Coxial Components and Dash Speakers

[Skippman]

I think that amp would work just fine, although I personally prefer a Class A/B amp.

I would also spend a decent amount on sound treatment. I would at least do the outer doors, the inner doors, and the door card with CLD (think Dynamat) as well as put in a deflection panel behind the midbass in the door. Something like Speaker Tweakers. There's a couple of very good write ups in the index at the top of the forum.

Do all of the above and I think you'll be a very happy customer.

I may have missed it but what do you plan to use as your source? The stock head unit?

[Gopherboy6956]

That sounds good. I may not dynamat a lot because of weight reasons, and this will still be a tracked car. But i definitely will behind the speakers.

I haven't decided on a HeadUnit yet, but it will be aftermarket. Most likely a new Pioneer...or worst case, my Pioneer AVH-P3200DVD pulled from my RSX for now.

[JoeBoxer]

You might consider the 700/5 if you do ever want to go active or bi-amp your components.

[Skippman]

Originally Posted by JoeBoxer

You might consider the 700/5 if you do ever want to go active or bi-amp your components.

Joe makes a good point. It would definately make you more flexable. As far as the sound treatment, we're talking 20lbs of extra weight. Not that much overall.

[JoeBoxer]

It's what $100 more? Well worth it as opposed to having to buy another amp later.

[SubieNate]

The problem with most component sets is the difference in sound dispersion characteristics between the tweeter and the woofer combined with the relationship of pathlength differences and wavelength at the crossover frequency. At standard crossover frequencies, the difference in location/pathlength is longer than the wavelength at the crossover frequency (Usually somewhere above 2000 hz with typical car audio tweets). This makes it pretty easy for someone with ears that are halfway decent to hear each distinct driver-tweeters up high and woofers down low. This creates a "rainbow" shaped soundstage in the car with vocals bouncing around between the woofer and tweeter and a not very cohesive sound in general.

Unfortunately, most car audio coaxial sets are on the lower end of things. KEF and Tannoy make some AMAZING coaxial drivers where the tweeter is actually built into the center of the driver instead of just mounted there (These are sometimes called coencentric drivers). This is an even better solution as the tweeter radiates sound from the very center of the speaker cone, making the TA match even more perfect. These drivers however, tend to be pretty deep and also $$$ and hard to get for a car install.

There are a couple of potential solutions to this.

First is the obvious, coaxials. If you can get a sufficiently high quality setup, go for it. It's a decent solution and simple.

Second, is mounting the mid in the door and the tweet in the kickpanel. This keeps things close and the sound is coming from basically one place. Some people don't like sound coming from that low in the vehicle, and some dislike that the sound is relatively easily affected by where your legs are. Others think this is the ideal solution.

A step further in this vein is fabbing a custom kickpanel with both the mid and tweeter in it. This reduces the need for heavy sound deadening in the doors, which are very prone to rattling in almost any car. I personally don't want my deadpedal/clutch etc obstructed at all so this isn't an option.

The third option is moving to a wideband driver up high and making the door speaker a midbass. By moving the crossover frequency lower (250-1000 hz is common) you increase the wavelength at the crossover frequency. Additionally, wideband drivers are cones like the mid, so they have a more similar radiation pattern than a dome tweeter. This combo, along with our ear's reduced ability to pinpoint lower frequency sounds, keeps most of the perceived output up high where the wideband speakers are. You still have to deal with dash/windshield reflections, but ANY car audio setup is a study in compromise.

I plan to do widebanders as I loved it in my last car.

Nathan

[Gopherboy6956]

Originally Posted by JoeBoxer

It's what $100 more? Well worth it as opposed to having to buy another amp later.

What is the benefit down the line? I mean, if I go with the JL 3-way comps, when would i need more amp channels.

[Skippman]

Nate,

I'm also planning on widebanders, in particular the Audible Physics NZA Duo's, I got a thread on DIYMA about it. To get the best out of something like that however you almost have to run full active with a DSP which I'm going to do with a BitTen. But that's a bit overkill for what the OP is looking to do.

It's funny you mention KEF's as I'm a HUGE KEF fan. I have a 7.1 set of IQ's including thier IQ9 towers in my home theater room as well as a 5 speaker in ceiling set of KEF's in my bedroom. I was considering taking a set of the Q100's and stripping them but there's no way they'll fit in the dash on this car.

- Skip

[JoeBoxer]

Originally Posted by Gopherboy6956

What is the benefit down the line? I mean, if I go with the JL 3-way comps, when would i need more amp channels.

Actually you could use 2 channels on the passive running the mid and tweet and run the other 2 midbasses withouth the passive if you had the crossovers to make it work.

[Gopherboy6956]

Interesting...

I think, that for once i'm going to stop taking things to the next level lol.

I'll probably stick with the 500/3 and the 3way JL's. I have to keep telling myself this is my track car, not necessarily DD.

Easy to get carried away.

Thanks everyone for the input, I learned a lot!

[JoeBoxer]

You really don't "need" the 3 ways honestly...

If you don't plan on upgrading the 3 channel and C3-650 would still be my choice.