Speaker FAQ

[Chowder Head 10+ year member]

I got a question for you guys.

I was thinking about getting a pair of 6.5 DLS Iridum speakers but my car has a stock tweeter in the a-piller of each door. Now what should I do to get the most sound quality? Buy some good components and then buy 2 aftermarket tweeters to replace the stockers?

Someone help a clueless person out, thanks!

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Buy some good components and then buy 2 aftermarket tweeters to replace the stockers?

No. The components will come with tweeters (and nice ones in that DLS Iridium setup). No need to add any more.

 

[Chowder Head 10+ year member]

Midbass and midrange.....

What are they exactly? Bass in mid note?

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

subbass (low notes), are usually considered 80hz frequencies and below. - deeep pipe organ, low piano notes, some electric\string bass, techno, the 'rumbly' deep kind of bass, ect.

midbass (middle notes on the low end) are usually considered 80~400hz frequencies - kickdrums, cello, electric\string bass, the 'punchy' kind of bass.

midrange (upper middle notes) are usually considered 400~5khz frequencies - human male voice, some lower end female voice, drums, guitar, most of the music is here

highs\treble\tweet (high high notes on the teeny weeny itsy bitsy strings /end strongbad) are usually considered 5kh~20hz and above - cymbols, guitar on the tiny little high strings, female voices, violin, and all that, the kind of sound that makes your ears hurt, aka - treble.

those are just rough numbers, and can be argued to be lower\higher\broader\whatever... im not POSATIVE on the midbass\midrange numbers, but im sure they are close to those numbers.

this chart is kinda cool;

 

[Chowder Head 10+ year member]

Thanks req! That helped out a lot.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Another thing. In my 95 Mustang, 6X8's can fit in the front. Would I have fitment issues if I want to add a set of 6.5 component speakers or will they slide right in?

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

Thanks req! That helped out a lot.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Another thing. In my 95 Mustang, 6X8's can fit in the front. Would I have fitment issues if I want to add a set of 6.5 component speakers or will they slide right in?

with an adapter baffle you can fit a 6.5 in that 6x8 slot

 

[AznRevlAzn 10+ year member]

with an adapter baffle you can fit a 6.5 in that 6x8 slot

jigsaw + measurements + wood = insta baffle //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Justintoxicated 10+ year member]

Thanks req! That helped out a lot.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Another thing. In my 95 Mustang, 6X8's can fit in the front. Would I have fitment issues if I want to add a set of 6.5 component speakers or will they slide right in?

I made some adapters for my iridiums in my most recent post on this forum. Check it out for some ideas, my adapters were for 6x9's to 6.5's so it should give you some ideas

The DLS tweeters are very nice!

Mine are installed in the dash, however I have some time alignmet stuff on my HU where I can select Dash, Pillars, Door, Kicks etc... that helps with the imaging.

 

[Shocks 10+ year member]

Sup everyone I am a noob to car audio and have a quick quick question. I have some Focal 165 k Comps powered by a US amps Merlin md42 and love the SQ. I have them High Passed and would like a little bit more midbass. Should I use the passive x-over or the one on the amp? Also can anyone recommend a good x-over setting for the Focals?

Thanks guys

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Not quite sure I understand your question? The passive crossover will not affect the low frequency output (midbass) of the speakers since it doesn't contain a highpass filter. The only way to highpass them is with the crossover on the amp

 

[omarmipi 10+ year member]

Great reading! I am glad that I started by reading this faq because I found exactly what I was looking for. My 1st question deals with crossovers and my 2nd question was pretty much answered already.

1.) I have a Boston rally R61 component set currently for my front stage and a 6.5" CDT EF comp set in the rear. They are both, currently, powered only by my head unit (Alpine 9827 - I am looking for a 100W x 4 amp). I just purchased a Autotek 2 ch active crossover and was wondering if it would provide any SQ benefit. Also would it be ok to run both the passive and active crossovers together?

2.) I just bought a pair of Boston R620 Midrage speakers that I was going to replace with my current Boston R61 Midrange speakers for more front stage sound. Do you think I this is a good idea or should I just replace the entire set? My CDTs dominate and I do not want to have to fade the output to the front. I would swap the sets but my CDTs cannot fit in the front door.

Thanks in advance

 

[jimh]

Some things I don't see mentioned here that might be of use.

I know there is always the talk of getting the bass up front. BUT if you are mounting the mids/midbass in the stock door locations firing directly sidways you might be better off with a smaller driver if you have subs. A smaller driver images much better of axis than a larger one. For example a 5.5 will have a better soundstage in the example than a 6.5, etc.

The higher the order of a xover the more it will protect a driver with a steeper cutoff. The higher the order the more it will mask little nuances in the music too. So it is a big trade off.

Passive x-overs: Even orders (2nd, 4th...) keep phase and odd reverse phase (1st, 3rd...). So if you are designing your own make sure to reverse + & - speaker wires for odd units.

Digital elctronic xovers do not do this.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Passive x-overs: Even orders (2nd, 4th...) keep phase and odd reverse phase (1st, 3rd...). So if you are designing your own make sure to reverse + & - speaker wires for odd units.

It's not always that simple to determine something like that. That theory assumes that all of the drivers are equidistant from your ear (which is hardly ever the case in car audio). Also, phase is not constant. For a first order lowpass crossover (for example), the driver's response is shifted 45 degrees at the xover frequency and only the xover frequency. Plus those slopes don't account for the driver's natural rolloff....you might have a 12db/oct electrical slope, but a 24db/oct acoustical slope because of the driver's natural rolloff.

 

[NJack2AF 10+ year member]

Sry nm. Excellent thread btw though I learned a ton reading this!

 

[PESteele 10+ year member]

can someone explain active crossovers in detail and how to use them/what they do. I didnt see it in here