[thill]

Originally Posted by ean611

Contact Hybrid Audio. Sometimes they have b-stock or damage box units.

Also, with my L3v2 in dash, I filter them with a 4th order (24dB/octave) high pass filter at 500Hz. You may want to do something similar (use your ears, see what you like, etc), but I just give you the heads up, as there is no baffling or sealing below the midranges. I can pump out 160-18,000Hz out of those midranges, a far wider bandwidth than the original drivers. If you hear your upper mid bass / lower midrange (200-400 Hz range) get a little muddy, and sound like it's reverberating in your dash, you will want to filter that, and let your door woofers cover that range.

My first plan was to cross over the L3v2 and my L6 woofers at 250Hz, and I also tried 200Hz, as the frequency response of the L3v2 is excellent. However, unless I want to deconstruct the dashboard area there and "fix" it, it's easier to just not use that frequency range.

What you may hear: Lower vocal register (mostly men) becomes a little muddy. Lower end of symphonic music will sound muddy. Good example: Nightwish's album Imaginaerum. The sound is a mix of guitars and classical symphonic sounds. To play this nicely, you want to have a separation and clarity so all the contrasting instruments are distinct. I found that with my crossover point set too low, the music got muddy. Also, you want the sound from the midrange and tweeter coming off the windshield (not ideal, but with stock locations, this is what you get). With these mids, (and on music like I've been talking about), the sound stage is pulled down a bit and it sounds like your dash board is a bit of a speaker. The issue is that your dashboard is a rather poor speaker. (I use this example, because you will not always see the same effect with every piece of music)

As always, trust your ears. Make sure you like how it sounds.

Thanks for the advice. I did try to keep the stock midrange speakers in the mix and tried lots of adjustments, but everything sounded worse to me with those speakers in the mix. I have no doubt that the Hybrid's will be a nice step up. The only thing that sucks is the midrange speakers are pricey compared to the Imagine series, so as you mentioned, I will be looking B stock or used. I am so happy right now vs what I had before (stock) that I don't mind keeping it this way for awhile. The speakers seem to sound better everday

Thanks again for all your help.