New Speaker Setup Ideas

[MikeMartel 64]

    Now ill be the first to admit that I really don't know a ton about a good proper speaker setup upfront.. Iv mainly focused my attention on subwoofers for the first few years of my car audio journey as I'm sure most of us do.  I'm really looking to up my game as far as my front stage goes.  I'm kind of leaning towards making my own 2-way or 3-way setup.  Depending on whether decide to go with a 2 or 3 way setup, I really wanted to try a soft dome tweeter along with a midrange speaker (if 3 way is the best option) mounted in the A-pillars.  Then have either an 8" or 10" midbass driver in each of the front doors.  My goal is obviously not perfect sound quality.  I want a less harsh tweeter than the metallic one that is in my setup now, and would like for the highs and midbass to keep up with the subwoofers when Im giving demo's ect. At the moment I have a kenwood x996 headunit and a Phoenix Gold 500.4 as my amplifier that will be running the frontstage.

    I guess I'm just looking for a few pointers, maybe some good speaker brands that I should be looking at.  Any input would be helpful, thanks.

 

[ssh 924]

You need to measure your doors. What space restrictions do you have? Depth? How much space do you have up on the a-pillars? Are you willing to glass the a-pillars / doors, or using stock locations?

 

Definitely go with a two-way. If your head-unit doesn't support active processing you can use a minidsp (you'll want a laptop for tuning).

[MikeMartel 64]

Im willing to fibreglass both my a-pillars and my doors.  So im not very limited on how much space I have.

[MikeMartel 64]

Any ideas on some companies I should look into? I'm very lost when it comes to speakers..

[SacredTanakh 67]

For midbass some popular ones are the:

Crescendo 6.5s,8s,10s

Sundown 6.5s,8s,10s

Eminence audio Eminators 6.5s,8s,10s

 

Popular Super Tweeters for A pillars:

Crescendo ft1s

Selenium ST200,ST350,ST400

 

Regular tweets I would just go for some pioneer tweets if you like soft, or kenwood has a ceramic tweeter which sounds a bit brighter but super clear and fairly loud.

Also there are components from crescendo and Sundown that are very nice if you want simplicity but still get the full range.

 

Just my recommendations, from what I've heard and seen. Others probably have good or better advice.

Edited February 13, 2013 by SacredTanakh

[MikeMartel 64]

Defiantly not going the super tweeter route.  To be honest one of the first things that came out was madisound and the Seas drivers seemed to catch my eye.

[ssh 924]

Check Madisound and PE for drivers. Using a 10" driver may become problematic due to tweeter mating, and beaming. Since you're installing in a door look at drivers that are suited towards IB.

[MikeMartel 64]

Check Madisound and PE for drivers. Using a 10" driver may become problematic due to tweeter mating, and beaming. Since you're installing in a door look at drivers that are suited towards IB.

 

See thats why I was thinking 3 way, because that way I wouldnt need to worry about mating it up with the tweeter.

[Impious 1,476]

First we need a budget.

 

Then you need to figure out what you want to go with as far as processing is concerned.

 

Definitely would not recommend a 3-way.  Crawl before you walk.  A 3-way is significantly more complicated than a 2-way, and with a decent processor a 2-way will more than keep you busy dialing in.  Once you have mastered the art of the 2-way active setup, think about proceeding on to 3-way.  A well tuned and well setup 2-way will kick the shit out of a poorly setup and poorly tuned 3-way.  And if this is your first foray into active setups, the 3-way will end up being poorly tuned and poorly setup.

 

More isn't always better.  And no offense to Sacred, but none of his suggestions were very good.....so don't take that advice.

 

[MikeMartel 64]

Alright. Now I wanted to run an 8" or 10" midbass driver.. I want some midbass with some impact to it.  Now like I said earlier, Im looking at these Seas drivers which seem pretty decently priced.

[SacredTanakh 67]

First we need a budget.

 

Then you need to figure out what you want to go with as far as processing is concerned.

