I have a 1998 V70 (basic model). I've recently installed an amp/sub, public address system and high-flow exhaust.
Sub: 10" no-name in a homemade box. The sub is a 1000w peak/ 400w RMS I believe and my amp is 600w peak 300w RMS. This setup is enough to impress most of my college friends and probably cause a little hearing damage if I kept it turned up loud. You can hear it when my windows are up several cars away if I have it cranked to the loudest position. At a moderate level it sounds absolutely great. The box is made to fit in the corner by the rear gate on the driver's side and still allow the trap doors in the floor to swing open. I built the box from one sheet of 2' x 4' 3/4" plywood. There is about a 2" pocket at the top for small things to hang out in. I've got the box wired down so it won't move at all. I used some aluminum perf. to make the protection grille so it wouldn't protrude at all.
I also took the remote bass boost knob out of its cheesey chrome box and mounted it under the e-brake.
The amp is hidden under the driver's seat. I have taped the cables down with duct tape so the roving feet of back-seat passengers do not disturb it. If you notice to the right of the amp is a black cylinder. This is a ground loop isolator because I have the audio and power cable running close to each other under the center console assembly. This fixed the humming noise that came from the subwoofer when the car was on.
Because I had the factory head unit, I put in a hi-lo converter to give me RCA pre-outs for my amp. I got my converter from one of the car audio guys at circuit city for 15 cash out of his trunk...but you can get one just like mine for about 5 bucks online. I tapped into the rear door speakers. (pink and brown)
I believe these are the right positions:
Exhaust: Magnaflow "street" series. 2 1/4" piping. I noticed a definate performance gain after installing the muffler. Most of the gain is on the highway when the motor is already revved up high. To hear/see the exhaust, click: http://www.jcxmc.com/pixs/volvostuff/Exhaust.AVI
This muffler drones like a hive of bees inside the cab, between 2k and 3k rpm. I had a 12" resonator put on and that helped a little.
I also put acoustic foam under the fold down mini-seat in the rear, which helped just a tiny bit as well. The muffler is tolerable, but will probably illicit comment from anyone that happens to ride in the car. At least I won't have hearing damage from the muffler.
I've always had a public address/CB radio in every car I've owned, so the Volvo was no different.
The CB mounted absolutely perfectly into the ashtray mounting frame once I stripped out the tracks that held the ashtray in. I had to cut the back open a bit to allow for some of the cables to connect to the CB radio, but since I don't smoke this doesn't bother me.
[/img]Sub/Amp: $110 total including box (flea market specials)
Exhaust: $270 total including tax
PA/CB: $75 total
Hope that might help someone, or at least be interesting to look at.
Mike.
