Speaker Options when Upgrading OEM Mono Radio

[Henrius]

The radio in my 1965 Plymouth Fury was only an AM monophonic model. It no longer works, and I am going to convert it to AM/FM and possibly Bluetooth, while maintaining OEM appearance.

Will upgrading the original dash speaker make a difference in sound? I have an option of mono, stereo, or stereo front and rear outputs in the radio upgrade. I don't think this model year offered more than one speaker location for stereo. Am I wrong here?

Some people put subwoofers hidden under the seat, but I don't think it would be worth it for classical music and talk radio.

Would be curious how others have upgraded their sound systems.

 

[edbods]

A fancy/high-end dash speaker would probably be a waste of money; a vehicle is probably the last place you'd ever expect to get a good acoustic environment, especially with our cars that don't have the 40-50 years of advancements in acoustic engineering and knowledge.
I went with a 4x10 Custom Autosound 3001DVC for that dash speaker, got it for cheap because it appeared to be an unwanted/return unit. Worked better than I expected, but again, I wasn't expecting home theater levels of audio quality, just wanted something I could listen to the radio and my own music with. Had to tin snip some sheet steel as a bracket to let it actually sit in its spot, but otherwise works great. The speaker takes left and right inputs, I can hear the radio and my own music great with my under dash head unit that I bolted on with some hardware store DIY brackets.
My 67 Fury has two spots behind the back seats for speakers (I think 6x9) but I didn't bother with them since current water leaks would probably wreck them in no time.

 

[Henrius]

A fancy/high-end dash speaker would probably be a waste of money; a vehicle is probably the last place you'd ever expect to get a good acoustic environment, especially with our cars that don't have the 40-50 years of advancements in acoustic engineering and knowledge.
I went with a 4x10 Custom Autosound 3001DVC for that dash speaker, got it for cheap because it appeared to be an unwanted/return unit. Worked better than I expected, but again, I wasn't expecting home theater levels of audio quality, just wanted something I could listen to the radio and my own music with. Had to tin snip some sheet steel as a bracket to let it actually sit in its spot, but otherwise works great. The speaker takes left and right inputs, I can hear the radio and my own music great with my under dash head unit that I bolted on with some hardware store DIY brackets.
My 67 Fury has two spots behind the back seats for speakers (I think 6x9) but I didn't bother with them since current water leaks would probably wreck them in no time.

Thanks. With FM I will be able to hear music in higher fidelity. I was thinking about a new single coaxial speaker, even if for mono sound, that would let me hear some higher frequencies than the OEM speaker.

With my Ford Pinto, I went to all the trouble of fabricating a bracket to hold two speakers angle a little away from each other, under the location of the original dash speaker. All that trouble was for naught, as it really did not sound good, and gave no semblance of stereo.

 

[edbods]

Yeah with a single dash speaker I just don't think you'll get a stereo effect no matter what you do. Only other way to remedy that would be to fit speakers or tweeters in the corners of the dash, either under or above, and stick some speakers in the doors. That would require cutting up the door cards however, as well as drilling holes and running cable grommets etc.

 

[Henrius]

Yeah with a single dash speaker I just don't think you'll get a stereo effect no matter what you do. Only other way to remedy that would be to fit speakers or tweeters in the corners of the dash, either under or above, and stick some speakers in the doors. That would require cutting up the door cards however, as well as drilling holes and running cable grommets etc.

On my Newport, I found a junked car with the side dash cutouts and lifted the speaker grills. I actually removed my Newport window, cut holes in the dash, and installed the painted factory speaker grills. Wanted to maintain the OEM speaker as a "center" channel like Home Theater, but it did not pan out. Lot of trouble, but the result was worth it having two speakers in front and two quality speakers in back! Don't want to do this on the Fury, as side dash speakers were never a factory option. But I will settle for slightly improved sound.

Funny thing is factory AM reception back in the 60's was seemingly better than it is today!

 

[edbods]

Good find, sometimes I wish our country and Japan chose to drive on the right side of the road. Would make parts so much easier to get and Japan has some pretty snazzy cars lol.

Funny thing is factory AM reception back in the 60's was seemingly better than it is today!

I'm too young to really know about this, but I wonder if it's because everyone uses FM now, so head units and antennas generally don't also look at AM radio reception as a priority.