 

Definitely would not recommend a 3-way.  Crawl before you walk.  A 3-way is significantly more complicated than a 2-way, and with a decent processor a 2-way will more than keep you busy dialing in.  Once you have mastered the art of the 2-way active setup, think about proceeding on to 3-way.  A well tuned and well setup 2-way will kick the shit out of a poorly setup and poorly tuned 3-way.  And if this is your first foray into active setups, the 3-way will end up being poorly tuned and poorly setup.

 

More isn't always better.  And no offense to Sacred, but none of his suggestions were very good.....so don't take that advice.

 

Hmm well I was pointing out popular brands and products to look at cause that's what he asked for but okkkk...

 

Ill just leave haha, im sure you can help more then me anyway.

 

But ill watch cause I'm interested what you guys recommend, because before I upgrade woofers agian

I want to to my mids and highs cause mine sound good for what they are but clearly not the best.

Edited February 14, 2013 by SacredTanakh

[MikeMartel 64]

Well alright let's take this step by step then. My head unit does have time alignment, and 13 band eq's for each side. So I was thinking about just getting an active crossover like the minidsp. Now as far as tweeters go, I like the look of the Seas Prestige Fabric dome tweeter. It will play does to 2.2khz according to its specifications. Anyone have any experience with these? Or any better suggestions?

[MikeMartel 64]

Oh yes and budget.. I was thinking less than $700 for all 4 speakers

[Impious 1,476]

First we need a budget.

 

Then you need to figure out what you want to go with as far as processing is concerned.

 

Definitely would not recommend a 3-way.  Crawl before you walk.  A 3-way is significantly more complicated than a 2-way, and with a decent processor a 2-way will more than keep you busy dialing in.  Once you have mastered the art of the 2-way active setup, think about proceeding on to 3-way.  A well tuned and well setup 2-way will kick the shit out of a poorly setup and poorly tuned 3-way.  And if this is your first foray into active setups, the 3-way will end up being poorly tuned and poorly setup.

 

More isn't always better.  And no offense to Sacred, but none of his suggestions were very good.....so don't take that advice.

 

Hmm well I was pointing out popular brands and products to look at cause that's what he asked for but okkkk...

Being a popular choice and being a good choice are two completely different things.

 

Well alright let's take this step by step then. My head unit does have time alignment, and 13 band eq's for each side. So I was thinking about just getting an active crossover like the minidsp. Now as far as tweeters go, I like the look of the Seas Prestige Fabric dome tweeter. It will play does to 2.2khz according to its specifications. Anyone have any experience with these? Or any better suggestions?

Need model #, Seas has a lot of fabric dome tweeters in the Prestige line.

 

And you are not going to be able to do a 2-way with an 8" or 10", at least not well.  Plan on using a 7" driver. 

[MikeMartel 64]

http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/seas-soft-dome-tweeters/seas-prestige-29tff/w-h1318-fabric-dome/   

These ones.. Not really sure why I picked them but they look nice.

[Impious 1,476]

You do realize those tweeters are 4" in diameter?  Just making sure as they aren't easy for everyone to fit.

 

There are some other small format options (i.e. similar to standard car tweeters) if those would be more viable for you

[MikeMartel 64]

Didnt actually notice that what so-ever.. But considering Im making custom A-pillar tweeters I dont think it will be problem.  Other than being 4" in diameter does there seem to be any downside to them?  Im not really sure how to tell based of parameters but Im sure you do.  Like I said earlier, Im basically looking for a very "non-harsh" tweeter. I understand you usually dont give many suggestions are far as drivers go Impious, but if you do have any ideas that will work well in a 2 - way setup Im all ears.

[Impious 1,476]

I understand you usually dont give many suggestions are far as drivers go Impious

Glad to see you've paid close attention to my posts

 

Decide on a mid first, then find a tweeter to mate up to it.  Mid is going to determine how low you need the tweeter to play, and IMO it's better to find a tweeter to mate with a mid than the other way around as I feel there are fewer compromises this route.

 

Where are the mids going to be mounted?  Depth restrictions?  Goals for the front stage?  

