No brag, just facts. The truth of the matter is there's nothing to brag about as the SQ compromises necessitated in order to maintain stealth (no one sees anything) combined with the sow's ear that a 1991 Cadillac Brougham is for stereo installing mean I don't have anything like most of you have. On the other hand you guys probably don't have AM stereo pumped through a system either...LOL!
The Original Plan: Put in a set of Pioneer 4x6 3-ways and a pair of Pioneer 6x9 4-ways while using the factory stereo's amp. After reading a post here that suggested I would wind up with some extra brilliance in sound but little else, plus messing around with these plastic dash tops of Cadillac twice isn't in the Good Idea category (since a second install for the "good" system was planned later) plus the extra cost of a second install, I just decided to load up the credit card, bite the bullet once and DO IT.
Researching here and other places led me to conclude the Pioneer REV series made the most sense for 6x9's. The Boston Acoustics 746 plate speaker got the thumbs up as the best 4x6. Obviously neither of these were as good as a 6.5 component setup but the doors of my Cadillac won't handle them plus the stealth factor of hiding the speakers would not be there. Both speakers are factory-rated at 80W RMS continuous.
Finding out about speaker-level input amps being made due to modern cars having oddball head units that don't replace easily led me to go with an amp of that type. I like Pioneer gear and have bought it for 30 years so sue me...LOL! The choices were a 40W RMS x4, a 60W RMS x4 and a 75W RMS x4. The price for the 40 vs 60 was very close but the 75 was about twice the price of the 60, so the best bang for the buck was the 60W option. All reviews I read elsewhere indicated the purchasers were happy with this amp, so I felt comfortable buying it to power up the speakers.
The idea was to mount it under the rear seat but there was not enough room so it got trunk mounted but well-hidden behind a panel that is there. The BA's being flat black have no "bling" to show behind the front speaker grills. You couldn't see the back speaker deck to save your life due to the "formal rear window" treatment Cadillac gives the Brougham but the factory covers that go under the speakers were not able to be used since the magnets on the REV's are so big. Still, the magnets are black and don't show bling, so I can deal with them showing from the trunk without attracting undue attention to a casual passerby.
That means I scored a 95 out of 100 for my goal of stealth.
How did the install itself turn out? Clean but there was a bit of line noise that shows up when music is not playing or at very low levels of music. The shop's installer has some sort of whizbang that will clear this up or so he claims. I'll believe him as he's been at the game for 20 or so years. The cost for labor was $200 and the parts were $65 so that was fair in my book given that these Broughams are a pig to work with for audio according to a Cadillac forum I read.
Now on to the sound and that is what my real interest was. Since I had not been able to hear these speakers or amps since the shop doesn't stock Pioneer or Boston Acoustics, and also since one can never tell how a system will sound in a vehicle until it is in there, this was a real leap of faith to toss the time and money into putting together a system.
Bass: Kicks butt and does so quite sharply. Matter of fact it overwhelms! If I played rap instead of various kinds of rock, dance, disco and such, it would be off the hook. Alas, the Cadillac HU has non-adjustable presets for equalization and none of them really hit the right spot. I'll discuss my thoughts on what to do later in this post. If you want a boom-boom short of going with a sub, the 691 REV's deliver.
Treble: Sizzles along nicely. No complaints here. Are the BA's really all that? Not really but if you want something that handles up to 80W RMS continuous, your options are limited. The Pioneer 4x6 plates were only rated to 50W RMS continuous and let's face it, the 4x6 is not a desireable size for a speaker for SQ.
Midrange: Overwhelmed when the music really gets rocking. The amount of high and low frequency support is so strong and so LOUD. Speaking of loudness, the amp will deliver enough to run you out of the car so that gets a thumbs up even if it isn't competition level wattage.
Overall score in my book: 70 It can be better and it could have gone worse. For not having heard any of these pieces of gear before and buying strictly off of reviews and advice, I'm not disappointed. Working with a factory HU and limitations as to the speaker size didn't help either. I'm not totally happy mind you but not mad either.
Compared to the factory setup, it's still a better deal than what I had. It just needs some dialing in and here's how I am thinking of tackling that. Pioneer makes a DIN 1.5 unit that has preset equalization but it also includes one customizable setting that is set with a parametric equalizer. It also has the ability to control the Pioneer FM modulated CD changer. All one does is add the adapter cord, disconnect the wired remote and voila, it's a "normal" CD changer. Having a direct connection to the HU plus the parametric equalizer plus the noise suppression stuff will make for a cleaner better adjusted sound is my thinking.
The Pioneer DIN 1.5 has a black-looking style that is close to the factory unit's look and fills the hole perfectly. If someone wants to steal it, good luck as dealing with digging into a 1991 Cadillac Brougham dash isn't easy. I'll go with semi-stealth to upgrade the SQ factor and figure the only thing that would be easily ripped off would be the changer, which is useless without the wired and wireless remotes, the accessory cable or the antenna adapter, which are firmly buried behind the dash. I can replace it for around $100-$125 while the amp, the speakers, the wiring and the HU stick around if worst comes to worst. Since the changer is flat black and gray plus looking like a non-descript box, it doesn't attract attention in daylight and it does not show at night.
Costs: The 4 speakers and amp came to $333 with shipping. Thanks to Pioneer being well-discounted from suggested retail and online purchasing I did good enough on the equipment cost end. The install was $200 in labor and $65 in parts. Considering this was not an easy install, I'm happy with what I paid for the shop's service.
In the end it was about me trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and at least I wound up with a purse than can be fixed up better. Thanks to all of you here who either commented directly or made previous posts about these pieces of gear I wound up buying.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Rick
