My WRX came with the Factory speaker upgrade, not cutting it. I am looking to upgrade the speakers, don't want anything to fancy. I just want something sound clean and better than factory. So far this is what i have For front: Bought KFC-P709PS 6.5" 2-Way Components (minus the tweeters, gonna leave the factory ones) Specifications Speaker Type/Size: Component Resistance (Ohms): 4 ohms Built in Crossover: Yes Bottom Mount Depth (inches): 2-1/4 Tweeter Design: 1" soft dome Tweeter Composition: Soft dome Woofer Composition: Polypropylene Woofer Surround: Rubber Peak Power handling: 280W RMS Power Range (Watts): 80 Cutout Diameter or Length (inches): 5" Sensitivity: 86dB Frequency Response: 63Hz - 24kHz Dimensions Product Height 7" (without grille) Product Width 6-1/4" (without grille) Product Depth 6-1/4" (without grille) Product Weight 6.2 lbs Rear doors: Please reccomend. I was thinking set of 6.5" 2 way speakers. Sub: I want to stick with a good 10", clean bass..don't want the BOOM BOOM POW. Amp: Reccomend a good good 4way amp.
Nicad is correct plus there is really no need for rear speakers since they are only there for rear fill. Sub take your pick. There are many good woofers out there. Just make sure and not buy any of the gleabay junk woofers. JL, Image Dynamics, Elemental Designs, Rockford, etc...
Ditch the rear speaker idea and go ahead and just seal up the rear doors; you'll thank yourself later. You'll want to either purchase proper speaker spacers from IA Performance or make your own from cutting boards (plastic) or MDF (don't forget to seal it!). There are several good companies out there for all of these components. What is your price range on the amp? Willing to buy used or new? The JL HD may be right up your alley.
So no need for rears? Damn do they really no make that much of a diff? For sub i was thinking about Polk, Rockford JL, Kenwood or along the lines. Amp used or new, don't care. Audio system is last on my check list so cheaper everything costs the better.
JL and rockford are the only two you listed I would go with. JL being on the top of that list. Kenwood and Polk have never made anything that impressed me. Rear speakers are for rear fill only. If you can hear them, then they are too loud. I still have the factory rear speakers in my car. Save your money and upgrade your front speakers and placement of front speakers.
Don't take my word for it, let your ears decide. I felt that my sound quality improved when I removed the rear speakers. I would search craigslist and ebay for a 10" JL, and get one of their multi channel amps to mate to it. The money you save on not purchasing rears could go towards RAAMat, et al for your fender wells and front doors. We also have a local that sells high quality sound components. They may be out of your price range, but it never hurts to purchase quality with a warranty. Send a PM to slade1274.
Really, didn't know. When sitting in rear, did removing the rear speakers make any difference in sound? I already PMed slade to get his opinion on it also.
who cares about the people sitting in the back? many of us, myself included that only run 1 sub with front door components and no-one would ever know that there aren't any rear speakers
I totally disagree that having no rear fill is good in a car. To each his own tho... Your biggest difference is first the power. A good amp (stand alone or head unit) can let even pretty crumby speakers sound decent. And the stock headunit's amp is anything but decent power. And I mean most people i've put in a simple Kenwood or Alpine HU for were like 'wow' when it was the same whizzercone oem speakers still in it. If you stick with those components for the front, you'll definitely need some power with a sensitivity of only 86dB...
Well, if you are trying to reproduce music correctly it is completely wrong to have a huge rear fill presence. When you are at a concert facing the stage, do you hear the music from behind or in front of you?
Unless you're trying to recreate a dobly HD THX experience in your car (not to mention all the speaker locations are incorrect), I still don't see how the rears are justified. If you're going to do, you could consider 6x8s in the rear deck...or just mount two 8s in the rear deck with a IB setup in the trunk. As sitting in my rear seats...You barely hear much since your leg covers that tiny speaker hole to begin with. And finally, if I have someone in my rear seat odds are it's a full car and we're all talking, not listening to music. I have been extremely happy with my 6.5" component front setup, single 10 in the trunk and single amp powering all three. The only thing I am not happy with is my AVIC-D3
when in the car, because of the car (especially ours) limitation, imaging takes a back seat to tone IMO. Having no sound at all from the back allows a hole in your experience. I don't care how much its being attenuated by being low in the door. yes you do, reflectivity in a concert, especially dynamic ones (meaning anything but rock concerts), you hear reflection, reverberation, and exponential decay depending on the size of the room. But again, thats all straight imaging and position of a soundspace. I'm talking just a pure tonal experience, which is what I place a priority on in a car that has severe handicaps to overcome to have good imaging.
