[s-cars] AUDIophile! Stereo Options?

[JC]

Couple of really interesting ideas Vincent...

> For the amps, the best option I found (or should I say only
> one, when it comes to price for value) is home audio Class-T

T-class for the car - great idea! I have a couple of those lying around the
house running on adapters, dope-slap myself for not thinking of it for the
car.  They do need high efficiency speakers but as you say some of the
better car speakers are pretty good for that...

I have half a mind to finally ditch the OEM amped crap in the front of the
UrS just to try this out... However if I was to do it I might build up my
own T-amp boards to do away with the volume control you get on the pre-made
ones and then run a separate unit for each side (do the T-amp chips have an
onboard jumper type deal for bridged mono? I'll have to look into that...)
basically one could just build new little T-amp boards into the OEM location
in each door, and replace the OEM semi-Bose driver with something
half-decent.

> For speakers, efficient (>90db) home audio full-band speakers
> are the best match for a 12V Class-T amp. Fostek is the most
> recognized in that class of speakers but Tang Band makes very

The Fostex full-range is also an interesting idea but really the off-axis
thing would be a big deal I think. For something like a Type-44 with the
in-dash speaker mounts that reflecte off the windshield (really not a bad
idea vs. the usual "blast the speakers at your ankles" setup) it might be
much better. (hmmm... did the UrQ/CQ/SQ have a similar setup?) Our beater
utility Cherokee has rear speakers that hang from ceiling pointed towards
the front - that might be ideal for that approach as long as you could live
with the rear-ward bias on the fader.

I'd also worry about as you mention, the environmental factors... depending
greatly on the speaker in question... Polymer cones ideal, paper cones you
might be able to surface treat, you'd want to shoot for rubber surrounds if
possible vs. foam (both perhaps reducing ideal for the speaker but a
reasonable compromise), and then ensure the back side of the speaker was
well insulated from dust & humidity since often the home audio drivers have
nice vents in the back that could suck dust and dirt right into the VC
gap...  Still an interesting idea though.

JC



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