Sq speaker setups

[Dskater99]

Curious on how many speakers you need for just a front stage and power people are putting towards front stage? I have infinity kappas up front and a t1 10" sub powered by rockford prime series amps. Im looking to get more powerfull amps but im not sure if i need a 2 or 4 channel amp(in the case there will be 4 speakers up front)? And just curious how everybodys front stage is set up?

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[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

This is a heavily discussed topic that's likely to open a can of worms, if anyone sees this subforum. Usually people will want one pair of mid-woofers and one pair of tweeters up front in an "SQ" system. Each speaker will have it's own amplifier channel, which means this needs at least 4 amplifier channels. A subwoofer is necessary, so that requires one more higher power amplifier channel.

It looks like you already have a good start. Instead of going directly to changing your amplifiers, let's look at the equipment you already have. What model are the Infinity speakers? Did you change the radio? If yes, what brand and model is it?

And just curious how everybodys front stage is set up?

Active 6.5" component system, 150W x 2 for the mid-woofers, 100W x 2 for the 1" tweeters. Basic aftermarket head unit in the dash going to an 8-channel digital signal processor which then goes to the amplifiers. The DSP is where a lot of massively audible sound quality improvements come from, but the car has many, many hours of labor and several kinds of materials to improve the acoustics as well.

 

[Dskater99]

My apologies im still new to the forum. I have infinity reference 6500cx up front alpine 149bt, r250x4, r500x1 all 0 gauge wires t1d410 sub in a custom sealed box. I have 2 t1d410's but the box was huge so i am only running one right now. I just feel like my front stage is not loud enough. As soon as i get to a good volume it distorts. I have the amps set with a o-scope 60w rms to each component and 600w rms to the t1.

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[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

My apologies im still new to the forum. I have infinity reference 6500cx up front alpine 149bt, r250x4, r500x1 all 0 gauge wires t1d410 sub in a custom sealed box. I have 2 t1d410's but the box was huge so i am only running one right now. I just feel like my front stage is not loud enough. As soon as i get to a good volume it distorts. I have the amps set with a o-scope 60w rms to each component and 600w rms to the t1.

1. If you've turned on any settings on the radio that make the speakers sound louder that is suspect #1 . I recommend turning Media Xpander off if you've ever set that on. The parametric EQ should not have much, if anything, boosted +.

2. What test tones did you use to set the gains? If I remember correctly from our conversation, the national product trainer for RF recommends -5 dB tones for full range speaker channels and -10 dB tones for bass. I'm less concerned about targeting a specific power output and more concerned about getting the speakers sounding loud enough without being damaged or heavily distorted.

3. You should be using most of the volume range on the radio. Typically, you're not even close to the rated RCA preout voltage until you're at or very close to max volume.

All 3 points could use more attention. If you reply I am happy to continue with the discussion.

 

[Vocaloid]

Agreed on components for the front. At a minimum separate woofers/tweeters with a passive crossover and dedicated amp for SQ setup; bonus if you can run each speaker on its own channel. Power isn't so important so long as the speakers, amp, and overall install are quality!

 

[Bacovish]

It also depends how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. If your pockets are deep and you have the knowledge and ability the dsp is the way to go(mentioned above) really good advice by the way. I'm currently running some Dyn 2 way coponents(passive) off a bridged Arc 4 channel amp and I'm loving it. At first I thought I would need a Dsp to get the quality i was looking for. Plus the $$$ and the complexity(I'm a beginner) turned me off. What ever you decide what to do and direction you want to go find some members here that have the knowledge and seem to have the same taste and pm them for some advice along your journey otherwise you will get pulled a lot of different directions. I agree above you have to start with good equipment but some speakers just love the juice. I doubled my wattage to mine and was shocked at the sound quality. Probably because I am running passive and not active. Active I believe is more efficient so lots of juice is not required. If your on a budget go 2 way passive. If you have a big budget and definitely go 3way active.

 

[The Camry]

Curious on how many speakers you need for just a front stage and power people are putting towards front stage? I have infinity kappas up front and a t1 10" sub powered by rockford prime series amps. Im looking to get more powerfull amps but im not sure if i need a 2 or 4 channel amp(in the case there will be 4 speakers up front)? And just curious how everybodys front stage is set up?
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What I think you need for an sq set up in order of importance.

Install. There is no use in great gear if you have wires everywhere picking up and introducing noise into your system or creating hazardous situations for hardware and vehicle. Such as lack of grommet in firewall.

Good source for your music. Music today is HIGHLY compressed. Try this. Take whatever your most accurate/nicest speakers are, or headphones. Listen to a song on youtube. Now go buy(99 cents wont hurt you and proves a very real point) or find a 320kps version of the song. Listen to both sings back to back. You will notice a HUGE difference. Subtle parts of the music, whole passages with new material. Its hard to explain but crappy sources take away a large part of your music.

This also has to do with how you get your music to your amps. Things like bluetooth and wifi are a form of compression and very noticeably take away sound quality. You want a wired connection. Usb of some kind. Plugging in your aux cord to your phone is also bad. Your phone has internal DACS that change the music.

Headunit, specifically a very nice one. Unfortunately, if you want a new headunit with great dacs, you have about 3 options. All are in the 300$ mark. All are worth it. Using your stock radio or a crappy radio will make your nice equipment sound terrible.

Proper door treatment, specifically cld and ccf treatment. Mlv isnt mandatory but does help. tracking down rattles everywhere in the car. There is absolutely no point in high fidelity sound if there is a rattle somewhere pulling your stage and mind away.

For ease, Tweeters up high in either sails or a-pillar. Aimed to avoid reflections as much as possible. 6.5s or larger in doors. Anything larger than 6.5 and beaming becomes more and more an issue.

Amplifier. You dont need to go super crazy in the amp department but IMO crappy amps make good speakers sound like crap. You should spend as much on your amps as you do your speakers.

Dsp. I am now a true believer in everyone needing a solid external dsp. Being able to change your xo/time alignment/eq, is CRUCIAL in having your gear sound anywhere near what it should. You can get dsps that will take a source from your phone and keep it clean and correct. This allows you to bypass having a headunit altogether and I highly recommend it.

Sub/sub box. Both should be of equal importance. I put this at the bottom because it handles the lower octaves of our music and has the least amount of music to play. I think that most people get a sub and go from there but I think it should be the last add on to your system. Make 90% of your music sound good before you look at the last 10%.