Bresch

So I'll start off with my goals. I want a setup where the bass is accurate, precise, and powerful. However, I don't want subwoofers that are just loud and completely overwhelm the musicality of my front stage and midbass. I want midbass that efficiently bridges the gap where my subwoofer(s) fall off and I want midbass that is loud enough to make itself heard. The front stage I'm not too concerned with, though I would like a nice blend for vocals. The experience where you feel as if you are at the concert. That being said, I will now talk about the system as it is now. THE POWER GRID: What's in it now: 180 amp high output alternator. 2000 watt supporting Kinetic AMG battery. Starter/Front battery. Knu Koncept Kollosus FLEX 1/0 power and ground cable (all around). Has 400 amp inline fuses between alternator and Kinetic AMG battery and there will be one between the kinetic and Shuriken AMG Batteries. Rockville 20 Farad hybrid capacitor: Basically useless, just serves as a nice distribution block and shows me the AMPs drawn by my system and has a working voltmeter. What will be added: SK-BT140 4000 watt supporting Shuriken AMG battery NVX Isolator THE HEAD UNIT/AMPS/CROSSOVERS Whats in it now: Alpine BT149 head unit Audio Control 6XS Active Crossover A/D/S PS5 Amplifier (For midbass). I plan on moving this to the front stage later. Alpine MRX110 amplifier (For subwoofers) Alpine MRV F300 amplifier (For front stage) What will be added: Alpine PDX-F6 (For midbass): This will take over also what the A/D/S PS5 amplifier is supplying now. Another Alpine MRX110 amplifier for the subwoofers The Speakers: Subwoofers: 2X Infinity Kappa 120.9w subwoofers. The Alpine MRX 110 makes them cry (I have to be really carefully to make sure their excursion isn't exceeded). They are in a custom box containing a volume that is divided into two 1^3 ft chambers. It's my first box and it holds up well. It has 3/4 inch MDF and is doubled up on the front. I wish to replace these Infiinty Kappa's, but I'm unsure what to get. The current GCONs looked attractive, but are getting a rework. Orion XTR Pro's also looked pretty great as well. However, I'm most interested in a pair of Twisted Sound TX 1000 subwoofers. There has been a lot of praise for their performance, but they are a new line. Bottom line, I'm still deciding. The rest of the speakers are aftermarket rockford fosgate midrange and tweeters and a pioneer 6x9 where the midbass should be. I want to replace the fronts with sundown audio-65s v.2 midrange/tweeters and the 6x9 with a mid bass sundown audio NeoPro V2. The car is a Toyota Celica 2000 GT. No sound dampening work has been done, but I plan on it once I obtain the speakers I want. I have most of the elements of the system I need, however there are a few additions I need to make. That's about it off the top of my head. Tell me what you think!

So I replaced both my Infinity kappa 120.9w 12 inch subwoofers with an SSA ICON 12 inch subwoofer. I am seriously impressed. In a small sealed enclosure this beast gets louder than both and is more accurate. This is out of the box. The Infinity subwoofers had a year of break in for comparison. I couldn't believe the stiffness either. Just enough give to convince me that this sub wasn't frozen. I've only had it for three days so far. This sub has a noticeable change of performance each day. The lower notes have the most change, becoming more prominent with every session. The sub excels in playing lower frequencies around 25 hz to 63 hz which is honestly my sweet spot. I listen to a lot of EDM and Hip Hop. However, jazz and orchestral pieces sound just as well. This monster is fast. Every bass note, every drop, every phase, and every punch is felt precisely where she wants it. This sub knows how to recapitulate the files I'm feeding her. Clean is the new sexy and this sub is very sexy. I'm a very happy customer. Qualitatively, the sub feels like it has solid thermal handling. I play the subwoofer for two to three hours full tilt and she gets moderately warm to the touch. I don't have an actual readout as to the temperature, but imagine touching a puddle of water after a heavy rain followed by a sunny day. 1 more please?

So taking this into account here is my idea. First, there are factory locations that are about two inches above ankle level in the bottom left corner of the door (facing the door). I could make a baffle of my own and mount any size speaker to that area, there is enough space. I also have room for door pods if I heavily modify my door. There is room more towards the center of the door for a door pod at the same height. I would rather not mount any speakers above this point as having speakers blasting any nearer to ear level sounds like a bad idea, but you may have a different opinion and I'm all ears (literally :D). Not only that, but there is some cool OEM carpet set in the doors I'd like to keep. I do not believe I have enough room for a kick panel (at least safely placed away from feet). Now for the speaker(s) in question. Since I already have a couple of rockford fosgate tweeters that are off axis and which I have tuned for a nice bright sound, I was thinking about replacing my current 6.5" drivers for these 8" midbass oriented drivers: https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fosgate-PPS4-8-MidRange-Speakers/dp/B00M34TI36/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1491769285&sr=8-3&keywords=PPS4-8+rockford+fosgate. The frequency response range is about 80-5,000 hz for these speakers and their SPL numbers are about where I want them (94.5). P.S. Just in case the url isn't stable it is the PPS4-8 offered by rockford fosgate. Now there is an alternative within the same company for 10" speakers here: http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/pps4-10. This speaker name is PPS4-10. It has a sensitivity of 96 with 40hz-4,000hz. Keep in mind that my subwoofer will be an ICON and the current tweeters are these: http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/details/p1t-s. The tweeters have a sensitivity of 90, and that's plenty loud for me as far as tweeters go. I actually have them backed down a bit, but they are loud enough. Their frequency response range are as follows: 3.5kHz-22kHz. Currenly my 6XS Audiocontrol external crossover has a crossover point for my front stage. I have the point set as thus: 250hz low pass and 2,800 high pass. I know you guys know the details, but I'm gonna go ahead and explain it so you may have the opportunity to correct me if I am wrong. 250 hz is the lowest frequency that the midrange woofers will ever see and 2,800 is the highest they'll see. Consequently, 2,800 hz is the lowest the tweeters will see. I can change this to fit any application, so depending on the speaker... I was gonna lower the 250 hz to 63 hz for the 10" or so with a 24 db cut off. I figured a steep slope will be appropriate since the ICON seem to have a solid ability to take over from there. For the 8" I was gonna make a 80hz with a 24 db cutt off as well, however I'm not familiar with the ICON enough to make that call. I feel as I write, the 10" is a much better pick. However, I'm open to suggestions. Thoughts?

