibration and has little mass, which is something you need in a speaker baffle. I know more than a few of you have complained about buzzing in your doors and the plastic rings certainly don't do anything to buffer this. I have some pics somewhere I'll post soon.
Lastly, my total out of pocket expense on this adventure was just over $400.00. Would love to hear about others audio projects if anyone wants to respond. Almost popped for a CD changer but am hoping an ipod interface might become available. Anybody hear of anything?
Cheers, Doug
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