I am restoring a 72 442. the original radio and speakers have been removed an dI am wanting to replace them with orignial radio and speakers.

I have the radio and 2 Delco10 ohm speakers. Where do you mount the rear speaker?

 

looks like this, this is my 72 Chevelle SS 454 Convertible. The speakers face into the convertible top boot. Yes, poor design.

 

My '72 had this design also (as in the picture); acoustically poor indeed, even after the old speakers were replaced with new modern drivers.
Just remember that no grilles may protrude into the boot area, as they may interfere with the top glass when the top is down.
The old speakers used a built-in cloth cover only.

 

Thanks Stan, but since original has only one rear speaker, to which side do youmount this rear speaker?

 

I would guess it would be on the side that the blue rear speaker wire is run (if you have it.) My wire was on the right. The Olds literature called this option the "biphonic rear seat speaker". Wonder if two may have been used? (Or are they including the front one)...
My 72 had two but were wired up unprofessionally (described & pictured in the link in my sig.) Another old mystery...

 

my Chevelle had it on the passenger's side. I had no cloth on the speaker grill from the factory.

 

I've been told that A body Oldsmobile convertibles only came with the rear speaker on the passenger side, but used the same metal panel with speaker holes on both sides which were also made by the supplier to accommodate Chevelles (2 speakers).

skryla...how long have you owned that car ?

 

the Chevelle or the 442?

 

Rob,

I was wondering if you could help on a radio/speaker question. You seem to be pretty sharp on the electrical stuff (EE?)

I have a 72 CS convertible that has the original working radio. I sent the original 10 ohm front and single rear speaker out to be reconed. I then reinstalled them in the car and wholaa, HORRIBLE thin sounding garbage. No fun whatsoever to listen to at any speed.

I would like to keep the original radio for the originality; however, I'm considering an upgrade to two rear speakers. Since most common seems to be 4 ohm, should I run 2 - 4 ohm speakers in series? Bother to add 2 ohm resistor? or am I completely off base.

I also know next to nothing about speakers as well. 2 way, 3way, no way. My goal is to improve the sound without changing out the radio.

 

Flyboy, try these guys. http://turnswitch.com/speakers.htm

To answer your question, two 4 ohm speakers in series will not hurt a 10 ohm radio provided you aren't blasting at full volume. An original speaker is better, so, if you're buying speakers anyway, might as well get the right ones.

Do not run 4 ohm speakers in parallel, as that will do bad things.

 

You can use two 4 ohm speakers in series, should not cause much of an issue. Just make sure you keep the volume to where the sound is NOT distorted. Distortion occurs when the amp runs out of steam and sends amounts of DC to the speakers in place of the audio wave it could not produce. The more distortion the more DC, until the amp or speakers short out. Then something else opens up due to the short...
For a stock radio, any 6x9 speakers can be used. Wattage is not too important for a stock radio. However, if you consider another radio and an amp, get something better! However, be aware of limited space in that rear-seat 'triangle'. Thick gaskets, protruding coaxial mounted speakers or huge magnets will make installation difficult or impossible. In fact, nothing should protrude into the top bay. I remember getting mine in there was a pain.
Look for speakers with rolled rubber or cloth surrounds for richer bass. Rolled foam will deteriorate in 5 years or so. Accordion surround is too stiff. Do not spend too much, as these two better speakers will not be impressive sounding anyway. I ran 50WRMS to each of mine and it still sounded muffled with low bass. The location sucks to say the best. I even sealed off the openings in that 'triangle' structure to try to make an 'enclosure' so to speak. It improved the bass since the front and back waves did totally cancel each other; still no boombox though. Also it will sound better with top up. Top down is more muffled. Go with some mid-priced two ways or three-ways, just make sure the center speakers will not protrude into the top bay. Three-ways might produce more midrange to help with the muffled sound. I think mine were threes...

 

Factory A-body rare speakers did have a metal grille in the boot area. A factory grille will fit w/ no probs...an aftermarket grill could lead to glass damage if it sticks out a lot. You need special hardware to install the speaker and grille as it was from the factory. The hardware and grilles are repro'ed. They were on the RT side only, but a dealer or somebody else may have put it on the LT. There may have been 2 speakers for a Stereo FM radio. A mono FM +/- a stereo 8 track definitely only had the one speaker in the back (Biphonic as mentioned). This is for at least Olds + Buick A bodys.

 

Olds was behind Chevy for stereo. You had three options for speakers in Olds. Front, Biphonic, and Biphonic stereo. The Chevy products in that year did front center, front left and right if you had AC or stereo, rear speaker right if you wanted one, and Front/Rear Left/Right for stereo with rear speakers option.

My speakers are reconed in my 72 on the stock radio, and they are merely OK. I will buy a set from that site above and put them in soon.

 

Rob,

Thanks for the input.

I'm going to upgrade the speakers but be careful of the clearances, both front and back, before I purchase. Putting in 2 4ohm speakers in series.

 

Koda,

I did the recone and the sound is just awful. The guy has 20+ years of experience. So I've decided to store away the reconed speaker for now, and upgrade the rear to 2 4ohm in series.

Thanks

Let me know how the new one work out. I've read good things about them