Oooh, a 4-channel amp from SSA would be great to have for future upgrades. I'll be keeping tabs on this news!

Please elaborate, why exactly would you think that?

Once I sound deaden I'll get back to you on that. First I want to see the level of improvement that my door speakers will experience with sound deadening, new and more appropriate mounting, as well as speaker tweakers. Thank you for your help, stay tuned.

I definitely agree with you on that one. The passive crossovers I had been using for my Rockford fosgate tweeters had melted casings when I replaced the system with an active crossover. Thank goodness the tweeters were fine, but the smell was what tipped me off. I understand the push for simplicity and the two-way crossover, I'm basically running one right now with the removal of my rear 6x9's. My next step is sound deadening for the doors. Then I want to add an 8 inch to boost the power afterwards. I'm considering putting the 8 inch in the doors next to the driver and passenger seats of the car. Does that help narrow down your list of recommendations?

I know many students where I'm from love to use Spotify. You might want to try that out. Soundcloud is also a great place to listen to streamed music.

Could you make some suggestions for 8" midbass drivers you prefer for a three way active set up?

I was pouring through forums looking for lists of high quality audio equipment and the name SSA popped up on a google search. Clicked and here we are!

Good advice. It depends on how one sub sounds. I'm considering getting neopro V2 midbass 8'' drivers . They get down to about 60hz, but I'll probably cut them off higher with my active crossover because it will be on the factory mount.

Thank you for your response, this is very helpful.

Oh, I assumed too much! How do you wire it up at 2 ohms? Is it a standard wiring schematic like the following: Credit to Crutchfield.com

Unfortunately the Icon only comes in 1ohm and 2ohm dual voice coils. This would require me to wire up my Alpine MRX110 amp at 1ohm either way and the amp's mono block circuitry isn't the best for a 1 ohm load. It only has an output of 800 watts RMS at that load and I'm unsure how quickly it would heat up, but I assume too quickly.

This seems to be a popular idea for my setup as it is now. Right now my front stage has a combined RMS wattage ratting of 400. My subwoofers get a combined 1200 watts RMS. I'll keep your power rating rule of thumb in mind as I figure out what front stage speakers I want to use. Thank you for your input!

I have the current drivers mounted on the factory location inside the door panels. The tweeters are also mounted on their factor location above the current drivers. I'm unsure yet where I'll mount the new drivers. I'm not deadset, though I'd like to have the subwoofers, mids, and tweeters to have their own dedicated auxillary outputs. The head unit has three sets of preouts for subwoofers, mids, and highs.

That makes a lot of sense! I need to start off with better midrange speakers and from what I've learned an 8 inch midbass driver would be all I need for now. I'll just remove the 6X9's when I replace the front midrange component speakers with the mid bass driver and leave the rear placements vacant. Then instead of buying the new component speakers I'll focus on dampening the car doors, then see if additional speakers are necessary.

Understood. Working with what I have, I could certainly cut out a larger mount and fit an 8 inch mid bass. I'm wondering why the rear locations are useless? I'm not doubting your point. I need a little clarification as to the reason. Another point, this is my daily driver. It could possibly be a competition system someday, but as of now it is just my daily. I'm going to add this to the original post.

A single subwoofer might not be a bad idea! I haven't heard the twisted sounds subwoofer yet so it might be good to start off with just one and then upgrade to a second if necessary. Does anyone know the suggested sealed box volume of the Tx 1000 subs?

Mid bass is incorporated into the front stage, good to know! 1) This is my first active setup. 2) I can fit a 6.5 inch midbass driver. 3) There are two tweeter mounts and two 6.5 inch mounts in the side doors of the vehicle. There are an additional pair of mounts in the rear. These mounts are adjacent to the rear seats and directly in front of the trunk. 4) Honestly your comment went a little over my head and I'll need to be educated or do research of my own on 3 way crossover set ups. What I do know is that the 6XS only has one crossover point which determines, in my basic understanding of the setup I have constructed, the lowest frequency signal sent to the tweeters and the highest frequency signal sent to mids of the front stage. In the 6XS I have already changed the modules so that the appropriate frequency signals will be sent to my speakers within their frequency response range. If you want I can tell you the specs of the modules, but I can't remember off the top of my head at the moment. By the way, thank you for replying!