Pete's install log

[Bigpete123 1]

Ignoring the rear speakers, I would need 4 amps to drive the tweeters, mids, mid-bass drivers, and the sub:

Tweeter amp: 15 watts rms per channel at 8 ohms

Mid range: 50 watts rms per channel at 4 ohms

Mid bass: 75 watts rms per channel at 4 ohms

Sub: 250 watts rms mono at 4 ohms

But I don't really see any options out there that I'll be happy with. I'd have to buy a bunch of active crossovers, re-wire some stuff, re-do the trunk setup, and buy 4 amps. And would I REALLY hear the difference? The amps would have to be fairly high quality to meet the quality of the 500/5, so I'd end up breaking the bank. probably not worth the work and money.

[Adrian_D 520]

Basically, you would need a nice 6 channel amp and a sub amp. I remember JL had a 6 channel, not sure on the power ratings though.

[Bigpete123 1]

Okay, got the "new" 500/5 from Ebay. It sounds great, the problem from before is clearly gone. There are two new problems though.

1) When I turn hard to the left in my car, the right speaker gets staticy and breaks up. I haven't had time to investigate, but I hope to the lord almighty it's just a bad connection somewhere. It seems to affect both the tweeter and the midrange speaker (meaning it's not a crossover connection since my tweeter is connected directly to the amp and doesn't run through the crossover), so hopefully it's a connection at the amp or something and not the amp itself... and hopefully it's not my head unit because that sucker was not cheap and is really tough to find in the US.

2) I'm not completely satisfied with the tone quality of the mids in the front dash. They almost sound like they're in a tube... and slightly muffled. I will double check all connections to make sure I haven't reversed the polarity on any of my connections, but I'm pretty sure that's not the problem. I'm thinking it might be because the speakers are hanging in the dash without any baffling or any kind of enclosure behind them... If that's the case it will be pretty difficult to get them out of the dash and redone based on the way they are installed. There are all kinds of electronics and A/C ducts back there so making an enclosure is out of the question.

Do you guys have any suggestions on making the dash speakers sound better? I still haven't installed the 6 channel EQ, but the issue here isn't a frequency issue... it's a TONE issue...

Thanks!

Peter

[///M5 2,833]

Sounds like a wiring issue on the first one, as for the second where are your crossover points? Does it sound tonally as bad when you listen to just the dash speakers?

[Bigpete123 1]

That's a good question. I haven't spent any time testing such scenarios yet, but my crossovers are in my glove box... so that would be pretty easy to do. I'll give that a try tonight.

[Bigpete123 1]

The connection problem was easily resolved- my RCA cables for the front channels were not holding very well to the plugs on the amp. They were slipping off for whatever reason. Needle nose pliers solved that no prob.

Tinkered with the tweeter channel a bit by increasing the gains ever so slightly. It brightened/cleaned things up a little; i think was being a little to cautious with them. It helped, but I still hear this muffled/tube sound coming from my 4" speakers in the dash. I tried disconnecting the tweeter channel and disconnecting the midbass drivers in the door. It's definitely coming from the dash speakers, and the tone quality doesn't change at all when I disconnect everything else.

The thing is that my ears only really detect this issue when the music first starts up. As the music becomes more dynamic (more instruments, tones, frequencies), it becomes more difficult to detect. This is actually one complaint that I have about Focal speakers to begin with. I got talked into buying them over some MB Quarts, even though I thought the Quarts sounded more pure, clean, warm, etc. I even remember telling the guy at the store that I didn't think the Focals sounded as clean.

I got a better price on the Focals and already had the rear Focals so I bought them mostly for matching them to the rears and for the price. So i think that was a mistake. Maybe someday when I get sick of this I'll swap them out for some MB Quart 3 ways.

But my question is this: is there anything I can do to mitigate this tone issue at all? Is it a problem that my dash speakers do not have any kind of baffling behind them? Would i benefit from adding some kind of compartment filled with Polyfill or fiberglass insulation? I have heard speakers that are hooked up to a stereo without any kind of enclosure around them, and they sound aweful. I wonder how much of what I'm hearing is the result of a similar principal? Said differently, i know it's important to isolate the "front waves" from the "back waves" because I labored greatly to do that in my infinite baffle subwoofer installation. How much does that same principal apply to midrange drivers?

You can see in my pics on previous pages that my front speakers are sealed pretty well to the dash. The question is whether I should do a better job of containing the soundwaves coming off the back of the speaker cone. Thoughts?

Thanks for your help.