This is something i was also thinking about or adding some 4" coaxial in the rear door and some 6x8 3 ways on rear deck (might be overkill), but will level out the sound to ear leven in the rear. I was thinking about getting the AVIC-D3. What is that you don't like about it?
You are absolutely correct and in a closed environment, such as a car, with glass to reflect sound there is no need for rear fill. Same thing as a purest at home that has two front speakers positioned correctly with a stereo tube amp. With technology these days, a good head unit that has time alignment can do wonders in a car without making it sound over processed. I just dont see the point in trying to get a good tonal experience from your rear speakers? Spend some money and time on your front stage. Speaker placement and a good set of component speakers in the front can do wonders. I think Slade has a pair of front components and a sub. That is the perfect setup if you can get the stage and imaging correct. When I use to judge IASCA contests, the best sounding cars I heard were with minimal speakers.
@MadMallard: I see what you're saying, and understand the basis for the argument. Nevertheless, I just think we're at a loss to pursue it any further. I believe we can all agree that the inside of the Subaru is certainly not designed with acoustics in mind (short of making the exhaust reverb louder). Eddie makes a great point on the time alignment, but I would guess that almost everyone on here with an aftermarket headunit does not take advantage of this feature (assuming their unit even as this feature). What NSV is looking for, at the most basic level, is not the pursuit of purist sound quality, but rather something that "works" on his budget that doesn't leave him up the creek. @NSV: The GUI design is just god-awful and the ipod navigation leaves much to be desired. The GUI received a major update with the F series and is much easier to work through. The biggest gripe I have is that it takes forever to cycle through artsits/albums/podcasts/etc on the D3. There is no option to jump letter to letter or view all letters at once and select "D" for example. Rather, you have to literally scroll through the pages (of which it displays something like 5 blocks at a time) till you get what you want. I find myself constantly asking if a letter is in the first half or the second half of the alphabet. This way I know whether or not I want to scroll down from Z or scroll up from A :rofl: I am sure some will scoff at the fact that I use my ipod almost exclusively. Scoff all you want, it's all FLAC 24 bit needle rips converted to Apple Lossless :fawk: The icing on the cake, however, is that they put the "Pause" button right above the "Shuffle All" button. God forbid you hit a bump when you want to pause a song and hit the shuffle all by accident because you'll be spending another 5 minutes getting back to the artist you were listening to before. All and all, they are a great unit for the price (used). You'd be hard pressed to find something as capable for under $400. The unit is a great example of how engineers are invited to the product discussion and designers are left to sit outside, listening through the door.
The reflectivity in a concert is a musician emitting sound directed toward the audience and backplate or wall. You don't get any direct reflections from the rear windshield from speakers in a door; only in the dash and a-pillar can this happen. Its the same reasoning you have for not wanting rear speakers, I agree its nearly impossible to get favorable imaging from those speakers down in the door. Stuff is in the way. I'm not disagreeing with that. But reproducing music 'correctly' is a subjective experience. We use certain mechanically measurable statistics as a way-point, but it is most definitely not the end conclusion of a good musical experience. If it was, Bose whom notoriously ducks any effective scientific measure possible, wouldn't have revenues around $2 billion, and have fanatically satisfied customers. :/ My whole point is that tone is at least just as important as imaging. And my opinion is that tone takes an unsatisfying hit with no rear fill in a car, completely irrespective of a consideration for imaging. You may not get the same tonal experience I do from the rears. You may, but still prefer to focus on imaging instead. But... ...I'm not saying anyone is right. thats my point. But I will take exception to factually claim it bad to have any rear fill. In my opinion, the hole in the sound was worse for my experience. thats all i'm saying, and we all know what an opinion is worth. ;p Try running with them turned off first for a while as a sample before throwing them out and decide. (Personally, i run component fronts and a sub. I still have stockers running in the rear only because I wanted matching speakers, but they discontinued the line of my components before I could get matching speakers for the doors. :[ ) ---- How about what we can agree on? Both imaging AND tone improve ALOT with some well placed deadening, along with efficiency and road-noise control. At lease use some on the door's inside part where you mount the speaker, and at least a little bit behind the speaker on the body panel.
