Putting together an old school setup

LumpyCheeseman
10+ year member

Junior Member
Picked up an 87 F250 for a work truck recently, and decided I want to go old school on just about everything I do to it. Interior is getting more wood grain, exterior is getting things like a rear window louver panel, things of the 80's early 90's nature. Along that same theme, I'm going old school with the audio. Being a work truck, I spend a lot of time in it, so I want something that sounds better than the unholy original "premium sound" speakers that somehow still work and believe it or not actually haven't degraded yet.

So with that in mind I've pulled some existing products out of dusty holes in my house. I'm starting with an MTX Road Thunder TWO 10" sub, a pair of 8" Crunch Performance Plus Series midbasses and a set of Polk Audio EX402 4" speakers. I'm having the surrounds on the MTX and Crunch's replaced, as they were old, crumbled, and nasty, but the speakers did still work fine.

I"m also eyeballing a Kicker Impulse crossover, and in the event that that falls through, an MTX RT-X02A crossover. Still looking for amps, but I'm feeling I might seek out some old Rockford Fosgate Punch amps, the ones with the round end caps.

I wanted to put the Crunch's in place of the stock speakers, but they are far too large and would interfere with the door panel mounting as well as the window crank. I'll instead remove the lower door panels and make a wood panel instead with the midbass's flushed in. I'm not keen on the Polk's being where the stockers were, but not really anywhere else to place them. I'll have to make plates to mount them. The MTX will go into a center console box. I got lucky to find the spec sheet online for it, which will make building a box for it easier.

So with that said, here's the specs I have.

Polk EX402 35RMS/70peak, 91db, 100-22kHz

(based on EX402a specs, haven't found the specs for the originals yet)

The spec sheet I have for the MTX doesn't list the RMS wattage, but I understand these were around 150w RMS.

The Crunch speakers do not have a model number on them, but some Googling found the specs for another equally old set, the CR84. Those were rated at 125RMS, so I'm willing to bet these will run similar specs. However those are paper cone speakers, mine are a plastic cone.

So that's what I have so far. Right now I'm using a Clarion DXZ385USB deck. Not the greatest, nor even close to being old school, but it runs my iPhone, and I had it from my last truck. I'll be running all new wire for the speakers and amps.

Any recommendations on old Rockford amps to run the above setup? Also wouldn't mind finding some different speakers to use instead of the Polks.

 
A full day and not a single comment, or bit of input...

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Picked up an 87 F250 for a work truck recently, and decided I want to go old school on just about everything I do to it. Interior is getting more wood grain, exterior is getting things like a rear window louver panel, things of the 80's early 90's nature. Along that same theme, I'm going old school with the audio. Being a work truck, I spend a lot of time in it, so I want something that sounds better than the unholy original "premium sound" speakers that somehow still work and believe it or not actually haven't degraded yet.
So with that in mind I've pulled some existing products out of dusty holes in my house. I'm starting with an MTX Road Thunder TWO 10" sub, a pair of 8" Crunch Performance Plus Series midbasses and a set of Polk Audio EX402 4" speakers. I'm having the surrounds on the MTX and Crunch's replaced, as they were old, crumbled, and nasty, but the speakers did still work fine.

I"m also eyeballing a Kicker Impulse crossover, and in the event that that falls through, an MTX RT-X02A crossover. Still looking for amps, but I'm feeling I might seek out some old Rockford Fosgate Punch amps, the ones with the round end caps.

I wanted to put the Crunch's in place of the stock speakers, but they are far too large and would interfere with the door panel mounting as well as the window crank. I'll instead remove the lower door panels and make a wood panel instead with the midbass's flushed in. I'm not keen on the Polk's being where the stockers were, but not really anywhere else to place them. I'll have to make plates to mount them. The MTX will go into a center console box. I got lucky to find the spec sheet online for it, which will make building a box for it easier.

So with that said, here's the specs I have.

Polk EX402 35RMS/70peak, 91db, 100-22kHz

(based on EX402a specs, haven't found the specs for the originals yet)

The spec sheet I have for the MTX doesn't list the RMS wattage, but I understand these were around 150w RMS.

The Crunch speakers do not have a model number on them, but some Googling found the specs for another equally old set, the CR84. Those were rated at 125RMS, so I'm willing to bet these will run similar specs. However those are paper cone speakers, mine are a plastic cone.

So that's what I have so far. Right now I'm using a Clarion DXZ385USB deck. Not the greatest, nor even close to being old school, but it runs my iPhone, and I had it from my last truck. I'll be running all new wire for the speakers and amps.

Any recommendations on old Rockford amps to run the above setup? Also wouldn't mind finding some different speakers to use instead of the Polks.
As to the amp question....

The "DSM" series Rockford amps had the round end caps. They are VERY good amps. Since you are going to use an electronic XO, you can go with either of that style/series.

The first gen of them did not have any kind of xo but the 2nd gen have the cards in the back of the amps.

A 60DSM/ix(1st gen/2nd gen) for upper end duty and the 200dsm/2x for the low end.

Good, old school, get hot class a/b power.

 
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LumpyCheeseman

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