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I totally agree. While I prefer to have a rear fill (rear stage was a bad choice of words on my part, I mean fill), it will certainly not be anywhere close to the front stage, as we agree, it's laid down with stage in front (I'm referring back seat passengers specifically in my posts). While the peeps in the back will get some of the fronts, the experience will not be as pleasant so to compensate our ears can borrow from the rear fill to "fill" in the gaps. My Lincoln Aviator has fronts and a sub in the back (all stock) - it sucks to be a passenger in the 2nd and even worse in the 3rd row. If I have a rear "stage" then I'd make door pods for the 2nd row passengers. Compared to the Sonata (and even my Cavalier), I'm sure the rear passengers can share the front stage like you are saying; that is hardly the case with my Aviator. I think Ford figured the passengers would be wearing headphones to watch a movie. To get back to the topic - I'm sorry this skewed away from the original question. Back to the topic, with a small budget I would spend it on the fronts and ditch the rears; if he has to have rears, I'm pretty happy with the JBL GTO 6x9s, they are cheap 2-ways with a tweeter switch you can drop -3db so you can use them more as fill and not take away from the stage.

The guy wants a rear stage. I'm not to argue, just offering input regarding the rear stage. I like to run rears as fill (focus fade and range in the front obviously) - at lower volumes it gives the impression of a concert indoors whereas no rears would be more of outdoor arena or intimate unplugged stage. While this may always be a philosophical argument [with car audio especially], the fact of the matter is the artist wants the music reproduced in the manner by which the track was laid.

? ... I suppose if you remove the front seats (assuming we are talking about the rear deck for the 6x9s) your front stage wouldn't lose your highs and be muffled. Which reminds me, there was a car on the circuit I was on that did just that, Kirk Perry's Oz filled LeMans; was a fun car, heard it at SoSF in Warsaw, IN. I personally am more SQ with consideration for all passengers, not just the neighbors and my SPL potential. Hey, what do I know, perhaps sounds waves have changed since the late 90s.

I agree with spending less on the rears to spend more on the fronts. I have JBL GTO928s for my rears and am very pleased you can pick them up shipped for $70. I have the -3db switched on the highs to direct more power to the mids/lows to keep brightness to the front stage. I've had some friends disconnect the tweeter altogether or add resistors to direct more power to the woofer; however, if you have backseat peeps it's thoughtful to provide some range of a stage for them even if their backs are to the performers.

For all practical purpose .7 is my actual number. I may not have earth shattering bass, but I'm feeling the 8" GTO at .3-.5 with the original concealment idea may be my answer. My only concern is wattage of the amp - at least it won't be abused cause I may have to turn it down. This reminds me of the last time I ran a single 8" sub; it was in a craptastic beater car (79 Ford Pinto wagon) I drove while my 300ZX was in the garage for the winter. I ran all Orion separates with Cobalt amp and 8" cobalt sub with a Pioneer deck I had laying around. Friends thought I should have competed as a joke car in some of the IASCA events I took the Z to. I dug up a pic to share, this was back in 96':

I don't know why I didn't look at these before considering the rest of my setup is JBL. Anyone familiar with the GTO line of subs? I was so mesmerized by the SA-8 possibility I overlook the realism of using a GTO 8 since it only requires .3 cu ft. I can damn near put two of them in the front if I want to hit the passenger or return to the original concealed idea. Hmmmmm.

Alright, I don't want to give up, but this will definitely be challenging without major body modification which I don't want to do (I can already see my wife's expression explaining I need to reconfigure the dash for a speaker). I couldn't find my packing peanuts to get a more accurate volume measurement. I took a series of measurements and to load the sub to the driver's side I can "just" fit a circular frame which shoots the idea of a concealed square Solo. Now, I'm open to the idea of just pointing the speaker to the passenger, BUT *insert sir mix-a-lot jingle here*, I'm only comfortable tucking a .7 cu.ft. box anything else would start to sacrifice too much of the passenger side. With that in mind, I could fit the square Solo with ease; I might even consider going up to a 10" Solo. I think at this point, I'm just gonna have to make the enclosure and go from there.

I'm rather limited to a single 8" if I want to point the sub towards the drivers side. I could point the sub directly at the passenger (then I would likely go with the shallow mount JL 13), but I like the idea of it being concealed. No one would guess a decent amount of sound would be coming out of the car. As for the trunk, I don't want fart noises; trunk is out of the question. I have an old JBL GTi1200 in the garage from my IASCA car back in the day to fill the trunk if I wasn't up for a challenge. Thanks for the +1 on the Solos. I personally have never heard one, but the specs do fit perfectly for me. And, once again it's mentioned the SA-8 doesn't perform the greatest in a sealed bit - I think I can rule out Sundown this time around. I'm really considering the Solo L7. What about the JL 8W7AE? Bit pricey, imho (so is the Solo, really); however, it'll take the wattage and can be shoe horned in less than a cube. Since I'm going 8, I don't want shallow mount so I can get the extra excursion to make up for the lack of cone area.

I'm gonna do some measurements to get a more accurate volume. I might be able to put a port on the side of the box closest to the firewall if necessary; however, if I got ported then I'm talking a larger box. I don't think I can go much over 1 cube total space.

Been a long time out of the scene, so I'm trying to bring myself up to speed on stuff. I recently purchased a 1985 Cavalier convertible and the stereo has got to go! I'm not young anymore, married, kids, but won't settle for crap, so I'm looking mostly at SQ, but needs to be fairly loud since it's a convertible. The cavalier has an open area behind the center console, and I can fit an 8" behind there and tuck the enclosure under the dash on the passenger side. I think it'll be a fun/challenging project. Issue is, what 8" to go with?? It has to be sealed, small and handle up to 400w (Soundstream Continuum is 200w x 1 @ 4ohm). Was considering a Kicker Solobaric at first till I stumbled onto the Sundown SA-8 v2 sealed requirements; however, I have yet to read where someone actually built one with a sealed enclosure; I read where folks have "heard" they don't do well, but just hearsay. Here's what I was thinking: Mind you, it's rough photo-chop. I would recess the sub and build a cage with expanded metal over it so it's not slapping my pant leg, and the enclosure will be fiberglassed for a snug fit so I can make it as small as I can without sacrificing much of the passenger side (thinking of raising the enclosure so your feet can tuck underneath the enclosure even (may do the math on a tube). I pull this off, it would be an interesting concealment and should sound good since it'll be loading in the front cabin than worry bout different sounds with top up or down. Just need the perfect speaker.