If you want to run rear speakers, I just put a pair of 4" Kicker components in my heep. They sound awesome for being so small and they are only $30 on Crutchfield. Just my .02
Noooo, don't run rear speakers!!! Such a waste of $$$. Spend the the money and get kick panels built. You'll be much happier. Less power and volume is needed since it's almost a direct angle. BTW, David Navone and Richard Clark wrote something about 4x6 and 6x9 having cone breakup at higher volumes and close to near X-max as supposed to the 5.5 and 6.5 drivers.
Now, I am looking at some Polk Audio 6.5" Components/Tweeters. If anyone wants my Kenwood 6.5" Components $50 and they are your's ($120 new). Didn't hear about the 6x9 going pop. Alex you have a PM
Picked up Polk Audio DXI6500 speakers http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/dxi/index.php?s=dxi6500 -10" Polk Audio Sub http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/dxi/index.php?s=dxi104 Now time for an 4 channel amp. The premium speaker upgrade from Subaru = garbage. I am not even a big speaker guy, but finally i had it. I can't wait to pull these things out. Edit: Thinking about Rockford Fosgate P400-4 amp....no enough or too much...thoughts? http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.asp?item_id=108230
Didn't see it. These speakers can handle something lil more powerful so still looking around, but this seemed like an nice option to start with.
How are you going to run the 4 channels? Two for the front components and then bridge two for the sub? Rockford has always made solid equipment IMHO. I do still have a barely used 3 channel DLS like the one Alex is running. http://dls.se/en/car/prod.html?produkt=en_114 I also have a BNIB Hertz HP4x available... (lots of power, but bigger chassis) http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/Doc/hertz_EP4x_tech_eng.pdf I've also got a class D 6 channel by a company called ZukiAudio that can be configured many ways- but it is a big tank of an amplifer....
Nice Hertz amp. Wonder what difference I'd hear with that bad boy installed versus the DLS. Does Hertz provide a more warm sound compared to DLS or is it a bit more crisp / accentuated?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001P85IV2/ref=mp_s_a_2?qid=1292873783&sr=8-2 The link I forgot earlier Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
Probably not much. It take double the power to get a 3db increase, so going from 70 to 100 watts won't give you much of a perceived level difference. As far as the "sound"'; they are both class A/B topology so they will have the same "sound". I have not done an a-b comparison of them directly, so I can't comment specifically as to any difference in "tonality". Many out there subscribe that there is no difference in the "sound" of an amplifier; but I believe there to be an inherent "voice" do to the coloration of the signal as the amp does it's thing. Those mentioned previous would argue that only amplifiers flawed in design will demonstrate such an attribute as in doing so the amp is adding distortion to the signal path; and a properly designed amplifier does not alter the signal- it only "makes it bigger". All that being said, my demo board runs off the Hertz amp and I have the DLS on the shelf. An a-b test could be done
Yea i was planning on running the components on 2 and then bridging the 2 for sub. Can you PM the prices of the DLS and Hertz. Also is IAperformance spacers the only option out there? I was thinking about going to a local shop and just have them make some spacers.
Will do... I make rings as well, but this may be what you're looking for http://shop.ebay.com/rds2480/m.html
Bought the Amp, Polk Audio PA660....should fit the system perfectly. http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/pa/index.php#pa660_4 Sweet music here I come... Edit: Can i buy the regular 6.5" spacers from ebay or is my only option IAperformance?
Looks like I am going all Polk Audio. Finally picked up Polk Audio DXI104 10" Sub & box. http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/dxi/index.php?s=dxi104 I have a brand new 12" Kicker Comp12 that I never used (still in box), anyone that wants it, yours for $70 (paid $104.xx for it).