My ongoing Cougar restoration continues and I have my dash completely apart and want to replace the factory speaker with something newer.
I know WCCC sells Dash Speakers, but looking to see what the community recommends. Money is not an option( I know I will regret saying this).
What are your thoughts?
For my 69. I just installed these
Crutchfield Bass Blockers
Pair of inline frequency filters (600 Hz cut-off)
Very happy with fit and stability. Sound awesome.
I like this fellow’s 8 ohm products - desirable if your radio still has its 1968 internals, which were meant to run 8 ohm impedance speakers.
They work fine if you decide to get the radio converted to modern, higher output internals, which I did earlier this spring.
I used something similar to the above in a kicker flavor. They are just 2 3.5" speakers to replace the single am style speaker originally installed. Unsure how they sound just yet but I will have speakers in the package tray and kick panels as well so I dont expect much from the center dash speaker. I could have probably left them out to be honest.
I did the same swap out. Football adapter from WCCC and a pair of 3-1/2" Kenwood KFC-3XC. Not sure if you’re using the same bluetooth product, but I converted to the Aurora 2.8. The ‘experts’ at Crutchfield also recommended low freq blockers when I
purchased the speakers. Unfortunately, bass blockers are contraindicated for the Aurora, which wasn’t able to detect the front speakers.
Turnswitch (linked above) is who I used for the conversion. Very helpful. He recommended the bass blocker; he does with his speakers too. Crutchfield stocked them.
For speakers to work, the air in front of the speaker needs to be separated from the air behind the speaker. That means you need what is called a baffle at the very least. In this case it would be a football shaped piece of material that can seal to the under side of the dash. The speakers would then be mounted to the baffles and sealed to it. As shown above there will be very little output and what you do get will be mostly high frequency and upper mid-range.
Yep…a quick check of their webpage confirms they do, in fact, use Aurora Designs. Great upgrade, but I had to delete the bass blocker for the front speakers to work properly as a 4-channel unit with balance/fader. I wish I had read page 2/column 2 of the instructions before spending the money and hassle: https://www.tech-retro.com/aurora-design/ewExternalFiles/FMR%20User%20Manual%202.8.0.pdf
I have a pair of JBLs as well, but am curious about the bass blockers.
Why would a manufacturer of speakers, a high end one at that, create a speaker that can’t handle a particular frequency that is expected in regular applications? Better yet, why not just incorporate the bass blockers on the unit if it is truly necessary? You would think that over the decades, the engineers would have figured that out by now. 
If the speakers are mounted in a correctly sized sealed enclosure the low frequency power handling goes way up. Also what the bass blocker does is allow you to play the speaker at higher volumes. In most cases if the speakers are properly installed the bass blocker is not needed. Do the experiment yourself and see.
Sounds like I need to go to my 3d Printer and mock something up…
Yes, without baffles or porting, the in-phase sound waves from speaker front side and out-of-phase sound waves from speaker back side can cancel each other out. It really does make a big difference.
Any speaker has different responses to different frequencies, and most speaker systems use filter networks (which is what the bass blockers are) to flatten out their response across the audio frequency range.
I’d love to try to make a baffle out of TPU, but the factory AC ducts might get in the way of creating a decent one.
Hey guys I’m still a little confused. I have the original am/fm radio and want to get an improved modern version (if possible) for the dash.
Should I get the JBL listed in this thread?
Do I need to buy additional bass blockers?
Will I ever figure out why peanuts are neither Peas or Nuts?
Sorry for the questions. Pretty lost and don’t want to make the wrong purchase.
I went with a radio from retrosound. If you don’t mind that it is not original, but at least looks like a radio from that era, then I would go with this as the replacement radio.
To answer your question, yes, the JBL speakers will work great with the modern stereo above. You can try them with/without the bass blockers and compare your results. You will need the 3.5" plate adapter from WCCC as well.
Yes the JBL speakers should work great with a modern stereo. But they are only 3 ohm speakers vs. 8 ohm that the original radios are designed to drive. I am still trying to figure out best retrofit speakers for original radios - and peanuts too for that matter. Those Turnswitch.com speakers in the post from R.B.Phillips look interesting.
Also consider a modern alternative all together. Single Din “media” players are pretty cheap now days. basically it plays AM/FM and Bluetooth or USB input. Or you can get one with a CD player if desired. The bonus here is easier interface, more wattage per channel and more common 4ohm speaker outputs, Amp preouts etc.
Only negative is they may not fit your look inside the car.
Check out turnswitch.com he has conversion ability for your original radio to give you an “improved modern version.
Electro-Tech Service 1
Full disclosure: After talking with several “converters”, I chose him to handle a full tech conversion of my original AM radio to a bluetooth ready radio/ amp.
If you want. The key dimension on whatever speaker you choose is less than 2” thick for a dash mount in the existing space. I could not find a single speaker thin enough to jump in. IIRC 2.125” was the thinest.
If you go with 2 3.5” round speakers (less than 2” thick) you can connect them together and mount the ends into the existing FOMOCO screw holes. I didn’t buy the WCCC piece. It was easy enough to fabricate a bracket to tie to the back of the dash.
Seems the audiophiles are divided. I went with them because TURNSWITCH recommended I use them; whether with their 3.5” round speakers or the JBLs (I sent them the JBL specs). Without being able to hear a technology, i passed on the TURNSWITCH products. The JBLs are currently connected to an aftermarket AM/FM radio and the sound is very good- I am a JBL fan of their smaller speakers/headphones, so I had an expectation and it was met.
Yes, unless you don’t.
Good luck!
Despite the suffix of the noun 'peanut they are not a nut, they are a legume. Just some useless information 
I installed the radio this week.
Sound is awesome in the rear, streaming Pandora. But bluetooth & bassblockers not playing well up front. It appears the bass blockers slow the signal to the unit and it shuts off the front feed- that’s Greg @ Turnswitch’s thought. So the bass blockers are coming out, but not for a while. I am tired of taking the dash apart. 
(I know rookie mistake not fully testing before reassembly. 
. )
