Thoughts on a "component" setup with a 3.5" dash and 6.5" door setup?
 

I was thinking about the possibility of using the OEM 3.5" location for an aftermarket 3.5" coaxial speaker and then using component 6.5" woofers in the doors, then disconnecting the OEM tweeters altogether. Any thoughts on this approach? What would you recommend for crossovers, building my own?

With a small 4-channel amp in active mode, this would be fairly simple, leaving the rears to run off of the HU and all 4 channels of the front on the amp. The other option would be all of the 3.5" speakers on the headunit (with bass-blockers on them) and the doors bandpassed off of the amp. If you went with a 4-channel, that would allow 2 channels for a subwoofer.

This is all in the concept phase- thoughts?

Are you suggesting running the 3.5" coax on their own channels? If so, I would definitely invest in an amp that has separate frequency filters for each set of channels.

Yes, that was what I meant by "active" on the amp.

Option 1 (no subwoofer) would be a 4-channel amp with 2 channels to the 3.5"s with a HPF and 2 channels to the mids on a band pass filter.

Option 2 (with a subwoofer) would be 3.5"s on the front HU channels with a bass blocker/capaciter (same to the rears on the HU rear channels) and then the amp with a band pass to the 6.5"s off of 2 channels and then 2 channels bridged to a sub.

I suppost that Option 3 would be a 5-channel amp using 2 of the amp channels ot the front 3.5" speakers on HP, 2 to the 6.5"s on BP, and the sub channel to the sub on LP...

Ah I get you, but what is the reasoning behind doing this? I'm curious because it sounds like a lot more work (to get the right sound) than just grabbing components.

Benefit/reasons is multi-faceted:

Not all component tweeters fit in the OEM 1" dash location. In this case, you'd lose the 3.5" location to install a tweeter. a 3.5" would fit up there, however.

A 3.5" speaker puts slightly more sound up high(er) and in front of you in terms of true midrange, and would allow the woofer to function as a true woofer or midbass.

Your available midrange/midbass/woofer options seem to be very good, and the costs are reasonable if you don't pay for the passive crossovers. If you use component midrange/mdbass/woofers and buy good 3.5" speakers, you pay about what you pay for a modest component set but get (in theory) better sound, particularly when you use an active anplifier setup.


Negatives: Like you said, setup would or could be a PITA.

Got it. Yea, my Hertz setup has a 1" tweeter installed next to a 3" mid in the stock location and then the 6.5" in the door. With your setup, you'd gain the half inch on the mid portion.

Why not just run a 5 channel amp so you can run all the speakers off the amp along with the sub?

That became my option # 3 above. I was not thinking about that when I typed my initial posts.

I was thinking the same thing, i'm a JBL guy and found a pretty nice 3.5" they sell i just didn't know if it would be a true upgrade over the factory stuff without adding an amp.

http://www.jbl.com/estore/jbl/us/pro.../GTO329_JBL_US

They work with as little as 5w. Those and a pair of either component midranges/woofers or a good pair of coaxials should really outdo the OEM stuff.

I had some Image Dynamics CX62v2's but they start rolling off around 1600hz. I'm going to get a pair of the JBL Power 2ohm mids for the doors and those 3.5's for the dash i guess. I have a JBL MSBass Pro SQ subwoofer and am trying to upgrade without adding a seperate amp, i think it should be a little better than factory.

You think coaxials in the doors and dash is a good idea? Seems like a lot of tweeters to me, it would save me some money if i got the 2 way 6.5's though.

You might have issues with a 2 ohm driver in the door and 4 ohm speakers in the dash.

You could run something like the JL C5 component woofers in the doors. Really any component woofer, but if you go that way you need some sort of crossover network to block the highs. Going with coaxials does away with that issue.

The factory 6.5 is 2ohm i was told and they aren't crossed over, you can run a mid without anything blocking the highs as it will roll off naturally. Not ideal but that's how the stock ones run from what i was told. I may try the coaxes though and see how it goes.

I was thinking of the same type setup but with adding an amp down the road. My reasoning is similar to yours as well with putting more mids up high. The only thing that bugs me is isolating the back of the 3.5" coax from the front to get better sound. I think an XTC baffle would probably do the trick or you could make some little fiberglass pods and deaden them perhaps.

In the case of the dash location, some small XTC or DEI BoomMat baffles might work. Not necessary, but not a bad idea like baffling midranges in the doors might be.