Ski Tunes & other homophones

[Jay Pique]

So I bought the '84 Grand Wagoneer. I love it, although it did need a new alternator (under warranty) and will need some headlight tweaking/replacing before long. Anyhoo, what it REALLY needs is a major stereo upgrade. Soon.

What I'm envisioning is a modular system that can be "snapped" in to the GW (Genny) for in vehicle use, but can also be taken out and used as a stereo relatively easily (provided there's a power source - I'm not doing batteries).

Right now I'm thinking of the following components:

-> Two speakers in the back, mounted on shelves that are capable of swinging out for tailgating, as well as being portable.

-> One subwoofer in the back, also removeable, that will serve as the "caddy" for the other two rear speakers - I plan on some sort of connecting mechanism so that the three can be carried as one.

-> Up front, there are small in-door speakers in place that I'm planning on upgrading, if possible. (I haven't measured them yet, but they look like they're around 6 inches or so.) These will be permanent, although it would be cool if they weren't so I could have a surround sound set-up wherever I want. Hmmmmm...

Sound quality is, of course, important - but size matters too. I'd like to have enough power to drown out the (considerable) road noise, as well as the myriad squeals and rattles that are my constant companions.

For the input, I'd like to have access to the following:

-> XM and Sirius satellite radio -> AM/FM radio with a strong antenna -> All of my digital music ->All of anyone elses digital music - I want both FireWire and USB ports and I plan on having an FM Transmitter standing by to hook to other mp3 players. WiFi would be cool, and of course I'd like to be able to play CDs and DVDs as well. Which means a screen I guess...

Given the last 2, I'm thinking I'll need a full-on personal computer. I'll also want a simple interface, especially for when driving. (I like knobs, dials and switches.)

Since there's no console at all in there right now, I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone. I'll build a removeable console that sits in the large space between the front middle seat and the bottom of the dash - right on the hump. In the console I could put the PC, the receiver, the amp and maybe a few cupholders to boot. Ventilation might be a small problem, but the truck does have air conditioning. Jesus, maybe I could build a heat sink and overclock....

Oh yeah - money *is* an object.

JP

****************** Meliora Baby.

[Olebiker]

Minwax Golden Oak stain with Minwax Wiping Polyurethane for protection. You never know when Scott Abraham might drool on it.

[The Real Bev]

Buy a shovel, a roll of toilet paper, one of those big black bags you use to heat shower water and a 12V microwave oven. Sell your house. You'll be glad you did.

[Bob Lee]

maybe you should have just bought a Beemer X5 SUV - the kind you can plug your iPod into?

Oh, maybe just buy an iPod then.

Bob

[Mark]

I recommend triaxials with hickory drivers. Mark

[snoig]

I did a tri-amp system in my Blazer a long time ago. It was really more trouble then it was worth.

Just in case you don't know about it, check out

have all kinds of adapters and parts for lots of vehicles.

snoig

[lal_truckee]

Get a kazoo and learn to play it while driving.

[Lisa Horton]

In another time, they used to make "under dash" car stereos, and two part slide mounts that would let you take the stereo right out of the car. Once, when a roommate managed to plug a speaker wire into the wall outlet, rendering my main stereo inoperative in a dramatic way, I used my car stereo to fill in. It was an under dash with one of those slide brackets, I just bought a second slide bracket and a 12V power supply. At any rate, making the head unit removable and operable while removed would seem your biggest challenge.

For speakers, I would suggest considering buying or making a couple of simple box speakers, woofer, mid, tweeter. You could arrange mounting hardware on the speakers and in the back of the GW to mount them there, but have them be removable.

Or buy a fancy boombox with a remote and put it in the back :)

Lisa

[Armin]

Anyone know of an in-dash CD player that has front-panel inputs for an MP3 player?

[John Red-Horse]

I think these are coming back into vogue. For example, see:

[Charles Spitzer]

i put a jvc double din radio/cd/tape in my vette that has one.

[Armin]

> cheers,

Cool! Everything I was looking for and more. I see they even have adapters that will let me plug an MP3 player into my current player.

Thanks.

Armin

[Walt]

Cool. Does is really create twice as much din as a single din unit?

[Walt]

Cool. Does it really create twice as much din as a single din unit?