System was installed today. Talked to the installer and we decided to keep the 3.5" stock midrange speakers and power those as well as the tweeters and the 6.5 door speakers off the amp. I kept the rear speakers for now and they are hooked up to the head unit.
Trying to be impartial, my initial impressions are as follows:
- Bass! Finally I have some real punch. The Imagine 6.5's are everything I hoped for. Very great sound coming from them, and without the sub in the mix, they are a big upgrade being powered off the new amp vs the old stock 6.5's and old amp. Pretty happy with the response out of these speakers.
- The subwoofer really fills out the lower end and frees up the speakers. Again, for the price I paid, the subwoofer was everything I hoped it would be. Good accurate bass. This is not a bass monster, nor will it play ultra low frequency bass, but that was not my goal.
- I was initially disappointed with the Hybrid Audio Imagine tweeter. Highs were overpowering, bright, and thin sounding. I tried a number of different songs from Foo Fighters, to Imagine Dragons, to ColdPlay, to Green Day. Songs that I am very familiar with. No question everything sounded better, but the tweeters were still the weak link and, frankly, disappointing.
- I went into the EQ, and realized one of the factory defaults had been selected which boosted the upper frequencies. A sense of relief
I spent about 15 minutes manually listening and tweaking and it sounds considerably better. It still needs more work, but it is a huge improvement over the stock system.
I am pretty convinced I will be upgrading the stock midrange speakers to HAT's midrange speakers. Will look for a deal. I also need a DSP. The stock head unit just does not have enough EQ options to get the sound I know the system is capable of putting out. I talked to the installer and he recommended either the Audisson Bit10 (which is what he has in his car) or the Rockford Fosgate 363. The more we talked the more he thought, on my budget, the Rockford Fosgate would be the better fit for me, and he has had great success with the system and has been happy with it.
So, I will save up and have one installed down the road when the time is right. For now, I will be enjoying the system. Very happy with everything and I accomplished my initial goals.