[MikeMartel 64]

Mids are going to be mounted in the doors. I know you suggested a 7" mid but I can fit a 10" if needed. ( )  I should be able to get away with 5, MAYBE 6" of depth depending on how much I build out the door with my pods.

 

Now as far as my goals for the mid, Id really like to find one that will have impressive, hard hitting midbass while still sounding as nice as possible..  Sorry if that's a little vague, haven't dealt with front stage too much so its kind of hard to tell what I actually want.

[Impious 1,476]

Since you are going with a-pillar tweeters already, and you seem to have your heart set on using large mids.....this might be one instance where going with an 8" (or 10") midbass and a 3" widebander on top might be a good option.  The larger diameter full range driver on top will play a lot lower than any tweeter allowing you to better mate with the mid and giving you a much larger selection of mids.  A couple downsides are that the widebander MUST be on-axis to the listener, and you'll be losing some top end response and "shimmer".

 

If those are issues you can deal with it will make your situation a little easier.  If you wanted to stick with a tweeter on top then you are going to be severely limited for choices of both 8" mids and tweeters as you'd necessarily need a crossover point in the vicinity of 1500hz and there are limited choices in both categories to meet that need.  The last option is to go with more standard 6.5" - 7" mid, possibly even a higher excursion option like the Exodus Anarchy.

 

Decide which way you want to go.

[ssh 924]

Since you are going with a-pillar tweeters already, and you seem to have your heart set on using large mids.....this might be one instance where going with an 8" (or 10") midbass and a 3" widebander on top might be a good option.  The larger diameter full range driver on top will play a lot lower than any tweeter allowing you to better mate with the mid and giving you a much larger selection of mids.  A couple downsides are that the widebander MUST be on-axis to the listener, and you'll be losing some top end response and "shimmer".

 

If those are issues you can deal with it will make your situation a little easier.  If you wanted to stick with a tweeter on top then you are going to be severely limited for choices of both 8" mids and tweeters as you'd necessarily need a crossover point in the vicinity of 1500hz and there are limited choices in both categories to meet that need.  The last option is to go with more standard 6.5" - 7" mid, possibly even a higher excursion option like the Exodus Anarchy.

 

Decide which way you want to go.

I certainly don't know how much room he has in the pillar sections, and have always leaned towards a 2-way setup, but in this instance it doesn't seem like it would be that much more work (for a beginner) to jump to a 3-way, and use some small tweeters where the WB start dropping off.

 

I mean one could certainly spend weeks finding that perfect XO point, slope, and filter type between the WB and tweet, but this doesn't seem like a stretch to get the mid and WB tuned, then move on to the tweet.

 

Only reason I brought it up as feasible is that the tweeters would have a pretty narrow bandwidth at such a high frequency that it would be harder to mistune.

 

Though this may require an additional amp, more space, money, another dsp, and more effort than what the reward is worth.

 

What do you think?

[MikeMartel 64]

Alright, well at the moment going 3 way is out of the question, too much money to be spending on a new amp, ect. Now if I am correct on-axis means the speaker needs to be directed to the listener, correct?

[ssh 924]

Alright, well at the moment going 3 way is out of the question, too much money to be spending on a new amp, ect. Now if I am correct on-axis means the speaker needs to be directed to the listener, correct?

 

That's settled then! Yes on-axis means pointed directly at the listener.

 

Get the OD of the WB drivers you're looking at, cut out paper circles with the same diameters, and make sure you can actually fit it in the a-pillar section. Checking for depth wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[MikeMartel 64]

Alright, well at the moment going 3 way is out of the question, too much money to be spending on a new amp, ect. Now if I am correct on-axis means the speaker needs to be directed to the listener, correct?

 

That's settled then! Yes on-axis means pointed directly at the listener.

 

Get the OD of the WB drivers you're looking at, cut out paper circles with the same diameters, and make sure you can actually fit it in the a-pillar section. Checking for depth wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

Well Im making a-pillar pods for the speakers, so I really dont think it will be an issue.

[MikeMartel 64]

Alright so lets choose a midwoofer first..  How do I really go about doing this?  Obviously there are some brands that are better than others but Im just not sure where to start.